Jump to content

Unattended windows xp installation without 'Press any key..'


jduk

Recommended Posts

(heh...) My POINT was you keep talking about your "family" at remote locations and then proceed to say that they hook up Keyboard/Monitor to install (whatever) and then talk about "headless systems" (first several posts). THAT makes no sense. What good is a Remote Headless System to a "family member"? Seriously.... It REALLY sounds like you want to ship this "CD/DVD" to "someone" that has "headless systems" in place and you wish to install/upgrade since (WOW!!!) the BIOS would HAVE to be entered to disable said peripherals, correct?

Makes absolutely NO sense! SERIOUSLY sounds like you have "family" at remote locations with "headless systems" that YOU use Remotely for some (unknown) purpose.

post-72994-0-85818800-1359044766_thumb.j

post-315268-0-99645300-1359117421_thumb.

Beam me up outta here Scotty! :lol:

Apologies if I didn't explain the original problem in a better way, but since I have found a solution and no-one else cares (apart from bphlpt, who I am happy to help) there's, no sense - as you put it :thumbup , trying to explain again.

Edited by jduk
Link to comment
Share on other sites


If you think it could be useful, and have come up with a solution, would you mind sharing? I would also be interested to know the uses you have come up with for your headless systems in the home, not just theoretical ones but ones you have actually implemented and found useful. I have several old systems, in pieces, available that I might could cannibalize and add a few things to and maybe make a working system out of if I had something worthwhile that it could do. I don't have an extra monitor, so a headless system would be good, if it had a practical use.

Cheers and Regards

Basically, I just followed a guide for nLite to get an unattended cd for each pc with necessary drivers etc loaded and there is an option there to enable remote desktop. I also have a custom script to execute on RunOnce to install vnc and some other useful tools aswell.

The BIOS is set to boot cd first and to ignore keyboard errors.

I then installed grub4dos bootloader as jaclaz mentioned. I built a custom menu.lst to check for the presence of a setup file on the hdd that only exists while windows xp setup is running.

If this file exists, then boot from that hdd else boot the xp setup cd.

This will ensure windows xp setup can survive the reboots and complete normally.

Edited by jduk
Link to comment
Share on other sites

(heh...) My POINT was you keep talking about your "family" at remote locations and then proceed to say that they hook up Keyboard/Monitor to install (whatever) and then talk about "headless systems" (first several posts). THAT makes no sense. What good is a Remote Headless System to a "family member"? Seriously.... It REALLY sounds like you want to ship this "CD/DVD" to "someone" that has "headless systems" in place and you wish to install/upgrade since (WOW!!!) the BIOS would HAVE to be entered to disable said peripherals, correct?

Makes absolutely NO sense! SERIOUSLY sounds like you have "family" at remote locations with "headless systems" that YOU use Remotely for some (unknown) purpose.

jduk does make sense, although I don't like this. His application is at the gray area of nLite's EULA, and I believe there's a better way to achieve this.

What jduk wants is to deploy several remote headless machines with nLited OS, and (at the time) he cannot physically access the machines. So he want as little work as possible for his "family members" who helps him.

By "as little work as possible" he means to just put the CD, turn on the computer, and then wait until the installation finishes and reboots.

Do I explain this right?

Edited by Explorer09
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I then installed grub4dos bootloader as jaclaz mentioned. I built a custom menu.lst to check for the presence of a setup file on the hdd that only exists while windows xp setup is running.

Well, no. :no:

jaclaz did NOT suggest to install grub4dos anywhere, his suggestion was to use grldr as the no-emulation bootsector of the actual CD.

And of course sharing the actual EXACT specific menu.lst you put up would be actually "sharing" your solution. :yes:

Anyway, the main thing is that your problem was solved. :thumbup

jaclaz

Link to comment
Share on other sites

(heh...) My POINT was you keep talking about your "family" at remote locations and then proceed to say that they hook up Keyboard/Monitor to install (whatever) and then talk about "headless systems" (first several posts). THAT makes no sense. What good is a Remote Headless System to a "family member"? Seriously.... It REALLY sounds like you want to ship this "CD/DVD" to "someone" that has "headless systems" in place and you wish to install/upgrade since (WOW!!!) the BIOS would HAVE to be entered to disable said peripherals, correct?

Makes absolutely NO sense! SERIOUSLY sounds like you have "family" at remote locations with "headless systems" that YOU use Remotely for some (unknown) purpose.

jduk does make sense, although I don't like this. His application is at the gray area of nLite's EULA, and I believe there's a better way to achieve this.

What jduk wants is to deploy several remote headless machines with nLited OS, and (at the time) he cannot physically access the machines. So he want as little work as possible for his "family members" who helps him.

By "as little work as possible" he means to just put the CD, turn on the computer, and then wait until the installation finishes and reboots.

Do I explain this right?

Yes - I have machines at home, if they need re-installed i don't want to sit at a machine for an 1hr doing this myself or if i am at work or away for a couple of days i want someone else to handle it easily.

I don't need nLite anyway, its not adding anything in my use-case, and will just use native WINNT.SIF customization to build an unattended cd for each pc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...