trainee

Okay a new RASOR is out! It supports local packages (on your hard drive) or any location of your choosing. RASOR will auto-update when you run it. BE VERY VERY CAREFUL if you get a package from a source other than thunderwalker.com. Since RASOR effectively executes a self-extracting archive an unscrupulous person could put a virus or something into a package file! You should be able to download the file first and check it out. The guide for creating the wrapper-file has changed slightly to accomodate local package sources. local driver packages are NOT compressed!!!!! local packages can skip step #4 in the guide!!!! Using non-default packages. First of all there is very little "oh-crap" code so if you created your package incorrectly most likely RASOR will kick the bucket. The good news is that .NET programs die pretty kindly and won't leave a bunch of crap on your system. The bad news should be obvious. After RASOR starts you should select and remove the default www.thunderwalker.com wrapper location. RASOR *should* be able to incorporate drivers from multiple sources, but I recommend using only 1 source at this time. Selecting 'ADD' you will get a box where you can type in the location of your wrapper file. Yes you have to type the whole thing in by hand becuase I haven't implemented a browse button yet. Then click 'ADD' again to add it to your package source list. you should be able to click 'Retrieve...' and have it populate the available packages list from your wrapper file. RASOR has become significantly more complex than I originally intended it to be. Its nowhere near perfect but it should allow people to create and test their own packages now. If you create a package and think it would help other people please post it to this thread or email me at trainee@thunderwalker.com. If it looks good (and you give me permission) I will add it to the default www.thunderwalker.com source so that other people will have access to it. (note: I will only incorporate standard drivers, no *hacked* or alpha drivers please). Known Bugs/Missing Features (partial list): local caching local configuration saving local package expansion available packages horizontal scroll bar problem bottom status text: multiline + reset rasor updating status bar rasor downloading status bar a whole lot of "ohh-crap" code

@Yzöwl: Nice Proof-reading! Sorry that I forgot to include the <oemdir> expanation at the bottom of the guide. Also the you are correct: the comma and following text are in error. I have corrected them in the guide. Thanks again. If you create packages for others to use and don't have a place to host them, you can send them to me and I will incorporate them into the www.thunderwalker.com package source. (With full credit to you of course!).

RASOR Package Guide Part 2 Becuase the guide was getting freakin huge...this is part 2! This part will show you how to make the driver file archive and the XML package wrapper. Step #4: Self-Extracting Driver Archive I recommend using winRar for this, but you can use any self extracting archive maker you want, as long as it can be made to run silently and extract to specific paths. Using winrar you want to add all of the files listed in your <xpcd> section (see step #2) *AND* the 'disk' file you made in step #3 to the archive. I usually create .zip's instead of .rar's because .zip performs better on smaller files. The archive should be named with the driver ID (in part 1 this was 'trainee_0010'). Then you want to select 'create SFX archive' (self-extracting). On the 'advanced' tab you want to select 'SFX options'. Select 'create in current folder' and set the path to extract to as "Drivers\" + the ID or in this example "Drivers\trainee_0010". Still in the 'Advanced SFX options' dialog select the 'modes' tab. Under 'silent mode' select 'Hide all'. Under the 'overwrite mode' section select 'overwrite all files'. Hit ok and, then compress it. Again this is only 1 way to make the archive, you can make any archive you want that will self extract to the current directory, in the subdirectory "Drivers\ID_name", overwrite all files, and do so with no user intervention. Most drivers have many different files and the online storage directories would become very cluttered if they were zipped. Also small files can have a lot of bandwidth overhead. You should now have 2 files like my example: 1.) trainee_0010.xml 2.) trainee_0010.exe Step #5: Create Package Wrapper XML This file you will only need to create once and you will continue to add to it as you create new packages. It is an XML file and follows the same XML style as in the package description file from step #2. The XML header is followed by <drivers> tag. Next a <source> tag indicates the directory (remote or local) where the driver files are located. You can also put source tags for each individual driver to override this general source directory. Then each company (or organizational name of your choosing) will have a <provider> tag with a name="..." attribute. For this example we have a provider of name="Adaptec". Next come the packages in each provider. The <package> tag includes title, id, and status attributes. The title is whatever you want to call your package (this is what people see the package as in RASOR). The id is the package id as specified before. Currently there are 3 different status types (and none of them actually do anything yet). *BUT* you should set a status in case I actually implement the **** thing. The status types are: new: this is intended as a developer debugging mode where only someone running in dev mode will see this package debug: indicates a package that has been created but not yet verified as working release: a package that has been verified as working All of the above should yield a file that looks like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <drivers> <source>http://www.thunderwalker.com/rasor/drivers/</source> <provider name="Adaptec"> <package title="Ultra320 HostRaid" id="trainee_0010" status="debug"> Now you want to add a <description> to your package. This is what shows up if you show the details of the package. Try to make this information specific as possible so you don't leave people guessing. Driver version #'s and applicable cards models are nice to include here. This can span multiple lines, but tabs and other leading and trailing whitespace will be removed. Close with the </description> tag. Next a <whql> tag is used with a value of 'yes' or 'no' to indicate if the package has been Microsoft certified. A non-whql package *will* (soon I promise) generate a warning message to shutoff driver signing. Finally a <conflict> tag should indicate any packages that this package is known to conflict with. RASOR will NOT allow packages flagged as conflicting to be added together. You can pre-emptively specify a conflicting package even if you haven't made it yet. No errors will occur if you specify a conflict with a package that doesn't exist. For this example lets say we have another package 'trainee_0014' that has the Adaptec Ultra320 Non-HostRaid drivers which should never be combined with this package. We would specify this in the <conflict> tags. BIG NOTE: Currently only 1 conflict is accepted. I haven't decided exactly how to implement multiple conflicts yet, but my expectation is that you will just continue adding <conflict> tags with package names. Finally we close the </package>, </provider>, and <drivers> tags and our file should look like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <drivers> <source>http://www.thunderwalker.com/rasor/drivers/</source> <provider name="Adaptec"> <package title="Ultra320 HostRaid" id="trainee_0010" status="debug"> <description>Adaptec Ultra320 with Hostraid Enabled on: 29320-R, 29320A-R, 29320ALP-R, 29320LP-R, 39320-R, 39320A-R, 39320D, 39320D-R Version 3.00.036, 10/12/2004 WHQL driver package *EXPERIMENTAL-UNVERIFIED*<description> <whql>yes<whql> <conflict>trainee_0014</conflict> </package> </provider> </drivers> This file can have any name you want (.xml), it will be added to the Package Source(s) list in RASOR. We will call this one 'my_rasor_config.xml'. You should now have 3 files: 1.) trainee_0010.xml 2.) trainee_0010.exe 3.) my_rasor_config.xml WOW you're done! I'm working on the next RASOR update to actually make it so you can load your own packages both locally and remotely, but I wanted to get this up so people would atleast know what is involved in making a package for RASOR. It actually is pretty fast once you've done it a couple of times. The packages are somewhat complex to facilitate the mixing of txtsetup.oem files into a single txtsetup.oem and to remove as much of the burden/screw-up-ability from the user as possible. This was they don't even have to pull apart the drivers from the manufacturer. I hope that with this and the upcoming additions to RASOR that people will be interested in it again. Sorry I left you guys hanging for so long . I'm back now. Additional Information In step #2 it was mentioned that some drivers need additional tags in the <xpcd> section of the package xml. Sometimes drivers (like nvraid) refer to .cpl,.dll,.exe,.vxd files (possibly others) that although they are in the txtsetup.oem file (or maybe not) are part of the driver package. Rcordorica figured out that by copying these files to '$OEM$\$$\OemDir\' the driver would function correctly. If you have files like this, include them in the Self-Extracting Driver Archive and list them each in <oemdir> tags in the <xpcd> section. In step #5 we listed a general <source> location for drivers. This MUST be provided even if you list specific source location for each driver package. If you want to put a specific location you can do so by using <source> tags for that specific package. Example for a local file: <source>C:\rasor\drivers\adaptec\</source> If you are using local driver files these files should already be unpackaged. RASOR will not expand local driver packages. Acknowledgements Special thanks to Yzöwl for helping debug this document <--but I still talk alot!

RASOR Package Guide Part 1 Creating a package for RASOR is really just about reorganizing files and chopping up a txtsetup.oem file so that RASOR can read it and combine it with other driver files. RASOR uses XML descriptions which can look daunting just because they are so verbose but after some practice you should be able to create them in no time. Most of this guide will be using an example driver (Adaptec Ultra320 HostRaid Driver) but the steps will be applicable to any MassStorage driver. So without further ado... The 2.5 Parts of a RASOR Package Each rasor package will consist of: An XML description file specifically listing file locations, txtsetup settings, etc. A self extracting .Zip archive with all of the driver files A wrapper XML file that will list ALL of the package files you have made and their descriptions. You will will add to this file as you create new packages. (this is the .5 part) Step #1: Obtaining & Organizing Driver Files Get your driver files and extract them if neccesary. Delete extraneous files. What makes a file extraneous? Readme's get deleted as well as obvious directories (aka. if you have a win98 subdirectory and a winxp subdirectory you can delete the entire win98 subdirectory). At this point you should be cautious and only delete files you are sure are not important. Also files in pertinent subdirectories should be moved to the upper directory and the subdirectories deleted. For this guide we will be using the Adaptec Ultra320 HostRaid controller drivers for an example. In that driver package there is a subdirectory called 'win32' containing 5 files. All of these files should be moved up to the main directory and the win32 directory should be deleted. Step #2: Convert the TXTSETUP.OEM into the Driver.xml Open the txtsetup.oem file in notepad (or your favorite non-formatting editor: xemacs anyone?). The txtsetup.oem file in the example driver package is very long and can be viewed in its unaltered state here. Almost the enitre file is comments! You can read them if you want they provide some information about the structure of the txtsetup.oem files. Now DELETE all of the comment lines from the file (they start with '#'). Afterward you would have something that looks like this: [Disks] d1 = "Adaptec HostRAID U320 Driver Ver 3.00 For Windows 2000/XP/2003", \hraidsk1, \Win32 [Defaults] scsi = ADAPTEC_U320RAID_W2K [scsi] ADAPTEC_U320RAID_W2K = "Adaptec HostRAID U320 Driver Ver 3.00 For Windows 2000/XP/2003" [Files.scsi.ADAPTEC_U320RAID_W2K] driver = d1,a320raid.sys, a320raid inf = d1,a320raid.inf inf = d1,adhraid.inf catalog = d1,a320raid.cat catalog = d1,adhraid.cat [Config.a320raid] value = "", Group, REG_SZ, "SCSI Miniport" value = "", Start, REG_DWORD, 0 value = "", Tag, REG_DWORD, 1 value = "", Type, REG_DWORD, 1 There are 5 distinct sections to this file. There will always be a Disks, Defaults, scsi, and somesort of Files section. Sometimes there will be additional Files sections and most will have 1 or more Config sections. Each of these sections will be dealt with individually. The file is now much more readible and far easier to work with. Starting an XML file from scratch can be a pain, and usually I choose to edit one I have already made, *but* for good measure we will start one from scratch. I find that Microsoft Frontpage is a very good choice for this but there is no reason why you can't just use notepad. So all XML files start with some encoding information at the top, so to start add this line to your file: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>All driver packages have ID's and that ID should be used as the name of this file. To prevent collisions everyone should use backend filename annotation: username + underscore + a relevant ID. You can use any normal filename characters for the ID that you want as long as its unique. I choose to use #'s for my IDs and for this example I named my XML file trainee_0010.xml The XML file will have 3 major sections: winnt: Describes information to be added to the winnt.sif file xpcd: lists files to be copied to specific locations on the XPCD txtsetup: describes items to be added to the txtsetup.oem file that RASOR will generate Everything in an XML file is surrounded by tags and our root tag is package. The second line in your XML file will start the package block and list the title and id attributes. Confused? Your file should now look like this (with relevant title and id information): <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <package title="Adaptec U320 HostRaid" id="0010"> Now we want to start a winnt section by adding the tag <winnt>. Whitespace (spaces, tabs, etc.) have very little significance in XML so you should make the layout of the xml file as readible as possible. You won't break anything if you follow these examples. We need to create a [MassStorageDrivers] line for the winnt.sif. It is imperative that this line matches the contents of the [scsi] section of the txtsetup.oem file. Specifically we want the part in quotes after the equals sign. After adding a opening <storage> tag to the xml file copy this line, with quotes to the file. Then we want to add = "OEM" to the end and put a closing tag like this </storage>. The whole thing should look like this now: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <package title="Adaptec U320 HostRaid" id="trainee_0010"> <winnt> <storage>"Adaptec HostRAID U320 Driver Ver 3.00 For Windows 2000/XP/2003" = "OEM"</storage> Next we want to add the files that will be listed in the winnt.sif [OemBootFiles] Section. Any file referenced in the [Files...] section of the txtsetup.oem file should be listed here. In this example that would be 5 files: a320raid.sys, a320raid.inf, adhraid.inf, a320raid.cat, adhraid.cat. These will be enclosed in <oemboot> tags. After these are added the closing </winnt> tag is added before the next section. Now you would have something that looks like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <package title="Adaptec U320 HostRaid" id="trainee_0010"> <winnt> <storage>"Adaptec HostRAID U320 Driver Ver 3.00 For Windows 2000/XP/2003" = "OEM"</storage> <oemboot>a320raid.sys</oemboot> <oemboot>a320raid.inf</oemboot> <oemboot>adhraid.inf</oemboot> <oemboot>a320raid.cat</oemboot> <oemboot>adhraid.cat</oemboot> </winnt> The next section is the xpcd section. There are only 2 types of tags used in this section <textmode> and <oemdir>. Most drivers (including this example) only need to use <textmode> tags. Sometimes drivers (ex. nvRaid) need files to be copied to another directory and will utilize the <oemdir> tags (explained at end). Each file that will be copied to the XPCD (excluding the txtsetup.oem) will need to be referenced here between <textmode> tags. Since all the files were moved up from any subdirectories in step #1, no paths are needed only the individual file names. For this drivers (as with most) the list of files in the <xpcd> section is identical to the list of files in the <winnt> section. After all of the files have been added the section is closed with </xpcd> and should look like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <package title="Adaptec U320 HostRaid" id="trainee_0010"> <winnt> <storage>"Adaptec HostRAID U320 Driver Ver 3.00 For Windows 2000/XP/2003" = "OEM"</storage> <oemboot>a320raid.sys</oemboot> <oemboot>a320raid.inf</oemboot> <oemboot>adhraid.inf</oemboot> <oemboot>a320raid.cat</oemboot> <oemboot>adhraid.cat</oemboot> </winnt> <xpcd> <textmode>a320raid.sys</textmode> <textmode>a320raid.inf</textmode> <textmode>adhraid.inf</textmode> <textmode>a320raid.cat</textmode> <textmode>adhraid.cat</textmode> </xpcd> The last and final section is the <txtsetup> section. It contains information that will be incorporated into a new txtsetup.oem. If you are only using 1 driver this will generate a file identical (for all intents and purposes) to the original txtsetup.oem provided by your manufacturer. However RASOR will also merge multiple txtsetup.oem files from this information. This formatting helps facilitate that. Just like the txtsetup.oem there are 5 sub-sections here. From the [Disks] section (or the modified txtsetup.oem file above) take the part in quotes and put it between <disk> tags. From the [Defaults] section take the part following the equal sign (excluding any whitespace) and put it between <default> tags. Moving down, the entire section below [scsi] should be put in <scsi> tags. Note: in general txtsetup.oem files are not case sensitive, and often [scsi], [scsi], [sCSI], etc. will be used interchangeably. They all mean the same thing. Now the file should look like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <package title="Adaptec U320 HostRaid" id="0010"> <winnt> <storage>"Adaptec HostRAID U320 Driver Ver 3.00 For Windows 2000/XP/2003" = "OEM"</storage> <oemboot>a320raid.sys</oemboot> <oemboot>a320raid.inf</oemboot> <oemboot>adhraid.inf</oemboot> <oemboot>a320raid.cat</oemboot> <oemboot>adhraid.cat</oemboot> </winnt> <xpcd> <textmode>a320raid.sys</textmode> <textmode>a320raid.inf</textmode> <textmode>adhraid.inf</textmode> <textmode>a320raid.cat</textmode> <textmode>adhraid.cat</textmode> </xpcd> <txtsetup> <disk>"Adaptec HostRAID U320 Driver Ver 3.00 For Windows 2000/XP/2003"</disk> <default>ADAPTEC_U320RAID_W2K</default> <scsi>ADAPTEC_U320RAID_W2K = "Adaptec HostRAID U320 Driver Ver 3.00 For Windows 2000/XP/2003"</scsi> From the [Files...] section we want to identify the types of files and put them in appropriate blocks. This tag has an attribute called 'header'. We want to set that attribute equal to the header of the [Files...] section including the brackets. In this case that would be header="[Files.scsi.ADAPTEC_U320RAID_W2K]". For the driver files we want to put them in <driver> tags, the inf's in <inf> tags and the cat's in <catalog> tags. I have no freaking idea why I made it <catalog> instead of <cat> I may make the program recognize either, but for right now you have to type <catalog> out...sorry. Close the files section with the </files> tag. Almost done: it should look like this (in the interest of space only the <txtsetup> section is shown below: <txtsetup> <disk>"Adaptec HostRAID U320 Driver Ver 3.00 For Windows 2000/XP/2003"</disk> <default>ADAPTEC_U320RAID_W2K</default> <scsi>ADAPTEC_U320RAID_W2K = "Adaptec HostRAID U320 Driver Ver 3.00 For Windows 2000/XP/2003"</scsi> <files header="[Files.scsi.ADAPTEC_U320RAID_W2K]"> <driver>a320raid.sys, a320raid</driver> <inf>a320raid.inf</inf> <inf>adhraid.inf</inf> <catalog>a320raid.cat</catalog> <catalog>adhraid.cat</catalog> </files> Lastly we need to break up the [Config...] block into a <config> section with a header equal to the entire [Config...] title including braces (like we did for the files section. Now we will take each individual line and put it between <line> tags. Make sure not to edit any of the lines; just copy them one at a time. At then end close the </config>, </txtsetup>, and finially the </package> tags. The final file should look like this (complete file shown below): <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <package title="Adaptec U320 HostRaid" id="0010"> <winnt> <storage>"Adaptec HostRAID U320 Driver Ver 3.00 For Windows 2000/XP/2003" = "OEM"</storage> <oemboot>a320raid.sys</oemboot> <oemboot>a320raid.inf</oemboot> <oemboot>adhraid.inf</oemboot> <oemboot>a320raid.cat</oemboot> <oemboot>adhraid.cat</oemboot> </winnt> <xpcd> <textmode>a320raid.sys</textmode> <textmode>a320raid.inf</textmode> <textmode>adhraid.inf</textmode> <textmode>a320raid.cat</textmode> <textmode>adhraid.cat</textmode> </xpcd> <txtsetup> <disk>"Adaptec HostRAID U320 Driver Ver 3.00 For Windows 2000/XP/2003"</disk> <default>ADAPTEC_U320RAID_W2K</default> <scsi>ADAPTEC_U320RAID_W2K = "Adaptec HostRAID U320 Driver Ver 3.00 For Windows 2000/XP/2003"</scsi> <files header="[Files.scsi.ADAPTEC_U320RAID_W2K]"> <driver>a320raid.sys</driver> <inf>a320raid.inf</inf> <inf>adhraid.inf</inf> <catalog>a320raid.cat</catalog> <catalog>adhraid.cat</catalog> </files> <config header="[Config.a320raid]"> <line>value = "", Group, REG_SZ, "SCSI Miniport"</line> <line>value = "", Start, REG_DWORD, 0</line> <line>value = "", Tag, REG_DWORD, 1</line> <line>value = "", Type, REG_DWORD, 1</line> </config> </txtsetup> </package> Sometimes you will have ampersands (you know these guys '&'), in your config sections. Unfortunetly these are special characters in xml and all &'s must be replaced with & For example bob&martha would need to be converted into bob&martha Get it? You can usually do a find replace to accomplish this. Step #3: Create a 'disk' file I don't actually know if this is necessary but I always include it for good measure. Create a plain-text file called 'disk' without any extension. In notepad you want to add the part in quotes from the [Disks] section, but without the quotes. Thats it. Save the file. It will be included in the driver archive made in the next step. The contents of the file should look like this in our on-going example: Adaptec HostRAID U320 Driver Ver 3.00 For Windows 2000/XP/2003 On to part 2!...

<RANT>I apologize for being out of touch for so long. On top of moving across the country, starting a new job, etc. My new employer wasn't sure if they wanted me to work on this project. I am not going to say who my new employer is but like most companies they officially own anything I make unless they tell me otherwise (read: they can sue me if I don't ask before distributing something publicly). Previously I just told my boss I was doing something and he was like "sure", but things aren't quite so casual at this new place.</RANT> The good news: RASOR Alpha 4 is out along with a better interface and stubs for additional functionality. At this time I also added an Adaptec Ultra160 defintion. Rasor will continue to be distributed under the Academic Free License v.2.1. Basic driver conflict checking has been added in this release. The bad news: I choose NOT to support anyone trying to use RASOR in a non-personal mode. Its not that I don't want to help but I don't want my employer to find out about it and get peeved no matter how remote the chance. Also there has been a bit of code-bloat that I have yet to address. RASOR is now up to 380k and it doesn't show you a download progress bar so that sucks for ppl not on DSL or cable. HELP! I promised when RASOR first came out to allow others the chance to make definition files. I plan to have a how-to up by 01/26/2005. Shortly after Alpha 5 will allow for multiple package sources. New Interface: I'm hoping the new interface is pretty self explanatory but heres the quickstart... 1) Select your root directory 2) Make sure that the winnt.sif file is correct 3) Click 'Retrieve Package(s)' 4) Go to the 'Select' tab 5) Select the packages you want to add to your xpcd 6) Go to the 'Repackage' tab 7) Click 'Repackage' 8) Watch the little window until it says 'Drivers Repackaged' or fix the errors it lists

@Pod: Method 2 does not allow you to use a floppy with your unattended installation. To the best of my knowledge there is no method that will allow you to use a floppy disk with an unattended install. Again this guide tells you how to adapt your floppy files to your unattended XPCD and NOT how to use a floppy with an unattended install.

plzlisn: thank you for all of the kind thanks but you need to give a little time for people to respond. I still don't have a machine to debug RASOR with. I also don't have a nvidia motherboard to test the nvidia drivers with. That is the real problem. Rcordorica has said that the nvidia drivers work with RASOR. I would try sending him a line. Also please make sure that you have a good working winnt.sif file. I think that RASOR isn't properly copying a file and that rcordorica aleady had that file in the correct directory. my ETA is 2.5wks to have my computers back/moved. I am sorry that I can't provide a better answer.

@larciel: can you post the txtsetup.oem file that RASOR generated. It should be in /$OEM$/Textmode/ directory and your /I386/$OEM$/ directory (of your XPCD source). The 2 files should match (please make sure that they do), and then post it up here. rcordorica care to weigh in on this?

This is a pretty basic TXTSETUP.OEM file so it should work fine with M2 slipstreaming. If i get a chance I will add it to RASOR but again this should be very straightforward if you use the guide <link>

@hpo1jpc: I'm glad I could help. I will try to clarify the need to have a working winnt.sif for RASOR. I also have access to a couple of windows boxes now and I will try to put up some more definitions. And hopefully get a guide for other people to make definitions. There won't be any RASOR program upgrades for awhile, but hopefully I can move RASOR to beta 1 sometime in December.

I know some people are having problems with RASOR. If you are having a problem please indicate which drivers you are trying to slipstream and please include a copy of your winnt.sif. You must have an unattended winnt.sif setup correctly for M2 slipstreams to work. @rcordorica: RASOR adds 1 line before the [MassStorageDrivers] section, so if you put a carriage return on the last line of your winnt.sif then you will have will get the extra space that you want. Does this explanation make sense?

Uh-oh...I just relocated across the country and have just started a new job. My computer, furniture, bed etc are in transit and I don't have a permanent place to live <sigh>. So I will try to get to things as I can. I only have my work computer and its not a windows box . Very sorry about this. Trying to make progress for you guys....must sleep....sleeeeeeep.

@The Accuser: Can you provide us with your winnt.sif and a complete directory structure. The directory you have shown has no relevance to this method. The guide on the first page is now updated and should indicate the proper folders. Also you may want to try RASOR and see if it works for you. You should remove any changes you made to your XPCD for the driver first (delete directories & remove winnt.sif entries). But then this *should* slipstream your drivers up for you. You can see the RASOR thread [url="http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=30231"]here[/url]. If RASOR does or does not work for you, please post your results in that thread.

So I'm a few minutes late ! Rasor Alpha3 came online this evening and just a few minutes ago I put a definition for nvRaid for people to test. I don't have a MB with nvRaid on it to test with so I'm trying my best. rcordorica...where are you? There was a minor change from the older nForce and I wasn't quite sure how to deal with it, so if this one doesn't work I will put it up a different way. PLEASE TEST. Ohhh and the nvraid package is ~900K so you will wait a bit for it to download. Download progress bar is on my list of revisions, but not until nvRaid works.

Well I have to admit that I voted for txtsetup.oem method just so I wouldn't look so bad in the poll However after thinking about it, I think that continuing work on M1 or M3 might be the best bet because AFAIK no single method has been shown to work perfectly for all situations. Until M1,M2, or M3 is shown to work for all drivers (or atleast all tested drivers) then we shouldn't abandon other methods. For example, the 3ware drivers I use, have never been made workable with M1 or M3. M2 has to exist to support these drivers until they can be made workable on M1 or M3. Now for my part, I am trying to make M2 work for every driver. And for people who haven't tried M2 I really am trying to make it as easy to use as possible. Please see my thread about RASOR if you haven't already. Just my 2cents. Perhaps we should have a list of drivers and then the suggested/verified methods for slipstreaming them. So for example the SiliconImage 3112raid driver could list M1 as verified M2 and M3 as workable. 3ware 7000-2 could be listed as M2 verified. Etc.

Well, Im glad to see that people are interested in the program. Obviously there is a demand for nvRaid support. The difficulty with nvRaid lies in the fact that it actually makes two (2) [MassStorageDrivers] entries. I started working on the fix for it last night and I am about 40% done. I have rewritten the driver description files, something that is completely transparent to the user, but is more robust on the server side. I plan to have nvRaid in no later than 23:59 October 18th (aka midinight tomorrow). I haven't had any communication from rcordorica yet, and I don't have any hardware to test nvRaid on, so someone will need to do the test and tell me if it works. @Bilou_Gateux: I see no reason why RASOR couldn't incorporate these drivers. However RASOR was designed with windows XP in mind and I don't know if it will work correctly for win2k. I also don't want to have win2k drivers mixed in to RASOR at this time, unless they are the same drivers for winXP. With the driverpack you are using, are the win2k and the winXP drivers the same? If they are then I will gladly integrate them as best I can. @Bâshrat: RASOR doesn't look into the txtsetup.oem file for its information, but it does USE that information. What happens is I actually pull apart the txtsetup.oem file from the driver package and I rewrite it in a more generic way that RASOR can understand. This is the greatest strenght and also the greatest weakness of RASOR. It is the greatest strenght because the user has to do very little to make the drivers work, they just select them and they are integrated. It is the greatest weakness becuase I or someone else has to write and maintain these on a regular basis. When using M2 from an unattended CD you can only have one (1) txtsetup.oem file. So if you have more than one driver to integrate you have to manually marry the different txtsetup.oem files together. RASOR does this for you which I found could only be done reliably by hand (hence the reason I rewrite the txtsetup.oem files). @Atlas95: YES! After you have repackaged the drivers you can totally delete the rasor files. You will not need them anymore. No registry or any other entries were made so it won't leave anything behind on your computer. Question: were you able to integrate drivers with RASOR? If yes, which ones? I have been very busy because I have just accepted a position at a different company and I need to relocate to the East Coast (from the West Coast) by Nov.1 to start my job. I wanted to make sure to get RASOR out for people to use before that happens, but I am seriously looking for someone to help me on this project. If you know C# and/or XML and think you can pull apart txtsetup.oem's for M2 style driver integration please let me know. Actually if you understand txtsetup.oem's I can teach you how to convert them to RASOR's XML format.

RASOR Alpha 4 is out. RASOR will automatically download the new version when you run it. Please test the nvRaid definition. You *MUST* have the .NET framework installed to use this utility. If you successfully integrate a driver with this program and it is not listed as *verified* please post your success to this thread (I'm sure people will post if it doesn't work). RASOR is only designed for use with XP (currently) WHAT IS RASOR? Raid Ata Sata Oem Repackager (RASOR) is a little utility to slipstream disk controller drivers into the textmode portion of unattended XP installs. It was spawned from trying to get my 3ware 7000-2 raid card working and from my desire to help others get their drivers working after I did. Rasor utilizes Method 2 (M2) style slipstreaming which is different (and less tested/verified) than the method (M1) used in Bashrat's Driver Pack. My2001 has written a good overview of the different types of slipstreaming here. I have previously written a guide about M2 style slipstreaming here,which may give you a better idea of what the utility is doing (atleast trying to do at this point). As I have before, I would like to thank rcordorica for his help in furthering the developement of the M2 method. While not a complete list I would also like to thank Bilou_Gateux, cfeedback, EDDI, my2001, and of course Bâshrat the Sneaky for their insights and support. Here is a Screenshot so you know what you are getting yourself into. CUTTING TO THE CHASE - SUPPORTED DRIVERS The list of currently supported drivers will be maintained (I hope) 3ware 6000 Series 3ware 7000/8000 Series (*verified*, trainee) Acard AEC-67160 Acard AEC-671x Acard AEC-6880 Adaptec Ultra160 Family nVidia nvRaid (*verified*, rcordorica) Silicon Image SiL 3x12A Raid Silicon Image SiL 3114 Raid (*verified*, rcordorica) CUTTING TO THE CHASE - HOW TO GET IT You can download Alpha 3 here: Rasor.exe (Right-Click Save-As). The current release is Alpha 3. There is little to no reason for me to call it alpha 3 or to even have versions but what the heck, its fun! I have chosen to distribute this software under the Academic Free License v. 2.1 It can be viewed here. Basically it says: use, distribute, have fun, screw up, anything you want, but you still can't sue me. Please keep in mind that this is a very early release and there isn't very much 'ohh-crap' code. If you do something wierd to the software, it will most likely eat-sh*t-and-die. Generally this is easily solved: restart the software. That said, the software has only 1 known stability issue at this time (see bug list below). CUTTING TO THE CHASE - USING IT After you download RASOR you should put it in its own directory. RASOR does not create any registry entries or actually do anything at all outside of the directory you run it from and the directory you point it at when you use it (your XPCD source). If you are tired of having RASOR's useless carcass cluttering up your hard drive (all 60K of it) you can calmly delete the directory and all will be as before. If you didn't bother to read the big red .NET framework requirement at the top, please do so now. Back?...okay the only other requirement is that you *must* be connected to the internet for RASOR to work properly. All of the driver packages are stored remotely. This means you don't have to go and get them yourself. It also means that they *should* always be up to date (in the future I might get some help for this). If you can't handle my little program downloading things to your computer from the internet then you shouldn't use it. When you first run RASOR it *may* take a few seconds to load and may flash some windows. This is perfectly normal! Rasor will first go out to the internet and look for a new version of itself. If a new version is found it will download it and restart. This makes sure that everyone is using the latest version. It also means that if I introduce some horrible bug, it will make everyone's copy break, yay! Then RASOR will grab the latest driver configuration list and ask you to choose the drivers to download. The rest of the program should be pretty self-expanatory. You should pick a directory for the utility to repackage the drivers to. The program will find and append to an existing winnt.sif or will generate a new one (not a complete one, just a new one). It will create the necessary folders and it will copy the files <crossing-fingers>. ANTICIPATED FAQ - BECUASE NOBODY HAS ASKED ANY QUESTIONS YET Q: Why RASOR? Why not Method-Two Freakin-Cool Slipstreaming Utility? A: Because RASOR is cooler and I can't pronounce MTFCSU. Q: I don't like M$ and I don't want to install .NET. Will there be a non .NET version in the future? A: No. I am a computer engineer by training (not a computer scientist), and my programming language of choice for small projects is C#.NET. Q: Where do I put my driver files? A: RASOR will download all of the necessary files for you. Again, you do NOT need to provide the driver files to RASOR. Q: Will more drivers be provided in the future? A: Yes! I will add driver files as I can, with priority to requests. Q: Why is RASOR so ugly? A: Becuase I wanted to make it work before I tried to make it pretty. Q: Why wouldn't I just want to add every driver from the driver list to my CD? A: Some of the drivers conflict with one another. In the future RASOR will not let you add drivers that conflict with one another but until then, you should only add the drivers you need. This will also make debugging problems much easier. KNOWN BUGS & PLANNED IMPROVEMENTS RASOR always downloads the drivers, even if it already has the latest ones cached locally RASOR always downloads the Update utility, even if it already has the latest one RASOR crashes when not connected to the internet or when the rasor website is down File format has a compatibility problem with nvRaid drivers (fixed very soon) RASOR is not pleasant to look at Driver description is not properly updated when switching back and forth between the currently active available and selected drivers treeviews No progress bar when downloading files I TALK A LOT!

@rcordorica: no offense taken at all, the guide really needs to be updated. As far as a sticky goes thats bashrat's department. Hopefully if we can get this program to work, M2 will be extremely easy to use for a wide range of people. We can discuss more about the code via email or PM, I'm hoping to draw on your expertise in validating the output of the program (ie. does it make the correct directories?, copy the correct files?, and write the correct winnt.sif/textsetup.oem entries?). I'm debugging something for work right now so I may not have a chance to get it to you for a couple of days though...

I've never used that directory, and I believe this is the first time I've seen it referenced. AFAIK nobody has gotten method 2 (M2) style installs to work from CD without using these 2 directories: $OEM$\TEXTMODE I386\$OEM$\ I don't know about the promise controller, but rcordorica was able to get nvRaid to work. The guide isn't updated properly yet, but you can see what he did by reading through this thread: link. Hope this helps.

@rcordorica: woah...hint, hint, hint to me? Did you get my email? I am looking to update the guide but I was hoping you could help me create/debug a utility I have been writing. If you didn't get my email: Congrats on moving the TEXTMODE method to the next level. My email is shown in my signature, drop me a line.

@DisabledTrucker: Have you tried the winnt.sif lines without the abbreviations. So instead of "WinXP Promise FastTrak 376/378 (tm) Controller","fasttx2k"="OEM"You would have "WinXP Promise FastTrak 376/378 (tm) Controller" = "OEM"I have never seen them listed as 'name','short-name' = "OEM" before. I only use 'name' = "OEM". I would try that and see what happens. And make sure those names correspond to the *current* drivers you have. I had an error come up once becuase 3ware changed the name of their driver with the latest driver release. I simply put the new files on the CD thinking that the name would be the same and I recieved a textmode error. So if you have upgraded any of the drivers recently you may want to make sure your winnt.sif entried match the names given in the txtsetup.oem files. Hope this helps.

If you are using nLite and not adding drivers you are probably removing something that you need. I am not an expert with nLite but I would try to install without nLiting anything, see if it works, and then work from there. This should tell you if its an nLite issue (probably, something you removed) or a XPCD driver issue. If its a driver issue, you should ask in the 'Device Drivers' forum. If its an nLite issue you should ask in the 'nLite' forum.

Yup, thats not it then. I had seen that someone with this problem had an athlon64/opteron. I don't have one or 2003 to test with so I was just throwing something out there...oh well.

I was wondering if there was any correlation between this error and Athlon64/Opteron boxes, since they should have hardware execution protection built-in and enabled with Windows 2003 whereas other processors would not. Just a thought.

XPlode is integral to my installations; I run it twice. Once at T-13 for hotfixes, drivers, users, and registry tweaks. Then again at first logon for program installations and file copying (over network) duties. I love the XML structure and besides my current XPLODE/SP2 issue, I think it is the premier application for accomplishing program installation, registry and shortcut manipulation, user creation, and file system operations during unattended installations. I believe the features for XPlode2 will only make this program stronger and I eagerly await its release. I think the community here knows that documentation is necessary and I am sure that members will write guides with the release of an XPlode2 beta. Once the learning curve is flattened out a bit I know that more people will use XPlode for their own installations. Thank you Wraith for all of your hard work and dedication to this project. If not already clear: my unattended installation would not be the same without it.