Integrating SATA and RAID drivers with HFSLIP

[Oleg_II]

glentium

Perfect! Marvelous!

So some work with STORAGE.INI is needed... OK! I'll correct these mistakes.

[Tomcat76]

Seeing the post by Glentium, I wanna propose the following (for HFSLIP):

SYS files > 1,,,,,,3_,4,1,,,1,4

INF files > 1,,,,,,,20,0,0,,1,20

other files > 1,,,,,,,2,0,0,,1,2

[Oleg_II]

Tomcat76

Go ahead!

[Tomcat76]

It's done (61016a).

Also, nothing is added to DOSNET.INF if it isn't detected. This also applies to HFEXPERT\DRIVERCAB.

[glentium]

Big thanks to glentium for testing it and catching bugs!

No problem, glad I could help..

BTW, the latest storage.ini and HFSLIP 61016a works perfectly well for me in integrating my SATA drivers.

With regards to filling up the database with more drivers, I think we can use BTS pack which offers a lot of SATA drivers. All the information needed to put records in storage.ini are in the INFs.

Edited October 17, 2006 by glentium

[Oleg_II]

All the information needed to put records in storage.ini are in the INFs.

Yeah... It took me about 3 hours to make it. I tried correcting the old STORAGE.INI but found that's easier to take info from INF files (as you suggested). And I'm not done with NVIDIA drivers yet.

And I make it in sections for different manufactorers - hope it would be easier to update that way.

With regards to filling up the database with more drivers, I think we can use BTS pack which offers a lot of SATA drivers.

That would be nice but it take too much time. I'll check it when I have time. If somebody could help

New database file is ready. Please test it with the latest beta of HFSLIP.

If your hardware is not listed please let me know and I add it into the database.

If somebody is willing to continue updating and support the database please also let me know.

I'm done with this untill I have some more time to check BTS driver packs and a computer with such hardware. Hope it will be before this year Christmas

PS Want to know your opinion: is it better to have one big file STORAGE.INI or make it as a few smaller ones like STORAGE_INTEL.INI, STORAGE_SIS.INI, STORAGE_VIA.INI, etc.?

Edited October 17, 2006 by Oleg_II

[glentium]

my vote goes to smaller individual database per hardware... that way:

users just copy the appropriate one depending on their hardware to HFEXPERT\STORAGE

or they could copy all databases, especially if they are creating universal CD/DVDs

[tain]

This forum post outlines a way to test RAID drivers in VMWare. Not sure if it is worth the effort, though, since Oleg seems to have this working and the VMWare method only lets you test the VMWare drivers; it cannot be configured to test others.

[Oleg_II]

TAiN

Thank you for notice. There is some information in STORAGE.INI concerning VMWare drivers:

;--------------------------------------------------

;VMWARE

[HardwareIdsDatabase]PCI\VEN_104B&DEV_1040 = "vmscsi", "VMware SCSI Controller"

[sCSI]

vmscsi = "VMware SCSI Controller"

So I think it's covered and should work with current HFSLIP beta.

I don't have VMWare so can't test. If somebody can check it it would be great.

Edited October 21, 2006 by Oleg_II

[tain]

I intend to test this in VMWare but won't be able to do so until next week.

[iTwins]

Tomcat76

It's =1,,,,,,3_,4,1,,,1,4 for all files according to scankurban.

It's = 1,,,,,,4_,4,1,,,1,4 for SYS files in TommyP's example.

It's = 1,,,,,,_x,4,1 in Anderz's example (he made it uncompressed but according to others it's not necessery).

Two more tutorials (including MSFN's one) state = 1,,,,,,3_,4,1 for SYS files.

Too many choices.

Now I'm thinking of what: maybe you are right just placing them into i386 but don't add into TXTSETUP.SIF and DOSNET.INF - when installing drivers Windows will search for them in i386 folder on CD too.

But anyway if you don't mind let it be =1,,,,,,3_,4,1,,,1,4 for now. If something goes wrong after testing it's simple to change the string

btw, I noticed XP works better with "1,,,,,,4_,4,1,,,1,4" while 2000 and 2003 work better with "1,,,,,,3_,4,1".

I really don't have a clue why but over the years I have adopted this method and it seems alright.

[iTwins]

Tomcat76

Disturbing you again

I replied you in test version topic about it:

No the order of sections is not important. It's fine now.

I'm not sure about SYS files only. I think only SYS are refferenced in section SCSI.load of TXTSETUP.SIF.

And I see some other files in packages: DLL, EXE, CPL, TAG, VXD and PDB.

CAT and INF files are not refferenced in scankurban's version.

I think it's not important right now.

Maybe other files needed in TXTSETUP.SIF and DOTNET.SIF too. It's better to mentions them too only under [sourceDisksFiles] section.

Only TXTSETUP.OEM is definetelly not needed.

I noticed most of the newer drivers (ie. IBM ServeRAID 7k) do not use the other supporting files such as DLL, EXE, etc. Or at least they do not need it after it has completed OS installation. But I remember vividly that the IBM ServeRAID 4L/4M Controller needs the NFRDCI04.DLL during GUI installation. If the file is not present during installation, it will pop up a dialog asking to provide the location of the files. If you ignore them, it will BSoD. That is one of the reason why I copy all the vendor-supplied files into the directory specified in the UNATTEND.TXT's "OEMPnPDriversPath" string....just in case. In HFSlip's case (since you don't use answer files), it may be necessary to specify all supporting files into TXTSETUP.SIF and possibly DOSNET.INF as well. I find the work too tedious AND at work we use answer files, so I never really investigate this further.

Update:

I found a controller that uses its supplied DLL file. Check out the QLogic QL4010 iSCSI Controller that has a customized GUI similar to the standard Microsoft device dialog. Right-clicking on the Qlogic iSCSI Adapter device and you will see this dialog:

The QLogic QL4010 uses the QL4X00PP.DLL file:

Yup. You need all its supporting files as well.

NOTE. Copying all the files into I386 without specifying them in TXTSETUP.SIF may not enough. The supporting files are needed during the GUI installation phases and during that phase, the $WIN_NT$.BT~ and $WIN_NT$.BT temp directories are already deleted. Because of this, you may need to tell the OS to copy these non-SYS files into the SYSTEM32 folder.

BTW, HFSLIP is the most amazing batch file I've ever seen. Well done!

Edited October 23, 2006 by iTwins

[Oleg_II]

iTwins

Your advices are very much appreciated

Tomcat76

btw, I noticed XP works better with "1,,,,,,4_,4,1,,,1,4" while 2000 and 2003 work better with "1,,,,,,3_,4,1".

I really don't have a clue why but over the years I have adopted this method and it seems alright.

Is it possible to make HFSLIP choose the string if the source is different?

In HFSlip's case (since you don't use answer files), it may be necessary to specify all supporting files into TXTSETUP.SIF and possibly DOSNET.INF as well.

According to this advice it may be usefull to include all files except SYS into TXTSETUP.SIF.

Unfortunately we don't have much testers but I think this method should be even more reliable than integrating drivers with driver.cab because it's even simpler.

By the way I think to put all SATA/RAID drivers I found into a package and upload it to Rapidshare.de.

[iTwins]

According to this advice it may be useful to include all files except SYS into TXTSETUP.SIF.

Correction. According to this advice it may be useful to include all files INCLUDING SYS into TXTSETUP.SIF. If the SYS files are not included in the TXTSETUP.SIF, the system will BSoD at the initial Text Mode installation phase. The loading of RAID drivers are done in two separate phases. The first phase is the initial blue TEXTMODE screen. It's main purpose there is to load the RAID driver so that it can recognize and format hard disks or do FAT/FAT32 to NTFS conversion. The second phase is during the middle of GUI installation where the system is configuring the Windows GUIs. If the system found that the RAID driver is associated with support files, it will link and load them. Here, if the support files are not found, it will popup a dialog asking for the location of the files. If ignoring them, it will most likely BSoD.

Unfortunately we don't have much testers but I think this method should be even more reliable than integrating drivers with driver.cab because it's even simpler.

hehe...I hear you. However, I don't have too many servers for testing either. If your procedures are done accordingly and conforms to standards, you really only need one RAID controller for testing. The other drivers should work exactly the same way.

The drivers that are included in my RAID Slipstreamer v2.0 tool, well, I have only physically tested less than 10% of the RAID controllers listed there. Normally, I get requests from country IT support staffs who have the "unsupported" controller on their servers. They simply send me the RAID drivers and I update the RAID Slipstreamer tool. They will then send me feedback whether it works or not. In most cases, they work flawlessly. In cases where it didn't work, it was usually because the vendor had introduced a new variation of an existing controller and have updated the driver to include new Plug 'n' Play codes. Ex. "PCI\VEN_9005&DEV_0286&SUBSYS_95801014".

Nevertheless, I'll be happy to lend a hand whenever possible.

I think in HFSLIP's case, it would be very hard to slipstream drivers because each vendor store their drivers differently. Some vendors also like to put their drivers into subfolders categorized by platform types (IBM loves doing that!). For example:

\OEMSETUP.INF
  \2003\DRIVER.SYS
  \2003\DRIVER.DLL
  \2003\DRIVER.CAT
  \2000\DRIVER.SYS
  \2000\DRIVER.DLL
  \2000\DRIVER.CAT
  \XP\DRIVER.SYS
  \XP\DRIVER.DLL
  \XP\DRIVER.CAT

CAREFUL, although they appear to have the same filename, they are not always the same!! Using of the wrong platform drivers could lead to BSoD.

Anyways, in this case, either you modify the OEMSETUP.INF to tell it to find the drivers in the root instead OR you add the drivers in "\I386\$OEM$\$1\Drivers\RAID" exactly the way the vendor has specified:

..\I386
  ..\$OEM$
	..\$1
	 ..\Drivers
	   ..\RAID
		 ..\OEMSETUP.INF
		   ..\2003\DRIVER.SYS
		   ..\2003\DRIVER.DLL
		   ..\2003\DRIVER.CAT
		   ..\2000\DRIVER.SYS
		   ..\2000\DRIVER.DLL
		   ..\2000\DRIVER.CAT
		   ..\XP\DRIVER.SYS
		   ..\XP\DRIVER.DLL
		   ..\XP\DRIVER.CAT

You may need to find some way to read the directory info from the OEMSETUP.INF and then migrate it to the TXTSETUP.SIF and/or DOSNET.INF. Just make sure you remember this advice:

CAREFUL, although they [the drivers] appear to have the same filename, they are not always the same!! Using of the wrong platform drivers could lead to BSoD.

I think you guys should have no problems. Since trying out HFSLIP, I no longer underestimate the power of batch programming. Keep up the good work, guys!

For more info, see my post here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...173&st=164#

[iTwins]

May I also add that if support files are referenced in the OEMSETUP.INF, then it is strongly advised to add them into the TXTSETUP.SIF.

Although unrelated to RAID drivers, but integrating graphic card drivers are done similarly. If you noticed, the layout of the OEMSETUP.INF for RAID and VIDEO drivers are almost exactly the same.

But then, some vendors have their own way to doing things that is differently from the rest of the boys. Some of the nVidia drivers are a real pain in the butt - especially those Quadro drivers. Eventhough the files are not referenced in the OEMSETUP.INF, these unlisted files are probably called by the DLL files themselves. If you missed one CHM or HLP file for example, it will abort the installation. Maybe this was the reason why your HFSLIP 60810 did not work. Don't feel bad though, nLite v1.2 RC didn't work either.

Sorry to make it sound confusing. Anyways, the moral of the story is, it is better to reference ALL files in TXTSETUP.SIF...just in case.