Releasing: SysAngel DVD Generator (free)

[alsiladka]

Can the GUI be changed. This shade of yellow colour is not that pleasing.Also a little 3d effect?

One thing stopping me from trying it is the limitability of drive selection and formatting.

I have a 80 GB sata hard disc. I have a 10 GB partition for the system , One partion for the games. The other partitions i have my songs , movies , all the setups and imp stuff. Now , the only drives i like to format are the system and the game drive because i always do a clean install. the rest of the drives i leave them as they are. Now as much as i have read , Sysangel does not have such a feature? [ Please tell me i am wrong]. It will partition my drive in 2 sections.

This would be one flexibility which would be very nice.

So if the user is allowed to customize more of the stuff , we would love it.A great concept. Hope it flourishes well.

[natan770]

Not a valid windows source found in local CD rom drive, Please insert one

That's it no windows setup screen and still in linux mode

The problem as i see jt is that setup is looking for the i386 folder on the dvd and not on the hard drive as it should do hoing it your way. Right ?

OK, now I understand what is going on. You got this when in Linux, with interactive menus.

Here's the idea. Normally, the DVD Generator uses your Windows source to generate a file called c.7z that should be on your DVD. First thing: can you see it? If not, I'll have to investigate, and maybe make some corrections.

Has anybody else actually installed XP successfully using this method on a "REAL" system (not vmware) ?

Currently, I've made my tests on the following configs:

• Dell SX280
  
• Dell GX280
  
• HP Kayak 600
  
• Dell Latitude D400 (laptop)
  
• Dell Latitude D800 (laptop)
  
• Samsung Q20 (laptop)
  
• VMWare 4.5.2
  
• VMWare 5.5
  

I'd like to have more configs to make tests, though.

Regards

Natan

Sounds like a good app. I shall give a go. One question if all the stuff will fit on a cd instead of dvd will it work?

Joe

Yes, if you check the "Advanced users: I want to customize a lot more and download a lot less" checkbox. Then, remove unnecessary software. With only Windows and the included drivers, you're OK on a CD.

You might gain plenty of space if you've got your own collection of drivers and it's small. You can also use nLite to have a smaller i386. When testing, I've been able to generate a 300-Mo big ISO (nLite, no drivers, no apps).

Natan

[natan770]

Can the GUI be changed. This shade of yellow colour is not that pleasing.Also a little 3d effect?

Hi there! lol, well, I'm not a good GUI designer. If you know C#, do you want to join the project ?

One thing stopping me from trying it is the limitability of drive selection and formatting.

I have a 80 GB sata hard disc. I have a 10 GB partition for the system , One partion for the games. The other partitions i have my songs , movies , all the setups and imp stuff. Now , the only drives i like to format are the system and the game drive because i always do a clean install. the rest of the drives i leave them as they are. Now as much as i have read , Sysangel does not have such a feature? [ Please tell me i am wrong]. It will partition my drive in 2 sections.

Well. The main idea was: most people should choose to make a C system partition, and other partitions. And there's no need for a third-party product like Partition Magic if you don't have to resize the system partition.

So, here's what the linux script currently does:

• If you choose to format the whole disk: will create a C partition (the users tells its size), and a D partition for all remaining space. Obviously, you can modify the D choice using Windows' Explorer (manage).
  
• If you don't want to reformat the disk, and this is your case: the script will work on the C partition only. How? Firstly, it will make free space by deleting pagefile.sys, hiberfil.sys, C:\Windows and C:\Program files. Which should be enough to pre-install a new Windows ! (note: Documents and Settings is renamed to Documents and Settings.old)
  
• In all cases: only first hard disk drive is touched.
  

The dont-reformat option takes more time than the format option, because NTFS-writing is long under Linux. But it's safer, because then, we don't have to write a new bootsector. Note that the Windows setup would install Windows on D: after finding an old Windows on C: --or reformat.

Of course, you'd better make a backup, as usual.

So if the user is allowed to customize more of the stuff , we would love it.A great concept. Hope it flourishes well.

Much more customization options are to come. Simple question of time... the key was to add a Linux PE. Thank you for the encouragement.

Natan

[Innocent Devil]

I have a 80 GB sata hard disc. I have a 10 GB partition for the system , One partion for the games. The other partitions i have my songs , movies , all the setups and imp stuff. Now , the only drives i like to format are the system and the game drive because i always do a clean install. the rest of the drives i leave them as they are. Now as much as i have read , Sysangel does not have such a feature? [ Please tell me i am wrong]. It will partition my drive in 2 sections.

This would be one flexibility which would be very nice.

Similar situation 4 me 2

i dunno wanna 2 delete the Games and my music collections drives

Will u add the feature 2 only format C and install XP in it withoust touching other drives

[ironside]

Junior

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Group: Members

Posts: 72

Joined: 17-November 05

Member No.: 80037

QUOTE(ironside @ Feb 1 2006, 05:31 AM) *

Not a valid windows source found in local CD rom drive, Please insert one

That's it no windows setup screen and still in linux mode

The problem as i see jt is that setup is looking for the i386 folder on the dvd and not on the hard drive as it should do hoing it your way. Right ?

OK, now I understand what is going on. You got this when in Linux, with interactive menus.

Here's the idea. Normally, the DVD Generator uses your Windows source to generate a file called c.7z that should be on your DVD. First thing: can you see it? If not, I'll have to investigate, and maybe make some corrections.

Yes, the "c.7z" file is present on the root of the dvd

My test machine specs:

Manufacturer: Tiny

Motherboard: MicroStar Inc

Model: MS-6183

Processor: Pentium III 600Mhz

Memory: 384Mb

Will that help ?

Edited February 1, 2006 by ironside

[alsiladka]

Inspite of the shortcomings , Decided to see how it works. Here are a few points i want to make -

1 . Please get a proper and a user friendly installer. This one quickly installs itself to the root dirve on the system . Allow the user to Choose where to install , Wether to star installint , etc. This one looks unproffesional actually.

2 . Said it before , will say again " A little bit pleasing GUI and a lil more 3d look". I am a complete No - No in the graphix. Since you asked for feedback , Trying to help you improve it. GUI needs a complete overhaul in my opinion.

3 . Although i knew that only pre-created folders can be selected , i purposely entered a new address in the output location. Promptly , on starting the process , it used to revert back to the Main screen and the the log below the option buttons gets over lapped with the button preventing me from seeing where the problem was. All that was visible to me was a " * ". So maybe you could divid the Main screen in 2 parts , The user input section and the output where each step is shown or logged.

4 . If not let the user customize , inform him of the happenings. It starts downloading the WinNt.sif and follows it with the downloading of the OEM.7z which it says is the while which allows you to customize. I have a 64 KBps connection. Took one hour to download near about 22 MB. But i had no info on how much will be downloaded more or what is it downloading. Before going on to the next step , would be reccomended you inform the user . Another intresting feature would be , after downloading one file , inform the user of the next and ask him wether he wants to proceed over to the next download or wants to stop at the current step. Because after downloading 22 MB , i quit it thinking that you can resum next time. The next time i started the app. , my original entries on the main page were there. So i just selected the Start making the DVD option. It said Winnt.sif is present , but found an error in the incomplete OEM.7z file.

Will Try to suggest more improvements later. I really want to use this app , The idea is revolutionalising. Carrry on your great work

Edited February 2, 2006 by alsiladka

[natan770]

Hi Alsiladka!

First of all, thanks a lot for spending so much time on it.

Inspite of the shortcomings , Decided to see how it works. Here are a few points i want to make -

1 . Please get a proper and a uder friendly installer. This one quickly installs itself to the root dirve on the system . Allow the user to Choose where to install , Wether to star installint , etc. This one looks unproffesional actually.

Yes, right. It's already the case, if you download the .zip rather than the .exe, but I'll do something to release a .exe that gives more choices. The C:\ destination choice is not too good, but the MSI can be uninstalled thoroughly with control panel add/remove programs.

2 . Said it before , will say again " A little bit pleasing GUI and a lil more 3d look". I am a complete No - No in the graphix. Since you asked for feedback , Trying to help you improve it. GUI needs a complete overhaul in my opinion.

I know it does... this won't happen before version 2.0, though, due to lack of resources

Improving features, testing against a lot more hardware configs, must be done first.

3 . Although i knew that only pre-created folders can be selected , i purposely entered a new address in the output location. Promptly , on starting the process , it used to revert back to the Main screen and the the log below the option buttons gets over lapped with the button preventing me from seeing where the problem was. All that was visible to me was a " * ". So maybe you could divid the Main screen in 2 parts , The user input section and the output where each step is shown or logged.

oops.

4 . If not let the user customize , inform him of the happenings. It starts downloading the WinNt.sif and follows it with the downloading of the OEM.7z which it says is the while which allows you to customize. I have a 64 KBps connection. Took one hour to download near about 22 MB. But i had no info on how much will be downloaded more or what is it downloading. Before going on to the next step , would be reccomended you inform the user . Another intresting feature would be , after downloading one file , inform the user of the next and ask him wether he wants to proceed over to the next download or wants to stop at the current step. Because after downloading 22 MB , i quit it thinking that you can resum next time. The next time i started the app. , my original entries on the main page were there. So i just selected the Start making the DVD option. It said Winnt.sif is present , but found an error in the incomplete OEM.7z file.

Second oops. The resume feature is OK, but in the case the checkbox Advanced users has been checked, we should not overwrite the oem.7z file... unless it's corrupted, which can be considered as evidence of a partial download.

Concerning the size of elements: yes, it can be shown. I don't think many people nowadays have slow internet links, and it seems to me that it's a reasonable bet to assume 1mbps has become common. But, no problem to show sizes. Moreover, I might consider sending DVDs with everything except Microsoft Windows on it. Send me your postal address, and I'll send you one as a special gift

Will Try to suggest more improvements later. I really want to use this app , The idea is revolutionalising. Carrry on your great work

Thanks

Natan

[r0sWell]

interesting project

i will read the doc

[midiboy]

Hi Natan,

wow, this looks promising. I will gladly help you test and optimize this project as it does provide a few features I did not find anywhere else but it would need the following features because my MultiBootDVD is already complete and has grown over the years so I need ways to integrate this into a working MultibootDVD instead of it creating a completely new one. I think most people would like to keep using their unattended DVDs but add some missing "user input questions" before Windows setup starts.

Ok here´s my list of "required" features:

1. I would like the boot part to be started as one entry of an already existing CDShell bootmenu created for instance using the famous MultiBootDVD Guide

2. I would like to change/adapt the questions that the user gets asked during the setup process. For instance I dont need the language/company/Net SKD etc. questions. I basically only need:

Computername

Local Administrator name/password

Join domain or workgroup, if domain: which domainname, domain admin/pw for joining

CD key (in case the default one in winnt.sif should not be used)

install retail version of windows (ask for key) or corporate version (use cd key in winnt.sif)

if possible: access the recovery console of windows setup CD

3. There is definitely a need for a more flexible approach to the formatting options. I only need two things:

either

completely wipe the first harddrive and install two partitions (c+d) but the setup should already create a d partition as some other programs that are started in runonceex relies on an existing D partition

or

more important for most users I guess: delete the first C partition but leave D alone !! I guess most people will have data on D that they need to keep but they want to install windows from scratch so there is definitely a need to delete and create a new c partition and format it with NTFS.

4. Will this thing work with a complete unattended DVD that includes Bashrats driver packs, a winnt.sif having lots of entries etc. ? Especially Bashrats driverpack massstorage could be a problem as it changes txtsetup.sif and a few other early config files.

5. Actually I have no idea how this thing works. From reading your responses in this thread I gather that linux does the first stage of Windows setup that means, it copies all the windows setup files to the harddisc and then reboots. Does the normal Windows setup take over from there or is linux still involved after that first stage ?

Maybe you could explain a bit more about how this all works, I would like to understand this before I try this on my pc and the pc´s at work after all this has not been done before (to my knowledge)

Anyway, this looks really cool, I hope this will evolve some more in the future. I am guessing it could evolve into something like Wihu (which lets you choose which software to install after Windows setup and lets you create users etc.) but with the advantage of it running at the beginning of the installation.

Bye,

Alex

Edited February 5, 2006 by midiboy

[natan770]

Hi Midiboy!

thanks a lot for this long comment. I'm going to give further explaination about the project.

Hi Natan,

wow, this looks promising. I will gladly help you test and optimize this project as it does provide a few features I did not find anywhere else but it would need the following features because my MultiBootDVD is already complete and has grown over the years so I need ways to integrate this into a working MultibootDVD instead of it creating a completely new one. I think most people would like to keep using their unattended DVDs but add some missing "user input questions" before Windows setup starts.

You're right. Of course, I've started with some kind of proof of concept: showing it can be done this way... with lots of features planned to be added. Meeting the community's needs if mandatory.

What's your MultibootDVD like exactly ? is it a DVD with a boot menu, leading to several versions of unattended Windows stored in the DVD ? the idea sounds great too...

Ok here´s my list of "required" features:

1. I would like the boot part to be started as one entry of an already existing CDShell bootmenu created for instance using the famous MultiBootDVD Guide

OK... just seen the page (specially the Creating a Boot menu section, indeed). Well, I don't think I would do it that way, because then I would lose the benefits of Linux as a PE OS.

In fact, consider that once Linux, as the only boot choice, is booted, it's not very complicated for me to extend the possibilities of current scripts to install other flavors of Windows, and not only XP. Several Windows flavors could be stored on a SysAngel DVD. More than that: I could give you the possibility to pre-load the DVD with several winnt.sif for each stored Windows image... creating installation profiles could be done easily too. Even more: consider that Linux has great concepts, such as symbolic links. Means that I could save a LOOOOT of space, as so many files are similar between several Windows flavors. Etc. you get the picture. But I'll give details about the way I've seen the project below in the reply.

2. I would like to change/adapt the questions that the user gets asked during the setup process. For instance I dont need the language/company/Net SKD etc. questions. I basically only need:

Computername

Local Administrator name/password

Join domain or workgroup, if domain: which domainname, domain admin/pw for joining

CD key (in case the default one in winnt.sif should not be used)

install retail version of windows (ask for key) or corporate version (use cd key in winnt.sif)

if possible: access the recovery console of windows setup CD

• For recovery console, I'm not sure I can do it... I don't think so. It would exceed the perimeter of the project, too, I think. But there's much you can do in a Linux shell with NTFS-write capabilities -- probably more than in the recovery console.
  
• Questions raised under Linux are not customizable right now, but I could add the feature soon. It's only a matter of if/then and ini parsing.
  
• Currently, computername and cd key questions are raised (though cd key can be avoided in the current distribution). Local admin password, domain/workgroup still need to be coded (currently: blank password for admin, workgroup joined).
  

3. There is definitely a need for a more flexible approach to the formatting options. I only need two things:

either

completely wipe the first harddrive and install two partitions (c+d) but the setup should already create a d partition as some other programs that are started in runonceex relies on an existing D partition

or

more important for most users I guess: delete the first C partition but leave D alone !! I guess most people will have data on D that they need to keep but they want to install windows from scratch so there is definitely a need to delete and create a new c partition and format it with NTFS.

Great! this is the EXACT choice I've given to everyone! With one difference, though: there are 2 possible choices, and the question is asked under the Linux step, leading to...:

• Either format the first drive, and create a C and a D (C size decided by user)
  
• Either do not format anything. Then, only old C:\windows and C:\program files are deleted, for the new install to be clean. Doc'n settings is renamed to .OLD, and nothing else is removed.
  

4. Will this thing work with a complete unattended DVD that includes Bashrats driver packs, a winnt.sif having lots of entries etc. ? Especially Bashrats driverpack massstorage could be a problem as it changes txtsetup.sif and a few other early config files.

Yes. The current default distribution includes lots of drivers, many of them taken from BS. The total drivers size is 1 Go!! compressed to less than 250 Mo with 7-zip.

From DVD Generator version 1.10, winnt.sif and drivers can be customized easily.

5. Actually I have no idea how this thing works. From reading your responses in this thread I gather that linux does the first stage of Windows setup that means, it copies all the windows setup files to the harddisc and then reboots. Does the normal Windows setup take over from there or is linux still involved after that first stage ?

Maybe you could explain a bit more about how this all works, I would like to understand this before I try this on my pc and the pc´s at work after all this has not been done before (to my knowledge)

Here's the plan:

• Linux boots
  
• CD/DVD is mounted
  
• Config questions are raised (which Office, which language, etc.)
  
• If the user chooses to format the first drive:
  
• - C is formated as FAT32
  
• - D is formated as EXT3 to serve as a big temp; later, NTFS
  
• - Boot sector is rewritten
  
• - Windows files are unzipped from the c.7z file DVD Generator has created (open this file: you'll see, mainly, a $winnt$.~bt and a $winnt$.~ls folders... you know them! they are what is created on your hard disk after Windows setup has run its first stage.)
  
• If the user chooses not to format anything:
  
• - We make room on C (pagefile.sys, hiberfil.sys, Windows, Program Files... out!)
  
• - Use it same as above
  
• Reboot: Windows setup should start... from it's second step.
  

Of course, it's more complicated. Much, much, has been done. The DVD could contain only (isolinux.bin, isolinux.cfg, kernel, initrd.gz) files... and work. The scripts that run under Linux can connect to a LAN or to the Internet, and download all needed files. The Windows CD can be asked, and used the same way as the DVD Gen does. Even SP2 is slipstreamed under Linux in this current distribution.

And the most important thing: you can have this launched from PXE/RIS rather than from a CD/DVD.

Anyway, this looks really cool, I hope this will evolve some more in the future. I am guessing it could evolve into something like Wihu (which lets you choose which software to install after Windows setup and lets you create users etc.) but with the advantage of it running at the beginning of the installation.

Bye, Alex

Thanks for the encouragements. It could evolve that way, but I'd rather see it as an ambitious kind of world Active Directory

Using the Linux OS is the key to Windows unattended deployments through the Internet. Think to it: currently, DHCP is mandatory for PXE/RIS unattended Windows to be deployed, thus limiting to big companies the benefits of mass deployment. We *can* do better.

And SysAngel Updater ( http://updater.windowsdream.com ) can be used to deploy and update software. To reply to your last remark, we could also deploy an unattended Windows with NO software except the Updater, then have the Updater install what software the user will need. And use web interfaces to affect software to users, the way you'd do with a GPO.

So... improvements are on their way. Will release new versions very soon.

Natan

[natan770]

News... News... News... News... News...

Hi people;

many thanks to all of you who sent me advice and feedback (even when feedback was, "it didn't work for me with such h/w configuration...")

Some improvements have been done so to make the project more stable:

• The Linux script can now write a NTFS bootsector directly. Previously, it was only capable of writing a FAT32 bootsector, and DOS Bootpart.exe would convert it it to NTFS. This proved to generate problems with some S-ATA drives, as modern bios seem not to allow INT13 access any more. It shouldn't be a problem any more. Moreover, if there already is a working bootsector (say, booting either NT4, 2000, 2003 or XP), you've got the possibility to let the script know about it -- and avoid a bootsector rewriting. So, I'm pretty sure that in only very few situations, you should get trouble with this topic any more.
  
• Less drivers. Believe or not, there's a limit to the number of drivers you can add in your $OEM$ folder and your winnt.sif file. And when you overpass the (unofficial, undocumented, and seemingly hardware-dependent) limit, you get a BSOD just before the T-39 step. So, I seriously reduced the number of drivers proposed by default (note that you can change them), and no one should get a BSOD anymore because of this.
  
• DVD Generator 1.11 is out. It's more beautiful, does not install anymore in C:\DVD_Generator but in C:\Program files\DVD_Generator. Yet, the main improvement is it does not need Cygwin anymore to work. So, no more DLL conflicts if you were using a different Cygwin1.dll-based application at the same time.
  

More improvements are on their way. Some of them:

• A more convenient way to choose drivers (probably a theme-based GUI, with a red light to warn you if there are too many selected drivers).
  
• A documentation so to explain how the Linux image can be downloaded through PXE/RIS with no copyright violation.
  
• A documentation explaining how to prepare a Network Image rather than an ISO.
  
• A graphical tool to generate your own 7z-based self-installable and self-extractable EXE install programs, with direct integration into your ISO / Network image.
  

Still looking for suggestions & feedback.

Regards

Natan

http://dvdgen.windowsdream.com -- Burn your own complete and unattended Windows installer on a DVD

http://updater.windowsdream.com -- Auto-update your PC with freeware/opensource

http://ping.windowsdream.com -- Partimage Is Not Ghost

http://www.windowsdream.com -- Corporate homepage.

[hbinded]

could I use the DVD generator to make a bootable image of wind0ws 2000?

[Avneet]

not able to download isolinux.cfg.. keeps on repeating..please help