This is beyond odd and obviously unacceptable.

None of you are using a proxy server, right?

77

(36 replies, posted in Other)

I've optimized the images — I've converted them to PNG and optimized them with PNGCrush using the following call:

pngcrush -rem alla -reduce -brute input.png output.png

Next, I've put them on the CDN and created a simple clickable list of images. Please start linking to these instead, they will load faster: http://e1h7.simplecdn.net/driverpacksnew/other/userbars.

78

(2 replies, posted in Other)

Sorry for getting back to you so slowly. The reason I forgot about this, is that it *is* working. The last donation that was received was yesterday, so I'm afraid you're doing something wrong. Maybe there's something wrong with your PayPal account?

79

(14 replies, posted in Feedback and Support - DriverPacks Base)

This was in the wrong forum.

80

(2 replies, posted in Other)

Glad you love it!

And thanks for the donation! smile

81

(7 replies, posted in News)

Awesome smile Soon to appear on the frontpage …

Are these DriverPacks ready to become official DriverPacks? Complete and stable enough? It's super easy now to make new DriverPacks and I'd like to move these DriverPacks more into the spotlight smile

83

(18 replies, posted in News)

{more applause}

Carsten Giese, Lead Technical Architect at Symantec, sent me the following script via the contact form. I hope some of you can use it smile Thanks Carsten!

Carsten Giese wrote:

Hello, driverpack-team,
I have written a nice sysprep.inf-creator to create the MSD-section with a given extracted MSD-driverpack.
You may distribute the script "as it is" on your download-area.

The script does not need a sysprep-environment.
You just have to run on top of an extracted DriverPack MassStorage and it will create the output file.

Here is the code of indexMSDs.vbs:

'24.03.2009, carsten_giese@symantec.com
'This script creates an index of all supported devices found in a driver-library and writes it into "sysprep_MSD.inf"
'The inf-file can be used to add the required lines into sysprep.inf of the master-Image

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set WsShell = Wscript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
scriptpath = fso.GetFile(wscript.ScriptFullName).ParentFolder

'Create busy-file
set handle = fso.OpenTextFile(scriptpath & "\busy",2,true)
handle.WriteLine input
handle.Close

dim line
set inf = fso.OpenTextFile(scriptpath & "\sysprep_MSD.inf",2,true)
rootfolder=scriptpath & "\"
getFolderContent (rootfolder)
inf.close

fso.DeleteFile(scriptpath & "\busy")

'--------------------------------------------
Function GetFolderContent(Directory)
	'on error resume next 'if permission denied
	Dim fso, folder, filename,section,component,section2,component2
	dim pnpcache,pnpid,typ,ven,dev,sys,rev,oempath
	Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
	Set folder = fso.GetFolder(Directory)
	oempath=lcase(right(directory,len(directory)-len(rootfolder)))
	For Each file In folder.Files
		filename = lcase(file.name)
		if right(filename,4)=".inf" then
			line=getFileContent(directory & file.name)
			manufacturer=""
			lastdevice=""
			pnpsection=0
			pnpcache=","
			for i=0 to ubound(line)
				comment=instr(line(i),";")
				if comment>0 then line(i)=left(line(i),comment-1)
				if manufacturer="" then
					if instr(line(i),"[manufacturer]")>0 then
						i=i+1
						section=split(line(i),"=")
						component=split(section(1),",")
						manufacturer=trim(component(0))
						m1="[" & manufacturer & "]"
						m2="[" & manufacturer & "."
					end if
				else 'manufacturer <> ""
					if left(line(i),1)="[" then 'new inf-section
						pnpsection=instr(line(i),m1) + instr(line(i),m2) 'PNP-section found
					elseif pnpsection>0 then
						'get PnPID from this line
						if instr(line(i),"=")>0 then
							section2=split(line(i),"=")
							component2=split(section2(1),",")
							for device=1 to ubound(component2)
								pnpid=ucase(component2(device))
								pnpid=trim(replace(pnpid,vbTab,""))
								if instr(pnpcache,"," & pnpid & ",")=0 then
									devicename = getDeviceName(section2(0))
									inf.writeline pnpid & "=c:\drv\" & oempath & filename & devicename
									pnpcache = pnpcache & pnpid & ","
								end if
							next
						end if
					end if
				end if
			next
			inf.writeline
		end if
	Next

	For Each foldername in folder.SubFolders
		GetFoldercontent(Directory & foldername.name & "\")
	Next

	Set fso = nothing
	Set folder = nothing
End Function

function getFileContent(file)
	dim f,stream,cache
	set f = fso.GetFile(file)
	set stream = f.OpenAsTextStream(1,0)
	cache = stream.Read(f.Size)
	stream.close
	if instr(cache,"[Manufacturer]")=0 then cache=""
	getFileContent = split(lcase(cache),vbCrLf)
	set f = nothing
	set stream = nothing
end function

function getDeviceName(str)
	dim i,l,s1,s2,stringsection
	str=trim(replace(str,vbTab,""))
	if instr(str,"%")>0 then
		str=replace(str,"%","")
		s1="[strings]"
		s2="[strings."
		for i=0 to ubound(line)
			if left(line(i),1)="[" then
				stringsection=instr(line(i),s1) + instr(line(i),s2)
			elseif stringsection>0 then
				if instr(line(i),str)>0 then
					l=line(i)
					str=trim(split(l,"=")(1))
				end if
			end if
		next
	end if
	getDeviceName=" ; " & replace(ucase(str),"""","")
end function

Which results in an output file (sysprep_MSD.inf) like this:

PCI\VEN_13C1&DEV_1002&SUBSYS_100213C1=c:\drv\m\3\3waredrv.inf ; AMCC 3WARE 9500S SATA RAID CONTROLLER
PCI\VEN_13C1&DEV_1003&SUBSYS_100313C1=c:\drv\m\3\3waredrv.inf ; AMCC 3WARE 9550SX/9590SE SATA RAID CONTROLLER
PCI\VEN_13C1&DEV_1004&SUBSYS_100413C1=c:\drv\m\3\3waredrv.inf ; AMCC 3WARE 9650SE SATA RAID CONTROLLER
PCI\VEN_13C1&DEV_1004&SUBSYS_100513C1=c:\drv\m\3\3waredrv.inf ; AMCC 3WARE 9690SE SATA/SAS RAID CONTROLLER
SCSI\PROCESSOR__AMCC__SATA_RAID_9500S_=c:\drv\m\3\3wmanage.inf ; AMCC SATA RAID 9500S MANAGER
SCSI\PROCESSOR__AMCC__SATA_RAID_9550SX=c:\drv\m\3\3wmanage.inf ; AMCC SATA RAID 9550SX/9590SE MANAGER
SCSI\PROCESSOR__AMCC__SATA_RAID_9650SE=c:\drv\m\3\3wmanage.inf ; AMCC SATA RAID 9650SE MANAGER
SCSI\PROCESSOR__AMCC__SATA_RAID_9690SA=c:\drv\m\3\3wmanage.inf ; AMCC SATA RAID 9690SA MANAGER
<snip>
PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3164&CC_0101=c:\drv\m\v3\vminiide.inf ; VIA BUS MASTER IDE CONTROLLER - 3164
PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_0581&CC_0101=c:\drv\m\v3\vminiide.inf ; VIA BUS MASTER IDE CONTROLLER - 0581	
PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_5324&CC_0101=c:\drv\m\v3\vminiide.inf ; VIA BUS MASTER IDE CONTROLLER - 5324
PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_C409&CC_0101=c:\drv\m\v3\vminiide.inf ; VIA BUS MASTER IDE CONTROLLER - C409
PCI\VEN_104B&DEV_1040=c:\drv\m\vm\vmscsi.inf ; VMWARE SCSI CONTROLLER

Thanks playtoy smile

Your donation will be used to pay the next server bill smile

You have to sign up first Mark. Thanks for contributing! smile

87

(12 replies, posted in News)

BigBrit wrote:

WOW does that look nice, a lot of hard work went into that. Thanks for the countless hours you spent on it and everyone else who worked on it.

Thanks smile

dnoiz wrote:

CONGRATZ !

Finally euh ;-) ...

Keep up the good work all ... 2009 might have another donation in place now that my previous one has been put to good use with the new site smile.

Thanks and … heh tongue I completely understand your concern. I wish I'd have had more time the past few years, but either I needed to make money by working (and hence no time for DriverPacks) or I needed to study for university.
You can expect more features to be rolled out over the summer — I've reserved a lot of time for the DriverPacks smile

88

(12 replies, posted in News)

Not very soon. Migrating the forum is *a lot* of work. And keeping all URLs operational (setting up the necessary redirects) is very complex.

I think it's smarter to focus on expanding the main site's capabilities first. I.e. allow application developers to access all the information we store (think along the lines of a much more sophisticated version of the DriverPacks BASE for Windows 7), adding tutorials and so on. The tutorial Overflow wrote (and you contributed too IIRC) is not lost by the way, I can still access it. That'll be the next big thing, but it'll have to wait until July, i.e. until after my exams.

89

(12 replies, posted in News)

Finally the time has come! The new web site went live today!

Thanks to coordination with Overflow, the transition went flawlessly. You'll notice that DriverPacks BASE 8.12.5 has been released. This new version can automatically update the DriverPacks from their new locations. Automatic updating in 8.12.4 will no longer work.

So … what's new?

The highlights:
- No more mind-killing clicking through pages to get to the download page! Clear and intuitive navigation instead.
- A clear explanation of what the DriverPacks are on the main site. This makes it easier for new users to grasp what this project is about.
- A no-nonsense design. Focus on the content. It won't win beauty contests, but it lets us focus on what we do best: produce valuable content!
- MD5 hashes are now also displayed.
- It's now possible for us to add new DriverPacks very easily. Making 3rd party DriverPacks into official ones is no longer an issue. And you can expect the Vista DriverPacks to become available through the main site very soon now smile
- Access to all DriverPacks releases! You can browse them hierarchically: OS > Version > Architecture > DriverPack. (All DriverPacks release data has been migrated, which was quite a feat.)
- At each of the levels in the hierarchy mentioned above, you can get an RSS feed of the latest DriverPacks at that level!
- It already supports the importing of all driver meta data (HWIDs and driver versions of each driver in the DriverPack). The software to collect that data is almost ready and will then be included with future DriverPack releases. This will make it possible to create a tool that checks the HWIDs on a pc, connects to DriverPacks.net to ask which DriverPacks are necessary, and then downloads those DriverPacks. Yes, this effectively is the long-expected driver database!


Hope you like it!

90

(3 replies, posted in Windows 7 Discussion)

BigBrit wrote:

Seems as if the June 1st was not as accurate as Microsoft would have us believe.

Portion of an article on Neowin:

Watch the calendar. The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows will notify you two weeks before the bi-hourly shutdowns start. To avoid interruption, you'll need to install a non-expired version of Windows before March 1, 2010. You'll also need to install the programs and data that you want to use.

Exactly. That part is less widely known. So I guess Microsoft is getting more credit than it deserves …

91

(10 replies, posted in Windows 7 Discussion)

SamLab wrote:

404 File Not Found sad Please fix this problem

Fixed!

On May 3, at 21:00 GMT+1, the web server's OS will be updated. (To 64-bit Debian Lenny.)

The downtime should be limited to 20-30 minutes.

Thanks for your understanding!


(Initially the date of May 2 was announced, but due to technical reasons, it was impossible to continue the maintenance on this date.)

UPDATE: the maintenance was successful! smile

UPDATE 2: a kernel security patch that didn't make it into Debian Lenny must be installed ASAP. This will happen on May 10, at 22:00 GMT +1.

UPDATE 3: OS patched. It only took 30 seconds smile

It *is* much clearer on the new site smile See http://dev.driverpacks.net for the current version.

You might be able to enjoy a small discount, I'm not sure. But of course they sponsor our downloads to show off the quality of their services and to gain new customers. smile

Let us know how it worked out!

P.S.: the speed of the web site is *not* impressive, or just ok?

95

(8 replies, posted in Feature Requests)

Much appreciated, raummusik smile

And a new version of the site is ready for testing, it'll soon be online at http://dev.driverpacks.net. It does support MD5 hashes smile

96

(45 replies, posted in Vista-Tool)

It may be cool to create a screencast as a means of creating a tutorial. A free, good tool to create screencasts is http://www.jingproject.com/.

That site had only a couple of thousand pageviews per month so I decided to not continue to pay for the hosting. I've still got back-ups of the site though, so we could still put the content back online.

I should've downloaded the page when it was still on line. What a noob I was back then sad

I'll try to do what I can for a possible new "history" section on the site smile But it's got an extremely low priority of course.

Yes, I'll make this MUCH more clear on the new site smile

Fixed.