Sysprep issues

[ND40oz]

You can image across HALs, it is not supported by Microsoft and they definitely won't tell you how to do it. Dell manages to do it with their x-image, which is an image that major corporations will give to Dell when they have a large account with them. You can tell Dell what hardware you want the image to work on and it will do it. It takes forever for the pc to boot up for the first time as the x-image reboots several times while loading drivers, it uses a WinPE environment to do this.

The way we got around the image problem is to have a bootloader at first bootup that gives you 120 seconds to choose which HAL you wish to use. We have all 4 HALs as a choice upon first boot. If you choose the wrong HAL, it blue screens, you reboot and pick a different one. You then use sysprep too switch over to the normal boot.ini on first reboot so you don't still have that first four option choose everytime you bootup. Needless to say, our image works across non-acpi, acpi, single and multi processor acpi HALs. Good stuff.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Audiofight
Hahaha

I changed the IDE controller drive from the Intel driver to the "Standard PC IDE Controller driver" and it took right off.

I am changing the HAL on the desktop to the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface PC

That is what the laptops like. The reason my image worked a month ago was because I was using a GX60 that doesn't have built-in WinXP support. After removing the pre-installed driver, it worked like a champ.

Now, I have to finish tweaking the OemPnpDriversPath so it will find my drivers and then I should be all set (maybe get it to run our automatic naming script at the end)

Don't hard-code HALs! It's a very bad idea. Just make an image for each HAL.

I don't understand what you mean by "built in XP support". What pre-installed driver do you mean?

Glad you got it working!

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: ND40oz
You can image across HALs, it is not supported by Microsoft and they definitely won't tell you how to do it. Dell manages to do it with their x-image, which is an image that major corporations will give to Dell when they have a large account with them. You can tell Dell what hardware you want the image to work on and it will do it. It takes forever for the pc to boot up for the first time as the x-image reboots several times while loading drivers, it uses a WinPE environment to do this.

The way we got around the image problem is to have a bootloader at first bootup that gives you 120 seconds to choose which HAL you wish to use. We have all 4 HALs as a choice upon first boot. If you choose the wrong HAL, it blue screens, you reboot and pick a different one. You then use sysprep too switch over to the normal boot.ini on first reboot so you don't still have that first four option choose everytime you bootup. Needless to say, our image works across non-acpi, acpi, single and multi processor acpi HALs. Good stuff.

Interesting point. Another way to do that would be go have a 2003 RIS server - it will only present image options to you that agree with your HAL, so you could change scripts in those 'images' accordingly to do the right thing (say, point to the Ghost image with the right HAL...).

 

[Audiofight]

the ACPI Hal that I am using works on desktops perfectly and is the default for laptops. By setting my desktop to that one, I cover all of our workstations. No one that I have to support has a dual processor workstation nor a Hyper-Threaded P4. All uniprocessor systems.

the GX50 has an Intel 810 chipset. Windows XP has native support for it, all the drivers pre-load during installation. Because the system was loading the exact driver for the IDE controller, it was wreaking havoc on my image. Once I ripped that IDE driver out and switched to the "emulated" Microsoft driver used whenever the correct hardware driver isn't present, everything worked perfectly.

Just for the record, there are more than 4 HALs. There are 7 or 8 HALs. Most of which are variant multiprocessor HALs, which are useless to me.

 

[Audiofight]

Also, designing a different image for each HAL doesn't do me any good because I have 9 different hardware platforms to support and over 2200 users. Think of the combinations of images to users that I have to design now. Even by consolidating down to 4 different images, I still have too many to juggle.

The frustration we are constantly running into is having an image for one hardware platform that is setup perfectly for a new user, but that hardware is a year out of date. So, right now, I have to find an image for the hardware that is close to what I need and then finish installing more software to get it ready for deployment. I want to cut down a new workstation deployment to 1 hour, not 1 day or 1 week.

A different image for each HAL is still 4 images for each software combination that I have to design and 4 different development systems I have to maintain with each patch and/or hotfix that comes out.

Once I am able to make 1 image for a job title, I will be able to push ahead with Zenworks to establish better desktop control. But, right now, the images spread out have too many differences (mainly due to different technicians over the years)

 

[dclive]

Right - you can either put in the default "PCI IDE ..." driver, or you can use Sysprep's BMSD switch, which is actually a better way to do it (or do both) because that will give you compatibility with ALL drivers in the XP image (in other words, it will try to, during the first boot, load device drivers for ALL SCSI and IDE controllers in XP, as long as it's in the sysprep.inf file, which it will be once you run Sysprep with BMSD switch.

All of this is straight from the Sysprep docs.

Hard-coding HALs is a bad idea. You can't predict what will happen in the future, what future servicepacks might do, or what future OS upgrades might do. I suggest you reconsider if you're in a corporate environment.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Audiofight
Also, designing a different image for each HAL doesn't do me any good because I have 9 different hardware platforms to support and over 2200 users. Think of the combinations of images to users that I have to design now. Even by consolidating down to 4 different images, I still have too many to juggle.

Sounds like it's time for group policy or SMS and .MSIs.

The frustration we are constantly running into is having an image for one hardware platform that is setup perfectly for a new user, but that hardware is a year out of date. So, right now, I have to find an image for the hardware that is close to what I need and then finish installing more software to get it ready for deployment. I want to cut down a new workstation deployment to 1 hour, not 1 day or 1 week.

Sysprep handles various hardware platforms flawlessly, as I think you've now seen.

A different image for each HAL is still 4 images for each software combination that I have to design and 4 different development systems I have to maintain with each patch and/or hotfix that comes out.

Windows Software Update Services handles hotfixes and such flawlessly. There's no reason for you to worry about that in the image itself.

Once I am able to make 1 image for a job title, I will be able to push ahead with Zenworks to establish better desktop control. But, right now, the images spread out have too many differences (mainly due to different technicians over the years)

SMS or group policy. Or kickoff scripts to install applications (you can script and automate most software installs fairly easily nowadays). There's no reason to have more images than you have HALs in this day and age.

 

[Audiofight]

Well, the development image has to have SOME Hal installed. Sysprep hasn't done a very good job deciding which one is right for the hardware. By setting it manually to ACPI PC, it works. I haven't coded anything into the sysprep.ini file about HALs.

I tried the BMSD switch and it didn't work. The system still entered its endless reboot loop. After switching to the "PCI IDE..." driver as you suggested, the image works on multiple hardware platforms, desktop and laptop.

None of my workstations have PCI hdd controllers (IDE or SCSI). All the systems use ATA100 IDE drives. I work for a bank, so there aren't any "power users" that would need high-end, multiprocessor workstations or scsi arrays in their desktop. The server guys build their own images, I only work in desktop engineering and printer repair (good ol HP printers......job security keeping them going)

 

[Audiofight]

I am not referring to "patches and/or hotfixes" in the sense of just Microsoft software either.

We have over 200 pieces of 3rd party software that I have install and configure. Being that the previous contractors were very poor about documenting things, we are still writing new documentation as we re-install software for users.

So, when a new patch comes out, especially ones that take 20-30 minutes to roll out on older laptops, I usually try to update the image that software is on so a new user or a re-image is a little less time consuming.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Audiofight
Well, the development image has to have SOME Hal installed. Sysprep hasn't done a very good job deciding which one is right for the hardware. By setting it manually to ACPI PC, it works. I haven't coded anything into the sysprep.ini file about HALs.

Don't set anything manually. Design your sysprep images so that each is labelled with the HAL it supports, and then build charts for your techs - Dell 600s get this image, Dell 700s get this one, etc. I suspect you'll have all of 2 or maybe 3 image types, if that. Use unattend.txt to build them so each is the same, and you're done. Easy.

I tried the BMSD switch and it didn't work. The system still entered its endless reboot loop. After switching to the "PCI IDE..." driver as you suggested, the image works on multiple hardware platforms, desktop and laptop.

Did the BMSD switch update your sysprep.inf with a long, long list of all of the various disk controllers?

None of my workstations have PCI hdd controllers (IDE or SCSI). All the systems use ATA100 IDE drives. I work for a bank, so there aren't any "power users" that would need high-end, multiprocessor workstations or scsi arrays in their desktop. The server guys build their own images, I only work in desktop engineering and printer repair (good ol HP printers......job security keeping them going)

ATA100 or ATA133 or whatnot doesn't matter, nor does whether it's PCI or integrated. The only thing that matters is the controller - and if it's compatible with the PCI IDE standard. If all of yours are, and if they always will be, you're fine with what you have now, for now, with respect to the disk controller. But double-check BMSD and learn how it works so if you ever get stuck, you can fix it.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Audiofight
I am not referring to "patches and/or hotfixes" in the sense of just Microsoft software either.

We have over 200 pieces of 3rd party software that I have install and configure. Being that the previous contractors were very poor about documenting things, we are still writing new documentation as we re-install software for users.

So, when a new patch comes out, especially ones that take 20-30 minutes to roll out on older laptops, I usually try to update the image that software is on so a new user or a re-image is a little less time consuming.

Paragraph 1: OK, script it.
Para 2: Script that, too. MSIs are good.
Para 3: Wow. Tremendous amounts of work. You update the image!?!? Why not just keep the image the same and update the software itself? The support of that image must be a nightmare - and how do you handle differences in the image that are bound to creep up? How do you ensure they're all the same?

Sounds like a nightmare. Look into SMS software distribution, MSIs, and Windows Installer technology. You can package stuff once, and deploy it to 500 machines with a few mouseclicks.

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: Audiofight
I am not referring to "patches and/or hotfixes" in the sense of just Microsoft software either.

We have over 200 pieces of 3rd party software that I have install and configure. Being that the previous contractors were very poor about documenting things, we are still writing new documentation as we re-install software for users.

So, when a new patch comes out, especially ones that take 20-30 minutes to roll out on older laptops, I usually try to update the image that software is on so a new user or a re-image is a little less time consuming.

Paragraph 1: OK, script it.
Para 2: Script that, too. MSIs are good.
Para 3: Wow. Tremendous amounts of work. You update the image!?!? Why not just keep the image the same and update the software itself? The support of that image must be a nightmare - and how do you handle differences in the image that are bound to creep up? How do you ensure they're all the same?

Sounds like a nightmare. Look into SMS software distribution, MSIs, and Windows Installer technology. You can package stuff once, and deploy it to 500 machines with a few mouseclicks.

Not OP, but I've found that when the deployment is small (< 100 machines), it's sometimes easier to update the image and redeploy the image than it is to script the installation of a program.

 

[ND40oz]

Originally posted by: Audiofight
Also, designing a different image for each HAL doesn't do me any good because I have 9 different hardware platforms to support and over 2200 users. Think of the combinations of images to users that I have to design now. Even by consolidating down to 4 different images, I still have too many to juggle.

The frustration we are constantly running into is having an image for one hardware platform that is setup perfectly for a new user, but that hardware is a year out of date. So, right now, I have to find an image for the hardware that is close to what I need and then finish installing more software to get it ready for deployment. I want to cut down a new workstation deployment to 1 hour, not 1 day or 1 week.

A different image for each HAL is still 4 images for each software combination that I have to design and 4 different development systems I have to maintain with each patch and/or hotfix that comes out.

Once I am able to make 1 image for a job title, I will be able to push ahead with Zenworks to establish better desktop control. But, right now, the images spread out have too many differences (mainly due to different technicians over the years)

Like I said, we switch HALs with our one image, it works on the 10,000 pcs we support. From Dell GX1 upto GX280s, all C and D series laptops, all the gateway models I've come across and the same with the hp models I've come across. Our customers buy their own pcs, we encourage them to buy Dells because of the it's easier for us to get a quote from Dell as I can do it on our institutional webpage, but whatever pc they buy, our 1 single sub 2 gig image supports it. We also use altiris to deploy the images, but that shouldn't matter, you can use ghost as well, as we used to use ghost.

 

[antishockj]

ND40oz:

How did you make a HAL loader on first boot up? I'm trying to create a standard image and the different HALs are messing things up.

 

[mariomartinez]

Hi:
I saw this post and you guys seems to know sysprep very well, I am new to my job and have to create images using ghost ans syprep and I don't have nay problems doing this, but when I want to set up shortcuts on master desktop to be reproduce in the each computer, they are gone. I asked in the MS Newsgroup and I have had no luck or I am really stupid.

I have seated another admin account (template) and log off, log on with this account, due all the shortcuts and applications and gone to the users profiles in my computer and copy the admin account to the default users and them log off, log on with the admin account and removed the other admin account (template) and run sysprep mini-setup, plug and play and reseal. When use this image in a PC, the shortcuts are gone from the users and default users desktop, I have done the same operation to the default account and same results all shortcuts are gone.

I read that Microsoft modified the sysprep in WIn XP SP2, so I found and article with hotfix and wrote to Microsoft and obtain the 2 patches which I ran in the sysprep folder and perform the same operation mentioned above and still no shortcuts.

Please advise me in a 6th grade level since I must be at the level to not able to do this task.
Thank you
Mario

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: mariomartinez
Hi:
I saw this post and you guys seems to know sysprep very well, I am new to my job and have to create images using ghost ans syprep and I don't have nay problems doing this, but when I want to set up shortcuts on master desktop to be reproduce in the each computer, they are gone. I asked in the MS Newsgroup and I have had no luck or I am really stupid.

I have seated another admin account (template) and log off, log on with this account, due all the shortcuts and applications and gone to the users profiles in my computer and copy the admin account to the default users and them log off, log on with the admin account and removed the other admin account (template) and run sysprep mini-setup, plug and play and reseal. When use this image in a PC, the shortcuts are gone from the users and default users desktop, I have done the same operation to the default account and same results all shortcuts are gone.

I read that Microsoft modified the sysprep in WIn XP SP2, so I found and article with hotfix and wrote to Microsoft and obtain the 2 patches which I ran in the sysprep folder and perform the same operation mentioned above and still no shortcuts.

Please advise me in a 6th grade level since I must be at the level to not able to do this task.
Thank you
Mario

Went to support.microsoft.com, clicked on KB search. Limited search to Windows XP. Keyed in "sysprep default user"; these were the first few results, and they also should be the answer for you.


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;291586

and then

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307543


Let us know how that helps.

 

[mariomartinez]

Hi:
What version of sysprep version do I have to use in order to achieve the results in the following knowledge base:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;291586
I tried it with sysprep from XP SP2 and it did not work, after ruining sysprep with pNp and reseal, I started the new image as if I were a new user and the shortcuts in the desktop are gone, I double check in all users, default users and administrator and they are gone.
Thank you
Mario