klseesea
Jan 13,2009
In: Software & Tools

BDD 2007 faqs on Windows XP deployment

What additional files are needed to deploy Windows XP SP2 with BDD 2007?

A. In addition to the Windows XP SP2 source files, sysprep.exe, setupcl.exe, and factory.exe from the deploy.cab file from the Windows XP SP2 Support Files located at the root of the Product media or downloaded from:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3E90DC91-AC56-4665-949B-BEDA3080E0F6

Q. How does BDD 2007 utilize the tools from the deploy.cab file?

A. By copying the deploy.cab file into the Distribution\tools\x86 folder, BDD will locate and extract the necessary files as part of the Lite Touch process to properly sysprep the XP master image before capturing into a WIM file.

Q. What log files can be evaluated to troubleshoot deployment issues with Windows XP?

A. The primary log files for Windows XP SP2 are located in the %windir% folder and are named:

setuplog.txt - Contains information about setup actions during the installation.

setuperr.txt - Contains information about setup errors during the installation.

setupapi.log – Contains information about hardware detection during the installation.

Q. Are there BDD specific log files and where are they located?

A. BDD scripts automatically create log files. Each script creates a log file that matches the name of the script, for example ZTIGather.wsf creates a log file named ZTIGather.log. Each script also updates a common log file (BDD.log) that aggregates the contents of logs created by the BDD scripts. BDD logs are located in the C:\MININT\SMSOSD\OSDLOGS folder during the deployment process. They are then moved at the completion of a deployment, their destination is dependent on the deployment type:

Lite Touch - C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\BDDLogs unless the /debug:true option has been specified.

Zero Touch - C:\TEMP\SMSOSD or C:\SMSOSD unless the C:\MININT\Archive_OSD.SMS file is found.

Q. Can I use Windows System Image Manager to create a catalog file or edit Windows XP setup information files?

A. No, Windows SIM is only used to create and edit unattend.xml files for Windows Vista and Server 2008 deployments. Unattend.txt, and setup.inf files can be edited with a plain text editor such as Notepad.

Q. Can I create a single Windows XP SP2 image for deployment that can be installed to any hardware?

A. As long as the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) of the reference computer matches the HAL of the destination computer, as detailed in the following knowledge base article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309283/

Q. How do I add a storage driver to my already captured Windows XP WIM file for deployment?

A. Unlike Windows Vista, storage drivers must be present on the computer when “sysprep –reseal” is run.

Q. How do I add a storage driver to Windows XP image before syspreping so that it will be available in my image for deployment?

A. After acquiring the correct driver download package, first extract the INF file(s) included in the driver package so that you can determine the correct Plug and Play ID’s (PnP ID) that the driver package supports. Examine the files and locate the PnP ID’s in lines resembling something like the following in the txtsetup.oem file provided by the manufacturer

id = "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2922&CC_0106","iaStor"

id = "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_282A&CC_0104","iaStor"

id = "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2829&CC_0106","iaStor"

id = "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2822&CC_0104","iaStor"

id = "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2821&CC_0106","iaStor"

id = "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2682&CC_0104","iaStor"

id = "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2681&CC_0106","iaStor"

id = "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C3&CC_0104","iaStor"

id = "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C6&CC_0104","iaStor"

id = "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C1&CC_0106","iaStor"

id = "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C5&CC_0106","iaStor"

id = "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2653&CC_0106","iaStor"

You will need to copy the drivers & associated files into the distribution share so that they will be available to the setup and sysprep processes. One method is to use the $OEM$ folder structure to automate the necessary copying. A folder structure such as the following is one example:

.\Distribution\Control\<BUILDID>\$OEM$\$1\Drivers\DriverName

Once the driver is available from a known location such as the above, you need to edit the sysprep.inf file so that it includes information which references the PnP ID’s of the driver as illustrated below:

[Sysprep]

BuildMassStorageSection = YES

[SysprepMassStorage]

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2652&CC_0106="C:\DRIVERS\DriverName\driverfile.INF"

Each additional driver PnP ID must be added to the sysprep.inf file before running sysprep to integrate the storage driver into the syspreped image.

For a step by step example of integrating the Intel IASTOR driver into sysprep.inf, look a the article: BDD 2007 - Integrating Mass Storage Drivers into your XP image

Q. When I deploy Windows XP with Lite Touch, on some hardware, the machine halts with a Blue Screen (BSOD), or hangs loading mup.sys after the machine attempts to boot into mini-setup?

A. This problem occurs because Windows Vista and Windows PE 2.0 create disk partitions differently than Windows XP. This problem occurs only on computers that use certain BIOS firmware. Knowledge Base article describes the problem and a hotfix for Windows XP that can serve as a workaround for the issue: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931760/en-us . This problem can also occur due to a HAL mismatch between the source computer and the destination computer or this could also be due to a missing mass storage driver.

Q. I have already created my master XP image and don’t want to rebuild, but am still getting the above problem on some hardware. Is there another workaround available for this issue?

A. One workaround is to add data & values to the registry of WinPE 2.0. These settings will change how WinPE partitions and formats the hard drive before the XP image is applied. The following settings need to be added to WinPE to workaround the issue:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES\VDS\ALIGNMENT]
"LessThan4GB"=dword:00000000
"Between4_8GB"=dword:00000000
"Between8_32GB"=dword:00000000
"GreaterThan32GB"=dword:00000000

Another workaround that does not require changing the registry in WinPE is a simple change to the Distribution\Scripts\ZTIDiskpart.txt file used by BDD. If you change the file as follows, WinPE will partition the drive in such a manner that there is no need for either of the above steps:

Original ZTIDiskpart.txt file:

select disk 0

clean

create partition primary

assign letter=c:

active

exit

Modified ZTIDiskpart.txt file:

select disk 0

clean

create partition primary align=16065

assign letter=c:

active

exit

The "align=16065" command solves the issue described in kb931760 since it would does not create the partition in the area that gets overridden by this bios bug of some systems, but will cause you to to lose approximately 2 MB disk space.

Q. How do I integrate all of the hotfixes for Windows XP as part of my deployment when I build my master image?

A. One suggested method is to use a batch file such as “RunUpdates.cmd” as mentioned in this early TechNet Magazine article:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2005/11/UtilitySpotlight/default.aspx

NOTE: Don’t use the "ostype" or "splevel" parameters of RunUpdates.cmd since they depend on the old sys2file.vbs output of BDD 2.5.

Q. Where can I find more FAQs and other information about Business Desktop Deployment 2007?

A. Additional information can be found at several Microsoft hosted weblogs:

Ben Hunter’s blog: http://blogs.technet.com/benhunter/default.aspx

Michael Niehaus’ blog: http://blogs.technet.com/mniehaus/default.aspx

Richard Smith’s blog: http://blogs.technet.com/richardsmith/default.aspx

Q. Are there Microsoft newsgroups and similar sites that offer support for deployment?

A. The following newsgroups are available with peers, MVP’s, & Microsoft employee support available:

microsoft.public.deployment.desktop