snag

Well....don't have it 100% down yet to do a tutorial, but it is just taking my RIS/OPK deployments and making a wim image out of them... The key is WDS though...I mean, the time it takes to install Vista as compared to using the dvd is insane!! Less han 30 minutes to do a Beta 2 vanilla install.

Made me a .wim image and have tested it on multiple configurations...and EVERYTHING works WindowsXP, all patches and updates via autopatcher, various apps, and BTS drivers all installed with first boot going straight into sysprep -factory i am stoked. That knocked off over an hour on each and every install I do now (OPK + RIS...but now I guess I am going to be using WDS ) Now I have to do it with OEM Home Edition (since that is the most commonly used).

Well...I finally got it. Have my RIS serving up WinPE with mass storage support hooking up with the OPK and installing an image with mass storage support and all the BTS driver packs integrated. I must say...nothing gains you knowledge like trial, error, a lot of caffeine, even more swearing and late night frustration. All had to do with the fact I used the manufacturers txtsetup.oem and left the file structure in tact. Text mode started up saying it could not copy the files I listed in [OEMBootFiles] even though the paths were there. Stripped out the path from Unattended.txt in the cfgset and modified the txtsetup.oem and move the driver to the root of ..\Textmode and works like a dream.

I am currently setting this method to use for my OPK via RIS deployments. It works flawlessly until it reboots to start the graphical portion of Windows setup and then I get a blue screen right away (obviously the drivers are not being called in to play)... Anyone have any ideas about this...it should not be TOO different than a CD based installation.

I just extract from the exe and use the msi package...just did another install tonight and never had hardware detection pop up. REG ADD %key%\991 /VE /D "Alcohol120 Trial" /f REG ADD %key%\991 /V 1 /D "%systemdrive%\Sysprep\Apps\Alcohol\setup.msi /passive /norestart DRIVER0=MYbus DRIVER1=MYscsi" /f

Available on the System Builder Website... The OPK eXtender, Beta 1 The US PTS and Worldwide SBC teams are pleased to announce the first beta release of their newest project: the OPK eXtender (OPX). The OPX is an OPK powertoy that adds system builder-specific features to the OPK. Technical Support for the OPX The OPK eXtender powertoy is in English only. It is not part of the Windows OPK and is not supported by Microsoft. For this reason, Microsoft System Builder Technical Support (sbst@microsoft.com) is unable to answer questions about OPX. If you have any feedback or questions about OPX, please contact us at opx@microsoft.com. Using the Beta 1 version of OPX, you can create the following: A reinstall CD solution for your customers This is a solution that restores the PC to the state that you sold it in. Use OPX to create a CD image (ISO) containing out-of-box drivers to burn to CD, as well as a Winnt.sif that adds your branding and runs Sysprep. With that CD and a floppy containing the Winnt.sif and OPX files, your customer can boot the PC with the hologram Windows CD and Winnt.sif. and the OPX files will automate the reinstallation of Windows with your customizations. The next release of OPX will add update support to the reinstall solution. A repository of out-of-box drivers As you build PCs, whenever you add hardware that uses an out-of-box driver, you can add those drivers to the OPX repository. When you have a repository, you can use OPX to scan a new PC to identify the missing drivers, and automatically update config sets to add those drivers from the repository. OPX modifies all answer files for you, including Txtsetup.oem for mass-storage drivers. Then, you run the network-based preinstall using the updated config set and Windows is installed with the OOB drivers. Customized Windows PE builds and ISOs OPX provides a GUI to the Windows PE build tools (Mkimg and Oscdimg) to make it simple for you to create custom Windows PE builds. You can also add OOB drivers from your repository to your Windows PE builds, including mass-storage drivers! A driver enumeration file (DEF) for new PCs The Scan command of the OPX tab will analyze the hardware of a new PC and identify any missing drivers. The results of the scan are listed in a driver enumeration file (.def) and displayed in the DEF tab. You can load that DEF in the OPX install on your technician computer and use it to add the missing drivers to your repository and then to one or more config sets. System builder profiles A profile is the set of information that you use to brand a new PC: your logos, a desktop background, your support info, IE home page, and so on. You can automatically update one or more config sets with a profile. If you build PCs for another system builder, you can add their profile to config sets to create PC branded with your partner’s branding. A UFD that boots with Windows PE The Server 2003 SP1 OPK added the ability to create bootable UFDs: USB flash devices that can boot Windows PE. If you have that OPK installed, you can use the OPX GUI to create the bootable UFD from your custom Windows PE build. Enhanced CD-boot solution For those of you that use the CD-boot method, OPX enables an enhanced version that customizes the PC with the information in your profile, and reseals the PC with Sysprep. OPX Download The OPX download is a zip file that contains the OPX executable and the user’s guide. Install OPX on your technician computer or any PC that contains an OPK installation. Without the OPK, only the DEF tab is functional.

Glad to see it worked for you. I remembered about you since I was doing some more "modifications" in the last week here. Actually...to remove everything I cheat a little. I put it so it puts everything in the %systemdrive%\sysprep folder and modify the cleanup command to reflect this. I do it this way because when you reseal, sysprep deletes the sysprep folder and this way there is no way anything hangs behind. I do that for pre-installed applications as well. I am glad that I could finally give back to the community that has given me so much knowledge in all my days of lurking

Exactly. Just make sure it's at the same level as the I386 folder. It is essentially EXACTLY the same as building an unattended cd but you have to organize it a little differently. The visualizing it in your head is probably the hardest part. You wouldn't believe how many times I would be at the server re-doing what I did thinking "THIS TIME I GOT IT" only to have it go bleh! So many times I was without my own computer because I didn't want to do a manual install when I was going to be testing it right away again anyway (doing this, you can't really rely on VMWARE). I admit, it is a bit of a pain in the arse...maybe I will try modifying the scripts so it applies automagically to the OPK images when I have time and give to Bashrat for review.

To answers your questions: Now I use OPK and i'd love nothing more than to get the driver packs to work with my current images. However I don't fully understand your steps. 5. Apply the BTS Driverpacks to the opktools\lang\en\sku\***\x86 What do you mean by this ? **** Normally you would make a root directory to copy your I386 folder to and then you would also copy the contents of the UWXPCD_ROOT folder that BTS creates to the same root in which you are building your unattended disc. Instead, we must apply the packs to the images found within the OPK. Thus follow the instructions BTS gives for the packs...and apply them as you normally would, but remembering the folder for your UWXPCD is not going to be \opktools\lang\sku\***\x86 **** 6. MOVE the $OEM$ folder to the corresponding CFGSET $OEM$ Why would I need to move the $OEM$ folder to the corresponding CFGSET when it allready has them there ? **** The $oem$ folder that exists in the cfgset folder is nothing more than your OOBE stuff and perhaps some pre-installed applications. When you apply the packs to the sku, it creates an $oem$ folder in the \x86 folder right alongside the I86 folder. Now the rules are a little different with RIS, OPK and a standard unattend CD (In a RIS distribution folder, the $OEM$ folder must be created at the same level as the i386 folder. In OPK it is like a CD install and the $oem$ is a subdirectory of I386). You will probably experience this if you were try and build non-OPK images for deployment via RIS. I mostly copy the $oem$ to the cfgset because it allows to keep consistancy...it may seem confusing at first but the more you work with the opk, the more you will understand its initial abstract way of doing things. **** 7. Copy the RELEVANT contents of the WINNT.SIF file BTS Packs created in the ...\x86\i386 folder into the unattended.txt of the corresponding CFGSET and then delete the WINNT.SIF file (the only thing you really need is the nice long path name). I'm assuming that you are refering to the settings that must be set, right **** Because of the way the OPK works, it doesn't use the .SIF file generated by BTS. So yes...you are right. The settings must be set...in the correct settings file. **** 8. Copy the WINBOM.INI into the root of the RIS image (right alongside the i386 folder) The WINBOM.INI file is already in the image folder cfgsets\cfgname\winbom.ini along with the unattend.txt Is this right as well ? **** Yes. You must keep in mind, we are using RIS to load the OPK to reference to a particular cfgset on the technician computer (I just use the RIS server). Now when you load WinPE over RIS, it wants a winbom. It is no different than using the WinPE CD with a floppy. The floppy has the winbom and the cfgset has one. I just know that without the winbom in both locations, it is does not work. **** 9. Edit the \\****\REMINST\Setup\English\Images\pro.sp2\i386\templates\ristndrd.sif folder to have the /minint switch And where is this file from ??? I don't have an ristndrd.sif **** This file is in the share for the RIS server. **** Thanks...I guess. Hehe I consider myself to be quite a noob considering the time I put in to get this working half decent of a quarter of the time. Just too lazy to be bothered to spend hours attending to driver installations on multiple systems a day. Taken as a compliment and would be more than willing to help make this awesome package even better

Here is how I do an OPK Pre-Install via RIS: 1. Create custom WinPE image (I use drvinst of course to get added NIC drivers for WinPE) 2. Create a flat RIS image 3. Copy the WinPE image over the RIS image. At this point I copy the image and rename it to provide a backup as well as a copy for each further CFGSET I decide to deploy. Not the most streamlined I know...but space is not a concern for me as the server is dedicated to RIS/OPK 4. Create your OPK Image 5. Apply the BTS Driverpacks to the opktools\lang\en\sku\***\x86 6. MOVE the $OEM$ folder to the corresponding CFGSET $OEM$ 7. Copy the RELEVANT contents of the WINNT.SIF file BTS Packs created in the ...\x86\i386 folder into the unattended.txt of the corresponding CFGSET and then delete the WINNT.SIF file (the only thing you really need is the nice long path name). 8. Copy the WINBOM.INI into the root of the RIS image (right alongside the i386 folder) 9. Edit the \\****\REMINST\Setup\English\Images\pro.sp2\i386\templates\ristndrd.sif folder to have the /minint switch Works for me for the most part. Fresh install gets me all my Console Apps for ATi, nVidia, SiS etc... The only time I seem to run into problems is if I do any extras (or if nLite comes anywhere near the OPK images)...and of course portcls.sys seems to be a nagging issue too (but I get around that by copying the files it bitches about manually into the i386 folder and the issues go away). Kind of old post to reply to....but I found it on a search for something else and figured I could finally help out a little.

Not just you. Still down.

Well...I am going to give props to you to since I use your guides and your Addon Pack. BTW...the server has a Intel PRO/1000 MT Dual Prt Server NIC in it...so NORMALLY it screams hehe. And ya know, I remember it flying before. It is just since I rebuilt this machine, the first instinct was AV!! It was the first I installed after ths OS so right from the get go with this install it was slow so I never really put 2 + 2 together. But thanks for the replies guys...and keep up the great work!

cluberti...you rock! I diabled AMON and the second I clicked apply....the CDROM spun up and the files were flying!! I never thought an AV and SIS would be such bad playmates!! Sorry for all the !! I am just so excited. I can actually make more than an image every two days.

Yep....way slow. Not impressed. This is supposed to save me time lol Anyhow thanks for the advice regarding the AV cluberti. I will let this ****ing thing finish and then try it. I was even so made I uninstalled RIS, formatted that partition and started from scratch hehe.

and being part of a raid5 array should not affect anything I wouldn't think...

lol... Well...thing is it is a bare bare installation of Server2003. Using NOD32 for my AV. Absolutely nothing has changed in the server or any of the configuration for that matter. The only thing that has changed are the images. So would it simply be that after images are added and deleted etc over the course of time that the groveler just becomes less efficient or more particularly busier as it has to search through the the files? It just seems inherent that because of the job that SIS does it would be slower than just accepting all the slack space. And for that matter I could care less about using space inefficiently if it means things would be faster. There are 100GB dedicated to the the RIS partition alone and there are only going to be a maximum of 10 images at any given time anyway... But no Bashrat...no keyloggers or any infections at all Love the DPs btw. I feel *sniff* honored to be spoken to by you as well (and I am serious...keep up the awesome work!)

How long should it take to place a RIS image on the server?! I mean...it originally went pretty quick (nowhere like a direct copy though) but now it has been like 5 hours and it is chugging along at what seems a crippled snail's pace.

Since you can't do an administrative install, is it possible to do this? I was kind of hoping to be able to deploy customer systems just THIS |----| much faster. TIA

Ok, so Microsoft says that each OPK must correlate to the specific OS in which it was distributed with. Is there a difference among them at all? It does not seem so upon initial inspection...but when you try to add a new SKU (for the sake of argument XP-Pro and MCE) it says that SKU already exists would I like to over-write. Well, I do not want to over-write my XP-Pro with SBS or MCE so my answer at that point is a resounding: NO. Is there a way to have RIS start up with WinPE and install cfgsets from various version of Windows WITHOUT having to host the sets on different computers? I mean, I have deliberately built this system particularly for doing deployments and I want to have everything under one roof, so to speak. I know how to do it from the RIS side of things...but it is that **** OPK portion of the install that is causing me grief. I want to use PE, I want to use RIS. Do I have any options? TIA. Snag

nevermind...somehow or another my cfgset got corrupted

I am using OPK and am looking to do an OEM pre-install via RIS. How do I get the cfgsets to be utilized by the RIS image WITHOUT utilizing a floppy in conjunction with my PE image booting from RIS? I got it to work once but since then I have tried everything...is there an actual write-up on how to use the OPK to build customizable installations that can be deployed via RIS? It kinda takes away from the complete automation aspect of things if I have to be around to eject the **** floppy... Before I get jumped on, I did do a search. I have searched google. I have searched technet/MS, I have read the chf. Everything is obscure, incomplete and loosly tied with no actual order of operations or set procedures. I would like to be able to have it install all the apps and then essentially come up to the branded Welcome screen. I DID get it happen once, but I had a little help from a little green plant and since then I have not been able to do it again (maybe it made me think a little more outside the box than I normally do, I dunno). Any help would be most appreciated. Please help...I don't have any weed TIA