Hotfix slipstream vs integrate?

[Ogopogo]

Forgive me if this is discussed elsewhere. I was unable to find anything via search.

This is my first time working towards an automated install disc. Unfortantly, I have to use a complete microsoft solution (No nlite, RyanVM, etc).

I am having a hard time deciding how to handle hotfixes. I have downloaded all of them off the sticky hotfix post.

Installing them via the svcpack.inf file does not work as well as I would like. The drawbacks that I see are extra time, extra file size, and the fact that the system is brought up on the network before the hotfixes are installed. The pros are that all hotfixes are installed at the same time, and qchain can be used to ensure that the proper file versions are retained.

I would like to use the /integrate method since it will take less time, will not require the KB.exes to be extracted, and will provide protection to the system during the install process. However, there is always the problem of Type 2 hotfixes which do not support the /integrate switch. Also, by doing so, I cannot rely on qchain.

A third possibility is to take the time to extract all the hotfixes and cross reference the Type 1s to the Type 2s to ensure that the proper order is taken. If any Type 1 hotfixes replace files of an earlier Type 2 hotfix, then I would have to add the Type 1 to the svcpack.inf rather than using /integrate on it.

I suppose the biggest question is, is it possible that a Type 1 hotfix would replace files that might be altered previously (KB# previously) by a Type 2 hotfix? Also, would any application installs possibly be covered under a Type 1 hotfix? Application examples would be WMP9/10/11, DirectX, IE6, etc.

Like I said before, I am having a really hard time deciding how to handle hotfixes in the best possible manner. Any advice would be apprecaited.

Thanks,

- Ogo

[RyanVM]

/integrate still requires the hotfixes to be installed from svcpack.inf

[Ogopogo]

Doh! Goes to show my noobness... lol! Thanks a lot Ryan

[yogi_bear_79]

I prefer the nLite method.

[Ogopogo]

Alright... I thought I had it handled here, but on one last stumbling block.

I am attempting to use the /integrate switch on all Type 1 hotfixes to provide instant protection. However, I noticed that the whole KB#.exe's are still copied to i386\svcpack as well as the KB#.cat file. I am failing to understand why the EXEs are still required after integration.

I tried removing all the KB#.exe's from i386\svcpack and removed the necessary entries from svcpack.inf. It worked for the most part, but there are still 4-5 hotfixes which it did not work for. Is there some way to get the hotfixes to integrate cleaner?

If I have to still have the execuables in there, then where I would I append the Type2 hotfixes and other apps (eg: WMP11)? Also, for some reason, the /integrate puts all the entries in svcpack.inf in reverse order. Is that correct, or do I have to switch all of them around? I /integrated them in the correct KB#.exe order.

Thanks for any help,

- Ogo

[RyanVM]

That was the point I made earlier . It needs to run them from svcpack.inf in order for the registry entries and QFE versions of the files to be installed on the system.

And all hotfixes from the last 2-3 years have had so-called qchain functionality built into them. Install order makes no difference whatsoever.

But I can't say it any more clearly than this - there is NO officially Microsoft-sanctioned way for directly integrating fixes into the XP install source. Do you think my pack would be so popular if there were?

Edited November 29, 2006 by RyanVM

[Ogopogo]

Ryan,

Thanks again. I think for now I am just going to run the hotfix exes from the svcpack.inf without doing the /integrate. Loose a little protection that way, but at least it will save me some space on the media for drivers.

Maybe one day I will go back and see about extracting the QFE versions of the hotfixes, recompress them, extract the .cat files, and compile all the registry changes into a single .reg file which could be imported during the cmdlines.txt portion. But that would certinatly be for a different day.

Speaking of which, what's the difference between the QFE and GDR versions of the hotfix files?

The more I look into this stuff, the better and better nLite with Ryan's pack seems to be. Unfortantly, I really want to be able to know exactly how everything is put together and to maintain it on my own. Would be a real problem to rely on Ryan's pack then a week later he gets hit by a bus or something.

- Ogo

[RyanVM]

Here's the MS KB article explaining the difference between QFE and GDR.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;824994

I'm certainly not opposed to you basically "decompiling" my pack if you're interested. It's pretty straightforward actually. The main things you'd want to look over are RVMUpPck.inf (which contains all of the registry entries and DLL registrations) and entries.ini, which tells the Integrator what to add/modify in txtsetup.sif, dosnet.inf, etc. The stuff in entries.ini can be done by hand, but you might as well make use of the tools available to do the hard work for you .