Jump to content

Unofficial SP 5.2 for Microsoft Windows 2000 (WIP)


tomasz86

Recommended Posts

I know what has to be done to enable DualView in case of the 18x/19x drivers work. It's just one registry entry which was present in 185.85 (and below) but was removed later. This doesn't apply to the newest drivers though as something else seems to be broken in them. There's also another issue related to the nVIDIA Service which loads up VERY slowly in some of the 19x drivers and I haven't had time to do the proper testing yet.

Just genius as a side note this will be very good to include as a separate addon with the USP as the Windows98se Unofficial SP 3.9 was included and it was very helpful

The driver is very small and it really shouldn't be a problem to include it in USP5.2 itself... but could you first tell me what exactly it is needed for? As I said before, I've got no clue about Xbox. What can you do with the driver installed?

You can use it to control your pc threw the controller or play games via the controller both of which is why it was added to the windows 98se unofficial sp3.9

from what I heard they are actually still working on the SP last release was last November actually nov 2011

Link to comment
Share on other sites


I've tested more versions of nVIDIA drivers and found some quite interesting facts.

First of all, Dualview compatibility was first broken in 186.08 (already mentioned before). The key is here:

  1. 185.85:

    [nv_commonBase_addreg]
    HKR,,Acceleration.Level,%REG_DWORD%,0
    HKR,,DevSwitchSuppressMask,%REG_DWORD%,7
    HKR,,InstalledDisplayDrivers,%REG_MULTI_SZ%,"nv4_disp"
    HKR,,MultiFunctionSupported,%REG_DWORD%,1
    HKR,,UseBestResolution,%REG_DWORD%,1


  2. 186.08

    [nv_commonBase_addreg]
    HKR,,Acceleration.Level,%REG_DWORD%,0
    HKR,,MultiFunctionSupported,%REG_DWORD%,1
    HKR,,UseBestResolution,%REG_DWORD%,1


As you can see, the two reg entries are missing. Among them the one required for Dualview is:


HKR,,InstalledDisplayDrivers,%REG_MULTI_SZ%,"nv4_disp"

What's interesting is that Windows 2000 compatibility was brought back in 257.21:

[nvdual_commonBase_addreg]
HKR,,Acceleration.Level,%REG_DWORD%,0
HKR,,DevSwitchSuppressMask,%REG_DWORD%,7
HKR,,InstalledDisplayDrivers,%REG_MULTI_SZ%,"nv4_disp"
HKR,,MultiFunctionSupported,%REG_DWORD%,1
HKR,,UseBestResolution,%REG_DWORD%,1

I can confirm that it indeed works. There are two key points though:

  • Starting from one of the 19x drivers (don't remember now which version exactly) there is a problem with nVIDIA Helper Service which causes Windows to boot very slowly. The solution is pretty simple - you should just disable the service completely (services.msc). After that everything works fine. The service itself seems to be pretty useless anyway (try to google it up if you're more interested).
  • After enabling Dualview you should restart your system several times. First - right after enabling it through the nVIDIA Control Panel it will ask you to restart. After restarting you will see Windows installing the Dualview driver. Once it's finished there won't be any messages but you should still restart the system once again. After that you will be able to enable the second monitor in Display Properties... and after doing that you should restart the system one more time! The last step is important because you may see some strange glitches when trying to view videos, etc. Once the system has been restarted then it should be ready to use.

The last version of the drivers which work is 258.96 .Starting from 260.89 the structure of the nVIDIA drivers package changed and I'm now going to do more testing of them.

What's also interesting is that 258.96 was released in July 2010. Everyone knows when M$ stopped supporting Win2k, right? The next version (260.89) was released in August 2010 and it does NOT support Win2k any more. The installer won't even work. Indeed it seems that nVIDIA kept supporting the system (although the support wasn't perfect but still) through its whole life cycle to the very end.

Edited by tomasz86
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've tested more versions of nVIDIA drivers and found some quite interesting facts.

First of all, Dualview compatibility was first broken in 186.08 (already mentioned before). The key is here:

  1. 185.85:

    [nv_commonBase_addreg]
    HKR,,Acceleration.Level,%REG_DWORD%,0
    HKR,,DevSwitchSuppressMask,%REG_DWORD%,7
    HKR,,InstalledDisplayDrivers,%REG_MULTI_SZ%,"nv4_disp"
    HKR,,MultiFunctionSupported,%REG_DWORD%,1
    HKR,,UseBestResolution,%REG_DWORD%,1


  2. 186.08

    [nv_commonBase_addreg]
    HKR,,Acceleration.Level,%REG_DWORD%,0
    HKR,,MultiFunctionSupported,%REG_DWORD%,1
    HKR,,UseBestResolution,%REG_DWORD%,1


As you can see, the two reg entries are missing. Among them the one required for Dualview is:


HKR,,InstalledDisplayDrivers,%REG_MULTI_SZ%,"nv4_disp"

What's interesting is that Windows 2000 compatibility was brought back in 257.21:

[nvdual_commonBase_addreg]
HKR,,Acceleration.Level,%REG_DWORD%,0
HKR,,DevSwitchSuppressMask,%REG_DWORD%,7
HKR,,InstalledDisplayDrivers,%REG_MULTI_SZ%,"nv4_disp"
HKR,,MultiFunctionSupported,%REG_DWORD%,1
HKR,,UseBestResolution,%REG_DWORD%,1

I can confirm that it indeed works. There are two key points though:

  • Starting from one of the 19x drivers (don't remember now which version exactly) there is a problem with nVIDIA Helper Service which causes Windows to boot very slowly. The solution is pretty simple - you should just disable the service completely (services.msc). After that everything works fine. The service itself seems to be pretty useless anyway (try to google it up if you're more interested).
  • After enabling Dualview you should restart your system several times. First - right after enabling it through the nVIDIA Control Panel it will ask you to restart. After restarting you will see Windows installing the Dualview driver. Once it's finished there won't be any messages but you should still restart the system once again. After that you will be able to enable the second monitor in Display Properties... and after doing that you should restart the system one more time! The last step is important because you may see some strange glitches when trying to view videos, etc. Once the system has been restarted then it should be ready to use.

The last version of the drivers which work is 258.96 .Starting from 260.89 the structure of the nVIDIA drivers package changed and I'm now going to do more testing of them.

What's also interesting is that 258.96 was released in July 2010. Everyone knows when M$ stopped supporting Win2k, right? The next version (260.89) was released in August 2010 and it does NOT support Win2k any more. The installer won't even work. Indeed it seems that nVIDIA kept supporting the system (although the support wasn't perfect but still) through its whole life cycle to the very end.

That is an awesome find

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've got good news.

I've managed to successfully install and enable Dualview in drivers up to 270.61. I had to modify the installer but after that it works properly, and it's even possible to uninstall them using an older uninstaller from versions below 26x.

At the moment I'm stuck at 275.33. The drivers themselves can be installed using the same method but Dualview doesn't work and I don't know yet why.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still haven't managed to make newer drivers work but I tried to slim 270.61 down and the result is:

dbInstaller.exe
nv4_disp.dll
nv4_disp.inf
nv4_mini.sys
nvapi.dll
nvcolor.exe
nvcompiler.dll
nvcpl.dll
nvcuda.dll
nvcuvenc.dll
nvcuvid.dll
nvdata.bin
nvdisp.nvu
nvdrsdb.bin
nvinfo.pb
nvoglnt.dll
nvudisp.exe
opencl.dll

These seem to be the only files which are absolutely required. The rest is just bloatware :w00t: If nVIDIA Graphic drivers are included in USP5.2 then it will be a slimmed down version of it.

Edited by tomasz86
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are bad and good news to tell you today.

The bad news is that Dualview is broken in all nVIDIA Graphic drivers starting from 275.33. This time the problem is not related to the registry settings. It's the driver file itself which just doesn't work correctly. To be more specific, these are the two main driver files:


nv4_disp.dll
nv4_mini.sys

What's interesting is that if you check their description in all versions of the drivers up to 270.61 (the last where Dualview works) you can see this:


nv4_disp.dll - NVIDIA Compatible Windows 2000 Display driver, Version 270.61
nv4_mini.sys - NVIDIA Compatible Windows 2000 Miniport Driver, Version 270.61

That's right, even though the installer itself doesn't accept Win2k any more, the driver files still seem to be somewhat targeted at 2K/XP.

On the other hand, in drivers 275.33 and newer you've got this:


nv4_disp.dll - NVIDIA Windows XP Display driver, Version 275.33
nv4_mini.sys - NVIDIA Windows XP Miniport Driver, Version 275.33

This is just a description and the newer drivers themselves do work in Win2k too but Dualview does not. The second monitor just doesn't show up in the Display Properties and there's an error when trying to enable Dualview manually. I'm 100% sure that these files are directly responsible for this because I did try to flip the installer INF files between the older and the newer drivers... but unfortunately it made no difference :( I also tried to mix different versions of the two files concerned but it only resulted in BSODs. The two seem to be interdependent.

Now it's time for the good news. The good news is that it's possible to just take even the newest driver (306.81 at the moment) and just replace its nv4_disp.dll & nv4_mini.sys with the ones from 270.61. This way we end up using an older driver but the rest of the files (CUDA, OpenGL, etc.) are newer and also the INF installer is from the new drivers which means that all new nVIDIA graphic cards are supported! In conclusion, it seems to be possible to use the older driver to keep the Dualview compatibility and still be able to detect all new nVIDIA graphic adapters. Actually, there's also another file directly related to the two main ones called "nvcpl.dll". This file is responsible for the "NVIDIA Display Properties Extension" and its version has to be exactly the same as "nv4_disp.dll" in order to run... but the solution is pretty simple. You just need to manually change the file version and it will work even with the older drivers.

I wonder if there's anyone with a fairly new nVIDIA card willing to test these drivers. Please let me know if you could test them in your system. I myself own only an older GeForce 6600. It's still supported by the new drivers so I am able to test them directly on my computer but I'd just like to be sure that such a modified driver works in case of the new graphic cards too.

Edited by tomasz86
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have uploaded a new weekly version of UURollup. It's almost exactly the same as the last daily except for one fix for IE6. There was a bug in the "Save file" window (thanks ). The other difference between weekly and daily releases is that weeklies come as SFXCAB packages so you can install / slipstream them directly without repacking.

I've also uploaded the modified nVIDIA Display driver (core files from 270.61 + other files from 306.81). You can find the link in the Drivers to add to USP5.2's driver.cab topic.

Edited by tomasz86
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have uploaded a new weekly version of UURollup. It's almost exactly the same as the last daily except for one fix for IE6. There was a bug in the "Save file" window (thanks ). The other difference between weekly and daily releases is that weeklies come as SFXCAB packages so you can install / slipstream them directly without repacking.

Thanks, tomasz, I just slipstreamed it with no issues.

Appreciate all the time and work you put into this.

M2GD

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you very much for testing :)

BlackWingCat hasn't been updating his kernel recently as often as before so there's not much to add at the moment. I've just added some small utilities like "bootsect.exe" from Windows 8 or "junction.exe" (SysInternals). I'm going to include several other utilities like "7z(a).exe", "rar.exe" and other in USP5.2. They are tiny and don't take almost any space but may often come in handy later.

At the moment I'm working on a new version of the .NET Framework installer. The current one installs fine but the uninstaller has several bugs.

Edit:

By the way, this is important information for anyone creating / porting updates for Windows 2000 (acus?). "[ProcessesToRunAfterUninstallReboot]" in update.inf does NOT work. I don't know why but it seems to be supported only in XP/2003. If you ever find something like this:


[ProcessesToRunAfterUninstallReboot]
"%11%\regsvr32.exe /s rsabase.dll"

then you'll have to change it to:


[UninstallSections]
GlobalRegistryChanges, GlobalRegistryChanges.Uninstall
Add.Reg, Add.Reg.Uninstall

[GlobalRegistryChanges.Uninstall]
AddReg=Add.Reg

[Add.Reg.Uninstall]
HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce","rsabase.dll",,"%11%\regsvr32.exe /s rsabase.dll"

Edited by tomasz86
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you very much for testing :)

BlackWingCat hasn't been updating his kernel recently as often as before so there's not much to add at the moment. I've just added some small utilities like "bootsect.exe" from Windows 8 or "junction.exe" (SysInternals). I'm going to include several other utilities like "7z(a).exe", "rar.exe" and other in USP5.2. They are tiny and don't take almost any space but may often come in handy later.

Are these tools going to be optional? I don't use 7zip, so therefore I don't want to have to remove it if your SP installs it.

Now I have already started to update fdv fileset for 2000 server. If you can give me a complete list of all the things that will be installed by default it would help. Did you ever get all the hotfixes/updates for Win 2000. If your SP doesn't suit my needs, then I will have to manually update my system with all the hotfixes/updates through HFSLIP. I'm looking to strip my system down, not blow it up :yes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Most of the things to be included in USP5.2 are listed in the very first post of this topic :w00t:

The purpose of this USP is to include EVERYTHING. By everything I mean not only updates / hotfixes but also other system components (.NET Framework, WMP10/11, DX, etc.) and other tools coming from M$. Apart from them I also want to include several small 3rd party utilities / libraries like the ones mentioned above.

In one word, this is going to be a comprehensive Service Pack the installation of which would make the system fully updated and equipped with all different libraries required to run applications. It will certainly not strip the system down.

What I can promise though is that I will provide instructions for advanced users about how to manually prevent certain components from being integrated / installed. I hope that this will be enough to satisfy those users who aren't interested in installing things like .NET Framework or others. This is the only way to do it because the M$ hotfix installer itself doesn't allow to make any choices during the installation and I'm not going to prepare several different packages of the USP.

I can't show any 100% confirmed list of components because it's just undecided yet ;) I'm sure that I won't be able to include everything I want in the first release of USP5.2 so some of the components will be included later. I'm open to all ideas and discussion about it so please share your opinion if you've got any objections or other suggestions.

Edited by tomasz86
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Most of the things to be included in USP5.2 are listed in the very first post of this topic :w00t:

The purpose of this USP is to include EVERYTHING. By everything I mean not only updates / hotfixes but also other system components (.NET Framework, WMP10/11, DX, etc.) and other tools coming from M$. Apart from them I also want to include several small 3rd party utilities / libraries like the ones mentioned above.

In one word, this is going to be a comprehensive Service Pack the installation of which would make the system fully updated and equipped with all different libraries required to run applications. It will certainly not strip the system down.

What I can promise though is that I will provide instructions for advanced users about how to manually prevent certain components from being integrated / installed. I hope that this will be enough to satisfy those users who aren't interested in installing things like .NET Framework or others. This is the only way to do it because the M$ hotfix installer itself doesn't allow to make any choices during the installation and I'm not going to prepare several different packages of the USP.

I can't show any 100% confirmed list of components because it's just undecided yet ;) I'm sure that I won't be able to include everything I want in the first release of USP5.2 so some of the components will be included later. I'm open to all ideas and discussion about it so please share your opinion if you've got any objections or other suggestions.

Thanks, the reason I was asking because the fileset was going to be based off your SP. If you had added a ton of stuff then I would just have to remove a ton of stuff. fdv set the ground work now its up to us to master it. Can you imagine Windows 2000 Server with nothing but core and system files. No paint, notepad, wmp, ie, codecs, filters etc.... just core and the needed files. Thanks again
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I reinstalled my system a few days ago. I slipstreamed everything into the source before installation so Windows was fully updated on the very first boot.

I've have been testing such a fully updated installation since then but I've experienced several system instabilities though. I still don't know what causes them so it's too early to make final judgements but I'm going to do some in-depth testing. At the moment I'm going back to my previous configuration (the new installation was done on a second HDD).

My previous configuration is still based on the WB kernel and is super stable so I'm very sensitive when it comes to stability issues :ph34r:

Edited by tomasz86
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...