unattend-issues with F6 during install

[allynm]

i've searched around the forum and found other unattend issues, but none that were the same as what i've got going on here:

last night i whipped up an xpsp2 slipstream image, wrote it, and did a test install to another partition on my drive. my boot drive is on an on-board promise sata controller, so i had to do the F6 on install thing as usual. all went perfect with the test install, so i decided to go with an unattend and the addition of some of the typical drivers that would be needed. here is my winnt.sif:

;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
Autopartition=0
MsDosInititated="0"
UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]
UnattendMode=FullUnattended
OemSkipEulA=Yes
OemPreinstall=Yes
TargetPath=\WINDOWS
Repartition=No
Unattendswitch="Yes"
WaitForReboot="No"
OemPnPDriversPath=drivers\gige;drivers\nvidia;drivers\mouse;
DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
AutoActivate=No

[GuiUnattended]
AdminPassword=*****
EncryptedAdminPassword=No
OEMSkipRegional=1
TimeZone=035
OemSkipWelcome=0
ProfilesDir="%systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\"

[Display]
BitsPerPel=32
XResolution=1024
YResolution=768
Vrefresh=85

[UserData]
ProductKey=xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
FullName=none
OrgName=-
ComputerName=main

[TapiLocation]
CountryCode=
Dialing=Tone

[RegionalSettings]
LanguageGroup=1
Language=00000809

[Identification]
JoinWorkgroup=GROUP

[Networking]
InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

[Componants]
msmsgs=off
msnexplr=off
zonegames=off

[Shell]
DefaultThemesOff=Yes

[GUIRunOnce]
%systemdrive%\install\DirectX9\dxsetup.exe

(yes i realize i dont need that dxsetup in there, but im sure this is not the cause of the problem).

i added the .sif along with the necessary $OEM$\$1\drivers and such, burned the image (same method as before), and went for another test install. everything went as before (though setup auto-skipped the EULA screen, which was promising). did the F6 thing and installed the promise driver as usual (which worked, as i was able to see the drive / select the partition), but this time when setup got to the first main file copy portion, it suddenly couldnt read any of the files off of the floppy. i decided to skip the first file, i got more errors. turns out it couldnt read any of the files from the floppy. i skipped all of them, and setup completed the file copy (from the cd), and at the end setup properly copied over all of the contents of $OEM$\$1\drivers (also promising). since the promise driver couldnt be copied over to the boot drive, setup naturally blue screened after the first reboot.

i tried reading the promise driver floppy back in windows - no errors. made another floppy and retried setup - same result.

so... something having to do with the unattend stuff is causing the floppy to not be accessible during the file copy portion of setup. possible solutions i see:

1. fix my id10t error that i likely made in the .sif

2. somehow incorporate the promise driver into the image in such a way that it is no longer necessary to do the F6 thing.

#2 is not really ideal, as in theory the F6 feature of the installer would still be broken (say, to install drivers for some other controller in the future).

the whole situation kinda sucks, as i'm loading the promise driver, so its not like i can replicate this in vmware, so i am kinda flying through cds trying to fix this one

thanks in advance for any assistance here

Al

[Sparky1]

i've searched around the forum and found other unattend issues, but none that were the same as what i've got going on here:

last night i whipped up an xpsp2 slipstream image, wrote it, and did a test install to another partition on my drive. my boot drive is on an on-board promise sata controller, so i had to do the F6 on install thing as usual. all went perfect with the test install, so i decided to go with an unattend and the addition of some of the typical drivers that would be needed. here is my winnt.sif:

;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
Autopartition=0
MsDosInititated="0"
UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]
UnattendMode=FullUnattended
OemSkipEulA=Yes
OemPreinstall=Yes
TargetPath=\WINDOWS
Repartition=No
Unattendswitch="Yes"
WaitForReboot="No"
OemPnPDriversPath=drivers\gige;drivers\nvidia;drivers\mouse;
DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
AutoActivate=No

[GuiUnattended]
AdminPassword=*****
EncryptedAdminPassword=No
OEMSkipRegional=1
TimeZone=035
OemSkipWelcome=0
ProfilesDir="%systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\"

[Display]
BitsPerPel=32
XResolution=1024
YResolution=768
Vrefresh=85

[UserData]
ProductKey=xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
FullName=none
OrgName=-
ComputerName=main

[TapiLocation]
CountryCode=
Dialing=Tone

[RegionalSettings]
LanguageGroup=1
Language=00000809

[Identification]
JoinWorkgroup=GROUP

[Networking]
InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

[Componants]
msmsgs=off
msnexplr=off
zonegames=off

[Shell]
DefaultThemesOff=Yes

[GUIRunOnce]
%systemdrive%\install\DirectX9\dxsetup.exe

(yes i realize i dont need that dxsetup in there, but im sure this is not the cause of the problem).

i added the .sif along with the necessary $OEM$\$1\drivers and such, burned the image (same method as before), and went for another test install. everything went as before (though setup auto-skipped the EULA screen, which was promising). did the F6 thing and installed the promise driver as usual (which worked, as i was able to see the drive / select the partition), but this time when setup got to the first main file copy portion, it suddenly couldnt read any of the files off of the floppy. i decided to skip the first file, i got more errors. turns out it couldnt read any of the files from the floppy. i skipped all of them, and setup completed the file copy (from the cd), and at the end setup properly copied over all of the contents of $OEM$\$1\drivers (also promising). since the promise driver couldnt be copied over to the boot drive, setup naturally blue screened after the first reboot.

i tried reading the promise driver floppy back in windows - no errors. made another floppy and retried setup - same result.

so... something having to do with the unattend stuff is causing the floppy to not be accessible during the file copy portion of setup. possible solutions i see:

1. fix my id10t error that i likely made in the .sif

2. somehow incorporate the promise driver into the image in such a way that it is no longer necessary to do the F6 thing.

#2 is not really ideal, as in theory the F6 feature of the installer would still be broken (say, to install drivers for some other controller in the future).

the whole situation kinda sucks, as i'm loading the promise driver, so its not like i can replicate this in vmware, so i am kinda flying through cds trying to fix this one

thanks in advance for any assistance here

Al

2. somehow incorporate the promise driver into the image in such a way that it is no longer necessary to do the F6 thing.

I think that is the way to go. I not 100% sure, but when I ran a sysprep to do an unattended install on my 2000 server with a promise raid controller my answer file contained a line with

[mass storage device] along with the $OEM$ tag. If I get a chance, I will run through the process and post the log.

[peachy]

You can't use F6 with an unattended install CD. It just won't work. You have to integrate the Promise drivers into the CD. Read up GreenMachine's Slipstreaming SATA/RAID Drivers Tutorial. Although his example is with the Silicon Image drivers, the process is similar with the Promise drivers.

[Alanoll]

and by similar, he means of course the filenames are different and the PCI-PNP ID's are different

surely while searching you would have come across this thread....

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=22965

sure it's entitled [FAQ] nLite, but the very first entry is concerning this.

Also this bug has been around for quite some time....and you have to realize, most people who do an unattended setup in a corporate environment don't sit at each computer with a floppy for the drivers.