patters Posted April 7, 2005 Share Posted April 7, 2005 I designed an unattended install system that installs 2000 server, 2003 server, and XP in my workplace. It has been running well for several years.I've recently noticed that when certain devices are not detected by XP setup, rather than just ignoring them during the install, Windows setup has started prompting and wanting user interaction at the point where it wants to check Windows Update (Do you want to check windows update once only, never, all the time?).This tendency seems quite recent but because I haven't been running installs much recently I'm not sure when it started. It might be since I slipstreamed SP2. Is there a way of suppressing this behaviour? Maybe an entry in the SIF file? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bâshrat the Sneaky Posted April 7, 2005 Share Posted April 7, 2005 Please *attach* your winnt.sif file.Are you very sure it's popping up that window because it can't FIND the required driver or is it because the driver isn't WHQL SIGNED? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patters Posted April 7, 2005 Author Share Posted April 7, 2005 Please *attach* your winnt.sif file.Are you very sure it's popping up that window because it can't FIND the required driver or is it because the driver isn't WHQL SIGNED?<{POST_SNAPBACK}>I have it set to ignore signing. The funny thing was that when I guided it through the prompts it turned out to actually be installing the basic PnP monitor driver. It was on a brand new Dell Optiplex 170 with builtin Intel video (drivers present in my build).workstation.sif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patters Posted April 8, 2005 Author Share Posted April 8, 2005 I just intalled two more new identical PCs to the first, both straight from the box. One prompted for PnP monitor install, the other didn't. There were no changes between the two as far as I can tell - even the BIOS settings are consistent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bâshrat the Sneaky Posted April 8, 2005 Share Posted April 8, 2005 This setting is causing the Windows Update during installation:[Data]AutomaticUpdates=yesWhat's this one???ExtendOEMPartition=0Please describe its function - it seems to be an undocumented entry...And this one![Apps]firefox.msimplayer.cmddotnet.cmdmsnmsgs.msiWhere did you find that info?About the PnP Monitor popup: it seems to exist only in the latest versions... And as you say yourself, randomly... Blame MS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glowy Posted April 8, 2005 Share Posted April 8, 2005 What's this one???ExtendOEMPartition=0Please describe its function - it seems to be an undocumented entry...<{POST_SNAPBACK}>that one is in the ref.chm:ExtendOemPartitionSpecifies whether to extend the partition on which you install Windows.Syntax ExtendOemPartition = 0 | 1 | extra_size_in_MB Values 0 Setup does not extend the partition.1 Setup extends the partition to fill out the hard disk.extra_size_in_MB Setup increases the current partition size by this amount. This is useful if you want to configure more than one partition on the hard disk.Example ExtendOemPartition = 1000Comments This entry causes Setup to extend this destination partition into any available unpartitioned space that physically follows it on the disk. ExtendOemPartition automatically leaves the last cylinder on the hard disk free to allow dynamic disk support. ImportantYou can extend only NTFS file system partitions. When you use ExtendOEMPartition in Sysprep.inf for imaged computers, the destination computer’s hard disk must be the same size or larger than the hard disk of the original master installation. The partition that you want to extend must have unpartitioned space available following the partition. If your manufacturing process requires FAT32, use the Oformat command-line tool included in the OEM Preinstallation Kit to format the hard disk so that you configure it for NTFS. Use the Convert command-line tool to convert the file system.You can also convert the partition during text-mode Setup by setting the FileSystem entry in the [unattended]section of Unattend.txt to ConvertNTFS. FileSystem is not a valid entry in Sysprep.inf. However, the hard drive performs better if you use Convert with Oformat and/or Cvtarea instead of the FileSystem entry. For more information, see the Legacy Methods section of NTFS Preinstallation and Windows XP.You can also use the ExtendPartition entry in the [ComputerSettings] section of Winbom.ini to extend the partition using the Factory tool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bâshrat the Sneaky Posted April 8, 2005 Share Posted April 8, 2005 @Glowy: o! Thanks . I really hadn't heard about it *ever*... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glowy Posted April 8, 2005 Share Posted April 8, 2005 I'm still curious about the this one:[Apps]firefox.msimplayer.cmddotnet.cmdmsnmsgs.msididn't find anything on that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patters Posted April 8, 2005 Author Share Posted April 8, 2005 That's my own system. You can add custom [headings] to Winnt.sif for your own purposes so I use it to determine which packages get installed on different builds. Some work PCs might be for different departments, or for instance they could be laptops which staff members use at home etc. I have an initial partitioning script (using aefdisk) and build selector script which allows you to choose the build (from a number of SIF files) then prompt for hostname.My package installer script parses the [apps] section and pulls all the names. It looks them up against a CSV file with the full names and then builds all the correct RunOnceEx entries automatically depending on what filetype they are (msi, zip, reg, exe, cmd).I have the whole thing running from RIS and I use the Intel universal packet driver for the DOS networking. So no more DOS drivers, and it's a lot simpler than PE (which I've tried and given up on since the more Bart seems to play with that thing, the more broken it seems to get). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patters Posted April 8, 2005 Author Share Posted April 8, 2005 The ExtendOEMPartition is really a legacy setting from the old NT unattended method. Because you had no FAT32, and you had to use FAT16 to get the files onto the machine at the filecopy stage because you were using DOS, you had to stretch the partition out from its 4GB maximum to fill the disk during the conversion to NTFS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patters Posted April 8, 2005 Author Share Posted April 8, 2005 This setting is causing the Windows Update during installation:[Data]AutomaticUpdates=yesNo, that just enables automatic updates on the machine once it's built. Normally you get a speech bubble in the taskbar not long after the install finishes asking you about this and it's not enabled by default. It's a new setting with XP SP2:linkAbout the PnP Monitor popup: it seems to exist only in the latest versions... And as you say yourself, randomly... Blame MS.So you've had this too then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bâshrat the Sneaky Posted April 8, 2005 Share Posted April 8, 2005 No I didn't have it. But 2 or 3 users of my DriverPacks reported it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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