PnP custom 2000 CD 1

[corpanarchy]

Heya,

We have tried to create a custom bootable 2000 installation CD with non-native drivers.

Unfortunately, though we have all of the relevant fields within the answer file and the relevant directory structure on the CD, the drivers still aren't installing. What we want to do is create a CD where an $OEM$ directory is automatically copied over to sysroot\system32\drivers and then have them install during GUI mode.

Here is a sample of our answer file:

;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
AutoPartition=1
MsDosInitiated="0"
UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]
UnattendMode=FullUnattended
FileSystem=LeaveAlone
OemPreinstall=No
OemFilesPath=$OEM$
OEMPnPDriversPath=drivers\mat200;drivers\nv52;drivers\usb;drivers\mat200
OEMSkilEULA=Yes
OEMSkipWelcome=1
DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
TargetPath=WINDOWS

[GuiUnattended]
OemSkipWelcome=1
AdminPassword=password
AutoLogon=Yes
AutoLogonCount=2
OEMSkipRegional=1
TimeZone=85

[UserData]
ProductID=xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx
FullName="Northwind Traders"
OrgName="Northwind Traders"
ComputerName=London

[Display]
BitsPerPel=16
Xresolution=800
YResolution=600
Vrefresh=60

[LicenseFilePrintData]
AutoMode=PerServer
AutoUsers=100

[TapiLocation]
CountryCode=44

[RegionalSettings]
LanguageGroup=1
Language=00000809

[Branding]
BrandIEUsingUnattended=Yes

[Proxy]
Proxy_Enable=1
Use_Same_Proxy=1
HTTP_Proxy_Server=10.150.20.1:8080

[Identification]
JoinWorkgroup=WORKGROUP

[Networking]
InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

The current directory structure on the CD is:

root\$OEM$\$1\drivers\driver name
root\i386\winnt.sif & installation files.

Any insight?

Just so ya know, M$ doesn't support this but from what I understand, more than a few have been able to sort it out.

Thanks!
Tiffany

 

[bcastner]

1. Microsoft documents the process of replacing driver and hotfix files in a slipstream:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;814847

I think your comment that Microsoft does not support the process is in error.

2. I use this method for drivers:

OemPnPDriversPath=

Example:
OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\000_intel_INF;Drivers\001_gigabit_LAN;Drivers\002_monitor"

This is where you can tell Setup to search your updated drivers directories to find a better match than what's in the existing drivers.cab on the CD. If it finds a better match it will install those instead.

Note: Seperate different directories with a semi-colon ";"

DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
This will force Setup to install drivers that may not be WHQL certified. This is used in conjunction with OemPnPDriversPath. (Feedback from the MSFN forums have said that this doesn't always work. Try to use WHQL certified drivers if you can!)

How to prepare your drivers:

All drivers are packaged differently, which is why one can't make a guide for every driver. But most of them can be extracted using extraction software and will contain one, or several INF files inside.

Extract your driver package to any folder, and examine the contents of it. Sometimes you will find several sub-folders containing the INF files in which case you need to make seperate direct paths to them in OemPnPDriversPath. This is because Windows Setup will not scan any sub-folders for any INF files.

Name your folders starting with numbers, this ensures that drivers get installed in numerical order. As you may already know that its important for chipset drivers to be installed before any other driver. Here's an example below:

000_chipset
001_network
002_graphics
003_tv_out
004_sound
005_monitor
006_keyboard
007_mouse

So first, its the chipset drivers, then your network card, followed by graphics and sound (and tv out if you have one), then monitor drivers (after graphics), and lastly any peripherals such as the keyboard and mouse.

Copy all your driver folders to C:\WINNTCD\$OEM$\$1\drivers
Open up winnt.sif and add these two lines under the [Unattended] section (the paths to the drivers are an example, simply replace with your own):

OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\000_intel_INF;Drivers\001_gigabit_LAN;Drivers\002_monitor"
DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore

As you can see, its pointing to the folder where the .inf files are stored, not directly to the .inf file itself. Save winnt.sif and you're all done!

Troubleshooting

Not all drivers installations will work using this method. If you come across one that doesn't work, then you may want to consider doing a silent installation on the driver package itself and run it from [GuiRunOnce].

 

[jrbarnett]

Just a related question that I haven't found elsewhere:

Is it possible to add extra disk controller drivers to the list, which will be used during the blue text mode initial setup phase, and if so, how?

John

 

[bcastner]

John,

The MSFN Forum has a forum dedicated only to unattended and slipstream installation issues.

Here is the FAQ from the forum, there is greater detail in the forum postings themselves:

http://www.msfn.org/unattended/xp/gettingstarted.htm

Your question was how to include SCSI or SATA drivers:

(This is taken from the MS Help file for the deployment tools pack)

[OEMBootFiles]
Answer File = Unattend.txt

The [OEMBootFiles] section contains entries for specifying OEM-supplied boot files. This entry is valid only if you set OemPreinstall to Yes and you place the files listed here in the \$OEM$\Textmode folder of the OEM’s distribution share point.

This section is required if you use the ComputerType entry in either the [Unattended] or [MassStorageDrivers] sections of Unattend.txt.

Important

Add driver entries only to the [MassStorageDrivers] and [OEMBootFiles] sections for bootable mass-storage devices. Do not include secondary mass-storage devices. Instead, add the drivers for secondary mass-storage devices to the folder specified by the OemPnPDriversPath entry in your unattended Setup answer file. Including drivers for non-bootable mass-storage devices in the [MassStorageDrivers] or [OEMBootFiles] sections causes an error during Setup.
HAL_file_name
Maps to a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) description in the ComputerType entry of the [Unattended] section of the Unattend.txt file.

SCSI_driver_file_name
Maps to a mass-storage device driver description defined in the [MassStorageDrivers] section of the Unattend.txt file. You can list multiple instances of SCSI_driver_file_name in the [OEMBootFiles] section.

TxtSetup.oem
This file contains descriptions of all the OEM-supplied drivers listed in this section and includes instructions on how to install them. This file must exist if the Unattend.txt file contains an [OEMBootFiles] section.

If your mass-storage device is a Plug and Play device, verify that a Hardware Identification section and a reference to the catalog file for the driver (<Driver>.cat) exist in the Txtsetup.oem file.

If the Hardware Identification section does not exist, you must add [HardwareIds.scsi.yyyyy] to the Txtsetup.oem file and verify that the following information is included:

id = xxxxx, yyyyy

where xxxxx represents the device ID, and yyyyy represents the service associated with the device.

 

[jrbarnett]

Thanks very much for that. I will give it a try, as otherwise I am resigned to needing a floppy drive for installing 2K on my PC for eternity, and with the quality of 3.5&quot; disks at the moment, I don't know how long my 4 copies of the driver disk will last...

Have a star on me.

John

 

[bcastner]

Be sure to see the entire site I linked above. While it is a pain, I have slipstreamed just about everything, including Office, on one CD.

In addition, I would be remiss not to mention what can be done by use the Windows PE to handle pre-installation issues such as hardware drivers. There is a good and detailed discussion in the MSFN Forum, as well as:

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

 

[corpanarchy]

bcastner- Check whatever KB article points to OEM PnP, they say it &quot;MS only supports doing this over a network share.&quot; We want to do it from a CD.

But hey, let's not be pedantic.

I'll skim through... Look at the answer file, your bit about the colon and location of the drivers is already there. As well as the &quot;ignore&quot; parameter.

<b>EVERYTHING you wrote is what we've done. EVERYTHING.</b>

Which is actually why I'm now asking for help.....

Did you look at the answer file or the directory structure at all? The GUIRunOnce parameter is not ideal but do you know what process we'd have to add to the answer file? I'm guessing we'd also have to script up something for the PnP wizard, any idea of where or what? Will we need a udf file?

 

[bcastner]

1. This is not right:
The current directory structure on the CD is:

root\$OEM$\$1\drivers\driver name
root\i386\winnt.sif & installation files.

2. OemPnPDriversPath= is a quoted string

 

[corpanarchy]

bcaster, the quoted string works just as well (not, as the case may be.) Not sure if I mentioned it but when placing the $OEM$ directory in the i386, the drivers directory copies to wherever I point it to (%System Root% drive root, whatever) but do not install during PnP.

Any more options?