Importing device drivers

[Robin Imrie]

I successfull managed to get an XPe image running on a Dell GX280. However
there are 4 device drivers missing... nic, audio, video and chipset.

In my attempt to start to sort these out 1 by 1 the process has raised a
few questions..

1) A check dependencys in Target Designer fails to import the nic component.
Why is this?

2) I have imported the .inf file for the relevant device however I can not
work out from the documentation where the source path for the repository
should be. And When building the image the files for the nic fail to be
found. Should it be in the repositry share?


Robin

 

[Adora Belle Dearheart]

I successfull managed to get an XPe image running on a Dell GX280. However
there are 4 device drivers missing... nic, audio, video and chipset.

In my attempt to start to sort these out 1 by 1 the process has raised a
few questions..

1) A check dependencys in Target Designer fails to import the nic component.
Why is this?

2) I have imported the .inf file for the relevant device however I can not
work out from the documentation where the source path for the repository
should be. And When building the image the files for the nic fail to be
found. Should it be in the repositry share?


Robin

The source path for the repository should be wherever you've created the
flat-file repository of files. Personally I keep them all in
e:\components\componentname folders.

 

[Robin Imrie]

Things are beginning to become clearer... I have found the new repository!

so would a good way of setting such things up be as follows?

* have 1 directory that contains all the device driver files for a device
* for each device driver component make the name for the repository to be
the same for each component. (is there an easier way?)

Robin

 

[Adora Belle Dearheart]

Things are beginning to become clearer... I have found the new repository!

so would a good way of setting such things up be as follows?

* have 1 directory that contains all the device driver files for a device
* for each device driver component make the name for the repository to be
the same for each component. (is there an easier way?)

OK - if I'm making a component called, er, Timothy, I'll make a folder
inside my components folder called Timothy and I'll save the sld as
timothy.sld in the root of the components folder. Inside the Timothy
folder I'll put the things that Timothy needs - timothy.inf, mother.dll,
language.sys and sorry.txt - then in Component Designer, I'll right
click on Repositories, create a repository called Timothy and point it
at the Timothy folder, then in the Timothy Component's properties,
select the Timothy repository then save it and use component database
manager to import it.

 

[Guest]

OK - if I'm making a component called, er, Timothy, I'll make a folder

inside my components folder called Timothy and I'll save the sld as
timothy.sld in the root of the components folder. Inside the Timothy
folder I'll put the things that Timothy needs - timothy.inf, mother.dll,
language.sys and sorry.txt - then in Component Designer, I'll right
click on Repositories, create a repository called Timothy and point it
at the Timothy folder, then in the Timothy Component's properties,
select the Timothy repository then save it and use component database
manager to import it.

Adora

I have some components for my applications that have subfolders, and all
filenames are unique when reduced to a flat file structure. I've created the
repository as you have outline for Timothy, but when I add the files to the
Component using Add, "Files in Folder" - I'm adding the files from another
directory ie C:\Timothy that contains all my files listed in the Repository,
but with the required subfolder structure. Hence the files are in two places
instead of one (which I'm not happy with, but it seems to work).

I'm also trying to create another component where the files that belong to
the component have a non flat file structure - ie serveral folders &
subfolders with filenames that are NOT unique when the file structure is
removed. It would be rather tedious & erroneous to manually deal with
duplicated filenames & subfolder structure.

What is the best way to deal with non-unique filenames & a subfolder
structure when creating a repository for a component.

Thanks

Darren

 

[Andy Allred [MS]]

If i'm understanding you correctly, you're challenge is that you have
multiple files with the same name but the files are different and it's
causing a collision. The easiest solution is to decorate the file names.

We run into the same issue in windows where there may be 3 or 4 versions of
comctl32.dll for backwards compatibility. We decorate the names of the files
in the repository and change the 'source' name and 'target' name of the file
in the file resource properties in Component Designer, so Target Designer
'knows' which decorated file to locate and what the correct destination name
should be when it copies it into the runtime. I have a paragraph or two on
this subject here when i walk you through componentizing Winamp.
http://blogs.msdn.com/embedded/archive/2005/04/27/412792.aspx

Take care.

--
Andy

Check out the Embedded team blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/embedded/

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for you prompt reply Andy.

In Part 1 of your componentizing winamp blog, you talked about the 'baby
steps'.

In Part 3, can you please disclose the baby steps involved in importing all
the registry details (from a file such as "WinAMP_REG.TXT" that Ashampoo
utility has created) into the Component within the CD. Similarly what are
the baby steps for adding the winamp files to the Component - did you use
Add, "Files in Folder" to import the file structure, or did you import all
the files in the REP folder & manually adjust the folder locations for each
file & then add the folder structure manually too?

Thanks

Darren

 

[Andy Allred [MS]]

Hi Darren, nice to see someone actually reading that series of articles
<grin>, been wondering if I should do one that is a little more complex. I
did not import a text file from the Uninstaller.

In "Part 3", in the 5th paragraph I called it out but probably could have
made it more clear, sorry. I opened my new winamp component in Component
Designer, in the registry node of CD I browsed through the reg hives of the
machine via CD's 'Add | Registry Data' or 'Add | Registry Branch'.

From there, i would browse to the reg locations that I saw had changed in
Ashampoo's Uninstaller. So i had the uninstaller application open on my
desktop and CD open side by side and would make the CD reg data and paths
own the same registry information I was seeing in the Uninstaller.

For the question you had on how to import files, i *never* just add files
from the repository and adjust paths, that is way too time consuming. I do
the same thing with the Files that i listed above for the reg data; i browse
to "Files" and "Files in Folders" and choose the files there. This way I let
CD do all the heavy lifting for me and there is zero risk of me making a
mistake when tweaking the path info.

For the term 'baby steps' i was referring to the fact the articles would be
based on componentizing a simple feature before moving on to a really
complex application.

PS - if you haven't already, sign up for the Tech Preview of the Feature
Pack we're releasing to the public in about a week or so. It will include a
lot of bug fixes to the tools (including concentrating on the .REG file
import scenario to CD), tons of new features and enhancemens in Embedded
Enabling Features and components.. Here's details on how to sign up:
http://blogs.msdn.com/embedded/archive/2006/07/10/660998.aspx

See ya.

--
Andy

Check out the Embedded team blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/embedded/

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Guest]

Hi Andy - I'm still not clear on the steps required, perhaps I needed to be
clearer in my request - here goes again.

ASIDE: I'm currently using the trial version of Ashampoo UnInstaller
Platinum 2 v2.0.0.0 ( does this have restricted functionality from the full
versions?)

I've noticed in your Winamp_LITE.sld file, you've only added registry keys
from the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes node. Should you have added other nodes such
as HKLM\SOFTWARE\[Clients | Microsoft]?? and
HK_USERS\S-1-5-21-...\Software\Windows\Microsoft... etc. Perhaps these
differences are because my system is not clean? But even if you system is
clean & you add a registry branch, won't you be adding potentially more
registry settings than is required by the application? At what level in the
registry heirarchy do you add branches or nodes? Obviously you don't add all
nodes under HKLM\SOFTWARE\...

anyway the registry changes for my situation won't be significant, so I'll
move onto adding the files.

I've just determined that the files which you added have an icon with a red
circle in the top LH corner - these must be the files that have changed,
(this wasn't clear on first pass because I'd never used Ashampoo Uninstaller
before) - the process is starting to sink in. - but what are all the other
files listed in the "File Changes" tab of Ashampoo?

So you always add the files to the component & then copy them to the
repository - hence you have two copies of the files on the same PC? or do
you copy the files which have been installed on the "clean" PC & copy them to
your other PC where you're running CD?

ASIDE: The application that I want to monitor is actually installed from a
program that uses msiexec.exe to install .MSI & MSP files & runs under the
"Local System Account" (started by a windows service) Should be fun.

Thanks

Darren

 

[Andy Allred [MS]]

A much better tool now available is from Sean Liming, one of our MVPs for
XPe. It will also monitor the system state but after it diffs the two states
it will create a component for you and pull all the files into a repository
as well.

Check it out, it's called Component Helper and is part of a suite of tools
that I can't live without now when componentizing applications and drivers:
http://www.sjjmicro.com/XPES_Tools_R2.html

I don't generally copy User specific keys since the SID will be different,
you probably want them to be in the .default branch.

A lot of your basic questions are probably answered in the 'How to'
checklist on MSDN to componentize an application:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...p/html/xehowhowtocomponentizeapplications.asp

--
Andy

Check out the Embedded team blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/embedded/

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Hi Andy - I'm still not clear on the steps required, perhaps I needed to
be
clearer in my request - here goes again.

ASIDE: I'm currently using the trial version of Ashampoo UnInstaller
Platinum 2 v2.0.0.0 ( does this have restricted functionality from the
full
versions?)

I've noticed in your Winamp_LITE.sld file, you've only added registry keys
from the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes node. Should you have added other nodes
such
as HKLM\SOFTWARE\[Clients | Microsoft]?? and
HK_USERS\S-1-5-21-...\Software\Windows\Microsoft... etc. Perhaps these
differences are because my system is not clean? But even if you system is
clean & you add a registry branch, won't you be adding potentially more
registry settings than is required by the application? At what level in
the
registry heirarchy do you add branches or nodes? Obviously you don't add
all
nodes under HKLM\SOFTWARE\...

anyway the registry changes for my situation won't be significant, so I'll
move onto adding the files.

I've just determined that the files which you added have an icon with a
red
circle in the top LH corner - these must be the files that have changed,
(this wasn't clear on first pass because I'd never used Ashampoo
Uninstaller
before) - the process is starting to sink in. - but what are all the other
files listed in the "File Changes" tab of Ashampoo?

So you always add the files to the component & then copy them to the
repository - hence you have two copies of the files on the same PC? or do
you copy the files which have been installed on the "clean" PC & copy them
to
your other PC where you're running CD?

ASIDE: The application that I want to monitor is actually installed from a
program that uses msiexec.exe to install .MSI & MSP files & runs under the
"Local System Account" (started by a windows service) Should be fun.

Thanks

Darren

Hi Darren, nice to see someone actually reading that series of articles
<grin>, been wondering if I should do one that is a little more complex.
I
did not import a text file from the Uninstaller.

In "Part 3", in the 5th paragraph I called it out but probably could have
made it more clear, sorry. I opened my new winamp component in Component
Designer, in the registry node of CD I browsed through the reg hives of
the
machine via CD's 'Add | Registry Data' or 'Add | Registry Branch'.

From there, i would browse to the reg locations that I saw had changed in
Ashampoo's Uninstaller. So i had the uninstaller application open on my
desktop and CD open side by side and would make the CD reg data and paths
own the same registry information I was seeing in the Uninstaller.

For the question you had on how to import files, i *never* just add files
from the repository and adjust paths, that is way too time consuming. I
do
the same thing with the Files that i listed above for the reg data; i
browse
to "Files" and "Files in Folders" and choose the files there. This way I
let
CD do all the heavy lifting for me and there is zero risk of me making a
mistake when tweaking the path info.

For the term 'baby steps' i was referring to the fact the articles would
be
based on componentizing a simple feature before moving on to a really
complex application.

PS - if you haven't already, sign up for the Tech Preview of the Feature
Pack we're releasing to the public in about a week or so. It will include
a
lot of bug fixes to the tools (including concentrating on the .REG file
import scenario to CD), tons of new features and enhancemens in Embedded
Enabling Features and components.. Here's details on how to sign up:
http://blogs.msdn.com/embedded/archive/2006/07/10/660998.aspx

See ya.

--
Andy

Check out the Embedded team blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/embedded/

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.