Problem with skipping EULA etc

[Hmzaniac]

Morning everyone.

I have a problem with my fresh XP Unattended install... it works fine till the GUI Portion of the install, then it goes berserk and starts asking me for my EULA, Identification, ProductKey, etc.

I've already found a few topics here which seem to adress this issue, but none of them actually work for my install.

Some details first:

XP install is done through floppy boot, starting winnt.exe on a network share with the correct parameters. %1 is the computer name which is given on the command line.

X:\os\XPSP1A\I386\WINNT.exe /s:X:\os\XPSP1A\I386 /unattend:X:\unattend\COHO\winnt.sif /udf:%1,X:\unattend\COHO\Winnt.udb

then, here's my answer file.

[Data]
    AutoPartition=0
    MsDosInitiated="1"
    UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]
    UnattendMode=FullUnattended
    OemSkipEula=Yes
    OemPreinstall=No
    Repartition=No
    WaitForReboot="No"
    TargetPath=\WINDOWS
    FileSystem = ConvertNTFS 
    DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
    UnattendSwitch="Yes"
    KeyboardLayout = "US-international"
    NTUpgrade=No
    Filesystem=ConvertNTFS
      

[GuiUnattended]
    AdminPassword="VerySecret"
    EncryptedAdminPassword=NO
    AutoLogon=Yes
    AutoLogonCount=1
    OEMSkipRegional=1
    TimeZone=110
    OemSkipWelcome=1

[UserData]
    ProductKey=X
    FullName="VSL Catena"
    OrgName="Rijks Universiteit Leiden"
    ComputerName=*

[Display]
    BitsPerPel=16
    Xresolution=1024
    YResolution=768
    Vrefresh=72

[TapiLocation]
    CountryCode=31
    Dialing=Tone
    AreaCode=071

[RegionalSettings]
    LanguageGroup=1
    Language=00000413

[SetupMgr]
    ComputerName0=COHO1
    ComputerName1=COHO2
    ComputerName2=COHO3
    ComputerName3=COHO4
    ComputerName4=COHO5
    ComputerName5=COHO6
    ComputerName6=COHO7
    ComputerName7=COHO8

[Branding]
    BrandIEUsingUnattended=Yes

[URL]
    Home_Page=http://www.vslcatena.nl
;    Help_Page=http://www.vslcatena.nl/firsttimeuser/
    Search_Page=http://www.google.com
    AutoConfig = 0

[Proxy]
    Proxy_Enable=0
    Use_Same_Proxy=1

[GuiRunOnce]
    Command0="format D: /FS:NTFS /X"
    Command1="msiexec /qn /faums /i \\dataserver\install\software\Packages\Firefox.msi"
    Command2="msiexec /qn /faums /i \\dataserver\install\software\Packages\Acroread.msi"
    Command3="msiexec /qn /faums /i \\dataserver\install\software\Packages\IZArc.msi"
    Command4="msiexec /qn /faums /i \\dataserver\install\software\Packages\macromedia.msi"
    Command5="msiexec /qn /faums /i \\dataserver\install\software\Packages\trillian.msi"
    Command6="msiexec /qn /faums /i \\dataserver\install\software\Packages\winamp.msi"
    Command7="msiexec /qn /faums /i \\dataserver\install\software\Packages\Filezilla.msi"
    Command8="msiexec /qn /faums /i \\dataserver\install\software\Packages\irfanview.msi"
    Command9="msiexec /qn /faums /i \\dataserver\install\software\Packages\Java-JRE.msi"
    Command10="\\dataserver\software\Packages\MPSetupXP.exe /Q"
    Command11="msiexec /qn /faums /i \\dataserver\install\software\Packages\SSHClient.msi"
    Command12="msiexec /qn /faums /i \\dataserver\install\software\Packages\UT.msi"
    Command13="msiexec /qn /faums /i \\dataserver\install\software\Packages\wwp.msi"
    Command13="msiexec /qn /faums /i \\dataserver\install\software\Packages\wwp.msi"
    Command14="\\dataserver\install\software\Packages\OfficeXP\setuppls.exe /qn"
    Command15="\\dataserver\install\software\Packages\LangPackNL\Setup.exe /qn"
    Command16="regedit /s \\dataserver\install\software\Packages\policy-coho.reg"

[Identification]
    JoinDomain=VSLCATENA
    DomainAdmin=Administrator
    DomainAdminPassword=VerySecret

[Networking]
    InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

[FavoritesEx]
    Title1="Catena Webmail.url"
    URL1="https://webmail.vslcatena.nl"
    Title2="VSL Catena"
    URL2="http://www.vslcatena.nl"


[Compontents]
accessopt=Off
cdplayer=Off
chat=Off
deskpaper=Off
dialer=Off
fax=off
hypertrm=Off
msnexplr=Off
media_clips=Off
netoc=Off
Spider=On
mousepoint=Off
rec=Off
msmsgs=Off 

[Shell]
DefaultThemesOff = Yes
DefaultStartPanelOff = Yes

and finally, the UDB file

[UniqueIds]
    COHO1=UserData
    COHO2=UserData
    COHO3=UserData
    COHO4=UserData
    COHO5=UserData
    COHO6=UserData
    COHO7=UserData
    COHO8=UserData

[COHO1:UserData]
    ComputerName=COHO1

[COHO2:UserData]
    ComputerName=COHO2

[COHO3:UserData]
    ComputerName=COHO3

[COHO4:UserData]
    ComputerName=COHO4

[COHO5:UserData]
    ComputerName=COHO5

[COHO6:UserData]
    ComputerName=COHO6

[COHO7:UserData]
    ComputerName=COHO7

[COHO8:UserData]
    ComputerName=COHO8

I've been pulling out quite some hairs for the last few hours... could anyone help me out with this one?

[bmill99]

you might wanna remove your cd key

[Hmzaniac]

you might wanna remove your cd key

whoopsie... thanks

[ank]

Maybe this is too stupid to even check, but make sure your winnt.sif file is not actually winnt.sif.txt, because if you haven't unchecked the Hide Exntensions box, you can name it incorrectly. This happened to me on my first Unattanded disk a little bit ago.

[Hmzaniac]

Maybe this is too stupid to even check, but make sure your winnt.sif file is not actually winnt.sif.txt, because if you haven't unchecked the Hide Exntensions box, you can name it incorrectly.  This happened to me on my first Unattanded disk a little bit ago.

heh

No... i checked it.. the answer file also works allright, up and until when the GUI part of the installer checks the EULA.

[Hmzaniac]

* Tiny Kick *

I tried copying the winnt.sif to a local partition, both the one used to install windows on and a clean one, neither worked. Also tried using UNC patchs instead of drive letters, to no avail..

Anyone who can help me out before i have to enter the key on each and every computer?

[bek]

Does sound odd...

1) Does your Key actually match the media? this may cause it to prompt (?)

2) My unattended has:

ProductID=11111-11111-11111-11111-11111

not ProductKey... if that really makes any difference (?)

[Hmzaniac]

Does sound odd...

1) Does your Key actually match the media? this may cause it to prompt (?)

2) My unattended has:

ProductID=11111-11111-11111-11111-11111

not ProductKey... if that really makes any difference (?)

yeah.. productKey/productID are slightly confusing. according to MS's ref.chm both are correct, and i tried both.. same error. The Key is a Volume License Key, and it works when doing a normal install, so that should be no problem..

[bek]

Try:

MsDosInitiated = 0

Per MS...

Comments: The value must always be set to 0. If an unattended Setup is running directly from the product CD and you do not set the value to 0, then Setup fails at the beginning of GUI-mode Setup.

...

If UnattendedInstall is Yes, set MsDosInitiated to 0....

Anyway, I never had a problem either way (network or CD). Maybe check your winnt.sif file and make sure there aren't any extra characters or tabs in them (I've had ldif files act up this way)...

Good luck.

[peachy]

Maybe change

OemPreinstall=No

to

OemPreinstall=Yes

?

[Hmzaniac]

Try:

MsDosInitiated = 0

Per MS...

Comments: The value must always be set to 0. If an unattended Setup is running directly from the product CD and you do not set the value to 0, then Setup fails at the beginning of GUI-mode Setup.

...

If UnattendedInstall is Yes, set MsDosInitiated to 0....

Anyway, I never had a problem either way (network or CD). Maybe check your winnt.sif file and make sure there aren't any extra characters or tabs in them (I've had ldif files act up this way)...

Good luck.

Cool, thanks, i'll try that out when i have the time (in 1 hour or so)

@Peachy: OemPreinstall only decides if you install from distribution folders or directly from CD. Anyway, i tried both. Still thanks for the help

[Hmzaniac]

sadly enough, it doesn't work..

and ofcourse the /debug parameter is only valid for winnt32.exe ... bloody idiots.

I've just rewritten my entire winnt.sif, and going to try again.. i'll report back to you