Topic: Mult-Boot CD

Hi There,

Not so new to DriverPacks (used them about a year and a half ago) but definately new to several processes around creating Muti-Boot Packages. I have at this stage created two XP packages one which will be used in a corporate environement, where very little tweaking and mods have been made anf the other for home use where several options have been changed. For those of you familiar with it I used Nlite to make these mods.......I've also Driverpacked them and applied RyanVM's updates. I did not however use the unattended option as I did not think or if I'm honest did not know whether I should if I am creatign a MB Package.

That said can someone provide me with some guidance to the following:

1. Should I be using the unattended option within Nlite, if so can I use it again without messing the DP's, Mods, and Updates up?
2. If Not can someone provide some instructions (detailed please) that would allow me to create a MB using what I've already made?

Thanks

Re: Mult-Boot CD

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

Founder of DriverPacks.net — wimleers.com

Re: Mult-Boot CD

it doesnt need to be easy, but it does need to work, I cant find any detailed docs on xp pp so I'm reluctant to use

Re: Mult-Boot CD

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/

Founder of DriverPacks.net — wimleers.com

Re: Mult-Boot CD

I use flyakite's as well. It's pretty old, though. I'm not sure if it's the best anymore.

Re: Mult-Boot CD

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"

Re: Mult-Boot CD

Ok

1 not useing DriverPacks correctly you need to select mass textmode min for each platform.

2 \i386\asms folder contains some machine specific exceptions that havent been used in years. they are unneeded and removed by most of us as useless files. since they are not modified by us this question really has no place here at all (its not even remotely related to DriverPacks)

So the unneeded files that are not modified by us - what heppend to them - who knows, more importantly who cares...

I am going to say the files got corrupted... start with a clean source and try again...

best of luck ... but when you ask questions that are totaly unrealated to DriverPacks don't be surprized if no one answers you...

(if you cant say anything nice wink)

I would jsut use nlite to remove that folder altogether

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Re: Mult-Boot CD

OverFlow wrote:

I am going to say the files got corrupted... start with a clean source and try again...

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.

OverFlow wrote:

(if you cant say anything nice wink)

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

Re: Mult-Boot CD

you should also slipstream the third folder set... prar

dont do it manualy

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Re: Mult-Boot CD

OverFlow wrote:

you should also slipstream the third folder set... prar

dont do it manualy

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)

Re: Mult-Boot CD

i have not tried fly a kites version... IDK
it seemed like it was also an i386 folder to target from your descriptiion.

I would have to build one to be of more help... if i have a chance i will...
but someone may just show up with the answer first wink

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Re: Mult-Boot CD

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 wink

Re: Mult-Boot CD

7yler wrote:

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

I prefer to think of it as a challenge rather than frustrating :-)

7yler wrote:

make sure you read through the threads over at MSFN.

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

Indeed. It's MSFN that started me off on this trek some years ago ...

7yler wrote:

flyakite’s guide is good, but it very old now.

It is old, but the later methods either add to it (e.g. by slipstreaming more stuff) or try to automate much of it.

I try to do as much of it myself, so that when it goes wrong (and it does go wrong!) I have more of an idea about where to look. Or at least I can ask an almost sensible question :-)

7yler wrote:

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 wink

The main tool is a .exe that looks like it goes and creates the full AIO-DVD tree - but it doesn't look like there's much customization possible. My AIO-DVD has grown organically, so - for example - I've left the SP0,SP1,SP2,SP3 directories lying around for Home & Pro rather than cleaning them up. (And I'm loathe to wipe them now since I found a machine last year which wouldn't install with SP3 but would install with SP1 and then accept an upgrade to SP3 ... ). There are also  a few scripts lying around in that thread. I may have to sit down and give it a go sometime.

So if that tool works with DriverPacks, then that's great but - unless I can pull it apart and find out how it updates PRAR etc. - then I'm going to have to plough a different furrow.

For now I've knocked up a dirty ruby script that reads the I386 txtsetup.sif and txtsetup.org and looks for added .SYS lines, making a list of updated drivers as it goes. It then tries to catch drivers that have been updated (but already existed) by checking .SY_ files in PRAR that are have a different MD5 hash to those in I386 and adds those to the list of updated drivers. Then it runs through and writes the required copy (and sometime sattrib) command to the output, but only if the I386 file is newer that the PRAR file. A batch file wrapped around that handles the six cases I care about (regular, unattended, unattended+apps, each for Home + Pro).

Perhaps I should add a feature request: DP must know which files it has updated and altered in txtsetup.sif - if it could log those in some convenient way (even a tagged line in the log - "TXT-SETUP-CHANGE: amdide.sys" - or similar) then I could post-process that easily with a script and copy across the required files.

Anyway, thanks for the input. I have a working solution now and I'll see how it goes.

-- deadbug

Re: Mult-Boot CD

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) wink

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Re: Mult-Boot CD

OverFlow wrote:

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) wink

That's lucky (for me!).

I've modified the script to use that file as input. The first attempt failed so I had to look a bit more closely.

A typical entry looks like this:

ms_count=1
ms_1_deviceName="AMCC 3ware 9000/9500 SATA RAID"
ms_1_tag="3wareDrv"
ms_1_sysFile="3wareDrv.SYS"
ms_1_hwids="PCI\VEN_13C1&DEV_1002&SUBSYS_100213C1,PCI\VEN_13C1&DEV_1003&SUBSYS_100313C1,PCI\VEN_13C1&DEV_1004&SUBSYS_100413C1,PCI\VEN_13C1&DEV_1004&SUBSYS_100513C1"
ms_1_isBusExtender=false

So I assumed that this bit
  ms_1_sysFile="3wareDrv.SYS"
tells me which .SY_ file to look for in I386.

I soon realised that ms_(\d)_sysFile (i.e. any number) is a better match.

But then I hit a missing masdell.sys in the boot process. That should come from here:

ms_count=2
ms_1_deviceName="Dell PERC 5i/6i (W2K)"
ms_1_tag="msasdell"
ms_1_sysFile="megasas.sys"
ms_1_hwids="PCI\VEN_1028&DEV_0015&SUBSYS_1F011028,PCI\VEN_1028&DEV_0015&SUBSYS_1F021028,PCI\VEN_1028&DEV_0015&SUBSYS_1F031028,PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0060&SUBSYS_1F0A1028,PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0060&SUBSYS_1F0B1028,PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0060&SUBSYS_1F0C1028,PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0060&SUBSYS_1F0D1028,PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0060&SUBSYS_1F111028"
ms_1_isBusExtender=false
ms_1_exc_skipIfOS="w2k3"

So now I'm wondering whether I'm interpreting the file properly.

Is there something that describes it? (I did look briefly, but not exhaustively).

Is it possible that ms_1_tag is the name of the .SY_ file I should look at in I386? In which case, what does ms_1_sysFile mean?

I might as well describe the processing (just in case I'm still getting something wrong once the above is cleared up):
  - build a list of drivers that might need to be copied from I386 to the relevant  boot directory
  - for each driver (if it exists in I386):
       if there is no driver of the same name in the boot directory or (the contents have changed AND the I386 version is newer) copy it across

Is that close?

Many thanks,

-- deadbug

Re: Mult-Boot CD

look in the docs folder wink
And Try this amazing new feature that we just invented it is called 'search' wink
Also we invented another really cool thing called 'Frequently Asked Questions'.

we are hoping these innovative new ideas catch on tongue

we are here to help, not baby sit...

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Re: Mult-Boot CD

OverFlow wrote:

look in the docs folder wink

Ah - that's actually quite helpful. As it so happens, I changed last night to using the tag and that produced a working build.
The only problem is that a bunch of stuff was left lying around after the install, so it looks like the finisher didn't get called.
But that's a minor issue - the AIO-DVD install seems to have worked (I've yet to try it on real hardware but VirtualBox is quite happy).

OverFlow wrote:

And Try this amazing new feature that we just invented it is called 'search' wink

I did - how else would I find this thread here :-)

Like all v1.0 features it has a few implementation deficiencies: I cannot search all the forums in one go and it's by no means clear exactly which forum I should look in.

The thing you won't fix in v1.1 is that I'm not sure what I should search for ... multiboot might do ... I've tried ms_1_tag in a few of the forums before posting and it came up blank.

OverFlow wrote:

Also we invented another really cool thing called 'Frequently Asked Questions'.

Hopefully if a few other people ask, then it will crop up in there - if it's there now it's well hidden!

OverFlow wrote:

look in the docs folder wink
we are hoping these innovative new ideas catch on tongue

we are here to help, not baby sit...

They've not caught on anywhere else, but I admire your boundless optimism anyway :-)

My AIO-DVD and I are grateful for the baby-sitting.

Cheers,

-- deadbug

Re: Mult-Boot CD

LMAO

too funny! 

the faq is here  http://forum.driverpacks.net/viewtopic.php?id=2461
and here http://forum.driverpacks.net/viewtopic.php?id=1262

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