CD Install - automating nvidia 66.93 Video Drivers

[Guest]

I added $OEM$ to the CD root. I have several drivers added to:

cdroot\$OEM$\$$\pnpdrvrs

The one I want to work the most: video drivers - so I can start with a
better screen resolution. Ironically, all drivers work EXCEPT my nvidia
driver. If I do not include the nvidia driver files, my unattended install
works fine. If I do, it freezes when it is detecting hardware and the
progress bar shows 100%. The files I added are the ones that extract when
you run the 66.93 executable from:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_66.93

I'm pretty sure I can install it during GUI mode install by adding it to the
svcpack folder and to svcpack.inf, but there is no "unattend" mode switch
I've found for the setup installer, so I'm hoping to get it to work the $OEM$
way.

Any ideas why my setup freezes when I add the drivers?

winnt.sif contents:

;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
AutoPartition=0
MsDosInitiated="0"
UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]
UnattendMode=FullUnattended
DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
OemSkipEula=Yes
TargetPath=\WINNT
OemPnPDriversPath=\winnt\pnpdrvrs

[GuiUnattended]
AdminPassword=*
OEMSkipRegional=1
TimeZone=10
OemSkipWelcome=1

[UserData]
FullName="Brandon Stout"
OrgName=FamilyHomeVCD.com
ComputerName=Home
; ProductID=NOT FOR PUBLIC USE!

[FavoritesEx]
Title1="myname.url"
URL1="testurl.com"

[Branding]
BrandIEUsingUnattended=No

Home_Page=http://www.mozilla.org/p...UP [Networking] InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

 

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi Brandon,

It's hard to say why the Nvidia would not work. It's quite possible that
it was simply never designed to be able to install unattended. I've
worked with a huge selection of drivers over the years and tend to find
only the "big name" "corporate focused" companies will supply drivers
with perfect unattend capabilities. e.g. Intel, 3Com, ATI, Broadcom,
Adaptec and so on. It's really something to take up with Nvidia.

One other thing I've noticed is that not all video drivers will respect
the resolution you set in the unattend file. Some will choose their own.

I added $OEM$ to the CD root. I have several drivers added to:

cdroot\$OEM$\$$\pnpdrvrs

The one I want to work the most: video drivers - so I can start with a
better screen resolution. Ironically, all drivers work EXCEPT my nvidia
driver. If I do not include the nvidia driver files, my unattended install
works fine. If I do, it freezes when it is detecting hardware and the
progress bar shows 100%. The files I added are the ones that extract when
you run the 66.93 executable from:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_66.93

I'm pretty sure I can install it during GUI mode install by adding it to the
svcpack folder and to svcpack.inf, but there is no "unattend" mode switch
I've found for the setup installer, so I'm hoping to get it to work the $OEM$
way.

Any ideas why my setup freezes when I add the drivers?

winnt.sif contents:

;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
AutoPartition=0
MsDosInitiated="0"
UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]
UnattendMode=FullUnattended
DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
OemSkipEula=Yes
TargetPath=\WINNT
OemPnPDriversPath=\winnt\pnpdrvrs

[GuiUnattended]
AdminPassword=*
OEMSkipRegional=1
TimeZone=10
OemSkipWelcome=1

[UserData]
FullName="Brandon Stout"
OrgName=FamilyHomeVCD.com
ComputerName=Home
; ProductID=NOT FOR PUBLIC USE!

[FavoritesEx]
Title1="myname.url"
URL1="testurl.com"

[Branding]
BrandIEUsingUnattended=No

Home_Page=http://www.mozilla.org/p...working] InstallDefaultComponents=Yes[/QUOTE]

 

[Guest]

Thank you Gerry. As an FYI, I have been able to get the drivers to install
via guiRunOnce in winnt.sif. I had to install with -R switch, get the
setup.isi from winnt, replace the setup.isi in the package, and make a cmd
file to run setup:

start /wait %windir%\pnpdrvrs\ti4200\setup.exe -s

I referenced the cmd file in GUIrunOnce in winnt.sif.

Hi Brandon,

It's hard to say why the Nvidia would not work. It's quite possible that
it was simply never designed to be able to install unattended. I've
worked with a huge selection of drivers over the years and tend to find
only the "big name" "corporate focused" companies will supply drivers
with perfect unattend capabilities. e.g. Intel, 3Com, ATI, Broadcom,
Adaptec and so on. It's really something to take up with Nvidia.

One other thing I've noticed is that not all video drivers will respect
the resolution you set in the unattend file. Some will choose their own.

I added $OEM$ to the CD root. I have several drivers added to:

cdroot\$OEM$\$$\pnpdrvrs

The one I want to work the most: video drivers - so I can start with a
better screen resolution. Ironically, all drivers work EXCEPT my nvidia
driver. If I do not include the nvidia driver files, my unattended install
works fine. If I do, it freezes when it is detecting hardware and the
progress bar shows 100%. The files I added are the ones that extract when
you run the 66.93 executable from:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_66.93

I'm pretty sure I can install it during GUI mode install by adding it to the
svcpack folder and to svcpack.inf, but there is no "unattend" mode switch
I've found for the setup installer, so I'm hoping to get it to work the $OEM$
way.

Any ideas why my setup freezes when I add the drivers?

winnt.sif contents:

;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
AutoPartition=0
MsDosInitiated="0"
UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]
UnattendMode=FullUnattended
DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
OemSkipEula=Yes
TargetPath=\WINNT
OemPnPDriversPath=\winnt\pnpdrvrs

[GuiUnattended]
AdminPassword=*
OEMSkipRegional=1
TimeZone=10
OemSkipWelcome=1

[UserData]
FullName="Brandon Stout"
OrgName=FamilyHomeVCD.com
ComputerName=Home
; ProductID=NOT FOR PUBLIC USE!

[FavoritesEx]
Title1="myname.url"
URL1="testurl.com"

[Branding]
BrandIEUsingUnattended=No

Home_Page=http://www.mozilla.org/p...InstallDefaultComponents=Yes[/QUOTE] [/QUOTE]

 

[Guest]

BTW, I'll try a few more things to get the install to load as a driver
instead of as an app, and post the results later.

Hi Brandon,

It's hard to say why the Nvidia would not work. It's quite possible that
it was simply never designed to be able to install unattended. I've
worked with a huge selection of drivers over the years and tend to find
only the "big name" "corporate focused" companies will supply drivers
with perfect unattend capabilities. e.g. Intel, 3Com, ATI, Broadcom,
Adaptec and so on. It's really something to take up with Nvidia.

One other thing I've noticed is that not all video drivers will respect
the resolution you set in the unattend file. Some will choose their own.

I added $OEM$ to the CD root. I have several drivers added to:

cdroot\$OEM$\$$\pnpdrvrs

The one I want to work the most: video drivers - so I can start with a
better screen resolution. Ironically, all drivers work EXCEPT my nvidia
driver. If I do not include the nvidia driver files, my unattended install
works fine. If I do, it freezes when it is detecting hardware and the
progress bar shows 100%. The files I added are the ones that extract when
you run the 66.93 executable from:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_66.93

I'm pretty sure I can install it during GUI mode install by adding it to the
svcpack folder and to svcpack.inf, but there is no "unattend" mode switch
I've found for the setup installer, so I'm hoping to get it to work the $OEM$
way.

Any ideas why my setup freezes when I add the drivers?

winnt.sif contents:

;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
AutoPartition=0
MsDosInitiated="0"
UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]
UnattendMode=FullUnattended
DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
OemSkipEula=Yes
TargetPath=\WINNT
OemPnPDriversPath=\winnt\pnpdrvrs

[GuiUnattended]
AdminPassword=*
OEMSkipRegional=1
TimeZone=10
OemSkipWelcome=1

[UserData]
FullName="Brandon Stout"
OrgName=FamilyHomeVCD.com
ComputerName=Home
; ProductID=NOT FOR PUBLIC USE!

[FavoritesEx]
Title1="myname.url"
URL1="testurl.com"

[Branding]
BrandIEUsingUnattended=No

Home_Page=http://www.mozilla.org/p...InstallDefaultComponents=Yes[/QUOTE] [/QUOTE]

 

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi Brandon,

You have to hack the *.sys and *.inf files out of the dist, the
setup.exe is no good. I have to do this all the time when dealing with
Mickey-Mouse driver vendors. Some *.inf files rely on DLLs, some are
even in sub-folders so read the paths in the INF to check what's going on.

BTW, I'll try a few more things to get the install to load as a driver
instead of as an app, and post the results later.

:

Hi Brandon,

It's hard to say why the Nvidia would not work. It's quite possible that
it was simply never designed to be able to install unattended. I've
worked with a huge selection of drivers over the years and tend to find
only the "big name" "corporate focused" companies will supply drivers
with perfect unattend capabilities. e.g. Intel, 3Com, ATI, Broadcom,
Adaptec and so on. It's really something to take up with Nvidia.

One other thing I've noticed is that not all video drivers will respect
the resolution you set in the unattend file. Some will choose their own.

I added $OEM$ to the CD root. I have several drivers added to:

cdroot\$OEM$\$$\pnpdrvrs

The one I want to work the most: video drivers - so I can start with a
better screen resolution. Ironically, all drivers work EXCEPT my nvidia
driver. If I do not include the nvidia driver files, my unattended install
works fine. If I do, it freezes when it is detecting hardware and the
progress bar shows 100%. The files I added are the ones that extract when
you run the 66.93 executable from:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_66.93

I'm pretty sure I can install it during GUI mode install by adding it to the
svcpack folder and to svcpack.inf, but there is no "unattend" mode switch
I've found for the setup installer, so I'm hoping to get it to work the $OEM$
way.

Any ideas why my setup freezes when I add the drivers?

winnt.sif contents:

;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
AutoPartition=0
MsDosInitiated="0"
UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]
UnattendMode=FullUnattended
DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
OemSkipEula=Yes
TargetPath=\WINNT
OemPnPDriversPath=\winnt\pnpdrvrs

[GuiUnattended]
AdminPassword=*
OEMSkipRegional=1
TimeZone=10
OemSkipWelcome=1

[UserData]
FullName="Brandon Stout"
OrgName=FamilyHomeVCD.com
ComputerName=Home
; ProductID=NOT FOR PUBLIC USE!

[FavoritesEx]
Title1="myname.url"
URL1="testurl.com"

[Branding]
BrandIEUsingUnattended=No

Home_Page=http://www.mozilla.org/p...efaultComponents=Yes[/QUOTE] [/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

 

[Guest]

Gerry,

Thank you. I'm new to reading .inf files, but I'll give it a shot. It does
seem fairly intuitive.

Brandon Stout
http://familyhomevcd.com

 

[Guest]

Gerry,

A quick follow up. I have successfully installed the video drivers as an
application now using GUIrunOnce in winnt.sif and the Installshield method
for silent installs (setup.exe /R to record, get setup.iss from %windir%, put
it in the setup.exe folder, and run setup.exe /s for future silent installs).

Your right about the video resolution settings in winnt.sif not working. To
resolve this, I took a system snapshot with Wininstallle, put my settings
where I want them, took an "after" snapshot, and took out the .reg file which
I now import after the video driver silent install.

I have not found any incorrect paths in the .inf files, but would like to
get this to work as a driver rather than as an app still.

Thanks again for your assistance in this matter.