Redeployed topic

[feeks]

Aplogies for confusing the pinned topic!

 

WDS responds with a "Windows could not display the images available for installation." and bombs! The account I am using is the domain administrator account so I don't believe that it is a privileges issue. The wim security is Auth Users read/execute.

 

I have imaged an x64 Dell Dual core XPSP3 the image records as an x86! I have created x64 and x86 capture images and have not encountered any issues with the capture I am simply not able to deploy an image. I turned on Tracing but this didn't tell me a whole lot.

 

I have a sysprep configuration along with oem drivers in the same location and name as the .wim. The server is 2K3 SP2 and the wim is 15Gb the capture images are 6.0.6000 (x86) and 6.0.6001 (x64) and I get the same result with the WINPE boot/capture. All images have been created via the mmc.

 

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

 

I am imaging from a Dell Vostro 1500 XPSP3 and I am uncertain of the parentage of the Vista sources as I was only interested in the wim's. There is an additional question here from my knowledge of RIS which is there was always a necessity for a RISETUP operating system image which provided build resources for the rest of image build process. WDS does not seem to require this presuming that all of the old RISETUP equivalent sources are stored in the boot image? Having exported the boot image this does not seem to be the case or am I wrong? In which case my next question will be how do I get a RISETUP equivalence into the WDS environment?

 

Regards

Feeks

[anyweb]

hi feeks and no worries about the closed topic, it was my fault for not closing them earlier and it makes it easier for other users to find answers if and when we come to those conclusions !

 

i'll try and go through your post bit by bit and make some comments

 

WDS responds with a "Windows could not display the images available for installation." and bombs! The account I am using is the domain administrator account so I don't believe that it is a privileges issue. The wim security is Auth Users read/execute.

 

sounds to me like a HAL is getting confused, can you describe how you made the image(s) in question and how you are attempting to deploy them ? is the image Windows XP or Vista, and what service pack is it ?

 

 

I have imaged an x64 Dell Dual core XPSP3 the image records as an x86! I have created x64 and x86 capture images and have not encountered any issues with the capture I am simply not able to deploy an image. I turned on Tracing but this didn't tell me a whole lot.

 

Windows XP service pack 3 is indeed an X86 (32 bit) image, it's reporting it correctly,at the time of writing, XP is available in a 64bit version but that is at service pack 2 level

 

in order to understand your problem accurately, please tell me exactly what you have done to get to where you are now, and tell me at what point the deployment fails, we'll try and solve this together

 

cheers

anyweb

[feeks]

sounds to me like a HAL is getting confused, can you describe how you made the image(s) in question and how you are attempting to deploy them ? is the image Windows XP or Vista, and what service pack is it ?

The install image is definitely Windows XP service pack 3 and the service pack 3 deployment tools were used for the sysprep

Windows XP service pack 3 is indeed an X86 (32 bit) image, it's reporting it correctly,at the time of writing, XP is available in a 64bit version but that is at service pack 2 level

I have seen some comments on the Microsoft site to use the .1 wims but think that is only the difference between release 0 and service pack 1 surely?

in order to understand your problem accurately, please tell me exactly what you have done to get to where you are now, and tell me at what point the deployment fails, we'll try and solve this together

I have pretty much followed your pinned instructions religiously while trying various capture images winpe, x86 and x64 with all deployments responding in the same manner.

 

For the sake of clarity the steps taken are: (All image creation has been performed via the WDS mmc with the exception of the export/peimg driver injection)

 

1 Added/compiled the boot.wim's from the sources. In the case of the WinPE I ImageX'd the boot.wim but did not add any of the optional components so that image is pretty much a bare-boned boot image (these are stored in the %reminst%\boot\<lang>\image location

2 I exported/peimg'd the pnp nic drives required. I have also received the same end result from non-peimg'd boot images.

3 I created capture images from the relevant boot images which are stored in %reminst%\boot\<lang>\image.

4 I created install images (various boot os pe, x86 and x64) using the capture images with all install images completing as expected. All capture images have been created using the -mini -reseal -reboot flags.

5 I have created multiple image groups added the install images keeping them separate to avoid res.wmn corruption

5 Attempt deployment and get to Step 5 from the pinned topics then thud!

 

Because the install images are hal dependent I have also added %oem% to the %reminst%\images\<image group>\<image .wim name> location with sysprep.inf to support the pnp driver and mini setup requirements.

 

I have also used a variety of WDSClient configurations to support image automation e.g. unsecured and secured domain joins but obviously we aren't getting to this point in the deployment to see whether this part works!

 

As alluded to in my previous post, I am taking it on good faith that the capture wim carries sufficient/appropriate source to build an XPSP3 capture image

 

The deployment fails after install image selection (a couple of seconds or so delay). At the point of image selection the Language drop down is not activated with the only option buttons being next/cancel. On failure a WDS client dialog (consistent with the previous style of dialogs) pops up declaring that WDS cannont display the images available for installation. I have confirmed that I have IP access and can ping the server at the point of failure.

 

Cheers

Feeks

[anyweb]

if you remove the %oem% folder you added to your %reminst%\images\<image group>\<image .wim name> does the process work ?

 

if not, are you 100% sure that you've followed the below to the letter ?

 

Part 3 - PXE boot to the WDS server

 

Step 1. Make sure the Network card is set to 'on w/PXE' in your bios and that you control the boot order so that it boots to PXE before anything else

 

Step 2. When you get the Windows Boot Manager screen after PXE booting to the WDS server, select the 'Windows Vista Setup-Deploy' option (may be labelled differently, but this label was defined in Part 1, step 7 of this post)

 

Step 3. After Windows PE boots you'll be presented with a Install Windows wizard, select your chosen Locale and Keyboard or input method and click next.

 

Step 4. When prompted enter your domain username and password, enter them and click ok to continue.

 

eg: Username= ris2\administrator

Password= xxxxxxxxxx

 

Step 5. Select the operating system you want to install from the ones in the list, in this example it is Windows Vista Ultimate Capture en-US X86. Click Next to continue.

 

Step 6. Where do you want to install windows? highlight the drive/partition and click next to continue or click advanced drive options if you want to format the drive, and then click on format and ok (otherwise the previous Windows installation will be renamed to Windows.old).

 

Step 7. Click next to continue, Windows setup will start the installation process (copying files, expanding files, installing features, installing updates, completing installation).

 

Congratulations, you have now successfully deployed a previously captured image using WDS.

 

from my understanding of your problem you are getting to point 5 of part 3 of this post and then you are not seeing any images listed, are you booting the SAME hardware to the pxe server as you created the image with ? if not can you try doing that please ?

 

if all of this doesnt help then the only thing that I can think of that may be causing your issue is the hard disc controller not seeing your hard disc, you can verify this by bringing up a command prompt during the windows PE process and typing dir c:, do the files you'd expect to see show up ???

 

if this is the issue then we'll have to add the sata drivers via txtsetup.oem....

 

cheers

anyweb

[feeks]

from my understanding of your problem you are getting to point 5 of part 3 of this post and then you are not seeing any images listed, are you booting the SAME hardware to the pxe server as you created the image with ? if not can you try doing that please ?

.

 

 

...... I can see the install image ... the failure is immediately after the selection of the install image. And yes I am trying to put the image back onto the same device.

 

if all of this doesnt help then the only thing that I can think of that may be causing your issue is the hard disc controller not seeing your hard disc, you can verify this by bringing up a command prompt during the windows PE process and typing dir c:, do the files you'd expect to see show up ???

 

...... Just before the failure point I can perform a dir of the c:

[anyweb]

ok are you certain that the dvd you use to create the boot.wim file for this was the Dell Vista DVD or Microsoft's MSDN Vista DVD ?

 

it should be the Microsoft one, of if you don't have access to it delete the pid.txt file found on the dvd as outlined here, you'll have to mount the wim file to do this, then make the change and save the change, the new wim file can then be imported back into WDS and tested...

 

OEM boot.wims contain a pid.txt file in the sources directory. You need to delete this pid.txt file if you're using the Dell OEM boot.wim for a WDS install.

 

and.... from here

 

....to remove this file. I used ImageX to mount the image using the syntax: imagex /mountrw e:\working\boot.wim 2 e:\working\boot

 

This mounted the file and I then found pid.txt under the sources directory. I deleted it and unmounted the image with imagex /unmount /commit e:\working\boot

 

this saved the changes to the file. I then deleted the old boot image from within WDS and added the newly modified boot image. This worked.

 

if the above doesnt help and you are definetly using a MSDN or Microsoft DVD to create the original wim files then let me know

 

cheers

anyweb

[feeks]

ok are you certain that the dvd you use to create the boot.wim file for this was the Dell Vista DVD or Microsoft's MSDN Vista DVD ?

 

it should be the Microsoft one, of if you don't have access to it delete the pid.txt file found on the dvd as outlined here, you'll have to mount the wim file to do this, then make the change and save the change, the new wim file can then be imported back into WDS and tested...

 

 

 

and.... from here

 

 

 

if the above doesnt help and you are definetly using a MSDN or Microsoft DVD to create the original wim files then let me know

 

cheers

anyweb

 

The iso that I have of the DVD carries a pid.txt so presumably this is the OEM version. I will hack this out of the boot.wim and let you know what happens!

 

What does this actually mean for the error condition that I have been experiencing? The Microsoft Forums are currently being moved around and are unavailable which prevents any further reading. Does the existence of the pid attemt to use the key provided and therefore fails?

 

Cheers

feeks

[anyweb]

yes the presence of the pid.txt file could indeed be borking things up as you describe, only one way to find out though and that's for you to test it

 

i'm very interested in hearing if this solves the problem !

 

cheers

anyweb

[feeks]

yes the presence of the pid.txt file could indeed be borking things up as you describe, only one way to find out though and that's for you to test it

 

i'm very interested in hearing if this solves the problem !

 

cheers

anyweb

 

Success at last. Thank you for your persistence and assistance!

 

Cheers

Feeks