Integrating SPx.CAB files into DRIVER.CAB?

[meostro]

Howdy y'all!

I've been reading through all the great unattended / slipstreamed / slimmed down installation info at unattended.msfn.org, plus a bunch of stuff on gosh's and RyanVM's sites. Goodness gracious great balls of fire there's a lot of info on unattended / universal XP installs!

My problem comes from a bit of info I've seen, but haven't seen any details about. Some sites mentioned that nlite (and maybe some other programs?) will integrate a service pack cab into the main DRIVER.CAB, but i'm trying to figure out how to do such a thing manually. Is it as easy as I think?

1. Unpack DRIVER.CAB (cabarc x driver.cab driver\)

2. Unpack SP1.CAB on top, replace any duplicates (cabarc -o x sp1.cab driver\)

3. Re-pack DRIVER.CAB (cabarc -m lzx:21 n driver.cab driver\*.*)

I'm a little leery of trying that straight-away since I also see SP1.CAT and win51is.SP1, I think it'd be a good idea to check with the experts (that'd be you) to see how you do it properly.

[boooggy]

sorry mate but a service pack contains a lot of crap. drivers.cab contains only the drivers for xp. here a manual way for integration: http://unattended.msfn.org/beginner/slipstream.htm#manual

[RyanVM]

Leave the sp*.cat and win51*.SP* files alone. Those are needed for much more than the CAB files. Attached is a batch file code to merge driver.cab and sp2.cab. You should be easily able to change references to sp2.cab to sp1.cab if you need to.

It should be noted for those who've integrated SP2 onto a CD which already had SP1 on it previously that sp1.cab is safe to delete. There are no references to sp1.cab in dosnet.inf, drvindex.inf, or txtsetup.sif. Also, there are no files in sp1.cab which aren't also in sp2.cab, so extracting it is a waste of time.

mergecabs.cmd

Edited September 10, 2005 by RyanVM

[Bilou_Gateux]

@RyanVM

your batch includes a reference to DRIVERCABFIX but the exe is not included in the downloaded attachment?

[RyanVM]

lol, missed a line. Guess where I "borrowed" the code from

Anyway, here you go. If you're curious what it does, it changes

DriverCabName=driver.cab,sp2.cab

to

DriverCabName=driver.cab

in txtsetup.sif.

I don't think it actually makes a difference in functionality, but it's more complete

drivercabfix.exe

Edited July 11, 2005 by RyanVM

[meostro]

@boooggy:

Already did that part, that's where I end up with the SP1.CAB et al. It's slipstreamed into the build, but it's still taking up more space than it needs to.

@RyanVM:

Thanks for the pointer, that's exactly what I'm looking for. I'm going to try the same sequence with CABARC instead of EXTRACT/MAKECAB, hopefully it won't mess up the CAB structure that MAKECAB has in the .DDF you create. The bonus is that I can specify LZX with 21-bit something-or-other to get a couple extra MB of compression.

I'm trying to integrate the Server 2003 SP and patches, that's why i'm working with SP1 instead of the usual XP SP2. I have to document my build 100%, so I can't use nLite since its functionality could, at some point in the future, possibly change. Yes it's ridiculous, but it's how I have to do it.

If drivercabfix doesn't already do it, there's also another bit that should be removed from the TXTSETUP.SIF under the SourceDiskFiles section:

sp1.cab      = 1,,,,,,_x,39,0,0

Along the same lines, would it work to add all of the *.??_ files to the DRIVER.CAB or a separate CAB with a pointer in DRVINDEX.INF (or something similar) to consolidate about 5000 individual files into one? I'm looking through the disc now to see where the pointers for SHELL32.DL_ are, that should give me a start to see where setup is getting its file listings from.

Edited July 12, 2005 by meostro

[RyanVM]

@RyanVM:

Thanks for the pointer, that's exactly what I'm looking for.  I'm going to try the same sequence with CABARC instead of EXTRACT/MAKECAB, hopefully it won't mess up the CAB structure that MAKECAB has in the .DDF you create.  The bonus is that I can specify LZX with 21-bit something-or-other to get a couple extra MB of compression.

I think I'm misunderstanding what you mean. The makecab sequence in the batch file I posted does use LZX:21.

I'm trying to integrate the Server 2003 SP and patches, that's why i'm working with SP1 instead of the usual XP SP2.  I have to document my build 100%, so I can't use nLite since its functionality could, at some point in the future, possibly change.  Yes it's ridiculous, but it's how I have to do it.

Have fun

If drivercabfix doesn't already do it, there's also another bit that should be removed from the TXTSETUP.SIF under the SourceDiskFiles section:

sp1.cab      = 1,,,,,,_x,39,0,0

drivercabfix doesn't, but there's a comment in the batch file where it does

Along the same lines, would it work to add all of the *.??_ files to the DRIVER.CAB or a separate CAB with a pointer in DRVINDEX.INF (or something similar) to consolidate about 5000 individual files into one?  I'm looking through the disc now to see where the pointers for SHELL32.DL_ are, that should give me a start to see where setup is getting its file listings from.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No clue.

[Bilou_Gateux]

I'm trying to integrate the Server 2003 SP and patches, that's why i'm working with SP1 instead of the usual XP SP2.  I have to document my build 100%, so I can't use nLite since its functionality could, at some point in the future, possibly change. 

Myself user of 2K3 Server SP1 Web Edition as OS (turned to workstation ).

If you can share your method after figured / solved possible issues, please post in this thread.

Currently, i have already build my install source with all updates integrated (using a little modified method based on RyanVM pack). Will post a new topic when i have full documented process.

[codejunkie]

I'm trying to integrate the Server 2003 SP and patches, that's why i'm working with SP1 instead of the usual XP SP2.  I have to document my build 100%, so I can't use nLite since its functionality could, at some point in the future, possibly change. 

Myself user of 2K3 Server SP1 Web Edition as OS (turned to workstation ).

If you can share your method after figured / solved possible issues, please post in this thread.

Currently, i have already build my install source with all updates integrated (using a little modified method based on RyanVM pack). Will post a new topic when i have full documented process.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I managed it with RyanVMs batch file with a few changes to intergrate some updates.

I don't know if your talking about my Win2k3 Sp1 Update thats a moded version of RyanVMs or weither youve done your own.

I don't know what the diffrence between Standard and Web or any of the others, I imagine its just the sysoc.inf file on the install disk

http://www.ryanvm.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=339

[Bilou_Gateux]

@codejunkie

Since you have switched from a lite version to a full pack version, i no longer use your pack for a single reason. I want to keep my UA install clean and generic. i add more customizations and non MSFT branded binary files from cmdlines.txt.

EDIT:

mergecabs.cmd works as expected and TXTSETUP.SIF is edited if we don't forget to add RyanVM drivercabfix.exe in the same folder.

Edited August 11, 2005 by Bilou_Gateux

[codejunkie]

@Bilou_Gateux

Ok, I will create a lite pack for ya then... hows that?

PS, I am hoping we will have more of the non public updates before too long aswell & I have added drivercabfix.exe to my Update Pack

[mrnxdmx]

@codejunkie

Since you have switched from a lite version to a full pack version, i no longer use your pack for a single reason. I want to keep my UA install clean and generic. i add more customizations and non MSFT branded binary files from cmdlines.txt.

Hi Bilou_Gateux, i want to know about ur pack please, i used codejunkie's pack, no problems, and its up to date in wu and mu.

Edited September 5, 2005 by mrnxdmx