Jump to content

dvokt

Member
  • Posts

    13
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Donations

    0.00 USD 
  • Country

    United States

About dvokt

dvokt's Achievements

0

Reputation

  1. Questions about the impetus and philosphy behind WUD: Was WUD conceived of as simple way to create local "libraries" of updates, or was there some other concept involved? Were the ULs always meant to be "provided" (albeit with the help of others)? How are the ULs on the http://wud.jcarle.com/ site created. Are there tools used, or is it painful hand coding? Possibly out of scope, but how does one figure out how to "slipstream" a given update? Thoughts on UL generation: Are you familiar with the "Windows Update Agent" (WUA) and wsusscn2.cab? These could be used to automatically generate ULs based on criteria. In fact, though I do not grok the schema (yet), the wsussc2.cab contains (I think) all the information needed to create ULs using XSLT to transform the data into UL schema form. From either of these techniques you could create and adjunct program or a featuure to do auto list generation with an interface similar to this: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/current.aspx Also, as I understand it so far, the WUA API has the ability to scan the systems (like hfnetchk) for updates, AND install them. Now this may beyond the scope of this project, it is worth thinking about. Here are some links: WUA API Reference - http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa387099.aspx WUA API Downloads - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversyst...ds/default.mspx WUA API Samples - http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/d...s+and+Tools.EXE WUA API Samples Doc - http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/6...86d8/readme.htm Some suggestions: Schema Change: Add an optional attribute for "integrationmethod" that would be a referance to a integration element, to be determined. In fact it could be a ref to another schema. This would allow people like myself to figure out how to slipstream the update and document (or even provide code or script) for it, such that after downloading they could be integrated. Schema Change: Add an optional element for the commented "downloadpage" seen in the lists: <!-- http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7C48DC3A-E3A2-4681-A0D1-3886AFDC6E73&displaylang=en --> Thanks for a very elegant tool!
  2. I almost forgot... Is it possible to silently install UniExtract? I saw somewhere a /VERYSILENT switch, but I need to control the installation directory path as well. The default preferences are fine, but can they also be set differently for a silent install?
  3. I just came across your great!!! tool today. It has already saved me a lot of time. Thanks!!! Will 1.5 have a single context menu item with submenu (like winzip and other handy tools)? I saw a mention of this in earlier posts. I really like the single menu item approach. As a developer I have many tools hanging off my context menu and it is very nice when the tool uses a submenu to keep the clutter down. Also, this would free you to add more methods of execution!! Again, thanks, for this very useful tool!
  4. Does anyone know the status of the xpcreate.com site? As of this momment it is down. According to nslookup: can't find xpcreate.com: Non-existent domain Which is very worrying.....
  5. HOW TO XPCREATE WIN2003 (MSDN) -- PROBLEM SOLVED Turns out to quite simple... In the TXTSETUP.SIF file, changing the line: SetupSourcePath = "\ENGLISH\WIN2003\ENT\" TO SetupSourcePath = "\" Will allow the CDSOURCE to work properly. I am not sure if this minor change is OK under GreenMachine's EULA. I hope he will let it slide, because the alternatives are not very appealing. Thanks for helping out!
  6. I was able to create an ISO and ran it in Virtual PC (as always), but I received the following from the setup program: Setup cannot find the End User Licensing Agreement (EULA). Setup cannot continue. To quit, press F3. I have never seen this message from XPPro. Also, I did not create a WINNT.SIF or $OEM$, though I would not expect a message like the above. Indeed I do not get this message when I do the same with XPPro. Is the WINNT.SIF (and $OEM$) for 2003 substantially different from XPPro? Or is there something else I need to do? I admit I have not researched this yet (I was just hoping for the best ;-) I am using a Universal Subscription. What is VLK? BTW, my XPPro CD (Disc 1847.1 - July 2003) is bootable and I suppose that is why it works. Thanks for your help!
  7. HOW TO XPCREATE WIN2003 (MSDN) Thought I would try this newbie thread before creating a new one. I have been using XPCREATE very successfully with XPPro and I am now trying to do the same with Win2003 Enterprise Server. I have been using my MSDN (Microsoft Developers Network) CDs to do this. The problem is the Win2003 CD does not work. The XPPro CD has no problem. Here is info on the Win2003 CD: MSDN - Windows Server 2003 (Enterprise, Standard) Disc 2066 May 2003 +---ENGLISH | \---WIN2003 | +---ENT | | +---DOCS | | +---I386 | | +---PRINTERS | | +---SUPPORT | | \---VALUEADD | \---STANDARD | +---DOCS | +---I386 | +---PRINTERS | +---SUPPORT | \---VALUEADD +---W3KE | \---SYSTEM32 \---W3KS \---SYSTEM32 If I leave XPSOURCE blank (default - works with XPPro) I get this: XPSOURCE= -- 1:43:37 --> Looking for CD Source. -- 1:43:37 --> Trying to extract the Boot Image. -- 1:43:37 --> Source does not appear to be a CD. Error: Cannot find XP Source. Value: \I386 Press Enter to Exit. If I point XPSOURCE to the Enterprise directory, I get this: XPSOURCE=E:\ENGLISH\WIN2003\ENT -- 1:39:17 --> Looking for CD Source. -- 1:39:17 --> Trying to extract the Boot Image. -- 1:39:17 --> Source does not appear to be a CD. Error: Cannot find BOOTIMG file. Value: BOOT\XPCTBOOT.BIN Press Enter to Exit. It seems from other posts that it is possible to use XPCREATE for Win2003 MSDN; in fact, I think even greemachine has mentioned making 2003 from MSDN. Perhaps I am using the wrong disc or I am missing some other info. I have searched the forum for "Win2003," W2K3," "MSDN," etc., but have not found any clues to this problem. Can anyone give me a hand getting 2003 going? Thanks!
  8. OK, so CDSOURCE becomes the original CD plus slipstreams; and CDROOT is CDSOURCE plus FILESCD?... I suppose it is a moot point, because it is working just fine. So, I am now moving on to figuring out what drivers I need for different systems, and how to do silent installs for all the apps I want, as well as nifty reghacks. And whether to use RunOnceEx or .CMD files. And .INFs versus .CMDs versus .WSF wscripts. And wow! But, man it takes lots of time testing this stuff, any tips on speeding things up? (I'm using VirtualPC 2004, but it seems awfully sloooowwww....). What would be real cool would be to be able to somehow freeze the install at the first reboot stage(after all the files have been copied to the hard drive) and be able to modify files and continue from there, over and over again. Oh well :-( One last request, again a liitle off topic. But does anyone know of a really comprehensive (step by step) description of the XP setup process. You know, what files get processed in what order and in what user context, etc. I have (somewhere) something like that for the old WinNT 3.51, but I am sure its too far out of date to be of much use. I googled around, but most of what I found had to do with DOING an install and not the "under the hood" processes. Thanks GreenMachine and ALL for the past help (and any future input)!
  9. @GreenMachine This is a little off topic, but relates to clarifying (at least in my mind) the directory structure of XPCREATE: After the Phase II pass (as described above) I thought I would compare the CDSOURCE folder to the actual XPSP1a cd that was used to create it. I was suprised to find that they are NOT the same. Am I missing something? I was under the impression that the CDSOURCE was a convenience that was a hardrive copy of the original CD. I have included a summary of the differences in the attachment Report.zip. Thanks for any insight on this... Report.zip
  10. When I said "start from scratch" I really should have been more specific. I meant to say: Do a clean install of XPCREATE (2004-06-11 is latest AFAIK). I will edit my post so that this is clear. If you follow the rest of my steps (substitute your own FILESCD stuff), it should work as it did for me. Bear in mind that I am starting with the XPSP1A CD from MSDN (Disc 1847.1 July 2003). Also, make SURE you set DLAUTO=NO in XPCREATE.INI
  11. Thanks for the feedback, GreenMachine. OK, trying again from scratch: GOAL: Unattended CD that combines my origianl XPSP1A cd with the new XP Service Pack 2. (plus user account creation) Source CD in E: drive, Destination CD (blank) in F: drive. PHASE I: Create D:\XPDANV\XPCREATE folder. (D:\XPDANV is where I keep all related files for XPCREATE) Clean install of XPCREATE to D:\XPDANV\XPCREATE (2004-06-11 is latest AFAIK) [edited] Execute XPCREATE.CMD to create dir structure So far, so good... PHASE II: Modify XPCREATE.INI:CDBURNER=F: DLAUTO=NO XPISO=c:\tmp\XPCREATE.ISO (I put the ISO here because of disk space factors) [All other XPCREATE.INI values are left at defaults] [*] Copy WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe into SPACKS folder [*] Copy my FILESCD folder and subfolders, containing WINNT.SIF, etc. into XPCREATE folder [*] Execute XPCREATE.CMD to slipstream XPSP2, create ISO and burn CD YEAH! Got an ISO and a working CD! QUESTIONS: 1) How (and when) can I start using the automatic download feature (DLAUTO=YES) to catch up with post SP2 hotfixes? (we know they're coming ;-) 2) The WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe got moved to OLDFILES, can it be deleted now (I have a master copy elsewhere)? 3) I would like to continue enhancing (and testing). What settings in XPCREATE.INI would allow me to preserve as much of the work done already as possible? For example, I want to work on the settings in WINNT.SIF, can I just make changes there and have them propagate to CDROOT and create another ISO (to test in VirtualPC) WITHOUT copying from CD again and slipstreaming the SP2 again. I tend to be very iterative and would like to speed up the process as much as possible. 4) When is it safe or advisable to set the following to yes: DELISOS, DELROOT, DELTEMP? IOW, does preserving these directories in any way speed up ISO generation? Again Thanks for this great tool. I am already saving time and energy with all the flaky windows systems I have to deal with!! :-) --- FYI I ave included my LOGFILES.CAB and a dirlisting as LOGS.ZIP if you need to look at them... LOGS.ZIP
  12. OOPS! I guess I missed this one: "File not found" Its funny because I was looking at XPCREATE.CMD and noticed the same fact that output redirection would clean things up and was close to posting the same suggestion. Well, I hope GreenMachine can fit in a little cleanup like that for all of us that are trying to make a new XPSP2 Unattended ;-) It always feels better when a process runs to completion without any "huh?" factors. AND, I've pounded some more on the system generated by the ISO in Virtual PC, and it seems solid so far. BTW, how do I squeeze the DOTNET stuff in with XPSP2. With XPSP1A it was done automatically...
  13. Well, last week I was trying to deal with my XPSP1A CD and the huge update list, as well as trying to do cool things like use RunOnceEx and INF files to install apps, etc. NOW, I need to blow off XPSP1A/Updates and start over with XPSP1A/XPSP2. But there seems to be some rough spots... I cleared all the subdirectories and set the following in XPCREATE.INI:DLAUTO=NO COPYSOURCE=YES XPSOURCE=E [my CD Drive] [*] I ran XPCREATE.CMD and it recreated the dir structure. [*] I then copied WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe into the SPACKS folder. [*] I ran XPCREATE.CMD again and it went to work. However, it displayed several "File Not Found" errors. [*] I was suprised to see that XPCREATE.CMD had MODIFIED XPCREATE.INI in a way to NOW use the CDSOURCE folder (OK?). [*] It did not however create an ISO (or burn a CD). [*] Things seemed sort of haywire so I tried it again. [*] This time it did create an ISO (nbut no CD) and I tried it out in VirtualPC. Seems to work, but I need to do more testing. At the very least a "My Computer | Properties" shows Service Pack 2!! YEAH! My seeming success aside, I still feel that I am "abusing" XPREATE (meaning the "File Not Found" messages) and want to make sure I have set things up correctly. I am including my LOGFILES.CAB. A zip of a listing of my dir/files is available if anyone needs to see it. Please let me know what things I may not have set up correctly, etc... ---- BTW, GreenMachine your contribution "XPCREATE" is one of the most wonderful hunks of software I have ever come across. I am looking forward to learning how to use it properly! Oh, and yes, I've been through most of the posts on this and other MSFN forums, so I kinda have an idea of what's possible. Though I am mostly confused at this point. I know documentation is a pain, but it is also essential (otherwise how can we chide ppl with RTFM ;-) Anyway, any help, clarification, etc. will be VERY much appreciated. Thanks! LOGFILES.CAB
×
×
  • Create New...