making new XP Server 2003 OPK bootable Win PE CD

[Rob]

OK, I suppose I should just give up and follow the instructions on modifying
and making a new OPK bootable CD for preinstallation, but they are crazy. I
was hoping I'd just be able to copy the CD contents, edit the winbom.ini and
winpeoem.sif file, use Nero and make a bootable disk.

I boot that disk and end up with an A: with the boot files and C: with all
the OPK stuff. If I throw an autoexec.bat that launches c:setup.exe will
that work? (I ask now because I don't have access to the tools at the
moment to actually try this out). I really don't have to want to deal with
strange, new proprietary tools especially since I'll be doing a lot of
changes to these two files and the drivers directory and would like to stick
with easily manageable tools that I'm already familiar with. Thanks!

 

[Johan Arwidmark]

Here is a step-by-step to create a custom 2003 OPK (Windows PE) Image

1. Create a folder named c:\tools

2. Copy the contents of the winpe folder from the Windows PE 1.2
Client (or server) CDROM to c:\tools

3. Insert the Windows 2003 CD-ROM (F: in this example). Start a
command prompt and type this.
cd c:\tools
mkimg.cmd F: c:\my2003opk c:\my2003.iso

4. burn the .iso to a CD using Nero or other cdr burning software



Alternative step 3 - 4

3. Insert the Windows 2003 CD-ROM (F: in this example). start a
command prompt and type this.
cd c:\tools
mkimg.cmd F: c:\my2003opk

4. Customize the files in c:\my2003opk (for example add new files)

5. Create a Bootable CD by starting a command prompt and type this.
cd c:\tools
oscdimg -h -n -betfsboot.com c:\my2003opk c:\my2003.iso

6. burn the .iso to a CD using Nero or other cdr burning software


regards
Johan Arwidmark

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

 

[Rob]

thanks, it makes much more sense this morning. i was overwhelmed yesterday
with new information . today it seems so simple!! I haven't done a
preload since NT4 and sysdiff/unattended install days, all these tools are
new to me!!! Wish I had them back then........

 

[Rob]

Ok, one problem with this method, when running mkimg.cmd, two files weren't
copied (because they don't exist
on the OEM 2003 Server CD:

Error in copying (2) : d:\i386\factory.exe ->
c:\mywinpe\I386\system32\factory.exe.
Error in copying (2) : d:\i386\netcfg.exe ->
c:\mywinpe\I386\system32\netcfg.exe

They do however exist on the OPK CD, so I manually copied them off the OPK
CD and to the
C:\mywinpe\i386\system32 directory.

Have you seen this before and is it an issue? I'll be burning my test CD
shortly. Thanks for the help!
..

 

[Rob]

nevermind, i found a section in the documentation that addressed this issue.

 

[Johan Arwidmark]

Make sure you are using Windows PE 1.2, this is the only version
supporting PE images of Windows Server 2003.

The files should be dated 2003-03-25

The files are named X86FACTORY.EXE and X86NETCFG.EXE and are in the
winpe folder

regards
Johan Arwidmark

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

 

[Rob]

Thanks, I have this working now. I should probably start a new thread for
this but in case you know ....
Once the factory -winpe completes, I reboot the system, but it bluescreens
because the new adaptec raid
driver isn't loaded as part of textmode setup. Do you have a pointer to
some docs that explain how to load
this for textmode? I used to do this for NT4 so I think I can figure it out
again, but thought I'd post here
and see if you know in case it takes me longer than expected. Thanks again!