berntie

Well, I'm certainly not mistrusting anybody (like thinking "Hey, they're probably messing up my installation"). It is just that some things are a matter of taste. Maybe the joystick pic thingy is a bad example, but having these pics certainly won't harm system security and I am willing to sacrifice a few MB of hard disk space for the sake of completeness. I'm aware of the fact that it would require a lot of effort. That is exactly the point. A lot of valuable knowledge is locked up in your heads. What I was ultimately asking for, was that knowledge being written down. If your top priority is adding features to hfslip instead of doing that, that's fine. I would prefer it the other way round, but I'm not in the position to tell anybody what to do I think any notes you have on how to do something could be helpful for other people to learn. Why not make them available for download? Nobody has the time? That's what I expected . Obviously, the challenging part is, well, just challenging. There, a guide would be quite helpful.

Hi all! First off, be warned: Long post ahead. I thought it would be helpful to give you some details about my motivation to make sure everybody understands what I'm talking about. That's why it has gotten so long. Second, Hfslip rocks! It does what has to be done, but no one else does. However, I have a psychological problem with it: I do not understand what it does internally and that makes me somewhat reluctant to use it. I Why does lack of understanding make me reluctant to use it? Because hfslip sometimes does things I don't want it to do, like for example not installing the joystick pictures in the DX package. And it probably does other such things. II How come I don't understand what it does? Well, there is plenty of documentation on how to use hfslip, but seemingly none on how the wonderful thing of truly slipstreaming the hotfixes, IE, etc. is acomplished. When I first tried to investigate that matter, I thought "Hey, it's open source, simple thing to see what it does", took a look at the source code ... and fell of my seat: 3000 lines of code! My limited knowledge of batch programming and INF files combined with the size of the program led to immediate despair on my side. It took some time until I regained enough courage to look at the code again. I had been thinking "Darn, it must be possible to figure out what that script does" and after hours and hours of studying and googling I came to the conclusion that I could at least manage to understand what the code does (i.e., improve my knowledge on MS-DOS batch programming). I also managed to learn a little more on INF files, though I still don't understand everything you need to understand in order to manipulate windows setup. With some beefed up understanding of batch programming and INF files, I then also understood on a very high level what a few parts of the script do. Ex.: What I know the IE6 slipstreamer does: Extract CABS Create some INFs Create and fill HFOE.txt Delete a file that's in the Rollup Delete some files Move all cats to svcpack Move what's left to i386e Presumably, the IEAK stuff isn't for me So far, so good/bad: Having a glimpse of what's done there still leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Ex.: Some questions that come to my mind but are left unanswered: What's wrong with the cabs in the IE package that are ignored by hfslip? What are the INFs created in step 2 and HFOE.txt good for? Why is the file that's part of the rollup deleted? Because it's in a more recent version there? Is that probably the reason that one must include the rollup if IE6 is slipstreamed? What's wrong with the deleted files? What's that i386e folder? ... Similar questions also arise about many other issues. Ex.: Why is it that a CD containing a hfslipped DX9 "cannot be installed from DOS", as can be read on FDV's page? Does that statement even hold when using recent releases of hfslip? I couldn't find a note on that issue on hfslip.org. And please note that there is a difference between saying "DOS installs are not supported." and "DOS installs won't work." I've come to the conclusion that even if a totally understand what the code does (not that I'm close to that, though), I will never be able to answer such questions (dealing mainly with why something is done) by myself. Or to put it in an other way: I've given up on trying to gain a sufficient understanding of the script. III What do I want then? Well, I guess, what I'm asking for is documentation on the source code level of the program. Please note that I'm definately not demanding anything, I just say it would be nice to have some more detailed information available. I'm aware that providing in-depth documentation is a huge amount of work, but maybe it is worth the effort, since that would probably not only satisfy my need for understanding but even enable me (and other people?) to contribute to the project. Also, good and detailed documentation would surely benefit the hfslip project in the long term. As of now, I wonder how many people are out there who completely understand the script ... The following is only relevant if somebody can be found who has the time and knowledge to improve documentation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've also thought about ways to do that, in case someone wants to do it. I see the following possibilities: Splitting the script into different versions for 2k, XP, and 2003. That would probably reduce the number of lines of code. Disadvantages: The users must be smart enough to download the correct version for their OS and there would probably be some (a lot?) of duplicated code. Splitting the script into independent(!) subscripts responsible for slipstreaming the hotfixes, IE, DX, WMP, etc. Disadvantage: Duplicated code. Making older (smaller) versions of hfslip available for download. Disadvantage: It would be vital to explain in detail what is supported by the respective version and what not. Ex.: Is the bug in halmacpi.dll resolved or not? Thoroughly comment the script. Ex.: HFOE.txt is used for ... The registry entries added by this INF file are needed for/do the following ... Disadvantage: A lot of work. Creating a guide "How to slipstream hotfixes and other updates into a Windows source", just concentrating on how to replace the original files in i386 with the ones from the hotfixes, DX etc. and leaving out hfslip alltogether. Disadvantage: Probably also a lot of work? --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, it may be a good idea to tell you that I am only interested in using hfslip on W2kSP4. I've sworn myself to never use XP or Vista and I'm not willing to pay 500+ bucks for a copy of 2003. So, having written down my thoughts, I surely feel a lot better now. Thanks for reading and no offense to anyone. Cheers and good night to the people in Europe

I have two question on those items: *Edited* Sorry, I'm stupid

How would that workaround look like? (I'm just being curious.) And what about the SP4 version of halmacpi.dll?

Hi! As Fred Vorck tells me in his instructions to create W2k SP5 (at the bottom of the page in the FAQs), there are two (in US versions only one) files in the Post SP4 Rollup that are corrupt: halmacpi.dll and webvw.dll (in the non-english versions). I am also told about HFSLIP that So far, so good. My question is: What's wrong with the SP4 versions of those files? I'm assuming that there's something wrong with them since the rollup replaces them. If they're all right, why would they be replaced? I'm trying to apply logic here but I'm also aware of the fact that logic probably may not be applied when dealing with corporations as large as microsoft. Anyway, I would be glad if someone could enlighten me. Thanks.

Hi together! I recently came across Fred Vorck's instructions on how to create a W2k SP5 and a followed the link to this forum ... So, here I am, hoping to increase my knowledge on my W2k box! Cheers Bernhard