[edmoncu]

i wonder if files are case-sensitive. i had an error during the initial gui part of the setup that setupORG.exe is missing. my setuporg.exe file is placed on the i386 folder of the cd including the custom setup.ex_ file i downloaded.

[edmoncu]

sorry, made a double post. please disregard this one.

[RyanVM]

I'm not exactly sure what you're talking about, but Detached Programs should be placed in the $OEM$\$1 folder if that's what you're asking.

[edmoncu]

@Alanoll, so in doing this method, aside from REM'ming out the OemPnPDriversPath, i should REM out the DetachedProgram as well?

@RyanVM, just a couple of questions:

have you tried this method in an unattended cd setup? if so, are you using SFX-compressed archives in containing the drivers? i would also like to know where did you placed the necessary files? may i also know what does your presetup.cmd contains? thanks so much.

[Alanoll]

don't REM the lines. To comment in the Winnt.sif file, use a ; at the beginning of the line.

If it's complaining about a missing setuporg.exe, make sure you made the entries to txtsetup.sif AND dosnet.inf as shown in the first post. Otherwise, it's never copied from the CD, and presetup.cmd is launched from hdd.

@RyanVM

I believe edmoncu is trying to combine the two methods. But keep in mind, that your your SFX archive with all the drivers files, must be in $OEM$\$1 somewhere, and the line that then calls it is also refers to the directory it will be in. If you had a working DetachedProgram line, I said copy that to presetup.cmd. But it appears that you've only taken snippets from each of the methods, and trying to make it work.

[edmoncu]

@Alanoll,

Oh, I get it now (I hope)! Thanks!

So the decompression of the SFX-Compressed Archive has to be done under presetup.cmd?

I hope it would be possible to make an SFX RAR-Compressed archive that will work on a console (pre-gui) or dos-like environment. Or any SFX RAR-Compressed archive will do?

Will try this later this day... I plan on using these commands under presetup.cmd

start /wait %systemdrive%\Drivers\drivers.exe

%systemdrive%
cd %windir%\system32

REM Scanning for driverdirectories
%systemdrive%\SetDevicePath.exe %systemdrive%\drivers

REM Enable installation of unsigned drivers
start %systemdrive%\WatchDriverSigningPolicy.exe

what made me a bit confused is the 2nd and 3rd line of commands

%systemdrive%
cd %windir%\system32

i wonder is there still a need for these commands.

anyway, as for winnt.sif, shall i still have to comment-out on OemPnPDriversPath and DetachedProgram.

am i right on track?

[edmoncu]

hmm, it seems that the SFX archive needs to use WinCon.SFX (Windows console RAR SFX) module, rather than the Default.SFX (Windows GUI RAR SFX).

in other words, when making a WinCon-based SFX, functionality is limited, you cannot pre-specify a destination folder for the uncompressed file. meaning when using this with presetup.cmd, you have to make sure you execute the WinCon-based SFX archive at the folder you're going to extract files to. in my case, since I have the drivers.exe on the drivers folder of the root directory of the system drive (copied via $OEM$\$1\Drivers), i have to adjust the parameters within presetup.cmd:

%systemdrive%

cd %systemdrive%\drivers
start /wait drivers.exe

cd %windir%\system32

REM Scanning for driverdirectories
%systemdrive%\SetDevicePath.exe %systemdrive%\drivers

REM Enable installation of unsigned drivers
start %systemdrive%\WatchDriverSigningPolicy.exe

[edmoncu]

would like to ask a followup question though, under winnt.sif's OemPnPDriversPath setting, you can specify the order at which drivers were searched. i was wondering, in what order does this approach recursively search for drivers?

[Alanoll]

Windows doesn't really determine the order based on the exact settings in OemPNPDriversPath. It creates the list dynamically and adds them to it. Then it sorts, then searches. So either way, the list should come out the same.

in OEMPnpDrivers path you could have 002,004,001,005,003 but when Windows searched for drivers it would see it as 001,002,003,004,005

[edmoncu]

thanks Alanoll.

btw, just a note, sfx-winrar archive doesnt work at being uncompressed at this part of the installation. though sfx-winrar (compressed using windows console mode) will work, as well as sfx-zip archive compressed via 7zip.

[Bâshrat the Sneaky]

edmoncu, on May 21 2004, 10:33 AM, said:

thanks Alanoll.

btw, just a note, sfx-winrar archive doesnt work at being uncompressed at this part of the installation. though sfx-winrar (compressed using windows console mode) will work, as well as sfx-zip archive compressed via 7zip.

Do you need any switches to extract a 7zip sfx archive? I guess no?

[edmoncu]

btw, just to be sure, i had to supply the switches when extracting the 7zip-based sfx archive. (calling it -- the extraction from the presetup.cmd file). btw, this approach worked though

however, in the case of the winrar-sfx (wincon-mode) archive, no additional switches were required.

[Bâshrat the Sneaky]

edmoncu, on May 21 2004, 11:17 AM, said:

btw, just to be sure, i had to supply the switches when extracting the 7zip-based sfx archive. (calling it -- the extraction from the presetup.cmd file). btw, this approach worked though

however, in the case of the winrar-sfx (wincon-mode) archive, no additional switches were required.

I'm asking WHAT switches you used...

[RyanVM]

How does one tell a 7zip SFX archive to extract automatically to a specific directory? It compressed my drivers folder 3MB smaller than a WinRAR SFX, but I can't see any of the advanced SFX options WinRAR has.

[Bâshrat the Sneaky]

RyanVM, on May 21 2004, 02:26 PM, said:

How does one tell a 7zip SFX archive to extract automatically to a specific directory?  It compressed my drivers folder 3MB smaller than a WinRAR SFX, but I can't see any of the advanced SFX options WinRAR has.

I'm having the same problem :'(

[edmoncu]

@Bâshrat the Sneaky:
ooops im sorry, i didnt get your first post. anyway, i used the following switches when i extract the 7zip-sfx archive:
-y /q /r:n

anyway, here's how my presetup.cmd looked like:

%systemdrive%

cd %systemdrive%\drivers
start /wait drivers.exe -y /q /r:n

cd %windir%\system32

REM Scanning for driverdirectories
%systemdrive%\SetDevicePath.exe %systemdrive%\drivers

REM Enable installation of unsigned drivers
start %systemdrive%\WatchDriverSigningPolicy.exe

anyway, as for the destination directory, i have no much information yet to declare within a 7zip-sfx archive the destination folder, its assumed that extraction has to take place to the default working directory.

in order to make sure it extracted at the proper place, i had to manually invoke a CD = change directory command before the extraction of the sfx-archive. i assigned the default working directory to %systemroot%\Drivers folder. i also placed a wait flag to the start command so that it fully finishes extraction first before proceeding with the next set of commands in the CMD file.

[RyanVM]

Interesting, I'll have to play with that idea. And it doesn't surprise me that the Windows GUI version of the WinRAR SFX module doesn't work since the GUI isn't even loaded yet when it launches . It does work OK if you run it as the DetachedProgram, though.

[edmoncu]

yup. even if executed via the DetachedProgram method, the criteria for the sfx archive remains the same, it either has to be rar-sfx-compressed using the windows console module or if you want a more appealing (or more uniform) presentation, then compress it via 7zip... which i also think compresses better than winrar's. btw, in my observation, i think sfx decompression is also faster when 7zip is used to compress it which is a plus plus!

[RyanVM]

edmoncu, on May 21 2004, 10:37 AM, said:

yup. even if executed via the DetachedProgram method, the criteria for the sfx archive remains the same, it either has to be rar-sfx-compressed using the windows console module or if you want a more appealing (or more uniform) presentation, then compress it via 7zip... which i also think compresses better than winrar's. btw, in my observation, i think sfx decompression is also faster when 7zip is used to compress it which is a plus plus!

I still maintain that you're incorrect on that matter. I'll create and ISO and take screenshots in VirtualPC a bit later on today to back that up.

EDIT: But I too am convinced that 7zip does give better compression that RAR. Like I said before, it takes over 3MB off my drivers archive.

[edmoncu]

oh, may i know which part am i incorrect?
/me suddenly feels to worry about my work.