Slipstreaming drivers directly into i386 in W2k

[Dislocated Time]

Hi.

Fred Vorck changed his site again unfortunately. As far as I can remember there was some reference to being able to slipstream drivers directly into the i386. In the back of my mind I think it was about Universal SATA?

If that's possible, it should be possible with other drivers as well. I read his page and wanted to come back to it and then it was gone because he revamped it.

Does anyone have any reference to that process. I want to make an unattended install CD for a notebook and would like to slipstream the graphics driver directly into the windows setup rather than using OEM techniques.

Does anyone know how to do this or know where there is any info regarding this subject?

I'm a W2K and MSDOS tinkerer and am not in the least bit interested in XP or Vista, so please do me the favor of leaving out any comments regarding those other mentioned operating systems.

Thanks.

[Tomcat76]

This info has been on the HFSLIP site for a very long time.

Look for info on the HFEXPERT subfolder on http://hfslip.org/advanced.html, more specifically the HFEXPERT\DRIVERCAB and HFEXPERT\SPXCAB subfolders.

[Martin H]

Hi Dislocated Time

I have slipstreamed my drivers with HFSLIP a couple of weeks ago and so i would just like to recommend two nice tools to use in that process :

Roufneck's DrvComp(a spinoff from Acheron's Driver Compressor) filters everything out that isn't referenced in the INF's, but remember to uncab the destination files afterwards.

daddydave's Drivercab Helper edits the INF's according to Oleg_II's instructions.

[Dislocated Time]

Excellent!

Thank you. Will do.

[fdv]

Wait, what? What did I miss?

See here step 9

If you view README and then look into TXTSETUP you will see the areas all set for putting UNIATA in place. (You must DL the binary and put it in FDVFILES and modify TXTSETUP and LAYOUT).

[Dislocated Time]

Wait, what? What did I miss?

See here step 9

If you view README and then look into TXTSETUP you will see the areas all set for putting UNIATA in place. (You must DL the binary and put it in FDVFILES and modify TXTSETUP and LAYOUT).

FDV: thx for the ref.

I tried integrating Uniata.sys exactly as instructed, but something went wrong.

I remember having put the extracted files of the uniata.sys in the HFEXPERT/DRIVERS folder, so I guess that might have been my mistake. I'll retry it again today though.

When I booted, the windows setup only told me that my inf file was incorrect, so I just copied the originals back over the ones that I had changed and gave up. In any case I didn't use your files (FDV) because I originally didn't want to trash the Internet Explorer for the reason that a lot of sites want you to use the IE. For example, I wanted to check my PC for trojans by using an online scan and the site tells you it's only available for the IE. If I'd find a way to circumvent something like that, I'd actually rather like to get rid of IE right away, because I'm definitely not happy with it.

One other thing that's been itching me. I'm trying to install a notebook and according to Oleg, you can get rid of a few extra files in the original setup. The problem is, that it's a dual processor notebook that I'm installing and his little proggie knocks out all the multiprocessor drivers. If I'd know which files are only specifically for uniprocessor setups, I could remove those, but there is no reference as to which files are for what purpose, so I'm left completely in the dark on that. If anyone knows where to get info on the original setup files, I'd appreciate it a lot.

Edited March 27, 2008 by Dislocated Time

[fdv]

1. About wanting to keep IE -- IMO you should avoid any site that uses an ActiveX control to scan the PC; use some freee software to run locally instead. But that's just my opinion. I DO have a fileset that takes out all the crap but LEAVES IE alone. I can link to it once I find it. TommyP tested it out a while back and I think he approved of it (he runs Maxthon) so that might help you. Once you use it, put UNIATA in the FDVFILES folder. Then open LAYOUT and TXTSETUP and find ;UNIATA and delete the semicolons. Also, in TXTSETUP, you will find a new [uniata] section I created. Combine this section with the [HardwareIdsDatabase] section. (by cutting and pasting for example).

2. About Multiproc...

Open TXTSETUP.INF and find

[specialFiles]

Multiprocessor = ntkrnlmp.exe,2,ntoskrnl.exe

Uniprocessor = ntoskrnl.exe,2

MPKrnlPa = ntkrpamp.exe,2,ntkrnlpa.exe

UPKrnlPa = ntkrnlpa.exe,2

mouseclass = mouclass.sys,4

keyboardclass = kbdclass.sys,4

You will see that it's always the same file name. The trick is to force Windows to load the MP kernel every time. So, you could try an inelegant hack like this:

[specialFiles]

Multiprocessor = ntkrnlmp.exe,2,ntoskrnl.exe

Uniprocessor = ntkrnlmp.exe,2,ntoskrnl.exe

MPKrnlPa = ntkrpamp.exe,2,ntkrnlpa.exe

UPKrnlPa = ntkrpamp.exe,2,ntkrnlpa.exe

mouseclass = mouclass.sys,4

keyboardclass = kbdclass.sys,4

You will make similar changes in sections like [Computer] and [hal]. Change all UNIprocessor lines to whatever the multiprocessor lines day.

Finally, look under [DeviceInfsToInstall]. See hal.inf? You guessed it... go to i386, type 'expand -r hal.in_' and open the expanded hal.inf and make what changes you deem necessary.

Bonus tip for everyone reading because it's relevant: see display.inf under [DeviceInfsToInstall]? If you have a modern video card made after Windows 2000 came out, why bother having it try to detect it during setup if it won't find it, and will default to 640 x 480 anyway? Comment display.inf out here, speed up the detecting devices portion of the setup process, and have your video drivers on hand when the installation is done. Same with fdc.inf and flpydisk.inf, if you don't have a floppy drive, comment them out. tape.inf, same thing. etc etc.

I hope this makes sense. If not, I suppose I could elaborate.

EDIT: Get a version of my fileset that leaves IE alone (recommend using IE6).

Edited March 27, 2008 by fdv

[Dislocated Time]

1. About wanting to keep IE -- IMO you should avoid any site that uses an ActiveX control to scan the PC; use some freee software to run locally instead. But that's just my opinion. I DO have a fileset that takes out all the crap but LEAVES IE alone. I can link to it once I find it. TommyP tested it out a while back and I think he approved of it (he runs Maxthon) so that might help you. Once you use it, put UNIATA in the FDVFILES folder. Then open LAYOUT and TXTSETUP and find ;UNIATA and delete the semicolons. Also, in TXTSETUP, you will find a new [uniata] section I created. Combine this section with the [HardwareIdsDatabase] section. (by cutting and pasting for example).

2. About Multiproc...

Open TXTSETUP.INF and find

[specialFiles]

Multiprocessor = ntkrnlmp.exe,2,ntoskrnl.exe

Uniprocessor = ntoskrnl.exe,2

MPKrnlPa = ntkrpamp.exe,2,ntkrnlpa.exe

UPKrnlPa = ntkrnlpa.exe,2

mouseclass = mouclass.sys,4

keyboardclass = kbdclass.sys,4

You will see that it's always the same file name. The trick is to force Windows to load the MP kernel every time. So, you could try an inelegant hack like this:

[specialFiles]

Multiprocessor = ntkrnlmp.exe,2,ntoskrnl.exe

Uniprocessor = ntkrnlmp.exe,2,ntoskrnl.exe

MPKrnlPa = ntkrpamp.exe,2,ntkrnlpa.exe

UPKrnlPa = ntkrpamp.exe,2,ntkrnlpa.exe

mouseclass = mouclass.sys,4

keyboardclass = kbdclass.sys,4

You will make similar changes in sections like [Computer] and [hal]. Change all UNIprocessor lines to whatever the multiprocessor lines day.

Finally, look under [DeviceInfsToInstall]. See hal.inf? You guessed it... go to i386, type 'expand -r hal.in_' and open the expanded hal.inf and make what changes you deem necessary.

Bonus tip for everyone reading because it's relevant: see display.inf under [DeviceInfsToInstall]? If you have a modern video card made after Windows 2000 came out, why bother having it try to detect it during setup if it won't find it, and will default to 640 x 480 anyway? Comment display.inf out here, speed up the detecting devices portion of the setup process, and have your video drivers on hand when the installation is done. Same with fdc.inf and flpydisk.inf, if you don't have a floppy drive, comment them out. tape.inf, same thing. etc etc.

I hope this makes sense. If not, I suppose I could elaborate.

EDIT: Get a version of my fileset that leaves IE alone (recommend using IE6).

Thank you so much for those hints FDV.

Before I could try that out, I just ended up taking my notebook back to the dealer I bought it from. The HD was giving me a hard time. The dealer told me that I'd get a new one in a few days, so I'll try it out then.

[fdv]

I rewrote my driver integration info. Sure it's available around the 'net but I tailored it for Win 2000.

http://www.vorck.com/windows/2ksp5.html#drvinteg

Feel free to critique.

Also, to choose a kernel / hal during boot, when you see the F6 prompt... press F5. (That's FIVE).

[Dislocated Time]

Hi,

hmmm... ok... here's some critique...

I've tried your instructions but found out that the ;uniata section is not in the inf files of the KEEPIE6.zip that I downloaded. Tried a second download, but turns out that it's just not in there, either that or I'm blind or the search function hides it from me...

I added the uniata entries of your VorcksSp5files.zip to the keepie6.zip files, but couldn't upload it for other people to use it because it's bigger than 200k.

What I want to do is two separate installs on my non-notebook PC:

one with IE and the other without.

I want to install W2K without IE on my notebook.

BTW: German companies are horrible when it comes down to customer service.

They finally sent me a replacement notebook and the flatscreen was scratched!

Finding drivers for newer Notebooks or even newer PCs for W2K is a nightmare because everyone is jumping on Microsoft's bandwagon and trying to force people to buy Vista or WinXP. I haven't found much information about how to edit the inf files of an XP driver so that it also works for W2K, so I have to go through the task of finding a company that still offers drivers for W2K before getting that notebook model which isn't very easy these days.

Edited April 13, 2008 by Dislocated Time

[Dislocated Time]

Is there a list somewhere that shows which updates replace other updates or do I have to go cruising through all sorts of forum entries to find that info? The problem being, I've collected updates in a folder throughout time and don't know which of those really are superfluous or might even sabotage other updates. Are the lists that the_guy uses really all or might there be some updates that he missed?

Edited April 13, 2008 by Dislocated Time

[johndoe74]

to the best of my understanding hfslip only adds files with the latest date so even if you got multiple hotfixes that contain different versions the same files, you'll only end up with the newest of those files in sourcess.

[Martin H]

Are the lists that the_guy uses really all or might there be some updates that he missed?

The list from the_guy focuses on high-priority updates from WU, so not all updates are listed there, as his list dosen't include optional updates from WU or hotfixes(yeah i know everyone calls normal updates for hotfixes, but that's wrong terminology, as hotfixes actually only reffers specifically to the QFE branch of normal updates, which includes the fixes from MS's request-only hotfixes(they are mostly request-only), but even MS uses this wrong terminology in several places).

Personally, then i'm a big fan of Tomcat76's update lists, as they're dynamically updating after what you choose to include of extra components, so that i'm not seeing any IE6 or WMP9 updates when i'm not using those, and it also lists in which folders everything goes. Tomcat76's lists also includes the optional updates of WU additionally, but it also has an option of hiding them, which i find very nice as i'm only concerned about high-priority updates and nothing else myself.

You can find the links to Tomcat76's update lists in his signature and on the HFSLIP homepage.

Edited April 13, 2008 by Martin H

[johndoe74]

thats all fine, TC's list is good enough for most people but when you have a bunch off private/request only hotfixes lying around and would want to incorporate those as well, one way to judge which hotfix installs which files, which I myself do, is unpack the hotfix using the /x switch and then check to see which files are being replaced. what i do is i keep a changelog to note down which hotfix was added on what day so if i end up with a corrupt installation as a result of any one particular hotfix, i can easily roll back to a "last known good" configuration

by the way, this is all going totally off topic although i have no idea at all where it all belongs - maybe test releases?

Edited April 13, 2008 by johndoe74