dreamtime

Hi, I did come up with a solution! I gave up. In fact, the solution I developed works much better for me in the long run. I went down the bootable CD route. I manually integrated Ryan VM, then used n-lite to reduce size and then added Bashrat’s drivers. I then manually edited the winnt.sif file to get some additonal features working. In addition to this, I developed a logon script on the server which does all the application installations. The CD automatically joins the domain, logs on to the server and the VBScript does the installations - so the process remains fully automated. This way I don't need to keep reburning CD's each time I alter the application list (ie. if I need a new application to install). The PC also ejects the CD and turns off. I never found a solution for the main problem of naming the computer (I need specific names). I therefore make the install ask for any information that isn’t provided in winnt.sif. In this case, the machine name. This occurs a little into the install which is annoying but its ok. Incidentally, the machine name is read by the logon script and installs applications specific for that computer. This script can also be called again to check the applications and install any new applications post-windows installation (when the admin logs on for instance). The script also shows progress. I guess there are better install methods out there but this works well for me. I install xPize this way (the integration of xPize using n-lite didn't work for me at the time). Hope this helps.

OK This may not be your problem, but it was mine, so to others who happen upon this forum with Fable problems.... I had problems with Fable crashing everytime I started it. The installation notes (when I finally read them) detailed a problem with the Audigy 1 range of cards. Having recently reinstalled my PC I found the creative did not have updates for download (UK site - apart from a DRM update). So I reinstalled from the original CD. And these drivers were the problem. I found a web update on the American creative site... http://files.americas.creative.com/manuald...4DRV_031031.exe ...and now the games runs. Hope this may help someone.

RougeSpear. Thank you for posting your excellent guide. Because I am using a network share, my $oem$ folder is in the I386 folder, which is where the problems with the driver packs begin. Having done some research I may be able to use the OemFilesPath= to set the location of the OEM folder and then move my OEM folder to the same place as a CD and RIS (ie. the root.) I hopefully would then be able to follow your guide to the letter and have no further problems. I will test next week. Thanks again for your time and your guide.

I am not sure why my OemPnPDriversPath (which is a lot less than 4096 characters) is not working but I will look into the alternative you have suggested. Cheers.

Sorry for veering off topic. I had hoped to show you my aim. I will look into your previous suggestions. Moving firmly back to topic.... I did what I suggested and moved the path to the audio drivers that were not installing to the front of the OemPnPDriversPath and lo and behold, they installed as expected. So somewhere along the line there must be a cut-off point - my OemPnPDriversPath line is too long - I guess. I read somewhere else that the limit was 4096 characters. My line weighs in at 1697 and was autogenerated by Bâshrat the Sneaky's script. I am not sure there will be a work around to this using my current method (basically method 1). Any ideas?

In fact, ideally, I would like to create an unattended CD and do away with network install as I can still use the network to install applications after the main install. I could then use nlite and the drivers packs as intended and get rid of these problems with drivers. The ONLY thing thats stops me doing this is being able to NAME a PC prior to installation. My current system uses a dos prompt to kick off the install and I add the name I wish to call the computer via the command line (ie. dosxp ICT001). Is there anyway to do this using an unattended CD? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I am still stumped on this. It seems that no audio drivers are installing correctly. In my unattended.txt file (equivalent of winnt.sif) I have a very long OemPnPDriversPath, although I thought that the maximum was 4096 (mine is 1697). All the sound driver paths are towards the end of this line. The only way I can check if this is a problem is to put known audio drivers (ie. ones I know should install) towards the front of this line to see if the line length is an issue. I run my install from dos using winnt. Would this cause a problem with text length? If so, what would be a way around this, aside from combining drivers into single folders. Looking foward to your guide RogueSpear. Am looking into method 2 as suggested.

Further to the previous post: I have just tried my unattended install on another PC and it seems to have automatically installed the Nvidia driver (with the nvidia settings in the system tray). This would imply that the drivers ARE working but that, for some reason, the audio driver itself is not working. The audio driver is in the folder... S/C/2 It is the crystal media driver and if I run the Add new hardware wizard AFTER installation of XP and point it to the S/C/2, it installs fine. EDIT: On the PC that the Nvidia driver installed correctly on, the sound driver AGAIN did not install. This time a realtek AC97 for via. Installed fine AFTER installation of XP using the Add hardware wizard. What is up with my sound drivers?! I would still be interested in knowing how to utilise m3, but for the time being does anyone know why this driver does not install automatically? Is there a way to get it working?

Thank you brainstane and RogueSpear for your posts. I am not using RIS as opposed to just installing (via dos - winnt) over a network. However, RougeSpear, I would be interested in more information on how you use M3 for the drivers. I can copy the 7z files to $oem$/$1 so that they get copied across to the root of the drive. I am not sure where to copy the 7za.exe (same place?) and I do not have a presetup.cmd. So far I have tried method 1 and also just unzipping the driver packs, then using the OemPnPDriversPath (created by Bâshrat the Sneaky's script) in my unattended.txt file. The driver files copy correctly to the root, but drivers (in my test case) for the audio card do not get installed during the setup. Any information on the method you use would be appreciated. Do you run m3 and then copy the contents across to the $oem$/$1? Do you run any of Bâshrat the Sneaky's other batch files? Do you use the OemPnPDriversPath? brainstane - good guide, I am particularly interested in your method for autopartition which my system currently does not do so I will be employing your advice. Can I ask how you manage to get additional drivers to install? Thanks again.

OK! Ran a test with this and it hasn't seemed to work as you suggested. I have an audio device on the target computer which definitely has a driver within the audio driver pack. The driver files copied across correctly to the system root (c:\d\s..etc). But the install does not seemed to have checked the folders for better drivers. After the install I can manually install the driver by pointing the hardware wizard to the correct folder. According to Microsoft (link - see 'Unattended Setup') this approach should have worked. I have checked my version of the Winnt.sif file and the only difference between my version and the MS version is that I have "" around my paths. eg. OemPnPDriversPath = "D\C\A;D\C\AM......." Should it be OemPnPDriversPath = D\C\A;D\C\AM..... Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I'll try it as a test. Nothing to lose. I'll let you know if it works.

Thank you for a prompt resonse. Just to be clear... If I ran with version 1 and got the DPfiles folder contents and copied it to my $OEM$/$1 folder (ie. $OEM$/$1/D/C...) and then added the command... OemPnPDriversPath = "D\C\A;D\C\AM\1;D\C\AM\2;D\C\AM\3;D\C\AM\4........... NonDriverSigningPolicy = "Ignore" DriverSigningPolicy = "Ignore" ...as suggested here... MSFN Drivers guide ...would this give locations for Windows to search for better drivers and hence work with a network install?

I have searched the forums and this article comes close but with no resolution. OEM folder I would like to use the Driver Packs but I run my install from a network. For this reason, my $OEM$ folder is IN the i386 folder. Is there a way I can get the packs working with the network installation method?

Yep Dahi, That did it! Much appreciated. Soulin, thanks for your solution. It is probably a better system than mine, but the RunOnceEx using if loops will be sufficient for my needs at this time. Cheers.

With help from others on this forum, I have successfully created an unattended network install system using boot floppy and dos prompts. This has already saved me time - thanks! There is one additional setting that would make everything go even smoother.... I have three seperate rooms (I work in a school) that require different sets of software. Is there a way to edit the runonceex.cmd file to include if..then type statements which look to the computer name to decide what to add into the registry.... For example... REM for computers named ICT001 - ICT034 if computername=ICT* then REG ADD %KEY%\020 /VE /D "Installing some program" /f REG ADD %KEY%\020 /V 1 /D "V:\someprogram.exe" /f end if REM for computer named LRC001 - LRC022 if computername=LRC* then REG ADD %KEY%\020 /VE /D "Installing some other program" /f REG ADD %KEY%\020 /V 1 /D "V:\someotherprogram.exe" /f end if Before I delve into Google, I was hoping somebody may be able to answer this. Cheers.

Well, thanks for your help. I will look into network installs after the OEM install using RunOnceEx. It will still save a great deal of time.

I cleared out my 'Install' folder in the $OEM$ folder and suddenly the installer worked. I am guessing there is a limit on size. This is a shame as it is the ability to use the $OEM$ to do all the installing that makes the unattended setup so useful. I have to assume it is due to DOS as it works under Windows. I am using FreeDOS but I cannot imagine that should make a difference. I had Office 2000 in the 'Install' folder. I was planning to add many more applications! Does this make sense to anyone?! Is there a way around it that you are aware of? I could still call install automations from the network in a different method but I like the $OEM$ and runonceex way of doing things.

I tried as kenkueh suggested to no avail. So I guess the oempreinstall=yes works with winnt from your post Soulin. I have no idea what could be causing the problem. But it doesn't work. My continued thanks for your help. Will try deleting everything in the $OEM$ folder to see if this helps. Is there a maximum size for this folder?

For those who may be able to help. The problem is being caused by the option... OemPreinstall=Yes My $OEM$ folder is about 1.3gig but the drive it is being copied to is 30gig. If I remove this option, it does not bring up this error and copies the correct files to the c drive. It is requesting about 2288mb of space when it brings up the error. I have checked my $OEM$ folder for long filenames. Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

Ok. I have successfully ran the install from dos by running winnt directly. This has performed the installation of Windows as expected. I ran smartdrv.exe before. However, whenever I run the batch file in order to invoke the installer with the correct switches and sif file, I get the error message about disk space. 'Windows XP requires a hard drive with at least 1911 megabytes free....'. The hard drive has one 30gig partition which is fine if I just launch winnt directly. I have tried adding the /t:c as suggested. my batch file is as follows.... @rem SetupMgrTag @echo off rem rem This is a SAMPLE batch script generated by Setup Manager. rem If this script is moved from the location where it was generated, it may have to be modified. rem set AnswerFile=z:\udos2.txt set SetupFiles=z:\i386 z:\i386\winnt /s:%SetupFiles% /u:%AnswerFile% /t:c (I have tried without the /t:c switch and with .\ instead of z:\) and my sif file (udos2.txt)... ;SetupMgrTag [Data] AutoPartition=1 MsDosInitiated=0 UnattendedInstall="Yes" AutomaticUpdates=yes [Unattended] UnattendMode=FullUnattended OemSkipEula=Yes OemPreinstall=Yes UnattendSwitch="Yes" TargetPath=\WINDOWS filesystem=* [GuiUnattended] AdminPassword=xx EncryptedAdminPassword=Yes OEMSkipRegional=1 TimeZone=85 OemSkipWelcome=1 AutoLogon=Yes AutoLogonCount=1 [UserData] ProductKey=xx FullName="xx" OrgName="xx" ComputerName=xx [Display] Xresolution=1024 YResolution=768 [RegionalSettings] SystemLocale=00000809 UserLocale=00000809 InputLocale=0809:00000809 LanguageGroup=1 [Identification] JoinDomain=xx DomainAdmin=xx DomainAdminPassword=xx [Networking] InstallDefaultComponents=No [NetAdapters] Adapter1=params.Adapter1 [params.Adapter1] INFID=* [NetClients] MS_MSClient=params.MS_MSClient [NetServices] MS_SERVER=params.MS_SERVER [NetProtocols] MS_TCPIP=params.MS_TCPIP [params.MS_TCPIP] DNS=No UseDomainNameDevolution=No EnableLMHosts=Yes AdapterSections=params.MS_TCPIP.Adapter1 [params.MS_TCPIP.Adapter1] SpecificTo=Adapter1 DHCP=Yes WINS=No NetBIOSOptions=0 DNSServerSearchOrder=10.3.135.252 [Branding] BrandIEUsingUnattended=Yes [Proxy] Proxy_Enable=0 Use_Same_Proxy=0 [WindowsFirewall] Profiles=WindowsFirewall.TurnOffFirewall [WindowsFirewall.TurnOffFirewall] Mode=0 [components] msmsgs=off msnexplr=off freecell=off hearts=off minesweeper=off pinball=off solitaire=off spider=off zonegames=off I have tried this with out the MsDosInitiated switch and with it set to 1, "1", 0, "0". Can you spot anything wrong which would stop the installer working and cause the disk space problem? Would it be better if I forget the batch file and place the udos2.txt into the i386 folder instead (renaming it to winnt.sif)? UPDATE: I have tried to copy the winnt.sif file into the i386 folder on the network, but when running winnt, the settings do not appear to be picked up automatically. UPDATE 2: Any attempt to call a sif file from the command prompt results in this error. If I type winnt /s:z:\i386, it works. If I then add /u:z:\udos2.txt if produces the disk error. I have removed everything in the unattend file which may be causing problems to no avail. It just will not work with the unattend file. Thanks for your time.

I appreciate your continuing help on this. I have been unable to test your idea, although I know that I have the MsdosInitiated setting as 1, not 0. This may have some impact on the installation sequence and cause the problem with disk space. Is there anything else within the unattend.txt file that may impact on the installer having a problem with disk space on a freshly formatted hard drive? I will check it out tomorrow when I get a chance! It would be nice to get to the bottom of the problems.

OK. I probably needed to be more patient! I will do as you suggested and see how long it takes, however, this doesn't resolve why the batch file is throwing up the error about the hard drive size being too small (or not existing), whereas running winnt straight doesn't have cause a problem. Could it be a problem in the unattend.txt file?

Could this be due to long filenames? I was calling unattend2 which is over 8 characters long.

It definitely appears to be to do with this. It is complaining (now) that it needs a minimum of 2 gig free as you suggested. However, its just a single partitioned 30gig harddrive. I added the switch you suggested, but this does not seem to help. And yet sometimes, it does not display this warning and seems to use c:\ for its drive (there are setup files on it) but crashes. Running winnt without any switches seems to start installing but stops at the 'Please wait whilst setup copies files to your hard drive.' Odd. Will try another PC.

****. Soo close. Still having trouble. I get various messages reporting errors in drive space. I have formatted the C drive. The setup just keeps crashing at the 'Please wait whilst setup copies files to your hard disk. ' I have taken on board your ideas and removed the udf. Now the batch file is bare minimum... @rem SetupMgrTag @echo off rem rem This is a SAMPLE batch script generated by Setup Manager. rem If this script is moved from the location where it was generated, it may have to be modified. rem set AnswerFile=z:\unattend.txt set SetupFiles=z:\i386 z:\i386\winnt /s:%SetupFiles% /u:%AnswerFile%