Just for clarification purposes...

[cockroachrhea]

Well, I'm an n-lite newbie atm, but I've been messing around and downloading all kinds of different add-on's etc etc so far, hoping to finally solve all my previous install problems. Which are mainly, always ending up screwing something up b/c I can't sit down long enough to get everything done in one round, then I forget where I was and all that good junk. I've got a mental impairment that makes things quite hard sometimes when it comes to that area.

But to get to my point, I'm really wanting to clarify a few things. First off, I'm wanting to (hopefully) make a completely silent install disc. And my main question would be this, as it's really confused me with all I've read, and the add-on's I've downloaded. In the application add-on's section, is there a way to tell which ones are silent-install ready as they come? I know I could probably check the settings file inside (although I still don't TOTALLY understand it), but I'm not sure if every single add-on will have a switch to make it silent, as I've found 1 or 2 so far that didn't "appear" to have a switch, yet I installed them as is on my own system from that folder and they seemed to be silent installers. So I'm hoping there's an easier way to tell which are silent already, and I'm hoping all or most cab's in general are. But I could use as much plain English and simplified clarification on that issue as I can get if possible. B/c as I said, sometimes I have a really hard time comprehending things.

Another question, is i know some are RunOnceEX files, and I'm confused as to where I insert those during the set-up. I don't remember the exact layout of the program now at this moment, but I don't quite remember seeing a particular spot for them. I had a few other questions, but they've slipped my mind for the time being, so I'll post them as they come back to mind again. Thanks in advance to anyone that can help me get these answered.

Edit: Another question I had was when it comes to making a silent installer using an MSI install package, do ALL msi packages use the same switches for silent and no reboot, or just most?

Edited April 26, 2009 by cockroachrhea

[Sp0iLedBrAt]

This will help you with the .msi installers "http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/42/"

Concerning the addons, all that I've used so far are installed during windows installation (about 13 minutes before the end of the setup) and do not require user intervention, so Yes, they were silent, to answer your question.

Edited April 26, 2009 by Sp0iLedBrAt

[johnhc]

cockroachrhea, I use only one AddOn, that I created, and it is silent. I suspect that most if not all are silent. Some integrate the application into the source as nLite does SPs and hot fixes. Some run out of SVCPACK at T-13. In any case again, I think they will be silent. AddOns are placed into the hot fix section of nLite and are processed appropriately. RyanVM forum is a good source for AddOn information as the sub-forum above. I have not looked at Sp0iLedBrAt's link, but the bad thing about installers in general is there is no consistent switch definition that all adhere. The main thing is give some of these things a try. I also recommend that you look into a virtual system for testing. VirtualPC, VirtualBox and Vmware Server are all free. If you have problems, please post back and, please attach (not paste) your Last Session.ini. Make sure to always start with a fresh copy of your CD files/folders, do all your work in one nLite session and integrate only one SP. Please report when you have a solution, so others can benefit. Enjoy, John.

[mooms]

To clarify : ALL addons for nLite and rvm integrator are silent.

some are silent installers (or official installers launched with a switch )

If you open the archive with Winrar or 7zip, you can extract the executable and install it on live system.

And some are 'true Addons', means they are integrated in the i386 folder and installed by Windows setup. (they don't come with their own installers, you can't install them on live system)

[Sp0iLedBrAt]

One way to check your own switches is also described in the Unattended Guide and it works for me 90% of the cases, and that is to run the program from the Command Prompt with a /? parameter.

If not, another part of the forums talks a lot about switches for specific programs, and using search has helped me a lot as well.

Cheers

[cockroachrhea]

Thank you mooms for that info, that really helps me a lot knowing that as I don't want any prompts when I'm making my install disk if I can help it. And johnc, I'm using VirtualBox actually atm, I've only tried once and encountered a problem, it said I didn't have enough free memory, although I don't see how, I have 4 gigs and allocated 1 of those to the VirtualBox. But I hadn't rebooted for awhile, so guessing that may have been an issue at that time and I'm fixing to try it again now and see if that problem is now resolved. And thank you spoiledbrat for the info regarding the command prompt, that's something I never have heard/saw before. I'm pretty familiar with the /? command itself, but never even thought about it being able to be used in that manner. Hopefully this will help me make add-ons for some paid programs I own so I can add them in on my install disk also, but I suppose I'll know soon. and yes, search is definitely a best friend of mine, but it seems everything I ever need to actually search for (wherever it may be) isn't anywhere to be found. Guess that's just my own luck though lmao. Thanks again everyone for the help, and I'll post back here if I encounter any problems.

[johnhc]

cockroachrhea, you can also use USSF (Universal Silent Switch Finder, found on these forums) to help you find switches. Windows Post Install (WPI) uses it and I have found it very good. I do not use VirtualPC (I use VMware Server), but the message you got may mean the size of the memory for the the VM you defined was too small. Try setting your VM memory size to at least 768 MB. Enjoy, John.