problems and a few questions

[kronuskaos]

allright before i start with my question and stuff i would like i point out that i am a moron. i have been, so far for the last week or so, sifting thru these forums and the onsite guide on how to get XP to install and so far have had amazing success (or so i would like to think i have since all of this is new to me and is quite the life saver ). anyhow i would like to thank eveyone on these forums and congradulate all of you for building one of the biggest and most comprehensive recources i have ever found on any given topic. kudoes to you all!

but to the point, i have spent the last week or so making a disc that does eveything i can think of in terms of installing XP, with all the basic things pre-installed. or at least eveything i can think of that won't ever change (so i opted to not install any programs since they all get updated all the time). so so far i have it:

- Automatically installs Windows XP Pro (w/SP1) 2600

- uses b0r3d 's Setup images

- All current drivers as of 27-04-2004 for Soaksunork

- Custom winnt.sif for Kronus Kaos

- Auto login and account setup for Kronus Kaos

- A few Registry Tweaks

the only thing i can't get to work right is the hotfixes and critical updates. or rather, as i have noticed so far (after about 37 tries) that i can't seem to get windows setup to correctly run allmost any program correclty. i first tried to run all the hotfixes that i could (form the info from various guides and such) from SVCpack.inf and then have that call up on another batch file to run some others that needed to be run after all the first group and then have it call up another batch for some more. that didn't work to well. so i then just tried to have SCVpack call a batch file. that aslo didn't work. then i came up with the genius idea to have them run from [guirunonce] via a batch file (at witch point i added some more commands to it, like calling an inf to set the "my docs" and "favs" folders, and i tired to see if i could run defrag from there also). all of that didn't work. so then i thought about runnig the stuff via cmdlines.txt. once agian i have failure. so i am starting to think that i'm ither missing somthing simple or am just a complete moron.. or both

as of my last test i have them set to run from the cmdlines.txt:

[COMMANDS]"useraccounts.cmd""%systemdrive%\install\update\update.cmd""REGEDIT /S regtweaks.reg""%systemdrive%\install\clean.cmd"

the useraccounts.cmd goes thru without any porblems, and so does the *.reg. the other two (update.cmd and clean.cmd) do not. and i'm a little stuck.

so my current idea is to run all of the hotfixes once windows boots up. the only way i can think of doing this is to have it run from a batch inside of the startup folder (since windows would be fully booted). but i can't find anywhere how to make setup put anything into the startup folder.

i'm also, currently, of the thought that that is not the right thing to do. exceot inside of windows is the only place that the batch of the hotfixes seems to work for me.

so i guess my real point is how do i do that? or is there someother way that might work..?

finally a few final things. first off if i confused anyone about anything, let me know and i will galdly explain more. second i would offer a bit more information, but most of the stuff was executed so quick that i never got a chance to catch what happened. then i tired to run the stuff in windows and all the batch commands run fine and do what they are suppose to. and lastly, i would have posted the contents of the other files i have modified, except i didn't want to make this post any longer then was really nessisary unless i knew i was for any use. so if you guys would like to see another one of my files inerts, let me know and i will gladly post.

thanks in advance and sorry for any confusion.

[[BM]Crusher]

if you read the unattend xp guide, how come you aren't using the svcpack.inf install method for the critical updates? it doesn't really matter anyway as long as they install correctly (doing from runonce can actually be quicker)

anyway, it's hard to tell why your two CMD files aren't working, without seeing what these files actually are...

to make stuff run on first boot, use the RUNONCE commands, either initiated by a batch file or INF file

look through the unattend guide again... from start to finish...

[jrzycrim]

It is a daunting task. When I first found out about making an unattended install of XP, I thought, Great! I'll work on on it for a couple of days and have it finished. Ha! Sometimes I wonder If I would even be doing this if I had known how much work was involved. Still I've learned a lot and I'm still learning.

There is so much information to read. So many different ways to do everything.

I would recommend you look at Green Machines XPCreate. It's a great tool for creating a CD. The Thing I like most about it is that it will slipstream the hotfixes and service packs. It's great for keeping everything organized and it's very easy to add new hotfixes as they come out. There's also a forum here devoted to XPCreate. http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=87

I'm no expert and I'm still working out the bugs in my installation but there are plenty of advanced users here who can help you out with your other issues.

Good Luck.

[kronuskaos]

i was thinking about running thru the whole thing agian, but i'm trying to not do that since everything else seems to be working right. i've skimmed thru the guide a few times to see if i missed anything.. and i _think_ i have it right. but .. as i have said before, i am a moron.

and about the SVCPack method, i had it running that way inititally, but it didn't work for some reason that i could not pin point. when it ran thru it, it decided to popup a console that ran a bunch of erorrs and then dissapeared. but it went to quick and i didn't get a chance to read it. i would assume that the console came up when it called a few batch files that i had SVC pack run. so when windows finished i copied all the stuff from the SVCpack to a *.cmd and ran it there and it all installed right. i was left very confused.

clean.cmd:

@Echo OffEcho Setting up my docs and fav. foldersrundll32 setupapi.dll,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 128 %systemdrive%\install\folders.infEcho deleting the Install folderrd C:\install /s /qEcho deleting the Drivers folderrd C:\Drivers /s /qEcho Running Defrag on C:Echo.shutdown.exe -r -f -t 60 -c "Windows XP will now restart in 1 minute..."

i've notice that the shutdown command there i had to make an attempt to automatically reboot the PC at the end also does not work, but i'm not too worried about it. i haven't even looked at it, nor am i worried about it yet.

updates.cmd:

@echo offjs56nen /Q:A /R:N Q823182 /Q /O /N /ZQ824105 /Q /O /N /ZQ824141 /Q /O /N /ZQ825119 /Q /O /N /ZQ826939 /Q /O /N /ZQ828035 /Q /O /N /ZKB828741 /Q /O /N /ZKB835732 /Q /O /N /ZKB837001 /Q /O /N /ZKB837009 /Q:A /R:N Q832894 /Q:A /R:N Q831167 /Q:A /R:NWMP9MM2.exeQ828026.exe /Q /N /Z /Oothers.cmdqchain.exeDX9NTopk.exe

others.cmd

@ Echo OffEcho.Echo Installing MEDEC HotfixENG_Q832483_MDAC_X86.EXE /C:"dahotfix.exe /q /n" /qEcho.Echo Installing Extra Type One Hotfixes.KB826942 /Q /O /N /ZKB837272 /Q /O /N /ZKB817778 /Q /O /N /ZQ327979 /Q /O /N /ZKB810243 /Q /O /N /ZKB821253 /Q /O /N /ZKB822603 /Q /O /N /ZEcho.Echo Installing Extra Type Two Hotfixes.msjavwu /Q:A /R:N wm9codecs /Q:A /R:Nhu1002 /Q:A /R:N dotnet.cmd

dotnet.cmd

@ Echo OffECHO Installing .NET Framework v1.1ECHO Please wait...start /wait %systemdrive%\install\NetFramework\netfx.msi /qb

esentially all of this code is the same as it has been the entire time, i just have moved around where it was, rather what and when it was called. this is the current getup.

[kronuskaos]

@jrzycrim

thank you for that bit. at the rate this one has gone so far i may need all the luck i can get. sorry about the missorder, but you posted that last one as i was replying to the previous one.

but anyhow, i looked at XPCreate at one point in the last week, but i didn't get it for some reason. but i never did _actually_ look at it. sometime when i get a chance, i'll prolly look at it again in the meantime.

[jrzycrim]

No need for apologies. Happens when people are posting at the same time.

I won't beat you over the head about xpcreate, but it is really nice. Especially as far as hotfixes are concerned.

As far as your cmd files, you might want to include /start wait on your hotfixes, etc. ex:

start /wait js56nen /Q:A /R:Nstart /wait Q823182 /Q /O /N /Zstart /wait Q824105 /Q /O /N /Zstart /wait Q824141 /Q /O /N /Zstart /wait Q825119 /Q /O /N /Zstart /wait Q826939 /Q /O /N /Z

That will keeep them from all trying to install at the same time. When one is finished, the next will begin.

There could be other issues as well but it's late for me and I just can't troubleshoot it right now.

[kronuskaos]

allright i tried that and it didn't work. it did the same thing as the first time i tried all of it where a console window popped up, scrolled a bunch of what looked like errors, and then dissapeared. so, unfortunaltly i didn't. rather couldn't (as i tried it twice) read what it did.

[jrzycrim]

At the end of all of your command (.CMD) files, or at least the ones you are having problems with, put 'pause'. ex:

@echo offjs56nen /Q:A /R:Nstart /wait Q823182 /Q /O /N /Zstart /wait Q824105 /Q /O /N /Zstart /wait Q824141 /Q /O /N /Zstart /wait Q825119 /Q /O /N /Zstart /wait Q826939 /Q /O /N /Z...Pause

Do not put the '...'. You probably know that.

This will keep the cmd windows from closing and allow you to view the errors. I'm guessing you have all of these hotfixes in your %systemdrive%\install\update\ directory?

Since your updates.cmd resides in this directory your hotfixes should as well. If you're getting file not found errors, you might need to include an absolute path name:

@echo offjs56nen /Q:A /R:Nstart /wait %systemdrive%\install\update\Q823182 /Q /O /N /Zstart /wait %systemdrive%\install\update\Q824105 /Q /O /N /Zstart /wait %systemdrive%\install\update\Q824141 /Q /O /N /Zstart /wait %systemdrive%\install\update\Q825119 /Q /O /N /Zstart /wait %systemdrive%\install\update\Q826939 /Q /O /N /Z ...

Make sure that all of your path and file names are correct.

Cheers,

[yourtech]

kronuskaos;

my way around the problem (because i'm installing the hotfixes from a lan share without copying them over via the $oem$ folder/s) was to throw all the hotfixes into runonceex (via cmdlines.txt). It works great for me, and you won't need any wait commands. As a side note the $oem$/$1/drivers folder didnt work for me either (wacky intel inf's) so you can add any additional drivers before or after the hotfixes (didnt seem to make any difference either way), unless anyone has any opinions otherwise?

http://unattended.msfn.org/xp/runonceex.htm

Edited May 4, 2004 by yourtech