WinPE 3.0 WDS problems...

[JCadenhead]

Hi,

This is my first post on this forum!

I've been messing around with Windows Deployment Services for the last few days, with frequent frustration!

Now I've got it all up and running, and working fine, but still have a few niggles.

After much messing about, I found that the only WinPE image that I could get to work with WDS were the ones off the Win 2008 Server disks. Problem is, the x86 boot.wim from the server disks has a compatibility problem with the DISM included on the image! This means I can't install any updated network drivers.

So while this setup is working for now, I imagine sooner or later I'm going to get driver issues.

I've spent plenty of time trying to build a custom PE image through the WAIK, installing all the appropriate packages, including the WDS client. However, the WDS Client setup.exe fails with the following error message: 'Windows could not determine the language to use for Setup. Error code: 0x80004005'

I've done endless googling on this error, and come up with nothing. Anyone got any idea? Unfortunately, the environment just reboots, without any chance to look for logs relating to the failure.

I've set the languages in every place I could think of. I've spent so long on these little issues, it's sending me a bit twitchy!

Eternally grateful for any advice!

Thanks,

Jaspar

Edited November 2, 2009 by JCadenhead

[leen2]

I found a few problems with DISM that you may be experiencing:

Apart from the fact that DISM can be incredibly slow to perform actions that are much faster with ImageX or pkgmgr, DISM is case sensitive when it comes to paths. The only reliable way I have found to work with DISM is to copy the exact path in Windows Explorer and paste it into the DISM /Add-Package command.

I also found that DISM does not like smart quotes, so if you copy the path to an application like Word or OneNote and edit it there before pasting into the command prompt to run, you need to delete and retype any quotes as DISM will reject the smart quotes with a standard "path not found error". (Atlernative set Word or OneNote to not use smart quotes).

Once you get used to this, DISM should work fine.

We don't use WDS so I can't help you there, however I would note that you should make sure that when installing any package into the WIM image you must also install the associated language package for that packaged component. For example, if adding the HTA package, you must also add the HTA language package as well, otherwise you will get similar language errors to what you are seeing when that component is used.

e.g.

Dism /image:c:\7pe\winpe_x64\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:"C:\<path to packages>\packages\winpe-hta.cab"

Dism /image:c:\7pe\winpe_x64\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:"C:\<path to packages>\packages\en-us\winpe-hta_en-us.cab"

[JCadenhead]

Thanks for the reply Leen.

Unfortunately, it's none of the above. I'd previously experienced the quotes oddities with DSM, and have been quite happily working around it's nuances in the WAIK wim. The error that comes up with the Server 2008 boot.wim is that DISM is not compatible with Vista RTM or earlier, and then refers to checking a DLL is present (which it is).

If it weren't for my inability to get the WAIK wim to work with WDS, I'd be staying well clear of the server 2008 wim, as it's rather out of date (and clearly not quality controlled!).

If anyone can help me get the custom WAIK wim to work properly with WDS, that's the way I'd rather go (rather than trying to fix an out of date flaky product!)

As far as the associated laguage pack is concerned, unfortunately, I had installed it (winpe-wds-tools_en-us.cab), so that sadly doesn't appear to be the problem.

Once again many thanks.

Anyone else got any advice?

[Tripredacus]

DISM from the Windows 7 WAIK does not support modifying WIM files that are made from XP, Server 2003, Vista or Server 2008. I have already sent in this info to Microsoft as a feature request. The only work around you will have is to use a third-party application to modify those WIMS, or install an earlier version of the WAIK on another computer.

[JCadenhead]

Ahhh. that'll explain my Server boot.wim problem! Never quite clicked that DISM wasn't part of the mounted offline image. Doh! I suppose the clue is in the description: 'offline'! Cheers!

Think I've finally figured out my setup.exe issue with my custom wim. Was mentioned on a much earlier thread, turned out to be resolved by putting a lang.ini file into the source folder where the setup.exe was (got the lang.ini from the source folder on the server disk). I've spent days trawling the internet for guidance, and this forum is the first I've seen mention a lang.ini file! Amazing that MS can't think to mention it in any of their regular documentation on WinPE/WDS!

All seems to be working nicely now. Just got to get my XP driver injection up and running, and get it working across VLANs. Have got our network guys adding the helper records on our cisco kit, but something ain't quite working...

Anyhow, thanks for the replies. Hopefully this thread will help someone else with the same kind of problems.

- Jaspar

Edited November 3, 2009 by JCadenhead

[mccajo71]

Thanks! The lang.ini was the problem I was having as well.