"Files Needed" when installing drivers

[s.k.easley]

This was covered in an earlier thread, but no resolution was posted.

After booting up a new XPe image, when I run the Intel driver
installers they keep displaying a "Files Needed" dialog. In all cases
the files it needs is already on the system, either in
C:\Window\System32 or C:\Windows\System32\drivers.

I'm guessing that there's some bad path setting,
probably in the registry. A similar situation is in the handling of
script files. If you double click on a .js or .vbs file, and the path
to that file has spaces in it, it won't work. The problem is in the
registry, and those registry settings are different in XPe than they
are in XP Pro. Damn sloppy.

As far as creating components for these Intel drivers, I know that's
the recommended option. However, there's a bug in Compenent Designer's
..inf parser that's covered in another topic in this group. All the
Intel .inf files seem to run into this bug. It's possible to edit the
..inf to get around it, but I figured it would just be easier to use the
installers. It would be, except that XPe also has this bug with
finding files and all of the Intel driver installers run it.

With these seemingly endless XPe bugs, MS really should be calling
these XPe tools "beta" (maybe even 'alpha').

 

[Eberhard Schefold]

...

This was covered in an earlier thread, but no resolution was posted.

After booting up a new XPe image, when I run the Intel driver
installers they keep displaying a "Files Needed" dialog. In all cases
the files it needs is already on the system, either in
C:\Window\System32 or C:\Windows\System32\drivers.

I also would like to stress again that this issue continues to hurt us
severely, not only in the development phase, but also with runtime images on
the customers' sites.

In this NG, I essentially got the standard answers "componentize properly",
"just put all necessary files in the image and let PnP do the work" -- it
just doesn't work that way for us. We must support a broad variety of
peripheral hardware. Not only is the effort prohibitive to provide new
images for every new driver released. Some clients just don't want to set up
their systems completely new if they only want to upgrade a driver.

XPE's behaviour definitely differs from XP Professional's here, and I really
would like to see a solution for that, finally.

 

[Guest]

Hello,

We have the same problem. I have seen it while Intel Chipset driver
installation and while novell client installation. I had to search for some
files manually to complete installation. On XP Pro System there are no
problems with the same installers.

 

[Mark]

I myself have also seen this issue when installing Realtek AC 97
codec/driver. I would love to see a solution.

Regards,

Mark

 

[Mike Warren]

I myself have also seen this issue when installing Realtek AC 97
codec/driver. I would love to see a solution.

Mark, email me if you want to try a component.

-Mike

 

[s.k.easley]

I worked with Mark Chamberlain of Microsoft and we think we've got a
resolution on this issue. The following is from Mark:

---BEGIN---
Installing third party driver and applications after FBA completes

Instead of creating a component, you can install drivers and
applications after FBA completes.

In some cases, a third party installer application may fail to install
in XP Embedded, while the same installer works in XP Professional. You
can try the following steps which configure your XPE image to appear as
if it is XP Professional, in order to allow an installer to function.

1. In Windows XP Embedded, the code that performs driver signing
verification has been modified. The following registry key is unique to
XP Embedded:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup]
"MinimizeFootprint"

This key is used in SetupApi and was designed to accommodate reduced
embedded footprint scenarios. When it exists and is set to a DWORD 1,
it
disables many of the driver validation steps that are normally
performed
in XP Pro, while at the same time allowing a reduced footprint because
crypto is not needed etc.

* .PNF files are not generated, which are rather large files which
might be a footprint problem in XP embedded.
* Driver signing is completely disabled.
* With Driver signing disabled, crypto API is not called, so the
developer can keep the Crypto API out of the image (here are the Crypto
related components: Core Certificate Services, Cryptographic Network
Services, Cryptographic Service Providers, FBA:Crypto, Kernel Mode
Crypto Driver for RSA, Smart Card Cryptographic Service Providers,
Certificate User Interface Services).

Some developers have needed to restore Driver signing verification
functionality for certain application or driver installers to function.
If you discover that you need to disable MinimizeFootprint in order to
install a third party driver or application:
* Verify that the components listed in step 3 above are included.
* Ensure that your image contains the FBA: Driver Signing
component. This component contains catalog files which contains, among
other things, default paths used when installing device drivers.
* Completely delete, or rename the MinimizeFootprint key.
* Reboot and then install your app.
* Restore the MinimizeFootprint key and then reboot your computer.


The Windows XP Embedded Test team has NOT tested XP Embedded with this
flag turned off (removed).

It is possible that if you keep MinimizeFootprint disabled, your image
may be missing some of the above functionality (the components listed
above) required to perform driver signing etc, which could cause random
compatibility problems if not present.

2. The following steps restore the ability to automatically detect all
the in the box drivers supplied by XP Pro. Please note that this should
be a temporary step to enable your installer to function. If you want
to
support this functionality permanently in your XPE device, use the
following component instead, which componentizes driver.cab etc:
Generic
Device Driver Support, and then pick and choose which device driver
class you wish to support via its Settings.
* Create a Windows\Driver Cache\i386 folder on the XPe machine
* Copy driver.cab and sp1.cab and/or sp2.cab files (from an XP Pro
SP2 machine) to the above folder.
* Also copy drvindex.inf to Windows\inf on the XPE machine. During
driver installation, the system first checks drvindex.inf to make sure
that the files it needs do actually exist in the driver.cab and
sp1.cab
files.
* Remove or rename the MinimizeFootprint registry key (and reboot)

---END---

I was able to skip the part about deleting the MinimizeFootprint
registry and rebooting and it still worked.

I hope this helps.

 

[Eberhard Schefold]

I worked with Mark Chamberlain of Microsoft and we think we've got a
resolution on this issue.

Thank you very much for the information. I will try out the suggestions
as soon as possible.