Win2K matters and using multiple techniques for driver installation

[Sulfurious]

Greetings.

I have made many unattended cd's, using most methods available. All for XP.

Now I find myself needing to make 2k images. Not that different, except for the winnt.sif file must reside on a floppy.

So, this got me thinking a bit. Follow me here and please give insights.

Regarding W2K UACD, the answer file is supplied via a floppy drive. While this is a small drawback, I now see that it is in fact a great advantage. Namely, I can simply change some values in the .sif file, and can then install UACD on any machine with custom winnt.sif. I can see that as being valuable where a network has many machines and I need to customize them.

This led me to another idea. Not new though. Bashrat has been supplying driver packs for some time now. I have used them. But, I am trying to do something maybe different, maybe not.

I wish to create a UACD with drivers preloaded into the $OEM$ dirs and install them from either the cd source if NOT using and answer file, or from the HDD if I am using an answer file.

Now, before you say "Wrong forum dude", this is not entirely a driver thread. Besides I did post in there and have yet to get a reply. Not as busy in there as here.

So, lets assume that I have gathered my .inf & .cat files. And that I have placed them into the $OEM$ directory structure properly. At that point then, if I use an answer file, those directories will be copied to the HDD. If there is no answer file, then they exist only on the UACD. Easy enough.

Now, let's say I used a driverpath entry in winnt.sif file. No problem, setup will get them from the HDD paths. However, this leaves me with driver capability only if I use a winnt.sif file. Let's assume I do not want to for this install.

With no winnt.sif file, how do I get the drivers to install from cd? There are methods, but it would seem that those methods require me to build a cd that only installs drivers from cd, never from HDD.

So, I prefer to use, I believe, Pyrons method. I should edit txtsetup.sif. I should add 2 values. I should include presetup.cmd in i386. I should include the driverwatch and setpath files in proper places. This is good. Also one has to extract setup.ex_ and rename and replace with new setup.ex_. A working method.

Now, here it gets different. In order to use the UACD for either type of installation, I must have both methods of driver install working. However, while what I have developed, mainly rewriting the presetup.cmd file, there are some issues.

So, here is what happens. Install with winnt.sif file, $OEM$ dirs are copied to HDD and drivers are installed. Install without winnt.sif file and drivers are installed from UACD.

No the problem. It installs the drivers regardless of if the hardware matches the driver. If I include a via chip driver, an intel chip will use it. I can assume it is because of the WatchDriverSigning.exe portion of the setup.

However, I believe there is some knowledge that I am lacking.

So, now the questions.

The files svcpack.inf, dosnet.inf, txtsetup.sif and others I vaguely recall, why and when do you edit/use them. Some methods are not used with types of install, like guirunonce vs. runonceex.

I have used the txtsetup.inf method, and that is the only file I ammended, and only the [sourceDisksFiles] section.

Interestingly, besides just putting a wrong driver on, my cmdlines.txt file, when using an answer file, correctly uses a setupAPI.dll call, to install some apps via INF DefaultInstall, but the RunOnceEx.cmd file I have also made (and used in other UACD's successfully) does not introduce itself to the registry key.

Now, I do test my installs on both vmware and live boxes. While in vmware, I would expect to see problems installing drivers, as vmware wishes to use it's own drivers. However, I would expect the RunOnceEx.cmd portion to work.

Strangely, it works on neither.

What is it that I have not included into my process? What other files would I wish to edit to achieve this. Or maybe not even to use txtsetup.sif, but another file instead.

Searching through this forum is most definately a time consuming and often fruitless process. There is way too much information to find that needle in the haystack. I have used it a lot in the past as I was learing how to do the basic methods. The magic "phrase to search for" seems to elude me here however.

Please excuse my ignorance on things that may be obvious. While I am more than capable of using a xpUACD, the 2k thing is somewhat different, and poses me with new possiblities.

Also I apologize that I have not posted a complete repositry of all the files that I have used. Suffice to say that it is all as found in the Unattended Guide, or at uAwiki.org, except for the customized presetup.cmd file.

Perhaps this should be in the drivers forum, but I think it is not so much driver specific, as process specific.

Thank you for any light you may be able to shed.

Regards,

Sul

[Incroyable HULK]

Now I find myself needing to make 2k images. Not that different, except for the winnt.sif file must reside on a floppy.

Not true, you can use the same method and techniques as Windows XP.

I also suggest you add reg.exe (compressed somewhere in the tool directory of your Win2K CD) in your System32 directory so you'll be able to use RunOnceEx method just like XP...

For the driver matter, maybe you should look into the Multi-Boot section of this forum.

[Sulfurious]

Could you expound on how to get the winnt.sif file to work with w2k without a floppy? I have tried it many times, and still cannot get it to work without a floppy involved.

I had not thought to add reg.exe. That may be why those were not added. I will try that. Excellent tip.

Sul

[Ctrl-X]

Could you expound on how to get the winnt.sif file to work with w2k without a floppy? I have tried it many times, and still cannot get it to work without a floppy involved.

IIRC, you can just add it to the i386 folder on the installation CD.

[Sulfurious]

lol, you sure would think so. That is how I have done it on many xp UACD's.

I made a pretty basic winnt.sif file, put in in i386, made image, installed. Nothing. So then I burnt it and installed on a live box. Nothing.

Some googling later shows that it is to be used from a floppy or command line. So, I put it on a floppy, and it works. I figured it would go into i386, but it sure does not.

I tried it on 2kpro & 2kadv server. Both do the same thing. This is an SP4 slipstreamed image.

So, what now?

sul.

[Ctrl-X]

Check out this topic: winnt.sif works from floppy, but not I386 folder

[Sulfurious]

lol, that is too much. sure enough, I did not have the upper case flag set when I made my images, nor did I burn it as uppercase.

Thanks for the link.

Sul