Mult-Boot CD

If you want to have it the easy way, you may want to look at Siginet's Windows XP PowerPacker.

There simply aren't many docs about this... It's not something that's officially supported by Microsoft.

The best guide is AFAIK Flyakite's.

http://flyakite.msfn.org/

Hi All,

I’ve been using driverpacks for sometime now on single source boot disks, e.g. XP Pro.
All works sweet and I’ve been using multiboot disks now so I can switch between ‘original disks’ and unattended disks. However, the real value comes when integrating Bashrats’s driver disks…..

I’m struggling to finalise a multiboot disk with driverpacks, so I’ve documented what I have done on the basis it should be clear where the error is – and that other people can use the reference as a guide.

The error I get is :-

An error has occurred that prevents setup from continuing.
One of the components that windows needs to continue setup could not be installed.
Manifest parse error : An invalid character was found in text content.
Error:
SXS.DLL System error in manifest policy file ….\i386\asms\1\default\default.man
Manifest parse error

?

Guide
-----
1.    Set up a multiboot disk using flyakite’s guide shown here - http://flyakite.msfn.org/
2.    This will enable you to create multiple sources of XP, 98 etc on the same boot disk – and integrate patches/hot fixes etc.
3.    Once you have a fully operational multiboot disk, go to the version that you want to have driverpacks installed too.
4.    Run DPBase and select disc mode.
5.    Travserse to the required source directory and apply one of the driverpacks, but don’t start the slipstream process. E.g. C:\aiodvd\setup\xp\pro
6.    Export the settings, e.g. a.ini, for the first driverpack and repeat this process for subsequent driver packs, i.e. b.ini, c.ini etc.
7.    Restart DPBase and select multiboot, with c:\aiodvd as the directory.
8.    Click through the program and load up all the configuration (i.e. .ini files) created previously, and then begin the slipstream.
9.    The process will create an OEM directory in the root source, i.e. c:\AIODVD\OEM.
10.    Copy the TXTSETUP.INF file from C:\aiodvd\setup\xp\pro\i386 to the c:\AIODVD\pro4 directory, and edit the setupsourcepath to point to C:\aiodvd\setup\xp\pro (you would have had to do this when creating the multiboot disk solution with flyakites’ process).

k.ini example
-------------

[General]
; preferred language
prefLang    = "English"
; yes/no, enable or disable the wizard-style buttons, if not specified: yes
wizardButtons    = "yes"
; yes/no, enable or disable the GUI, if not specified: yes
GUI        = "yes"

[Settings]
; disc/bartpe/multibootDisc
instPlatform    = "disc"
; trailing backslash is allowed, but not necessary
location    = "C:\AIO-DVD\SETUP\XP\XPP-DPACK"
; none/all/select, if select, specify them below, if not specified: all
DriverPacks    = "select"
; 1/2, method to install the DriverPacks, if not specified: 2
DPsMethod    = "2"
; GUIRunOnce/RunOnceEx/custom, if not specified: GUIRunOnce
finisherMethod    = "GUIRunOnce"

; this section is optional!
[OptionalSettings]
; none/all/select/paths/patterns, enable or disable Keep The Drivers (KTD) , if not specified: none
KTD        = "false"
; <path>, to specify a custom KTD cache location, if not specified: default (%SystemRoot%\DriverPacks)
KTDlocation    = "%SystemRoot%\DriverPacks"
; yes/no, enable or disable QuickStream Cache (QSC), if not specified: yes
QSC        = "yes"

; you should only add this section if you've set [Settings]\DriverPacks to "select"
[SelectDriverPacks]
DP_Chipset    = "no"
DP_CPU        = "no"
DP_Graphics_A    = "no"
DP_Graphics_B    = "no"
DP_Graphics_C    = "no"
DP_LAN        = "no"
DP_MassStorage    = "no"
DP_Sound_A    = "no"
DP_Sound_B    = "no"
DP_WLAN        = "no"
DP_MassStorage_textmode = "yes"

I had a "Manifest Parse Error" just a few weeks ago. It happens to me _only_ in VirtualPC: VMWare and VirtualBox never hit the problem. Rebuilding the DVD from clean sources didn't help.

He did say something nice: his is the only post I've found with reasonably explicit instructions for multiboot-disk mode :-).

Now I seem to have finally got it to work (at least in a virtual machine) but I'm not convinced that I'm doing exactly the expected steps.

So here's what I've done and I would appreciate it if someone could point out where I'm going wrong.

I have what I think is a standard flyakite AIO-DVD with a bunch of OSes, the relevant ones here being Windows XP Pro and Home.

I have SP3 of each of those in a directory (e.g. \SETUP\XP\Pro\SP3) and I've copied that to e.g. \SETUP\XP\Pro\SPR
and then slipstreamed RyanVMs post-sp3 pack, slipstreamed WMP11 using boooggy's slipstreamer and finally slipstreamed IE7 using nLite.

At this stage things still work.

Now I want to add DriverPacks to both Pro and Home SPR.

So I run DPs_BASE.exe in disk mode, select \SETUP\XP\Pro\SPR, select all driver packs and export xp-pro.ini
Now I run DPs_BASE.exe in disk mode, select \SETUP\XP\Home\SPR, select all driver packs and export xp-home.ini
Finally I run DPs_BASE.exe in multiboot disk mode, add xp-pro.ini and xp-home.ini and specify the AIO root directory.
Then I let it slipstream.

Now I have to copy \SETUP\XP\Pro\SPR\I386\txtsetup.sif to \PRAR (for my unattended-with-apps install).
Finally I have to modify \PRAR\txtsetup.sif to put SetupSourcePath the way it needs to be to work.

I build an ISO, fire up the VM and early in the text-based setup it complains that there is no amdide.sys.

I find amdide.sy_ in \SETUP\XP\Pro\SPR\I386, copy it to \PRAR and try again. This time it's missing
atiide.sys.

I compare txtsetup.sif against the txtsetup.sif that was there before.

There's a small section of diffs:

amdide=amdide.sys
amdide1=amdide1.sys
atiide=atiide.sys
nvrd325=nvrd325.sys
nvraid=nvraid.sys
siside=siside.sys
viaide=viaide.sys

OK, I copy all of those over. Now it cannot find 3wareDrv.sys.
That's in a much larger section of diffs (about 118 lines!).

Well I'm not prepared to try 118 times, so I whip up a bat file to copy all of these files from
\SETUP\XP\Pro\SPR\I386 to \PRAR.

Now it boots. I can see the driver packs being processed so it looks like all is well (although I've yet to try on real hardware).

My problem, obviously, is that I've had to copy 125 or so files from I386 to \PRAR (and also my
boot-unattended and boot-normally directories too).

I cannot believe that this step is normally required and that no-one has mentioned it.

So did I miss some instructions somewhere?
Did I misuse the tool?
Is it intended to work with some other multiboot disk arrangement?
Does  DPs_BASE.exe in fact generate this info for me somewhere and I've just missed it?

-- deadbug

Thanks for the reply.

But I'm not sure how to do this.

\PRAR contains ~100 .dl_ and .sy_ files, txtsetup.sif, setupldr.bin and \system32 directory.

When I fire up DPs_BASE.exe I go through the following screens:

Start
Settings
Select location of platform
    - Here I select type Disc and browse to \AIO-DVD\PRAR.
      At the top it says "OS: NA"

The next available screen is Update Checker. There's no "Select the DriverPacks to slipstream"

If I try to slipstream here it tells me "There are not yet any slipstream modules available for the selected platform!". If instead I move along I hit the "About" panel.

If I choose Multiboot Disc and \PRAR, then it wants the settings files. But for multiboot I should be specifying the root directory.

Last edited by deadbug (2009-01-11 19:43:06)

Hi Deadbug,

Multiboot can be very frustrating to setup, make sure you read through the threads over at MSFN.

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=82

flyakite’s guide is good, but it very old now. MSFN forums have more up to date guides. Try this guide:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=74862

Drivepacks need to be integrated into your full i386 source, and wont work on the PRAR folder. The PRAR folder needs to be created from you i386 (after Driverpack intergration).

To create the PRAR folder, check out this thread:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=58446

Good luck

RE "DP must know which files it has updated and altered in txtsetup.sif"

we call that file DriverPack_MassStorage_wnt5_x86-32.ini (it is in the pack)

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