98 SE SP 3.32

[pjmelect]

I am not a fan of these banners, and normally remove them, but I think that I could live with number 26.

[TmEE]

21h, 23h or 28 would be my picks

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

I have Good news and some Great news

Good News: I will use # 23H for the new update default start banner. This means when users select the Windows ME/2000 theme, it will be your default banner.

Great News: Users who follow instructions will be presented with the option to (use) any banner they prefer. First instruction is to download the banner you prefer to use and wait for further instructions.

Edited February 27, 2013 by PROBLEMCHYLD

[Laser98IX]

After my last post on August 19th, 2012, and a six month absence due to re-constructive shoulder surgery, last night I was finally able to read through every post since page 82. It only took me five hours. Yeah ... I'm a slow reader

WOW!!! What a roller-coaster ride!

First let me offer a big "Thank you!" to PROBLEMCHYLD for maintaining his determination and not walking away from what has to be a supremely monumental effort. Thanks also goes out to so many other people who've kept up a diligent effort and helped to keep this project going. I can't even recall every contributor, there were so many.

The latest Service Pack has been downloaded and archived, and in the next few days I'm going to apply it to the same machine I'd built specifically for this purpose before I disappeared. The good news is I've been able to add to my collection of EZ65's, so not only do I have my original 98SE EZ65 machine running that I use every day, but also a completely new O/S install on an exact copy of the first EZ65, plus another clean O/S install "mirror" in another box just in case I need to reinstall something or apply various fixes. (I took someone's post about having a back-up VERY seriously.)

Beyond those machines I have a few more in case I need additional test machines doing crazy things, so as soon as I get a job so I can pay for the shipping charges I'll stick one of those machines in a box and ship it to you for testing, PROBLEMCHYLD. (I sure hope you don't live 4000 miles away.) The only caveat is you'll have to supply your own license of Win98SE, unless I can find one lying around in my shop that needs a good home. That's how much I appreciate what you've been doing.

The hardware configuration is listed here:

As has been stated many, many, many times before, I'm going to document the entire installation process, so if there are any problems I'll be sure to list every action and response. By the look of things it appears nearly every problem has been resolved, or at least a work-around devised, so the install will most likely run smooth and clean.

Again ... a special thank you to PROBLEMCHYLD for being patient with lots of folks like me who ask what might seem like idiotic questions. Your efforts will be proved beneficial each time a Win98SE machine gets powered on with your updates.

Another update of my installation will be posted in the next few days.

Edited February 28, 2013 by Laser98IX

[Drugwash]

Hey Laser98IX, welcome back! Hope your shoulder's fine now.

Guys, here's a new series of colorful banners, hoping they'll match your themes. No gallery for these, they're too many. Just download and look through, maybe you'll find something that fits your tastes.

Download banners series 2

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

Anyone know how to create chm files?

[bphlpt]

I've seen the following recommended:

HTML Help Workshop

HelpNDoc

DocBook

Sandcastle

ImmDoc.NET

Help and Manual - NOT free

FAR HTML - NOT free

Doc-to-Help - NOT free

HTML Help Workshop runs on everything from Win 95 and up. HelpNDoc probably has more features for content creation, but only runs on XP+ and actually requires HTML Help Workshop to compile the CHM files.

Cheers and Regards

Edited March 3, 2013 by bphlpt

[Drugwash]

Ah, that's been a PITA for me, some time ago. Even went as far as mail the authors of some of those utilities (I think HelpNDoc was one of them), asking to fix some quirks that were showing up under 9x, but they wouldn't.

Yes, ultimately HTML HelpWorkshop would be the main component that builds the actual .chm, but it's a bit of a challenge to do it manually. I never bothered to learn how to operate it.

For building the individual HTML pages that make up the documentation, I'd use Komposer (got two separate versions here, they do work albeit with some minor issues). I think v0.8b3 should work fine in regard to FTP upload, while v0.7.10 has issues with that. Not sure, but it might require KernelEx in order to run.

Dunno of other similar tools that'd work under 9x and I did search everywhere, at the time.

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

I decided to go with Microsoft HTML HelpWorkshop It seems to be the smallest and most complicated. I read through some of the documentation and there is a lot of manual work that needs to be done. The good thing about that, is once I finally learn it, future projects should be a breeze Its going to be a long journey reading. Here's a peek at 3.19 update.

IRFTP.EXE 4.90.3000.0 WinME CD [only for users with infrared devices] If infrared drivers are not detected then the file won't install

POLEDIT.EXE 5.0.2195.2546 Windows 2000

Added new default start banner

Edited March 3, 2013 by PROBLEMCHYLD

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

I have found a way to log SP installation I have a few issues though. There are 2 log files in the Windows directory, LOGFILES.LOG and SETUPAPI.LOG. Here is the problem, take a look at log files. Now I know the files installed and works correctly. I just don't understand why the 2 logs have different outputs but only a second apart. Logging is included in 3.19. Besides this issue, the only other issues I have is when batch files are launch, they are not logged and LOGFILES.LOG is appended. Other than that, everything is smooth.

SETUPAPI.LOG

[2013/03/04 10:05:08 4294784565.2]

Munged cmdline: Rundll32 crlupd.inf

EXE name: C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL32.EXE

An unsigned or incorrectly signed file (c:\windows\temp\ixp005.tmp\crlupd.inf) was installed. Error 0x800b0003: Unknown Error

Copying file C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SET50A0.TMP to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\verisignpub1.crl.

An unsigned or incorrectly signed file (C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SET50A0.TMP) was installed. Error 0x800b0003: Unknown Error

Copying file C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SET50A1.TMP to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\mscrlrev.dll.

An unsigned or incorrectly signed file (C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SET50A1.TMP) was installed. Error 0x800b0003: Unknown Error

Copying file C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SET50A1.TMP to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\updcrl.exe.

An unsigned or incorrectly signed file (C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SET50A1.TMP) was installed. Error 0x800b0003: Unknown Error

LOGFILES.LOG

-------------------- advpack.dll is loaded or Attached ------------------------------

Date: 03/04/2013 (mm/dd/yyyy) Time: 10:05:07 (hh:mm:ss)

LaunchINFSectionEx: Param= crlupd.inf,,C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\IXP005.TMP\crlupd.cab,

ExecuteCab:Inf = crlupd.inf

CoreInstall: InfFile=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\IXP005.TMP\crlupd.inf InstallSection=DefaultInstall

GenInstall: Sec=DefaultInstall

GenInstall return: Sec=DefaultInstall hr=0x0

InstallOCX: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\mscrlrev.dll Register

LoadLibrary C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\mscrlrev.dll

Register: DoDllReg: Succeeded

InstallOCX: End C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\mscrlrev.dll

RunCommands: Sec=RunPostSetupCmds

LaunchAndWait: Cmd=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\updcrl.exe -e C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\verisignpub1.crl

LaunchAndWait: End hr=0x0, C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\updcrl.exe -e C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\verisignpub1.crl

RunCommands: Sec=RunPostSetupCmds End hr=0x0

ProcessPerUserSec:

Inf=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\IXP005.TMP\crlupd.inf, InstallSec=DefaultInstall, PerUserInstall=PerUser.Install

SetPerUserSecValues:

Input params: {9EF0045A-CDD9-438e-95E6-02B9AFEC8E11},CRLUpdate,*,C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\updcrl.exe -e -u C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\verisignpub1.crl,1,0,2195,0,1

SetPerUserSecValues: End hr=0x0

ProcessPerUserSec: End hr=0x0

CoreInstall: End InfFile=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\IXP005.TMP\crlupd.inf hr=0x0

ExecuteCab: End hr=0x0 Inf=crlupd.inf

LaunchINFSectionEx: End hr=0x0

[Nomen]

I'm not sure if I should have asked this as a new subject under > Windows 9x Member Projects or (like I'm doing now) adding it as a reply to the > 98 SE SP 3.18 thread, but...

Here's a dumb question. What is the suggested (or required) starting point when installing 98SE SP 3.18? I mean, after installing 98se on a virgin computer, and installing all drivers (motherboard, video, etc), what else should I go out and install *before* I run 98SE SP 3.18?

If I intend to have IE, should I go and get IE6sp1? What about Directx 9c? And KernelEx? Are any of those included in SP 3.18, and if not, do they get installed before or after SP 3.18?

Also - does SP 3.18 include all of the updates / patches that I would-have-gotten from WindowsUpdate server (if it were still running) ?

[Drugwash]

@ Nomen: some of the answers can be found in the readme.txt file included with the Service Pack. In my humble opinion, the SP should be downloaded by every 98SE user, whether they install it or not, because at some point the need may arise and who knows if Internet access will still be available at that point.

@ PROBLEMCHYLD: You can always redirect the output of the applications launched by the batch files to the log file. And if there's any operation that does not output anything, you may use @ECHO to send custom text to the log.

Please note that if you use single right-angle, the file will be overwritten (previous contents will be lost), whereas if you use double right-angle (as in the example below), text will be appended to the log file.

DSCLIENT.EXE /C:"SETUP.EXE /Q:A /R:N" >>LOGFILES.LOG

@ECHO Now installing [this file] to [this path] >>LOGFILES.LOG

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

Thanks Drugwash Even though DSCLIENT.EXE is launched from a batch file, setup is ran from SETUP.EXE which requires the DSCSETUP.DLL 5.0.2195.5201 which launches DSCLIENT.INF and installs the files. Dsclient is logged in both LOGFILES.LOG and SETUPAPI.LOG. I had stripped the dsclient package down a while back to reserve space, but when I did it that way, it broke dial up networking. So I had to add the whole package. I spent a lot of time and many combinations to get it working. If you look at the code in the batch script, this was the only way to get it installed correctly without users being prompted for directories etc........ As you can see, I had to KILL WABINST.EXE because it hangs if address book is not present. Dsclient does a lot of checking for certain components. I learned another thing after investigating the log files is, dsclient replaces newer files from Main Updates with older versions. To fix this problem, users will have to install the client first and then Main Updates. If someone patched SETUP.EXE 5.0.2195.4860 and DSCSETUP.DLL 5.0.2195.5201 inside the package to avoid checking for DCOM and WABINST.EXE, I will be able to save 2MB of space. The only files that are not logged in SP is Fonts, registry entries and copying of files. One more thing, when the icons are patched with resource hacker, a log file is created. How would I forward the contents of that log file to the main logfile which is logfiles.log?

@ECHO OFF
DSCLIENT.EXE /C:"SETUP.EXE /Q:A /R:N"
WAIT.EXE 8
KILL.EXE /F WABINST.EXE
CLS

[jaclaz]

How would I forward the contents of that log file to the main logfile which is logfiles.log?

TYPE mylog.log >>logfiles.log

If I may, about redirecting the output of batches, it is normally NOT a good idea, in the sense that you have that in the log INSTEAD of on the normal output.

Using a tee command would probably be of use.

See if this fits:

http://code.google.com/p/wintee/

http://code.google.com/p/wintee/wiki/FAQ

or use mtee version 1.1 which surely works in Win9x:

http://www.commandline.co.uk/mtee/index.html

jaclaz

[Drugwash]

DSClient was just a random example, apparently I picked the wrong one. Anyway, unless a certain component has major issues that would need detailed logging, it would be enough to just output "Installing [this component]" before launching an executable and "Finished installing [this component] after it finished, simply by using ECHO. That should be enough to pinpoint which package hangs, crashes or otherwise breaks the installation.

If DSClient overwrites newer files, there may be a reason for that. Maybe there's a KB article or something, explaining what it does and why. This way, we might be able to repackage it, editing the inf(s) or whatever to only check for specific file versions and replace under strict conditions.

As I mentioned some time ago, I may be able to build a custom installer for the SP, but it would be rather tight unless I find a way to allow modularity and flexibility and for that I'd have to know all the dependecies of all modules, the correct installation sequence and all the internal stuff. That would take quite some time.