RogueSpear

Command line switches used in conjuction with .msi files are interpreted by msiexec.exe.

I install both of these programs from svcpack.inf and never have these issues. You may want to try taking that route.

I'll see if I can chuck it up there now.. EDIT: Here ya go.. http://www8.rapidupload.com/d.php?file=dl&filepath=8902

I agree.. while I have seen some Sigmatel here and there, I think most 945 based motherboards I've ever seen use RealTek HDA. If the driver's did not install correctly, in other words you have a yellow exclamation in device manager by the description of the device (which presumable reads "SigmaTel"), that does not necessarily mean that it is indeed a SigmaTel. I think that sometimes when Windows is unable to find an exact match for a device, it makes a "best effort" to get the device up and running with a close driver. And this does not always yield accurate results. I've had this happen to me in the past and I spent hours chasing my own tail thinking a device was "sound card ABC" when in fact it was "sound card XYZ."

I think at this point that most devices you'll find on a Gateway laptop are included in the Driver Packs. If you don't want to use the driver packs, I would also suggest integrating them with nLite. Seems like the easiest way to integrate a few drivers here and there. If the drivers are holed up inside of an InstallShield cab file, then there's several options for getting them. The easiest would be to go to the web site for the vendor of the hardware and download the driver from them. For instance I have a few Gateway TabletPCs that use the Intel Extreme 2 graphics chip. Just go to Intel's site and grab the drivers there. They should be in a more "raw" form than what you'll get from Gateway.

And if the GUID isn't readily available you can use the MAC address preceeded with twenty zeros (0). In fact I find this preferrable in some circumstances. If you have any computers that are around 5 years old or so, take note as there were some vendors (Toshiba cough cough) that made a major boo boo by hardcoding the same GUID into a BIOS update. So when you install your second computer, it disjoins the first one from the domain and if you're like me, you disable the local admin account, which makes for a neutered computer. Also try to prestage your computers into the appropriate OU so that any GPO based application deployments take place automatically after setup has completed.

I'm not that familiar with "publishing" applications in AD since I always assign them to the computer, however I think you can use the "Advanced" option when you bring the application into the group policy using the group policy editor and then select a corresponding .mst file. What this would allow you to do is make a "response transform". I don't know about other products, but using InstallShield AdminStudio, using the "Tuner" utility, you can create an .mst file that is based on the "responses" that one would select during installation. Judging from your post, I think you probably know most of what I'm referring to anyway, so I won't go into all the little details, but making a response based .mst file is something I do a lot just to find out what the properties and their values are for any given .msi file. Then you can either dirctly edit the .msi with those values, use those values as command line arguments, or just use the .mst itself.

Boy what a loaded question this is. It's like asking what religion you think is the best one. I wouldn't think that a Sonic Wall or a PIX 500 series would be sufficient for an ISP serving say a few thousand customers. Both companies make higher end products that would scale up just fine. To say what brand or product is "most secure" however is a pointless debate. It's only as secure as you make it. You need to ask yourself if you're willing to shell out the cash to have a qualified person configure the thing. Not just anybody can jump in and configure a Cisco PIX. Even though the PIX is what I generally recommend and in fact is what I use, there is no way I could ever configure one. Sure I can putter around to get config info and use the web based application they supply, but I absolutely do not have what it takes to properly configure one. As it happens, a good friend of mine who I partner up with often is quite proficient with the PIX (and CheckPoint, SonicWall, etc as well). So ask yourself what it is you want to do with the firewall and do you have the ability or the means to have it configured and subsequently maintained. IMHO all of the big names have capable products that will get the job done. It's a matter of money and finding the right fit for your needs.

When troubleshooting a problem like this, remember to check both ends of the cable for any problems. And sometimes for the not so obvious. Did the user accidentally disable the network connection in Windows? Are you plugged in to a managed switch and for whatever reason the port on the other end has been disabled? I've run into both of these things before, and it's only with experience that I've built up a mental checklist of both the obvious and the truly strange.

Just format it with FAT32.

Update - 20051225 Updated IrfanView to V3.98 Merry Christmas everyone

I think what you're going to need to do is a bit of trial and error to determine when Windows is cranking up the volume on you. Then you'll know when it is appropriate to execute the command. It's a pain in the butt I know, but I've done a half dozen VMware installs before just to nail down one problem like this.

At a minimum you should also have an .inf file, .sys file, and for signed drivers, a .cat file. Lord only knows what other files will come with a particular driver set. Some have dozens, some only a couple. The short answer to your question is "no" that screenshot is not listing all of the files needed.

You don't really need to make a switchless silent installer. Just make sure Nircmd is in the system path by the time cmdlines.txt is run and execute it from there. If the volume cranks up once again after the GUI setup is done, just run it again from RunOnceEx or GuiRunOnce.

More specifically, there is a known bug with the .NET 2.0 install routine that prevents it from being installed at svcpack.inf. There don't seem to be any plans on fixing the issue either.

If all of your different domains are within the same forest, you should be able prestage your target computers into the proper domain and OU ahead of time. This way, when they autojoin a domain, they should join the domain to which they have been prestaged to.

Update - 20051224 Added DVDFab Decrypter V2.9.6.5 Added DVD Shrink V3.2.0.15 Updated FreeUndelete to V2.0 @Fr1tz, InstallShield AdminStudio uses system variables whenever possible so there shouldn't be a problem with having your Documents and Settings defined as E:\Home. As far as nLite usage - all of the installers that work from svcpack.inf can made into "hotfix" cab files and used with nLite. I'm currently in the process of putting some together and you will be able to find them where my Addon Pack is posted. Just follow the link in my signature.

Why don't you take a look in the RIS forum (a subforum of this one). I detail how to add NIC drivers step by step in my RIS guide there.

Just imagine how nice it would be if Symantec actually documented the proper procedures in the documentation on the CD. I spent about the last three years on and off trying to get the firewall half of the Symantec Client Security product to work properly. All I accomplished there was pointing out about 4 bugs that Symantec later confirmed, only one of them was ever fixed as far as I know. I finally gave up. They're now losing around $5,000 a year in subscription revenue just from me alone. I still swear by their AntiVirus product, but I make it a point to steer clear of anything else they make.

Acronis' software does not have a "free" mode in the way that Winamp has. I sort of felt like I was pushing the envelope by making the WinRAR installer, but I rationalized it in thinking that so many people have indeed purchased this software and the registration process is so clear cut, that there would be a demand for it. Plus WinRAR is only downloadable in a "trial" form as far as I know, requiring the user to register it within a certain time. With Acronis, I don't think you can even run their software without a key. Nothing is black and white and there are a lot of little nuances, but this line of thinking is why I haven't posted installers for AnyDVD, PowerDVD, and others. EDIT: I'm sure some may have noticed that a new version of Messenger Plus! was released today (figures). I'm aware of it, and after reviewing the changelog, I'm not going to be posting a further update. The changes are minor at best and some of them are aimed at the new Messenger Live product, so they don't even apply to that installer directly anyway.

I was hoping someone more qualified than me would chime in

Ahh ok, I'm unfamiliar with using nLite for driver integration, however I have read of people using it to integrate SATA drivers successfully. If this is still your preferred method, you want to try a search limited to the nLite forum for "SATA Drivers" or some similar term.

Did I miss something here? What exactly happened to this thread? And what's up with the bashing?

It's hard to believe that time of year is coming already. In January (when my finances are stable) I make donations to the various software projects which I greatly benefit from. The Driver Packs have saved me countless hours of work and they also make me look good B) with CD/DVD installs and RIS installs that natively support about 90% of all the hardware that I would ever need to support. I started to do this last January/February and it really seems like a small price to pay for what I get in return.

You need to provide a little more information as to what it is that you're doing. What precisely is it that you're doing that you get a window to pop up? Is this during Windows setup? It's a little bit confusing what you wrote down. Generally speaking, the textmode driver is where you hit the F6 key and insert a floppy with the driver. If you want to "integrate" the drive into your installation CD, you may want to take a peek over in the Driver Pack forums, the Driver Pack Mass Storage forum in particular. Bashrat the Sneaky, who moderates this forum, also moderates those forums. He has made mass storage driver integration significantly easier than doing it all from scratch. See if the information over there helps you out a bit. I don't have any personal experience with nForce SATA/RAID driver integration, but I believe there are some things you need to watch out for in order to get it working properly.