Unattended Build CD Wizard

[pauledavey]

Ok guys. I have been working on writing an application in VB6 (I'm not a .Net user yet) to aid me with my unattended installation creation process.

At the moment it lets you select an OS, servicepack and hotfixes in a GUI interface and then creates an OS distribution point, complete with $oem$ folder structure.

Im working on the add drivers part now, using access to hold a database of drivers, so you can add to it and select the driver name and version. It will then copy the relevant files to the distribution.

Finally it asks a few questions, similar to setup manager and automatically creates your unattend.txt file for you (along with the pnpdrivers line, dependant on what drivers you pick).

What I want to know is:

1) Has anyone else already done this?

2) Anyone got any great idea's for features to include not already mentioned

3) To obtain the computer name Im utilising WMI to get the computername from the bios(assuming that the bios has an asset tag feature, and the computer name is set in there). Is there a utlity to get the motherboard or computer make if the bios doesnt support an asset tag feature. I want to completley automate everything. Ie computername will become: HP9000NSxxx where xxx is random numbers

Thoughts and idea's appreciated.

Regards,

Paul Davey

[pauledavey]

I thought this post might be of interest

Feedback from anyone??

[medhunter]

WOW ; this is getting too hot,man.very great prog.

2) Anyone got any great idea's for features to include not already mentioned? yes progs unattended

Drivers : I think there is a universal driver for many NVEDIA gfx cards ,I think ATI ,too ,this will help u

great idea , keep on good work

[pauledavey]

thanks for the feedback. Hope to have a BETA release by the end of this month.

THanks again

Paul

[Alanoll]

the hotfixes, distrobution....

that's been done with XPCreate. Though not GUI, but you just put the hotfixes in the RIGHT folder, and everything goes smoothly.

[pauledavey]

Thats what im doing basically but with a gui. Basically the program runs as follows:

1) Create a dist\%os% folder with $oem$ structure.

2) Choose hotfixes already downloaded from a database or download new ones and add to the database by linking to the corporate update site.

3) Choose drivers to be included with the build from a database or download and add new ones to the database

4) select applications from a database and select silent installation options if required. Ability to add new applications and update database with new silent install approaches.

5) Create your unattend.txt or winnt.sif file and create sysprep structure as well if required. THis is all done automatically and includes the oempnpdriverspath line, populated by the PROGRAM NOT the USER!

6) Finalise the distribution point and create an ISO if required.

7) Burn the ISO to dvd or cdr media

Feedback??

[Bilou_Gateux]

It's just what i'm looking for because many tutorials and tools already exists but they are for Windows XP.

As for my compagny, i install Windows 2000 Professional, for the moment my installations are half-automatised and not full unattended.

The W2K installation process is done by loading a base ghost image with the i386 and $oem$ folders already built and the winnt.exe /s:c:\i386 /u:c:\unattended.txt command is launched at first boot in autoexec.bat

All the others tasks are launched after installation by [guirunonce] or with keyboard input after reboot

Your program should be "open" and let the admin choose what to install.

For example, i install DirectX 8.1b on the computer and not the last version 9.0b.

see details in my applaunch.ini

I must apply the fixes depending on the version of directX installed.

see details in my applaunch.ini

at the moment, i use a freeware call applaunch.exe http://abernard.net:81/software with a ini file that contains all the install commands

Drivers,Intel® Extreme graphics driver,C:\IBMTOOLS\DRIVERS\VIDEO\INTEL\WXPW2K\setup -16x800x600x75 -s -SMS

Drivers,Intel® INF installation utility,C:\IBMTOOLS\DRIVERS\CHIPSET\INTEL\setup -s -SMS

Drivers,IBM ScrollPoint II Mouse and Wheel Mouse driver,C:\ibmtools\drivers\mouse\SP2wheel\setup.exe /s /nr

Drivers,Analog Devices Inc. SoundMAX audio driver,C:\IBMTools\Drivers\audio\SoundMAX\setup -s -SMS

Drivers,Intel® PROSet,CALL C:\IBMTOOLS\DRIVERS\LAN\INTEL\PROinstall.cmd

MSFT,Microsoft DirectX 8.1,C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\DIRECTX8\DX81NTOP.EXE

MSFT,Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 SP1,C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\ie6sp1\ie6setup.exe /C:"ie6wzd /S:""#e"" /Q:A /R:N"

MSFT,Microsoft VM pour Java 5.0.3810,C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\JAVAVM\MSJavWU_8073687b82d41db93f4c2a04af2b34d.exe /c:"javatrig.exe /exe_install /l /qq /nowin2kcheck" /q:a /r:n

MSO9STD, Microsoft Office 2000 standard,msiexec /qb  /i E:\data1.msi ADDLOCAL=ALL REBOOT=ReallySuppress NOUSERNAME=1 ALLUSERS=1 DISABLEADVTSHORTCUTS=1 PIDKEY=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

MSO9STD, Microsoft Office 2000 Service Pack 3,C:\IBMTOOLS\APPS\MSO2K\o2ksp3.exe /r:n /q /c:"msiexec /qb /p MAINSP3.msp REBOOT=ReallySuppress"

REGTWEAK,Registry Tweaks,REGEDIT /S C:\IBMWORK\SPSRCPTH.REG

SOFTWARE,Adobe Reader 6.01,C:\IBMTOOLS\APPS\AdbeRdr6\AdbeRdr60_fra_full.exe -p"-s /v\"/qn\""

SOFTWARE,Symantec pcAnywhere 10.5 Elève seulement,msiexec /i C:\IBMTOOLS\APPS\HOSTONLY\package.msi /qn

SOFTWARE,Symantec Norton AntiVirus Corporate Edition,msiexec /i C:\IBMTOOLS\APPS\NAVCECLT\navce.msi /qn

PCAUPD,Kill reboot after update process,C:\IBMWORK\pskill.exe runpcalu.exe

PCAUPD,Symantec pcAnywhere 10.5.1 update,C:\IBMTOOLS\APPS\HOSTONLY\fr_up_10.5.1.exe /s

PCAUPD,Kill reboot after update process,C:\IBMWORK\pskill.exe runpcalu.exe

WU,April 2003 Cumulative Patch for Outlook Express,C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\WU\q330994.exe /q /r:n

WU,February 2004 Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer,C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\WU\q832894.exe /q /r:n

W2KFIXES,Critical update 329115 (MS02-050),C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\W2KFIXES\Windows2000-KB329115-x86-FRA.exe /u /n /z

W2KFIXES,Critical update 823182 (MS03-041),C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\W2KFIXES\Windows2000-KB823182-x86-FRA.EXE /u /n /z

W2KFIXES,Critical update 823559 (MS03-023),C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\W2KFIXES\Windows2000-KB823559-x86-FRA.EXE /u /n /z

W2KFIXES,Critical update 824105 (MS03-034),C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\W2KFIXES\Windows2000-KB824105-x86-FRA.EXE /u /n /z

W2KFIXES,Critical update 824141 (MS03-045),C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\W2KFIXES\Windows2000-KB824141-x86-FRA.EXE /u /n /z

W2KFIXES,Critical update 824146 (MS03-039),C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\W2KFIXES\Windows2000-KB824146-x86-FRA.EXE /u /n /z

W2KFIXES,Critical update 825119 (MS03-044),C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\W2KFIXES\Windows2000-KB825119-x86-FRA.EXE /u /n /z

W2KFIXES,Critical update 826232 (MS03-042),C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\W2KFIXES\Windows2000-KB826232-x86-FRA.EXE /u /n /z

W2KFIXES,Critical update 828035 (MS03-043),C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\W2KFIXES\Windows2000-KB828035-x86-FRA.EXE /passive /n /norestart

W2KFIXES,Critical update 828749 (MS03-049),C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\W2KFIXES\Windows2000-KB828749-x86-FRA.EXE /passive /n /norestart

W2KFIXES,Critical update 828028 (MS04-007),C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\W2KFIXES\Windows2000-KB828028-x86-FRA.EXE /passive /n /norestart

W2KFIXES,Critical update 814078 (MS03-008),C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\W2KFIXES\js56nfr.exe /q /r:n

W2KFIXES,Extra update 832483 (MS04-003),C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\W2KFIXES\FRN_Q832483_MDAC_x86.EXE /c:"dahotfix.exe /q /n" /q

W2KFIXES,Extra update 828026 (WMP),C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\W2KFIXES\WindowsMedia-Q828026-x86-FRA.EXE /passive /n /norestart

W2KFIXES,Extra update 819696 (MS03-030) (DIRECTX8),C:\IBMTOOLS\MSFT\W2KFIXES\DirectX8-KB819696-x86-FRA.exe /q:a /r:n

I have some problems with WU that requires reboot after MSFT IE6SP1 installation in order to be installed

And an other problem with InstallShield installer in Drivers.

I would like to have a great program to build the $oem$ folder and unattended.txt depending on the hardware !

[pauledavey]

once the app is finished it will be free source, and it does ask you whjat OS you want to install. At the moment it supprots win2k, winxp and win2k3

[Bilou_Gateux]

To obtain informations about the computer via WMI, i have found some informations on the web at the URL

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community...s/wmimatic.mspx

and scripts at

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community...mt/default.mpsx

witch can help to enumerates devices to build the $oem$ drivers folder.

or we can use GetSysInfo - console application providing system information

http://www.mitec.cz/

[pauledavey]

I think that using WMI is the way to go, as it is very flexible.

Hopefully once I've got all this working, I can stick a web frontend on it. Would be nice to run this via an http page on your IIS server.. no need for a client install then.

[Bilou_Gateux]

Another great tool to collect informations about OEM Drivers with branded computers.

source : http://www.mail-archive.com/unattended-inf...t/msg01073.html

From: Alex Magnay

Subject: [unattended]Plug n play driver management

New PCs arrive at the office with XP preinstalled with all the pnp drivers we need. We have a tool to rip the drivers from the vendor's build and put them into our corporate build. We then wipe the PC and rebuild.

We make zip files, per model, containing the pnp drivers.

We can then pick the model from a DOS menu during our build. The drivers are unzipped to c: and the unattend.txt file is updated with the correct OEMPnPDriver path.

We made a tool called PnPRipper which we use to make our zip files. We run it on each new type of PC we get in the office before we wipe it to install the corporate standard build. We then copy the zip file to our build share and that's it. The build now supports the new make and model of PC. Point, click, drag drop. Easy. So the desktop engineers don't need to know how the build works. They just need to run pnpripper. No need to visit the vendor's website to download drivers one by one for intergration into your build.

Currently we have 19 zip files for 19 different makes and models of IBM Thinkpad, Compaq and HP.

Link to the tool below. Freely distributable. Do what you like with it. Includes example batch file showing how you can extract make and model info from the zip files to parse for your menu.

http://www.geocities.com/pnpripper

Regards

[Balkanac]

It sounds great...

Maybe also a possibility to automatically prepare files (needed for installation of third party mass storage drivers) with proper customizations.

what i mean is, can you automate this also please?

can't wait to test...

288344 - HOWTO Unattended Installation of Third Party Mass Storage Drivers in Windows NT and Windows 2000

For the following example to work on Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000, the 3rd party drivers must use the Txtsetup.oem method of installation. You must use a distribution folder.

1. Create a $OEM$ folder under the distribution folder (<Drive:>\i386\$OEM$).

2. Create a folder named TEXTMODE uner the $OEM$ folder (<Drive:>\i386\$OEM$\TEXTMODE).

3. Copy all the driver files to the TEXTMODE folder. This must include the Txtsetup.oem file and at least one driver file (.sys).

4. Use Notepad to edit Txtsetup.oem and remove any reference in the [disks] section to \, floppy drives, and any other paths, replacing these references with a .. Example:

[disks]

d1 = "Windows 2000 Driver Set v1.00", \w2kdsk1, \win2000\ultra160\

becomes:

[disks]

d1 = "Windows 2000 Driver Set v1.00", w2kdsk1, . <--- Note the period at the end of the line.

5. Use Notepad to edit the Unattend.txt file and create:

[MassStorageDrivers]

"string that identifies the controller in the [scsi] section of TXTSETUP.OEM" = "OEM".

Example:

[MassStorageDrivers]

"Adaptec Ultra160 Family PCI SCSI Controller (29160, 39160, etc.)" = "OEM"

6. If you use this Unattend.txt on systems with IDE controllers that start using the in-box drivers, then also add

"IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI 1.2)/PCI IDE Controller" = "RETAIL"

to the [MassStorageDrivers] section, or you will BSOD with a Inaccessible Boot Device.

7. Create an [OEMBootFiles] section in the unattend.txt file and list the files that you copied into the TEXTMODE folder (step 3). This should include an .inf, .sys, and for Windows 2000 a .cat file. Example:

[OEMBootFiles]

Driver.Sys

Driver.INF

Driver.CAT

Txtsetup.oem

8. Add a OemPreinstall=Yes to the [unattended] section, or Setup won't recognize the drivers.

[Bilou_Gateux]

I did not test this application with mass storage drivers not included in Windows. All the PC which I installed are equipped with a i845 or i865 chipset.

i launch an installer in GUI mode to replace standard drivers with Intel Drivers as mentionned before

Drivers,Intel® INF installation utility,C:\IBMTOOLS\DRIVERS\CHIPSET\INTEL\setup -s -SMS

I dream as you of a program which would build me my unattend.txt file to fit my mass storage hardware.