Auto-Patcher For Windows 98se (English)

[soporific]

@ Soporific:

Few days ago I've had a new test with Auto-Patcher (ita) updated to july sp2 (currently in testing).

In this test it is been used a laptop machine but during installation of laptop hotfixes these are been skipped because for Auto-Patcher it was a desktop computer.

Do you want more details about?

Yes please ... i've never had the opportunity to test this aspect as i've never had a laptop to test on. Please send me any details you think relevant.

Oh yes, the Auto-Patcher. Not much to report, unfortunately. It was simply perfect, except for having 891711 installing even though it was deselected. But the unofficial one installed too, so I don't mind. And I do toggle on and off stuff so any of the other choices I made were respected.

This is a known problem that was identified by RetroOS, i've posted the solution a few posts above this.

About Flash and not bothering to include it: I do listen to all suggestions, but for removing Flash i'm not convinced. I certainly use it and don't want to have to install it again and again after i do wipes of my OSes and rebuild them. I am leaning, however, towards breaking AutoPatcher into components -- eg Core and Addons -- much like the now illfated AutoPatcher project -- and so stuff like Flash will go into addons and you won't have to worry about it.

It means quite a bit of work to write a system for easily separating the project so i want to see what people think first. Obviously, you would be in favour, Eck.

Edited September 2, 2007 by soporific

[RetroOS]

This is a known problem that was identified by RetroOS, i've posted the solution a few posts above this.

Thanks for the fix soporific.

I tested it and it worked as designed - no more blue screens - I can run Auto-Patcher and leave it to do it's thing!

Perhaps you could add to the Q891711 note about MDGx's 98SE2ME with Tihiy's Revolutions Pack?

Even better would be to version check the two Q891711 files...

The Explorer and Shell updates version check okay and will auto-skip with Revolutions installed.

I have noticed another small issue that KB837009 keeps looping...

An even less important note that you have a couple of duplicate lines in AutoPach.bat:

echo Y> "%LOC8%\markers\@_OP0602.skp"

is duplicated in :DoSkips and :GoReport sections.

Just for your information.

I can't wait for the August release!

Go soporific!

[soporific]

I have noticed another small issue that KB837009 keeps looping...

An even less important note that you have a couple of duplicate lines in AutoPach.bat:

echo Y> "%LOC8%\markers\@_OP0602.skp"

is duplicated in :DoSkips and :GoReport sections.

Just for your information.

kb837009 has always caused problems ... i've got a different solution than before which should fix it. It's not possible to release the fix before i release August 2007 but i'm pretty sure it will work and fix your prob.

re the dupe code, yep its been on my to-do list ... i just got it out of the way then ... it was always a naughty thing having the lists duped -- when i checked they weren't in sync as it was! Anyway, its now fixed.

News:

new feature: when you run the report, after its finished if you don't use CTRL-C to close the program down, it actually restarts the program instead of just exiting out. No-ones ever commented before but i thought it strange for the first time just today ... you are most likely to be wanting to install some updates after running a report, especially if the count is not zero. If you don't want to, you just CTRL-C out and its only Q to quit out if you actually don't want to install anything.

[wrayal]

Out of interest, is the august release going to incorporate updated instructions/an easier method for integration into UBCD?

Thanks,

Wrayal

[soporific]

Out of interest, is the august release going to incorporate updated instructions/an easier method for integration into UBCD?

Actually, its on my to-do-list as the next thing to tackle after i release both versions (FULL and UPDATE) of August 2007. It won't take too long to accomplish but i will play around a bit to make sure its all good. I'm toying with going with 2 or 3 post-install reboots -- at the moment, the code does it all in two but it really is an amazing amount of installations to get thru and i was shocked i tell you, shocked that the previous versions managed to install using only 2 reboots after the first boot to desktop.

So, the August release WON'T include instructions, but i WILL post them ASAP - should be only a couple of days.

Also, there has been very little feedback with people's experiences building a UBCD slipstreamed with AutoPatcher files. Can ANYONE who has built a UBCD with slipstreamed AutoPatcher files report on how it went installing? ANY feedback much appreciated. Even if to say it all worked.

Ta.

[submix8c]

DOTNET11.exe is same as DOTNETFX.exe (kind of). Difference is MSInstaller has been stripped out and a different "setup" program has been inserted. Also here is a link to DotNet 1.1 Service Pack 1 info...

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=867460

It contains a "patch" module... In DOTNET11.exe?

Have been doing "basic testing" of UBCD, sloooowly inserting patch-by-patch and re-installing. DirectX is a looooong install! Some modules "moved" to different locations since the install switches/method has been changed (but you knew that...). Some "oddball" errors, unknown causes as of yet (still may be a CPU cooling problem?). However, after changing all "/W" to "/WAIT" (old DOS-style to Windows-style) in START instructions, appeared to have corrected(???). If Mplayer9+Codecs not installed but instead MP7.1 (from IE install) then some "fixes" missing (and my point is?).

Full integration of AP into UBCD would probably work flawlessly... create an "AP Integrator" for selective UBCD installations? Work, work, work!

Did you get your G-mails ok? Respond off-line please...

[Max_04]

@ soporific:

About issue with laptop hotfix, the notebook used is an old Clevo 8700P.

PIII 500 Mhz

256 MB of RAM

ES1978 Maestro-2E (audio card)

ATI Rage LT Pro 8MB AGP 2x (video card)

Masterizzatore DVD-DL

Hard disk 60GB

Probably on this notebook doesn't work because I've done a standard installation of Windows (as if was a Desktop). It's boring to put every time CD for each minimal thing... and I don't know what to do with synchronization tools of Windows.

[soporific]

@ soporific:

About issue with laptop hotfix, the notebook used is an old Clevo 8700P.

PIII 500 Mhz

256 MB of RAM

ES1978 Maestro-2E (audio card)

ATI Rage LT Pro 8MB AGP 2x (video card)

Masterizzatore DVD-DL

Hard disk 60GB

Probably on this notebook doesn't work because I've done a standard installation of Windows (as if was a Desktop). It's boring to put every time CD for each minimal thing... and I don't know what to do with synchronization tools of Windows.

Max, can you run the following code and send me the result?

@echo off
REGEDIT /e "C:\LapTop.txt" "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\PCMCIA"
CLS
EXIT

It will produce a file called LapTop.txt in the root of the C drive. Or it may not. Please let me know!

EDIT: this line "REGEDIT /e "C:\LapTop.txt" "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE ..." is one long line.

Edited September 4, 2007 by soporific

[Max_04]

@ soporific:

About issue with laptop hotfix, the notebook used is an old Clevo 8700P.

PIII 500 Mhz

256 MB of RAM

ES1978 Maestro-2E (audio card)

ATI Rage LT Pro 8MB AGP 2x (video card)

Masterizzatore DVD-DL

Hard disk 60GB

Probably on this notebook doesn't work because I've done a standard installation of Windows (as if was a Desktop). It's boring to put every time CD for each minimal thing... and I don't know what to do with synchronization tools of Windows.

Max, can you run the following code and send me the result?

@echo off
REGEDIT /e "C:\LapTop.txt" "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\PCMCIA"
CLS
EXIT

It will produce a file called LapTop.txt in the root of the C drive. Or it may not. Please let me know!

EDIT: this line "REGEDIT /e "C:\LapTop.txt" "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE ..." is one long line.

It doesn't work.

Another small bug on Auto-Patcher, when the program opens I_Result.txt automatically to the end of patching.

Auto-Patcher takes only first part of report relative to the first installation.

Scrolling to the end of report, there isn't nothing to new. This event happen only when the program attempts to open I_Report.Log.

Edited September 4, 2007 by Max_04

[soporific]

Sept 6:

* August 2007 UPGRADE is now available - 17.2 MB

- MD5: 4711C8E25A63236AA9A397377864A4E8

Please Note: this upgrade installer requires you to have the July 2007 release already installed

Sept 5:

* August 2007 FULL is now available - 248 MB

- MD5: 4AF21A04599C1ED6400A859CA394266D

see the first post for more info.

[Eck]

All right! Used the updated August over the last one today and it performed fine.

I turned off the ethernet card in Device Manager, all the Avast virus scanner resident modules, set ZoneAlarm not to run at startup, printed the Auto-Patcher report of what it detects was already installed, and then toggled off all the stuff it had said it already had.

It was a bit unclear whether I needed to toggle the already installed stuff off but just to be sure, I did.

The full run the first time last week with the July version didn't need any Environment adjustments, but this run had the out of environment space problem and the usual fixes didn't work. I let it modify the Autoexec with the increased default environment space and it went fine.

Do I still need to keep the REM line that says to keep the line there, trust me? Or is that just for the running of Auto-Patcher?

The new additions and the ones Auto-Patcher said hadn't been detected all installed fine, and resetting my internet stuff back on all went well.

So far so good on Windows 98SE (and XP, which is also installed on its own primary partition with the opposing one hidden while the active one is, um, active). Got no idea about that old IOS Error stuff but I'm holding my breath things stay stable.

My brother's visiting, after which I'll get set to install Debian on the 2nd hard drive. Got no idea what'll happen as all my previous times I had switched the Windows SATA HD to boot 2nd and installed Grub to the ATA Linux HD's mbr and did the map entry into Grub's Windows sections. Since their both ATA now with Windows the primary and Linux going onto the same controller's secondary connector I guess I'll need to either put Grub onto the Windows mbr or try putting it onto the Linux root partition of its own HD and attempt to use BootMagic as a boot loader instead. I really am not sure which is best/which would work. Theoretically either way should work. Grub is nice but I didn't like what happened one time when I tried to reformat and reinstall Windows. I wound up with Windows not being able to install because the partition table was corrupted and at the same time Linux was unbootable on the other hard drive (that didn't have Grub on it) as well. Total start over, when I had only wanted to redo one Windows install. Yeesh!

Messing with multi non-Windows and Windows OS's and partitions is rather confusing no matter how much you think you know about it. Multi boot loaders like BootIT NG are just as flaky and confusing. I just hope the Debian install can handle things as easily as it did when I had a SATA/ATA mix. I hadn't even needed to adjust Grub as it booted Linux or Windows automatically the way the Debian installer set it up right the first time.

Anyway, Auto-Patcher updating went fine! Thanks for keeping up with this and enabling users to easily get the latest improvements without figuring out which to use ourselves. It's a very easy to use and thorough installer!

[soporific]

It was a bit unclear whether I needed to toggle the already installed stuff off but just to be sure, I did.

But wouldn't that take a lot of time? Matching what you have installed to what AP thinks you are missing ... and then settings all the options the right way ... wouldn't that take ages to set up? Have no fear!! Try it!! Just run AP again and set it to install everything you want installed. You should find that nothing installs. I always run AP twice to make sure NOTHING installs twice --- if it does, i have a problem somewhere.

I'm a bit troubled that this wasn't clear... i've been crowing about this feature of AP from the very start! Maybe you can suggest how and where we tell people about his feature ...

[Eck]

Perhaps just a comment on one of the initial screens stating that Auto-Patcher is designed to detect already installed updates and features. So if a module finds a component has already been installed it will not repeatedly install it. No need to toggle off an already installed feature as it is a feature of Auto-Patcher that this detection is done automatically as part of a running module's process.

It didn't really take more than a couple of minutes though, so it wasn't a big deal. I just wasn't sure and didn't want something going wrong because of a reinstall of something. Since I printed out the list it made when I had it run its detection, it was easy to do the toggling with that list in hand.

When I had used Auto-Patcher previously in much older versions, I had only ran it once each time. My Windows 98SE installations hadn't been lasting long enough for a new version to come out with newer updates. You'll recall, that was when I was suffering from the eventual IOS error whenever I was trying to setup Windows 98SE.

So, being that this was my first encounter with running an updated version of this program after having previously ran it I was just trying to play it safe. Plus I wanted to be sure that the stuff I had originally turned off was also toggled off this time and that the new updates were set to be installed.

Since the program announced that it would not apply my saved module settings because they were from an older version, I did need to go in and toggle those things I do not want to the bypass position.

I've got that right, correct? The few things I didn't want were set to be installed, so I needed to go in and turn those parts off.

I'm sure if I ran it again with the same version of Auto-Patcher, it would find and apply the saves I made and so my additional check of each process wouldn't be necessary. But if left to defaults, I'd get that stuff. That would be bad. I just feel it doesn't take too long to make sure it's all set to install what I want and not to install what I don't want.

[Eck]

A separate note:

I had already fixed up the erroneous install of that something 947 and 891711 official versions even after toggling off those in the July Auto-Patcher. I uninstalled Explore98, rebooted, uninstalled "947, rebooted, uninstalled 891711, rebooted, and reinstalled Explore98.exe. That fixed it all up.

Since Explore98 was the standalone version I also needed to toggle that off this time. Or, maybe I didn't have to? I guess that's your point. Even though it's set to install by default, you are saying that Auto-Patcher will detect that I already have that installed (even with the standalone version) and so would automatically not reinstall it.

[nathanson1947]

Not sure, given the shape of my computer, how valid this report is, but posting it just in case others had the same problem. The Autopatcher August 2007 got stuck at the following point. The report and log are also attached.

I_Result_September_6__2007.txt

Report_September_6__2007.txt