BDD - Unable to deploy winpeLab.iso image

[Rafael]

Unable to deploy the winpeLab.iso image file on target workstation:

When I try to deploy the winpeLab.iso image to a target workstation on my
Virtual PC 2004 Lab, the installation does not complete and it loops between
the "Collecting information" and "Preparing installation" sections. However,
both the progress indicator (5 little squares on the bottom right hand
corner), and the screen "informercial" (the text on the right/center of the
screen) look to be moving along normally.

After watching several TechNet Webcasts on BDD, I tried to match the lab
requirements as described on the link below and I'm following the
instructions on the "Computer Imaging System Feature Team Guide, Enterprise
Edition.doc" document that came with the BDDenterprise.msi file. I'm using
BDD 2.0.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...6D-68E0-4EAA-9C89-A60BC620425F&displaylang=en

Lab Environment:

Server:

- Virtual PC 2004 w/SP1 and additions installed
- Windows 2003 Advanced Server (All Patches, DNS, DC, 512MB RAM, 1.8GHz,
12GB of space)
- IIS 6.0
- sql 2000
- sql sp3a
- hotfix sql2000-kb810185-8.00.0859-enu.exe (required for SQL reporting
services)
- sql reporting services
- sql reporting services sp1
- sms 2003
- sms 2003 sp1
- mom 2005
- sms osd
- Virus Protection (niv)

Workstation:

- Virtual PC 2004 w/SP1
- Windows XP Professional (RTM) with SP 2
- 2048 GB Hard drive partition

The Unattend share has everyone group with read only rights.

Any help with this issue is greatly appreciated.

Rafael

 

[Michael Niehaus [MS]]

This is a more basic problem - the winpeLab.iso is working fine, but the
unattended install of Windows XP is not working properly. As Windows XP SP2
normally installs fine in Virtual PC, I suspect there is something wrong
with your source directory. Do you have access to a CD that already has SP2
integrated in it?

-Michael Niehaus
Senior Consultant
MCS US Centers of Excellence - Deployment AOS
(e-mail address removed)
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Rafael]

I've actually tried this with both an msdn version of XP w/SP2 integrated
and a version of XP w/SP1 and integrated SP2 into it.

Additionally, I can run a successful install with the XP SP2 iso file that I
have.

I do have a CD version of it which I used to copy its content to the
Unattend\source\XPPro\sp2 folder.

Rafael

 

[Guest]

I think I am having the same problem. I am wondering if the config.hta has
something to do with this. Maybe it is trying to install something that
doesn't exist in my source directory. The source files copy over fine. The
following appear to complete: collecting information, dynamic update,
preparing installation. Then it just stops when the interface attepmts to
move to installing windows phase. Any insite?

Shaun

 

[Michael Niehaus [MS]]

Config.hta (which I wrote) isn't actually involved in this process. The
process is initiated by the "Build.cmd" script using values passed from
Build.hta (which just displays a menu of builds to choose from). In the
end, the batch files just performs the following steps:

1. Repartitions and formats the hard drive.
2. Copies the build's Sysprep.inf and Unattend.txt to the appropriate
locations.
3. Copies the XP source (i386) to C:\Local\Source\i386.
4. If the source directory contains a CMPNENTS\TabletPC\i386\TABLETPC.CAB,
it copies the entire CMPNENTS directory to C:\Local\Source\Cmpnents (this is
for building a Tablet Edition image).
5. Copies the Master $OEM$\$OEM$ directory to C:\Local\Source\i386\$OEM$.
6. Initiates WINNT32.EXE with the appropriate command line parameters.

So, you're getting all the way to step #6 with no obvious issues, but the
unattended install seems to be hanging. If you use something like WinDiff
to compare the source directory that you are using to do the build against
the CD, does it find any differences? The only time I've seen an issue like
this is when files were missed (e.g. not copying hidden files).

-Michael Niehaus
Senior Consultant
MCS US Centers of Excellence - Deployment AOS
(e-mail address removed)
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Guest]

Michael,

I want to make sure I understand. I should run windiff on the following two?

C:\unattend\Source\WinPE15

winpeLab.iso

Thanks,
Shaun

 

[Michael Niehaus [MS]]

I am talking about comparing \Source\XPPro\SP2 (or \Soure\XPPro\SP1) against
the D:\ (Windows XP SP1/SP2 volume/select CD). It appears Windows PE is
fine (as it boots and connects back to the build server).

-Michael Niehaus
Senior Consultant
MCS US Centers of Excellence - Deployment AOS
(e-mail address removed)
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Johan Arwidmark]

By default the Computer Imaging System launches winnt32 with the
/debug4 switch, you might find some additional info by aborting the
process (when it loops) and examine the c:\local\debug.log file.

Depending on how far the build process goes you can also use Shift+F10
to bring up a commandprompt for "debugging" purposes.

regards
Johan Arwidmark

Windows User Group - Nordic
http://www.wug-nordic.net

 

[Guest]

I ran windiff on those two directories. It is identical with the exception of
the cmpnents directory.

Is there any other clue of what may be happeing?

Thanks,
Shaun

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the information. I did not see anything alarming in the file.

Here are the last two lines:
Source 1: copy
c:\local\source\i386\asms\7000\MSFT\WINDOWS\MSWINCRT\MSVCIRT.DLL to
C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS\i386\asms\7000\MSFT\WINDOWS\MSWINCRT\MSVCIRT.DLL [OK]
380.39 MB copied. Elapsed time: 00:01:58

Do you have any other tricks that may help identify the issue?

Thanks,
Shaun