Total N00b With Nforce2 Questions

[DoomMunky]

Okay, I know this has been covered in other places, but I'm so completely brand-new to this batch-file thing and all the 'referencing' files and 'calling' files and the winnt.sif file and EVERYTHING that my butt hurts a little when I try to read any of this.

PLEASE go gentle on me, as I am a stupid gamer who is totally brand-new to this world, and know NOTHING of the assumptions all you take for granted.

I just need a few clarifying points:

1) When installing drivers in my Unattended XPCD, do I need a seperate NUMBER at the beginning of every motherboard driver folder, or is it okay to have them all with the same number?

ex.

This? ----------> In the $OEM$/$1/Drivers folder, seperate folders that look like this: 000_nvidia_audio, 000_nvidia_audioutils, 000_nvidia_IDE, 000_nvidia_ethernet, etc.

Or This? -------> In the Drivers folder, seperate folders that look like this: 000_nvidia_audio, 001_nvidia_audioutils, 002_nvidia_IDE, etc., with the subsequent drivers like Display starting with 010, 020, etc.

2) In those folders, whatever they look like, do I need ALL of the files in the nVidia installer package (for example, in the audiodrv folder in the nForce 3.13 installer there are a lot of .dll files and .sys files) or ONLY the .inf file?

3) Is the [GuiRunOnce] section of my winnt.sif file just an order to start the start.cmd file over in my $OEM$/$1/Install folder, or do I need other things under that heading as well?

Thanks for any help, you guys. I'm using the MSFN Unattended guide, and for the most part, it's really clear and n00b friendly, but there are certain things that are glossed over or unclear.

Any help will be much appreciated!

[Bâshrat the Sneaky]

1) A number is not even required... It's just to force setup to search through the drivers in the order you specify. Microsoft recommends it, but for 99% of us it's pretty useless.

2) You need the .inf file PLUS all files that the .inf file uses. To find out _which_ files the .inf file needs, open the .inf file with notepad and go to the [sourceDisksFiles] section. All files listed here are required.

A small note: the nForce audio utility requires to be repackaged to be installed silently!

3) You don't need other things there.

And... welcome!

[DoomMunky]

Holy cow, thank you so much! Such good, simple info, and so timely, too!

Any idea when the Application Switches section will be back up in the guide? I'm looking forward to getting this CD out the door!

[DoomMunky]

No Drivers. Phooey.

Okay: Failure. Ouch. It didn't work. A total bummer. I did get a working Unattended XP CD out of it, but I have to put in all my drivers and apps myself. Unless, of course, a Virtual PC installation is not a true test of the working-ness of my Unattended XP CD. Virtual PC still has the s3 graphics driver, not my nVidia GeForce 5600, and I can't even tell if my nForce2 drivers are in there... Poo.

I did everything suggested, too, going off of the official guide and using the comments in this post. Grrr....no drivers!

My final installation on the Virtual PC has a weird thing, too. Is this right: I have, in my C: directory, a folder for Install and for Drivers, as well as Docs and Settings, Program Files, and Windows. Is that right?

Any thoughts, smart folks?

[Bâshrat the Sneaky]

LOL...

This has been posted soooooooooooooo many times before!

You can NOT test if your drivers work in any emulated pc environment, nor VirtualPC, nor VMware! So if you want to verify if the drivers you added are working, you'll have to test it on a real machine! (you could make a separate partition to test this)

[DoomMunky]

Heh, I learned this shortly after posting/testing further. This should maybe be included in the guide, which basically says that VMWare or VPC should be used for all testing...otherwise dumb kids like me think the wrong thing.

Thanks for the help though, guys!