Strange RIS issue when using OEM XP cd to do RIS installs....

[anyweb]

I'm sure some of you have come across this problem (or will..) so I'm going to tell you how to solve it,

 

Please archive this, you'll need it one day...

 

Customers scenario:- The customer has a whole load of computers and they want to do RIS (remote installation services) installs on their new computerss and they want to use the OEM provided Windows XP SP2 OEM cd, I normally would NOT recommend this method as it is troublesome and may lead to activation issues amongst other things.

 

If you use the OEM cd to install computers using RIS, please note that the OEM cd has modified files on it that can cause errors during the RIS process. The first error you may encounter is likely to be something along the lines of

 

File iastor.sys caused an unexpected error (21) at line 3540 in

d:\xpsprtm\base\boot\setup\setup.c.

 

The above error is misleading as you might think you actually need this file (and you most likely don't as the drivers you require can be installed properly via the oempnpdrivers path or install.bat).

 

NOTE: This error can also be seen on workstations, and if so, have a read of this http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=7454

 

 

 

To get around this problem we have to understand where it's coming from.

 

When risetup is run on the RIS server, a read only file called txtsetup.sif is created at risserver\risdrive\remote install\setup\english\images\<baseinstallname>\I386.

 

Remove the read only properties from the file then open it in notepad and find the [sCSI Load] section. In this section you will find the driver that is causing the error. Comment out any lines that produce a similiar error when you try to load the system.

 

DO NOT comment out all the lines in this section, as the system will not be able to find a hard drive after getting past the errors. What happens here is the OEM cd has several references to drivers (for raid/scsi and so on) that you won't find on a Volume License Key cd's txtsetup.sif file.

 

Have a look at the two samples below, the first part is from a (danish winxpsp2) OEM txtsetup.sif file, the second part is from the VLK cd txtsetup.sif file.

 

[sCSI.Load]iastor = iastor.sys,4

a320raid = a320raid.sys,4

aac = aac.sys,4

cpqarray = cpqarray.sys,4

atapi = atapi.sys,4

aha154x = aha154x.sys,4

sparrow = sparrow.sys,4

symc810 = symc810.sys,4

aic78xx = aic78xx.sys,4

i2omp = i2omp.sys,4

dac960nt = dac960nt.sys,4

ql10wnt = ql10wnt.sys,4

amsint = amsint.sys,4

asc = asc.sys,4

asc3550 = asc3550.sys,4

mraid35x = mraid35x.sys,4

ini910u = ini910u.sys,4

ql1240 = ql1240.sys,4

aic78u2 = aic78u2.sys,4

symc8xx = symc8xx.sys,4

sym_hi = sym_hi.sys,4

sym_u3 = sym_u3.sys,4

asc3350p = asc3350p.sys,4

abp480n5 = abp480n5.sys,4

cd20xrnt = cd20xrnt.sys,4

ultra = ultra.sys,4

adpu160m = adpu160m.sys,4

dpti2o = dpti2o.sys,4

ql1080 = ql1080.sys,4

ql1280 = ql1280.sys,4

ql12160 = ql12160.sys,4

perc2 = perc2.sys,4

hpn = hpn.sys,4

cbidf2k = cbidf2k.sys,4

dac2w2k = dac2w2k.sys,4

aarich = aarich.sys,4

 

And now here's the same part from the VLK txtsetup.sif file…

 

[sCSI.Load]cpqarray = cpqarray.sys,4

atapi = atapi.sys,4

aha154x = aha154x.sys,4

sparrow = sparrow.sys,4

symc810 = symc810.sys,4

aic78xx = aic78xx.sys,4

i2omp = i2omp.sys,4

dac960nt = dac960nt.sys,4

ql10wnt = ql10wnt.sys,4

amsint = amsint.sys,4

asc = asc.sys,4

asc3550 = asc3550.sys,4

mraid35x = mraid35x.sys,4

ini910u = ini910u.sys,4

ql1240 = ql1240.sys,4

aic78u2 = aic78u2.sys,4

symc8xx = symc8xx.sys,4

sym_hi = sym_hi.sys,4

sym_u3 = sym_u3.sys,4

asc3350p = asc3350p.sys,4

abp480n5 = abp480n5.sys,4

cd20xrnt = cd20xrnt.sys,4

ultra = ultra.sys,4

adpu160m = adpu160m.sys,4

dpti2o = dpti2o.sys,4

ql1080 = ql1080.sys,4

ql1280 = ql1280.sys,4

ql12160 = ql12160.sys,4

perc2 = perc2.sys,4

hpn = hpn.sys,4

cbidf2k = cbidf2k.sys,4

dac2w2k = dac2w2k.sys,4

 

As you can see from above, there are quite a few differences between the OEM txtsetup.sif file and the one on the VLK cd. So the first step in resolving your customer's 'iastor.sys errors' is to very simply copy/paste the VLK section directly into their original OEM txtsetup.sif file's [scsi.load] section (marked in RED above) replacing the OEM references with the original VLK references (which leaves out the OEM iles which cause the issues in the first place).

 

Once this is done, you can restart the RIS service and attempt another RIS install. Things will look much better but then half way through the RIS install there will be several references to files 'not found… press ESC to ignore' , the files that are 'missing' are likely to be any of the files below (or more)

 

 

Megasas.pdb

Megasas.sys

Nodev.inf

Oemsetup.inf

Delpseud.inf

Mpixp32.cat

Symmpi.inf

Symmpi.sys

Symmpi.tag

Symmpi.pdb

Idecoi.dll

NavAtaBus.sys

Nvrais.sys

Nvraidco.dll

Nvraid.inf

Nvraid.cat

Iastor.sys

Iastor.inf

Iastor.cat

Iaahci.cat

Iaahci.inf

A320RAID.SYS

A320RAID.INF

A320RAID.CAT

A320MGT.INF

A320MGT.CAT

Cercsr6.sys

Cercsr6.inf

Cercsr6.cat

Cercmgt.inf

Cerccin.dll

Afamgt.sys

Aichmgt.inf

Aichmgt.cat

Aarich.sys

Aarich.inf

Aarich.cat

Aacmgt.inf

Aacevt.exe

Aaccin.dll

Aac.sys

Aac.inf

Aac.cat

!Dell_XP.cab

!DPCHFEN.CAB

To resolve those issues we need to edit the TXTSETUP.SIF file some more. We need to locate another section in the TXTSETUP.SIF file called '[sourceDisksFiles]'.

 

NOTE: you will find SEVERAL references to [sourceDisksFiles] in the TXTSETUP.SIF file, but only ONE of them is the one we need to edit, the one we need to edit will have the following line in it

 

bootvid.dll = 1,,,,,,3_,2,0,0,,1,2

 

So once you've located the right one do as follows:-

 

delete everything between [sourceDisksFiles] and bootvid.dll = 1,,,,,,3_,2,0,0,,1,2

 

so it now starts to look like...

 

[sourceDisksFiles]

bootvid.dll = 1,,,,,,3_,2,0,0,,1,2

kdcom.dll = 1,,,,,,3_,2,0,0,,1,2

c_1252.nls = 1,,,,,,3_,2,0,0,,1,2

c_437.nls = 1,,,,,,3_,2,0,0,,1,2

l_intl.nls = 1,,,,,,3_,2,0,0,,1,2...........

 

(the file list continues on and on and on, only delete the lines BETWEEN '[sourceDisksFiles] and bootvid.dll = 1,,,,,,3_,2,0,0,,1,2

 

Ok, now that you have completed editing the TXTSETUP.SIF file, save it, and restart the RIS service, then complete another PXE boot to the RIS server and enjoy the fact that it's working now !!

 

For your reference I'm including a copy of the VLK TXTSETUP.SIF file and the Danish TXTSETUP.SIF file (there will be minor differences between the languages but the scenario will always be the same, to fix an OEM ris install, you must edit the TXTSETUP.SIF file.

txtsetup.sif_fromVolumeLicenseKeyWINXPsp2CD.txt

txtsetup.sif_fromOEMcd_Danish_.txt