trainee

Okay first, Welcome to MSFN! Now, please read the rules if you haven't already. POSTING GUIDELINE #12: Okay I admit that your title is significantly better than these examples, but I still had very little idea of what this thread was about.The best way to install drivers is to find the best method for each individual driver. I know that sounds like a pain, but pretty much each and every driver has atleast 1 of its own little quirks. You should do a search for each driver you want to install, I promise you will find multiple threads. When searching for ATI drivers you may want to use the search term "catalyst" as the board generally doesn't search well (or at all) for 3-letter words. In general you should do the legwork yourself, and ask a question when you have one specifically or you can't figure something out. If you want to make sure that you have everything right you could make a post like "Please verify my unattended driver installation method..." and list out in detail how you are installing everything. I promise that if you give enough detail that people will look at it and give you comments or suggestions. It will also provide a good resource to others who are looking for these same answers. Anyway just my 2cents, if you have a more specific question, please feel free to ask.

I don't think that this is a totally random work/not work situation. MS Master it would be good if you provided your txtsetup.oem file, however I think this problem has been seen before. Please see this thread (here) where rcordorica goes over how to get these drivers working. For some reason any dll= entries in your txtsetup.oem make the whole process choke. rcordorica suggests to change dll= entries to inf=. I *believe* you can also just remove the entries entirely, BUT I have never tested it. Now rcordorica found out that the files that correspond to those dll= entries need to be included in another directory called \$OEM$\$$\OemDir\. I don't know why bigpoppapump thinks that error 18's are completely random. I have never experienced randomly. They are annoying, becuase they can crop up over really dumb things and they don't tell you much about what your problem is, but I think you will find they are very consistent about it. Hope this helps. P.S. I have no idea how you had this working with SP1a if it won't work with SP2. You *may* want to slipstream SP2 onto your SP1a (OEM) CD to see if it works that way. It would be really interesting to find out if OEM cd's actually are different from non-oem ones.

I don't know of any reason why the textmode driver would break with SP2. Can you answer a few questions? 1. What driver? 2. Were you installing XP OEM SP1a via CD or network? 3. Are you installing XP with SP2 via CD or network? 4. Can you provide a copy of your winnt.sif? 5. Why is it giving you an error in oemsetup.txt? In other words, are you listing oemsetup.txt under [OEMBootFiles]? I believe a review of your winnt.sif is in order. I would absolutely make sure that oemsetup.txt is not listed under [OEMBootFiles] becuase it may be trying to parse oemsetup.txt which it shouldn't since it is just a text file. In fact I am not surprised that it is giving you an error in a text file during installation. If you have an error in your txtsetup.oem then that is a problem, but not with your readme. Hope this helps.

I wish I had some good insight for you, but this problem seems very odd. Can you give us some history on your XPCD's origins? Did you go from original XP -> XP w/ SP1 -> XP w/ SP2? or did you start over and slipstream SP2 onto XP. Or do you have a completely new source with XP SP2 on it? nLiting anything? Is your laptop of the 'older' (no offence) variety and therefore the drivers may have been deprecated? And finally what laptop is it? Can you get drivers from the manufacturer and add them to your OemPnpDriversPath? Sorry I can't be of more help, but this additional information may allow others to help you.

I don't know about 'most of us guys' but I don't find these methods 'unconventional'. You make it sound like a satanic ritual or something. ARE YOU SURE? How many times have you actually tried and how much research have you actually done? Most motherboard manufacturers don't just send their babies off to play without testing them with...I dunno...Windows? Why, pray-tell, is it so important that you have a lan driver on your first boot, that your computer can't function without it? I'm not saying there isnt a reason, but I don't see it as a go/no-go situation. And as Activate: AMD pointed out, we aren't just sitting here waiting for YOU to ask a question, give it some time!

You should definetly have a look at the third step of the unattended.msfn.org guide (here). It goes through the basics of windows batch commands. While the majority of your questions don't pertain to the drivers forum specifically, I have taken the time to go over the command you said you were confused about below. Basically this is a basic windows script command. This is like running something from the command prompt. So lets break down what is going on here.start /wait : start the following program and wait for it to finish before continuing. %systemdrive%\ : this is a variable that is generic across installations. For 99+% of people this will resolve to C:\, but some people like to install to other drives like O:\ for OS or X:\ for XP. All this is doing is grabbing a windows variable to find out what drive XP is installed on. If your main drive (where your OS is installed) is drive C:\ you can safely use C:\ but it won't be as generic or portable as %systemdrive%. There is actually a whole collection of variables to use. You should look around the Unattended windows general forum. If you are using 'OemPreinstall=Yes' like the majority of people here, your installation files will actually get copied from the CD to your systemdrive during installation. Some choose to run the applications directly from the CD but this requires a bit more effort. install\Application\Application_name\ : this is just a path. A good example would be if I had an application I wanted to run called Trainees_Bingo. I would have 'Program Files\Trainee\Trainees_Bingo\. The example given here just has a directory named 'install' with a sub-directory named 'Application' with its own sub-directory named 'Application_name'. Change these names to suit your needs. Setup.exe -s : the application to run, with the argument -s which *should* tell an installshield installation to install using the setup.iss file your provided. -------- FIRST instead of making 3 posts within 15minutes of each other, please EDIT your previous post with the new information. SECOND, questions about 'Kerio Personal Firewall' belong in the General Unattended Windows forum, this is *your* thread, but its not your personal question asking playground. THIRD, I think you may be going the wrong direction for installing your Intel Motherboard drivers. Have you tried using an OemPnpDriversPath entry in your winnt.sif file to install the drivers? Or is there some install issue that is making you want to do it this way?

I was having problems with xplode v.1.1.2 loading plugins, so per Wraith's suggestion I downloaded the display test from the above link. I unzipped to a new folder and copied the 5 plugins to that directory as well (I think that is what is supposed to happen). Xplode2 can't seem to load the XPlodeFullDisplay.xip now. It doesn't say anything about the plugins. I have attached my logfile. UPDATE: On the machine that I have no problems running xplode v.1.1.2 I also have no problems running v.2. XPlode2.log

Wow, I am having this problem now too. The same plugins (execute & shortcut) load for me and the other 3 (adduser, filesystem and registry) don't. I have tried redownloading, and even using xplode off of a previous know working XPSP1 CD but it simply won't load those plugins. I have also tried switching to different xmls or using no xml at all (the log file still says if the plugins load or not). I am running a fresh install of XP with SP2 and slipstreamed journal viewer, .net 1.1sp1, highmat CD, Windows Script 5.6 update, and WMP10. No virus scanner or adware removal tools etc. are installed. I registry disable a few services but I did with SP1 as well. I've included this information so that people having this problem may find a consistent theme that differs from those people who don't have this problem. Or hopefully if someone has solved this, they can let me and others know what to do. Wraith I know you are hard at work with xplode2 but any thoughts on this, and/or will xplode2 solve this? At this point I don't think its an imagined problem. UPDATE: I have put xplode on a CD with a test xml. I have run it on another computer with SP2 and it loads all of the plugins perfectly...but when I run it on mine it doesnt. The other machine doesnt have the SP2 updates. I will try to discover if it one of the updates and post back here. UPDATE2: Its not the friggin updates...looking at the registry tweaks. UPDATE3: I'm stupid. No I still have the problem, but I remembered that I use XPLODE twice, first at T-13 and then at Runonce. Both logs show non-loading plugins, and since the registry tweaks happen during the T-13 run, it can't be anything in there. The only differences now are in winnt.sif, drivers (ATI), and massstorage controller. hmmmmmmmmmm.

Just wanted to add my thanks...what a marvelous program. I think we all owe you big time.

Yes I know that is the final resolution in windows, but there had been some discussion (earlier in this thread) that it might have something to do with fixing this problem, so I included it for completeness. Thank you becuase your post completely clears this up: the winnt.sif resolution does not play a role in the gui setup resolution.

I have a working winntbbu.dll but I have the 640x480 resolution problem that has been discussed before in this thread. This is an appeal to anyone who may know a solution. When doing a fresh install from an XPCD (not an upgrade) with SP2 slipstreamed my new winntbbu.dll displays the appropriate graphics but not at the appropriate resolution. I have an ATI 9700 pro video card, so bare minimum SP2 will provide a fairly recent version of drivers capable of 1024x768. Are other people completely conviced that their installs progress at higher resolutions? I know that mine is 640x480 becuase I run XPlode on top of it with graphics sized and placed for 640x480. Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated. Relevant winnt.sif resolution entries: [Display] BitsPerPel=32 Xresolution=1600 Yresolution=1200 Vrefresh=85The correct resolution is displayed following the 2nd reboot.

@cfeedback: Okay I'm a little disappointed that you won't be working on this method but I wish you the best of luck. It appears that rcordorica was able to get the NVRaid working, but only with some 'locate file' dialogs. This method (M2) is currently the least understood and I think most people are working on it to try and find a single way to install *all* drivers and edit as few files as possible. There is no known way to get the TXTSETUP.SIF method (M1) to work for 3ware drivers, so for people with 3ware cards this is currently the only way to slipstream. On a related note: this thread has seen a lot of activity recently and some significant progress forward, and I hope that people stay interested in making the method work for as many drivers as possible. As always I will be here to provide as much help as I can to those who try.

@cfeedback: do you have the same problem as rcordorica now? In other words does nvraid install but you have to point it to the DLL files during gui-install? I think that the two of you solved the same problem in different ways: you by copying the DLL's to XPCD\I386\$OEM$\$$\System32\ and rcordorica by changing his TXTSETUP.OEM 'DLL=' entried to 'INF='. Hopefully this is the case so that everyone is now working on the same problem. @big poppa pump: [quote]What really surprises me is that the **** error 18 crops up randomly.[/quote]What really surprises me is that **** Microsoft couldn't give us a few more numbers to troubleshoot this problem. What about error 19 & 20? They must be assigned to something really important!

Okay here's another: a module to download files from http and/or ftp locations. my shortest post ever!

Okay I have a number of suggestions: Test Virtually First, if you aren't already you may want to do your testing in virtualpc until you get passed this problem. You can get a free 45-day trial here. Virtualpc won't be able to actually test the drivers but it should still present you with textmode/winnt/txtsetup type errors (like your invalid line error). This should be a whole lot easier than burning new CD's and should save you some time as well. Start from Scratch Next, you should try and make the rest of your installation as basic as possible until you get the sata drivers to work. This will help to reduce the complexity and amount of detail you have to juggle. So don't worry about registry tweaks, hotfixes, etc until you get this working. Your error seems very odd to me since you aren't even including a textsetup.oem. I recommend starting over from scratch. Latest Drivers Now, the drivers integrated in Bâshrat's MassStorageDrivers Pack (here) appear to be of a later version than the ones provided by Asus: The MassStorageDriver Pack on the other hand appears to have the latest drivers from VIA dated from 2004/07/30. (off-topic: is this how things are dated in the UK?...wierd). The via site is acting a little wierd right now but you can get the driver zip here. Inside there is a subfolder called DriverDisk which contains the files you would put on the floppy drive. I am not an expert on the MassStorage pack so you may want to add a post to that thread with your problems if you are trying to use that method. I am pretty sure that a number of people have the VIA drivers slipstreamed correctly with the DriverPack so that may be your best bet.Method 2 Finally there is another driver integration method you can try known as Method 2 (M2). It is as of yet untested with your drivers but has the possibility of working. I wrote a psuedo-guide here. I would concentrate on the MassStorageDriver Pack, but if you are still having problems (or are just adventurous) you can try it.

I have no experience with these drivers *but* the following quote is from GreenMachines Method (link). My belief is that you should not be including the TXTSETUP.OEM file on your CD with these methods.Have you tried the DriverPack MassStorage - updated 31st August-BETA provided by Bâshrat? I *think* it includes your drivers. Hope this helps.

@rcordorica: First let me say thank you for all of your effort working on this, especially for taking the time to post your experience and insight. I think most people figure out how to get things to work and then never bother to try and help other people out. Now for the *bad* news: I have no way of diagnosing this problem. I have been trying and to recreate a scenario like this with dummied up txtsetup.oem files but haven't had any luck with it yet. I simply don't have access to any nvraid/silicon image/etc. hardware. [quote]it says it can't find it in OEMDir. Where do we need to place the files in order for it to get there?[/quote]YES! I think this is absolutely the key to it. Probably the biggest breakthrough I made with this method was when I made an I386\$OEM$\ directory. A network installation doesn't require this additional directory, but a CD based install does. Similarily I have no Idea why using a floppy allows DLL lines to be processed correctly and using M2 slipstreaming doesn't. You might try searching for those files now that windows is installed just to see where they are copied to. If you still have a floppy drive and are willing to do an attended install (in the name of science?), you might see if it copies the files to any different/additional locations when using the drivers from the floppy instead of M2 slipstreaming. I could come up with directory suggestions until I'm blue in the face, but I would have no way of testing them. I would probably try to generate about 50+ directories that seem plausible and just stick the dll files there. An example would be $OEM$\OemDir\*.dll or I386\$OEM$\OemDir\*.dll. This is how I found I386\$OEM$\. By putting it in so many different directories you can find out if it works very quickly and then later find out which was the actual directory that made it work. I will keep searching and thinking about this problem, but until then best of luck and thanks again.

I apologize if these small ideas have already been posted: A method for continuing execution with an additional xml file I like to run XPlode with an xml file that is located on a network share whenever possible. This allows me to tweak my XPlode installation as neccesary without having to burn a new CD. I have 1 CD for each of my different computers which are hardcoded to access their specific XML file. Now that conditionals are being integrated it would be great if I could have 1 CD for all of the computers. The idea being that a generic XML file could be run, conditions compared (like computer name), and then have additional xml files executed without leaving XPlode. I realize that this may be a very difficult addition/plugin for very little additional functionality and in all likelyhood could be similarily executed via a batch file *but*, it would be cleaner and more versitile if it were integrated directly into XPlode. Installation weights I often install combinations of large and small programs. Some like dot net framework or registry tweaks are small and install quickly. Others like Visual Studio take a very long time to install. Trying to have XPlode guess how long something will take to install is pretty much impossible, but it would be nice if I could arbitrarily assign each item a relative weight so that the progress/completion bar will better reflect the current install point. This seems like a functionality thing to me, but please ignore if its too graphics related. Error/Problem invoked interactivity I like Providence's suggestion about a delay-timer scenario for attended/unattended installations. Adding to that, it would be nice to have a Retry/Skip style error handling. Maybe a file specified in the xml can't be found (like I was dumb and forgot to copy the file to the correct location on the network share), then XPlode could halt and ask if I would like to retry the file copy or skip it. Again this is a lot of work for very little payoff, but IMHO it would make XPlode even more robust and allow for better salvaging of some bad installs. I'm sorry that these suggestions are so minor, but I'm also happy that XPlode is already so complete that I couldn't think of anything more significant. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication Wraith.

@big poppa pump: Sounds like you are making progress. I would definetly review Bâshrat's suggestions since he is very knowledgeable about these things. I still think that your winnt.sif is overly complex to try and diagnose your textmode problems, you can easily remove those additional settings and put them back in when textmode is totally working. With that said your problem sounds either bios or cd-rom related. Make sure your cd-rom entry is correct under [MassStorageDrivers]. I have provided mine below directly from my own winnt.sif.[code]"IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI 1.2)/PCI IDE Controller" = "RETAIL"[/code]I don't think this is your problem however.[quote]2*74 WD Raptors on SATA Raid 0 2*250 Maxtors 8mb on PATA Raid 0[/quote]You should take a close look at your boot order and then make sure that you are trying to boot from the same array as you are installing your files to. If you don't see anything 'windows-like' after the first reboot then I very much suspect that you are booting to your PATA array after installing to your SATA array or visa-versa. If you see something *briefly* 'windows-like' then it is not finding your cd-rom drive after the first reboot (i have experienced this before). I suspect it is the former. Also what do you mean by "slightly different method"?

@big poppa pump: sounds like you are on the right track. Why don't you post your winnt.sif and see if we can help you find the problem? (Don't forget the code tags ) I usually recommend using a very basic winnt.sif when trying to get the drivers working, so you may try to cut your winnt.sif down to basics if it has a lot of special settings. Hope this helps.

@EDDI: Thanks for posting all of your installation details. As far as I know this is the only method that will work for the 3ware card so I'm glad you found it! Your experience is another great reference! Thanks again. @rcordorica: Great! We now have the first confirmed non-3ware driver case! I am going to list the confirmation for the SiL 3112r drivers at the top of the thread. The .cpl file is the control panel file that is installed in GUI mode. This is a little utility that shows up in the control panel in windows. This is actually the same file that the TXTSETUP.OEM chokes on and why you have to remove the "dll=" line. If you could provide us with a copy of your winnt.sif and some more information on what files you put in each directory we might be able to better address this problem.[quote]I think the rest of the directories you posted aren't really needed.[/quote]Which directories are you referring to? If you are installing from a CD you absolutely need to have a $OEM$\TEXTMODE and a I386\$OEM$\ directory. I know that you don't have to have a $OEM\Driver\* directories or reference the drivers in the winnt.sif oempnpdriverspath variable for the 3ware cards. However if properly referenced this might fix the .cpl file problem with the SiL3112 drivers. Anyway thank you for confirming the relative working state of this method with your hardware. @Spinman: Don't worry about hijaking, your post is quite pertinent to this thread. And thank you for posting so much information, but please, please use CODE tags around your winnt.sif and other file information, it is *much* easier to read. And please post your entire winnt.sif (with personal information removed) and the TXTSETUP.OEM file (which is just plain text) so we can see if your problem is somewhere else and not directly with the driver files/setup. Okay first you have some problems with your [MassStorageDrivers] section. You don't need the primary/secondary channel stuff and you haven't listed your CD. (I am assuming you are doing a CD based install).[code][MassStorageDrivers] "Intel® 82801BA Ultra ATA Controller" = OEM "IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI 1.2)/PCI IDE Controller" = "RETAIL" [OemBootFiles] Txtsetup.oem idechndr.inf IdeBusDr.sys IdeChnDr.sys[/code]As long as this is the complete file list (under oembootfiles), you have copied the files to the appropriate locations, and the supplied TXTSETUP.OEM doesn't have any invalid entries this should work for your primary drive. No one is exactly sure how important case-sensitivity is so it is best to try and use the *exact* naming of the files and sections.[quote]In 009_maxtor_ATA -I've included: readme.bat txtsetup.oem ulcoins.dll ultra ultra.cat ultra.inf ultra.sys[/quote]Are these files for your Intel controller, or for your maxtor HD? Does the maxtor need them to function, or do they just improve the performance/stability of the HD? If they are neccesary to the installation and are referenced in the TXTSETUP.OEM then they need to be with the other drivers in $OEM$\TEXTMODE and I386\$OEM$ directories and referenced in the [OemBootFiles] section.[quote]I am installing windows on Drive C:\ I am installing my Documents and Settings Directory on D:\ (mirror raid)[/quote]Now, the real question is how many of your Hard drive controllers don't have built-in drivers? Do you have to install/update drivers for both your Intel controller and your fasttrack controller? I believe that you do need a floppy for your fasttrack, but it is quite possible that you don't need additional drivers for the onboard intel (if it is in fact onboard). So you might try something like this:[code][MassStorageDrivers] "Intel® 82801BA Ultra ATA Controller" = "RETAIL" "WinXP Promise FastTrak TX2000 ™ Controller (PDC20276)" = "OEM" "IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI 1.2)/PCI IDE Controller" = "RETAIL" [OemBootFiles] TXTsetup.oem Fasttrak.sys Fasttrak.inf Fasttrak.cat[/code]You cannot have more than 1 TXTSETUP.OEM file! If you follow the guide in the 1st post you will see that you would have to copy over 1 TXTSETUP.OEM file in the $OEM$\TEXTMODE and I386\$OEM$ directories to do this! If you have more than 1 raid/sata controller that requires additional drivers you will have to 'marry' the TXTSETUP.OEM files together to achieve this. It is quite do-able but requires more work on your part so it is best to figure out if you actually have to do this, before you go ahead and try to do it. Hope this helps, post back here with more information/questions/etc.

Hey, I know there has been quite a bit of activity in this thread and I want to respond to all of your posts ASAP, but I'm on vacation through the end of the long weekend (Monday = labor day in the USA). I am reading the posts, but I don't know if I will be able to respond or research them until Tuesday at the earliest. Sorry

@EDDI: Thanks, but what works? Please post what hardware you were able to successfully slipstream with this method so other people will know that it works. If you had to do anything special (different from the guide) please let us know that too. Thanks.

@Crane/Mike: More detailed information would be helpful. sis650? There are 2 variants of SiS chipsets that match that Northbridge designation closely: the SiS650 and the SiSM650. The latter appears to have extended memory support. However, SiS has other similar northbridge designations such as SiS651 and SiS655. While most of SiS's driver packages are unified, you should really find out what motherboard you have so you know exactly what you are dealing with. Identifying the brand and the model will give us an exact understanding of what drivers to install and what is integrated on the motherboard. Even though the 961 Southbridge (which mates to the 650 northbridge) doesn't have native Raid support it is not unheard of for a motherboard manufacturer to add an additional chip to support Raid. Finding the manufacturer and model is not very difficult (you should have some sort of documentation to that effect), but in a worst case scenario you can pop open you case, and just read it off of the board. If you are inexperienced at working on the inside of a computer *THIS* is not a difficult task and holds very little danger: just take it slow and be careful (general instructions follow). Unplug the power cord from the back of the computer first. By doing this you will be grounded at the same time (grounded = stripped of static electricity which could be harmful to your computer). If you computer is easily accesible and this can be accomplished without unplugging the remaining cords, simply remove the cover from the case. Most modern cases will have removable doors/panels. If yours does, removing the leftmost panel (when looking at the front of the case) will reveal the top of the motherboard. If you cannot easily do this with the cords attached; then detach them! You won't break anything, just plug them back in the same way they came off when you are done. Older cases, and desktop cases will usually have a single three-sided metal cover that is removed all at once. There is no standard placement but you should be able to look around your motherboard and see some larger writing indicating the manufacturer (ASUS, GIGABYTE, SHUTTLE, for example). And in smaller writing there should be a motherboard model number. A flash light may be useful when reading etched writing from your motherboard. You will also probably have a sticker for your serial number, which *may* contain some useful information (sometimes boards differ from after a certain serial number). Copy down anything that looks pertinent becuase it is easier to go crazy writing stuff down once then having to open your computer up again. Now look around at anything else inserted into the slots of the motherboard. Is there any video/audio/network/raid or other cards plugged into the slots? If there is, then carefully remove the card or cards, one at at a time and write down any pertinent information about them. Then replace the card into the slot where you removed it from. There is no need to unplug any internal wires and/or memory from the motherboard when you do this. Since you said that everything is integrated on your motherboard I doubt you will have any additional cards anyway. When you are done, button your computer back up, plug any cables that were removed back in, replug the power cord and restart the machine. Now go to yahoo/google and lookup the manufacturer. SiS actually helps you by publishing a list of Motherboard partners and their respective websites here. You will probably need to do a little basic searching to find the right 'match' to your motherboard but once you do you will be able to find out everything about it! SiS has a full driver download page here which will help you get the appropriate Chipset, IGP, Audio, and network drivers. If you have onboard video and don't have an additional video card you will not need any GPU drivers, the IGP drivers are your video drivers. If you have an additional video card that is from SiS you will need the appropriate GPU drivers instead. If you have a non-SiS video card you will need drivers from the appropriate source. Okay, I hope this is helpful to you. This is a good place to stop until you have any more questions or difficulties. I really don't know much about your level of experience with computer hardware becuase you have told me very little about your machine. I tried to quickly cover some basic concepts in-case you were anxious about opening your computer to find this information. Please understand that you will need to put in some effort in examining your computer and writing posts for the MSFN community to be able to help you. Your last post simply didn't have enough information for anyone to give you a good, sure answer. I think I speak for all of us when I say that the MSFN community is here to help and support users of ALL levels of experience, but we can't and won't do the work for you. We are here to help you become as knowlegeable and skilled with your computer as you *want* to be. Best of luck.

Okay, well what exactly do you have integrated? In general Windows can install generic drivers fine and then you can add appropriate drivers for network/audio/video etc. later. The only time this doesnt hold true is for IDE RAID/SATA drivers which will have to be loaded during textmode setup so that the hard drives are visible to the OS. If you provide some more information about your hardware I'm sure that we can help.