[boyfox]

Siginet:
i can't find link to prog.
i use Bâshrat DriverPack and want try your prog

[boyfox]

i'm find

[moesasji]

Great idea, this powerpack utility !

Just started experimenting with it, since I've been looking for a way to create a multiboot CD/DVD that gives me the option for both an attended as well as an unattended install.
I'm completely new to creating multiboot DVD's, so I figure I'll probably have to learn the hard way. The help-file in the PowerPack program is very helpful though.

Regarding the PowerPacker util, I do have some questions already:
- How to find out if i'm using an OEM edition, Upgrade edition, Retail edition of Corporate edition of Windows ?
- When Powerpacker starts packing the files into the powerpacks, it appearantly tries to hack some files. On 2 files (one being txtsetup.sif) I get an error message (but still can continue): is this the way it should be (I get this error on an attended install of XP-SP2 Corporate edition).


Furthemore, I've been toying around with the driverpacks for a few months now, but never seriously used it for any real computers (just virtual computers). I'm trying to make the perfect (at least, for me) CD/DVD using the combination of the following programs:
Nlite (for trimming down and applying patches / tweaks)
RyanVM (for updating the XP-SP2)
XPIze (for better looks)
Bashrat Driverpacks (for the broadest possible driver-support)
WPI (for automating the unattend installation of programs after Windows-install)
PowerPack (for creating multiboot DVD's).

Can anyone confirm the follwoing is in the right order:

1. Start Nlite, use it to integrate fixes, patches and apply tweaks (including RyanVM and XPize)
2. Run Powerpack, use it to integrate Bashrat Driverpacks, copy WPI-installfolder to Root op PowerPack-folder and create multiboot-folder

Anyhow, thanks for developing and supporting PowerPacker. It looks very promising and is a welcome addition to the other great tools available on MSFN.

[moesasji]

Just made an iso with the PowerPack 1.05 and tried to install it in VMWare 1.05.
On both packs created (one regluar, attended and one with driverpacks, unattended) I got an error-message: "CDBOOT: couldn''t find ntldr".

I thought I prepared the image as desribed in the helpfile, but obviously, something went wrong.... any ideas ?

Furthermore: when booting from the image I first get a graphical screen with PowerPack 1.0 beta. When I press Enter at that stage, I get a dos-screen asking me to push the Enter-key.... if i don't push this enter-key within a few seconds, the screen goes black and nothing happens any more (even not when pushing the ENTER key after the screen has gone black).
It looks like if the bootmenu would want to boot something standard if the ENTER-key is not pressed, but I don't know what it is looking for....

Any help would be appreciated. I'd like this PowerPack-setup to work for me....

TIA,
Moesasji

[Siginet]

basically if you do not press enter it is supposed to boot to hard drive 0. If you press enter it should boot to the selection menu.

Here's what I need you to do...
look inside the \boot\ folder and find a file called cdshell.ini. This is the menu file. zip it up and attach it here so I can look at it. Somehow it seems like it had trouble editing the cdshell.ini file.

This is the first issue I have come accross since the end of may. So maybe you found a bug that will actually give me something to do.

BTW Did your paths have any spaces in them? I don't think spaces would be a problem with my apps side of things... but with the driverpacks or any other tools used this may be an issue.

Any limitations you would have with any of the other programs, (RyanVM's XP Update Pack, Nazgul's BootFolder.exe & Bashrat's Driverpacks), would also be the same with PowerPacker.

Thanks for posting.

EDIT:
I have confirmed that you can not have any spaces in the destination path. If you have spaces in the destination you will come across problems when the tool bootfolder.exe runs. BootFolder.exe is supposed to create your boot directory. If it doesn't create the directory... then the other hex editing does not complete... which means the cdshell.ini file does not get edited and your boot menu will not work. Which is more than likley the problem that you have run into. But please note... the driverpacks are known to have issues with a path which contains spaces. So please try again... but with no spaces in the destination path. Spaces should be fine anywhere else... but the destination must not have spaces... due to the limitation of other tools that are used within PowerPacker.
I may add a popup reminder that will pop up if someone tries to put in a destination path which contains a space.

Thank you for posting this bug. Please post again and let me know if I found the problem or not.

This post has been edited by Siginet: 27 June 2005 - 12:23 AM

[dirtwarrior]

nice app cant wait to try

[ccfly]

Siginet, on May 22 2005, 07:40 PM, said:

That app does exactly what I need.

How did you parse the dosnet.inf file?
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Does this program also work for Win2003 VLK?

[Siginet]

Edit:
Double post.
Sorry

This post has been edited by Siginet: 27 June 2005 - 10:47 AM

[Siginet]

ccfly, on Jun 27 2005, 06:53 AM, said:

Siginet, on May 22 2005, 07:40 PM, said:

That app does exactly what I need.

How did you parse the dosnet.inf file?
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Does this program also work for Win2003 VLK?
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

PowerPacker is made for WinXP. I have not tested it at all with 2k3. All of the options were made for XP... but you could try 2k3 using an xp option and see what happens.

BootFolder.exe is a tool made by Nazgul. It is what parses the dosnet.inf file. It is compatable with 2k3. You can find it on msfn.org forums by using the search feature.

This post has been edited by Siginet: 27 June 2005 - 10:48 AM

[moesasji]

Siginet, on Jun 27 2005, 07:50 AM, said:

Here's what I need you to do...
look inside the \boot\ folder and find a file called cdshell.ini.  This is the menu file. zip it up and attach it here so I can look at it. Somehow it seems like it had trouble editing the cdshell.ini file.

Zipped cdshell.ini is attached to this message.....

Siginet, on Jun 27 2005, 07:50 AM, said:

This is the first issue I have come accross since the end of may.   So maybe you found a bug that will actually give me something to do.

BTW Did your paths have any spaces in them? I don't think spaces would be a problem with my apps side of things... but with the driverpacks or any other tools used this may be an issue.

Although I'm happy to see that my problem helped to solve another bug, it did not solve my problem. The folder I saved the packs in is called G:\PPOutput
No spaces in that name therefore, nor in any of the other folders PowerPacker accessed in compiling the powerpack (I have some experience with the driverpacks, so I avoid spaced in UA-folders anyhow).

Maybe there are some other things to explote; just tell me what information I can supply you with, and I will inform you. Your respons (the depth and the quality of it) on my first question was great and, although it did not help me, is greatly appreciated.
Keep up the good work; I really think you are developing a much needed utility and once I get it to work, I'm looking forward to creating MultiBoot DVD's with it.

[Siginet]

OK according to your cdshell.ini it looks like it was edited as it should have been. Now inside of your folder "G:\PPOutput" there should be 2 folders XPPC and ROPC.

Can you grab these files and zip them and post them for me:

G:\PPOutput\XPPC\txtsetup.sif
G:\PPOutput\XPPC\setupldr.bin
G:\PPOutput\ROPC\txtsetup.sif
G:\PPOutput\ROPC\setupldr.bin
G:\PPOutput\XPPC.DAT
G:\PPOutput\ROPC.DAT

Earlier you stated that you had a couple errors. Can you remember what errors they were and when they occured. Was the error in a dos window or a windows XP window.

If you can... can you post some screen shots of your directory structure?

Thanks

[moesasji]

Siginet, on Jun 27 2005, 11:53 PM, said:

OK according to your cdshell.ini it looks like it was edited as it should have been.  Now inside of your folder "G:\PPOutput" there should be 2 folders XPPC and ROPC.

Can you grab these files and zip them and post them for me:

G:\PPOutput\XPPC\txtsetup.sif
G:\PPOutput\XPPC\setupldr.bin
G:\PPOutput\ROPC\txtsetup.sif
G:\PPOutput\ROPC\setupldr.bin
G:\PPOutput\XPPC.DAT
G:\PPOutput\ROPC.DAT

I think you're on to something, because I do not have all of the files you mention above. In my G:\\PPOutput\XPPC folder, there's only the file winnt.sif and the G:\PPOutput\ROPC folder is completely empty. The *.DAT files you request from the G:\PPOutput folder are attached to this message.....

I'll post some images of what happens during boot:



After pressing the [P] key, I get the following screen



Then, after pressing the [C] key, I get the following screen



And finally, after either pressing the [D] or [R] key, I get the following error:

Siginet, on Jun 27 2005, 11:53 PM, said:

Earlier you stated that you had a couple errors.  Can you remember what errors they were and when they occured.  Was the error in a dos window or a windows XP window.

If you can... can you post some screen shots of your directory structure?

Thanks
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Here's the directory structure:



The install folder contains programs I wish to install after XP and was copied to the powerpack using the option in your program.

Hope this can help you trace the things that went wrong ?

[Siginet]

OK... the problem lies with the BootFolder.exe somewhere. I am going to look into it further and try to figure out why you are having a problem here.

What OS are you using. Is it XP/2000? If so it shouldn't have a problem. If it is Win9x then maybe... cause I have never tested on that syatem. But in theory it should work fine on 9x series.

For some reason the boot folders are not getting filled with the proper files. That is why you get errors durring the hexing part. That is also why you get the ntldr error. Because those files are not getting copied over.

The question is... why?

Can you do this:
Go to your [RUN] box and type:

%TEMP%

then hit enter.

In the temp directory do you see a file called "BootFolder.exe"?

If you don't see the file... I will make a quick mod to the app and post a fixed version online for you to test.

Thanks for your patience

[moesasji]

Siginet, on Jun 28 2005, 08:16 PM, said:

What OS are you using.  Is it XP/2000?  If so it shouldn't have a problem.  If it is Win9x then maybe... cause I have never tested on that syatem. But in theory it should work fine on 9x series.

I am using Windows XP Professional (Corporate Edition), SP2 English

Siginet, on Jun 28 2005, 08:16 PM, said:

For some reason the boot folders are not getting filled with the proper files. That is why you get errors durring the hexing part. That is also why you get the ntldr error.  Because those files are not getting copied over.

The question is... why?

Can you do this:
Go to your [RUN] box and type:

%TEMP%

then hit enter.

In the temp directory do you see a file called "BootFolder.exe"?

If you don't see the file... I will make a quick mod to the app and post a fixed version online for you to test.

Thanks for your patience
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I just followed your directions and did not find a BootFolder.exe in my Temp folder (the TEMP folder is C:\TEMP)

Thanks for your persistance !

[Siginet]

That is not the normal XP temp directory.

It is usually:
"C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Temp"
or
%TEMP% = "C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Temp"

When you run %TEMP% it sends you to "C:\Temp"?

Well... I will edit my script and see if that will help.

[Siginet]

OK... new version released.

Beta version 1.06

Download HERE
or go to the first post of the thread and find a download link at the bottom.

Fixed a few minor bugs.
Also coded the temp directory a little differently.
Added the newest version of BootFolder.exe

This version of powerpacker was created to hopefully fix moesasji's problem. (Which is a problem I can't seem to recreate at my end. So hopefully this will help.)

@moesasji Please try the new version and let me know if that fixes your problem or not.

This post has been edited by Siginet: 28 June 2005 - 08:02 PM

[moesasji]

Siginet, on Jun 29 2005, 12:16 AM, said:

That is not the normal XP temp directory.

It is usually:
"C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Temp"
or
%TEMP% = "C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Temp"

When you run %TEMP% it sends you to "C:\Temp"?

Well... I will edit my script and see if that will help.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I know it's not the normal TEMP directory (that's why I specifically mentioned it in my post). I tweaked XP to use just one folder for TEMP-files (adjusted the temp-variables), since I had constant difficulty finding the TEMP-folders when I needed them.
Thanks for the continuing development on your program. I will try out the new release as soon as humanly possible

[moesasji]

Siginet, on Jun 29 2005, 12:59 AM, said:

OK... new version released.

Beta version 1.06

@moesasji  Please try the new version and let me know if that fixes your problem or not.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm sorry, but it doesn't solve it. I still get the errormessages on hacking the files setupldr.bin and txtsetup.sif...... The patchprogram reports it can't find these files and when I search my HD for them (during the pack-process, so at the moment the patch-program haults for the error message), I do find them in G:\PPOutput\ROOT\ROPC\I386.
The Folder G:\PPOutput\ROPC is completely empty though (still)



There's nothing with those filenames on my C: drive, neither in my TEMP directory (C:\TEMP) nor in the usual TEMP directories (C:\Document and Setting\...)
All the others files that have to be patched do not return an error message, so I guess those get found and patched fine. Is there maybe something special about the files setupldr.bin and txtsetup.sif ? Where should your program find them when it tries to patch them ?

I did find out BOOTFOLDER.EXE is placed in my Temp folder (C:\TEMP) during the PowerPacker process.

Just to be complete, I will post a screendump of the GUI of PowerPacker as I used it...




I'll ofcourse continue to give you any information you want in tracking this error and am still looking forward to creating my first MuliBoot DVD with PowerPacker (1.07 ?)
Maybe you can inform me on what processes PowerPacker starts / does, so I can try to analyze by way of trial and error where the problem may lie ?

This post has been edited by moesasji: 29 June 2005 - 05:10 AM

[Siginet]

Now when you are re-trying to make a pack... are you just having powerpacker overwrite files.? Or are you deleteing the destination directory then using powerpacker? I know BootFolder.exe will not work if there is allready files in it's destination directory. You said there is a winnt.sif file in the directory. Try at least deleteing the ROPC/XPPC/XOPC folders from the root of your destination. Then retry the program.

All I can think is that there is some sort of limitation with the bootfolder.exe tool and the way your system is tweaked. If that is the case there is not much I can do. Except if I have time I can use some of my old code which does not use the BootFolder.exe file but runs the first part of windows setup to get the files. Which takes a little longer but will get the job done just the same.

[Siginet]

OK I went ahead and grabbed some of my old code and replaced some of the new code. This version is not using BootFolder.exe to create the boot folder. It is using the regular winnt32.exe. Therefore it will seem as if it is installing windows xp... but really it is only grabbing the needed files to move into the boot folder.

I reccommend most users to use the regular PowerPacker file... but if you are having difficulty createing the boot folder with the original PowerPacker than you can try this one.

Here is the winnt32.exe version of PowerPacker v1.06:

DOWNLOAD