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Answered Adding Device Drivers To WDS Images

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      Monday, January 08, 2007 8:50 PM
       
       
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      Does anyone know the easiest way to add device drivers to my Vista install, weather its in the Autounattend or using something esle?

       

      I have used WDS and to capture images, reapply them and everything like that.  How do I insert drivers for multiple systems into those images???

       

      Can anyone give me some tips?

       

    Answers

    • Tuesday, January 09, 2007 8:09 PM
       
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      Hello Matt!

      You'll find the Insert Driver Path on the Insert menu of WAIK.

      If you want to integrate the drivers to your image than follow the steps of WAIK-Help Add Drivers to an Offline Windows Image.

      It's explaining exactly what you need to do.

      First you need to create an Unattend.xml which is containing the folder location of your drivers in       PnPcustomizationsNonWinPE\DriverPaths\PathandCredentials setting. This component has to be present in OfflineServicing pass.

      Than you can use this Unattend.xml with command line tool pkgmgr.exe to integrate your drivers to your Image. The image must be mounted with imagex before.

      If you're using install.wim from Vista-DVD than you've to konw, that it's containing seven "subimages" representing the different Vista version (Business, Ultimate, etc.). So take care that you integrating the drivers to the right image!

      That's not detailed but if you follow the steps from WAIK beside, than it should not be a problem...

      Martin
       

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    • Tuesday, January 09, 2007 8:20 AM
       
       
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      Hi Matt

      I am working on inserting drivers into an offline image as well. I think it is best to use package manager. It is located on your WINPE boot disc.

      If anyone has other suggestions, please let me know.

      Best Regards,

       

      Kenneth Goldy

       
    • Tuesday, January 09, 2007 2:21 PM
       
       
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      Hello!

      Integrating drivers into .wim using pkgmgr.exe is the easiest way to apply custom drivers IMO.

      But you will have ALL drivers present than in your image. That means everything will be copied over during image deployment. So it will need more time to install and will waste space if you're integrating a lot of drivers, cause drivers are all present in driver store.

      On the other hand I've found out no way else to integrate drivers, which would be similar to [OEMPnpDriversPath] in winnt.sif so far.

      I'm not sure - haven't tried out yet - if it would work better using $OEM$ folder structure $1\Drivers and adding drivers with "Insert Driver Path" from menu...

      Martin
       
    • Tuesday, January 09, 2007 5:23 PM
       
       
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      Martin: Where is the insert driver path that you mentioned?

      I tried adding the drivers (inf's and files) to the image, and then adding the paths in my autounattend file, and installing off of a dvd.  It did not work.  Is there a specific folder structure that is needed?  I used "C:\$OEM Folders$\$1\Driverexample" and made the folders hidden.  I used the "PnPcustomizationsNonWinPE\DriverPaths\PathandCredentials" pass in my autounattend to add the loctaions of the driver inf's. 

      Even if that HAD worked, it doesnt solve my problem of wanting to use WDS to deploy my images loaded with drivers.  I want to be able to have all my drivers inserted in my image, and then have the system figure out and install the correct driver when the image is loaded on to a specific piece of hardware.  Is this possible? 

      I'm very new to deployment, so again any tips would help me out a lot.  Thanks!

       
    • Tuesday, January 09, 2007 8:09 PM
       
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      Hello Matt!

      You'll find the Insert Driver Path on the Insert menu of WAIK.

      If you want to integrate the drivers to your image than follow the steps of WAIK-Help Add Drivers to an Offline Windows Image.

      It's explaining exactly what you need to do.

      First you need to create an Unattend.xml which is containing the folder location of your drivers in       PnPcustomizationsNonWinPE\DriverPaths\PathandCredentials setting. This component has to be present in OfflineServicing pass.

      Than you can use this Unattend.xml with command line tool pkgmgr.exe to integrate your drivers to your Image. The image must be mounted with imagex before.

      If you're using install.wim from Vista-DVD than you've to konw, that it's containing seven "subimages" representing the different Vista version (Business, Ultimate, etc.). So take care that you integrating the drivers to the right image!

      That's not detailed but if you follow the steps from WAIK beside, than it should not be a problem...

      Martin
       
    • Tuesday, January 09, 2007 11:29 PM
       
       
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      Hi Martin,

            I would like to make a Single ghost image which can be used on multiple system configuration. Now the problem is when i add mass storage drivers using offlineservicing. It will work only on that particular machine. Once i create a image and restore on different controller. I will give me blue screen. I do have mass storage drivers for that system in Install.wim using PKgmgr.exe.

             It seems like it install drivers only for that hardware which exist on the machine and ignore rest of the drivers. Won't copy the all the drivers in the image. which can be captured and restore on multiple machine with different controllers.

      I would appreciate your help.

      Thanks,

      Shafiq

       
    • Wednesday, January 10, 2007 8:56 AM
       
       
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      Hello Shafiq!

      Was the image you're deploying generalized using sysprep /generalize before you've "ghosted" it?

      Martin
       
    • Wednesday, January 10, 2007 1:57 PM
       
       
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      Hi Martin,

            Yes, Usually, I shutdown system using Audit /generalize/shutdown, so i can make image and can be restore on different systems. So when system boots back up it will assign new sid and other stuff. Once everything is loaded. Use oobe /shutdown. and done.

       

      Thanks,

      Shafiq

       
    • Wednesday, January 10, 2007 2:40 PM
       
       
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      Well, if all custom mass storage dirvers are present in your ghosted image file and it was syspreped before, than I've no other idea at the moment...

      There is a setting in Unattend.xml it's called <PersistAllDeviceInstalls> is this may be set in your answer file you're using with sysprep generalize and is it may set to true?

      You'll finde that setting - if it's set - under generalize pass in the Microsoft-Windows-PnpSysprep component.

      Have you checked all setupact.log files?

      Martin

       
    • Wednesday, January 10, 2007 6:47 PM
       
       
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      Hi Martin,

               I am not sure, if i am making it confuse.

        I am using offlineservicing pass to add mass storage drivers in Install.wim and Boot.wim. The Mass storage drivers work fine using Recovery DVD. It copies the drivers only needed on that particular system. Is there a way those drivers get copied on system if hardware does not exist. This way if I make (ghost Image) image base on one system, should work on multiple system as long as I have mass storage drivers in Install.wim.

       

      Does my question make any sense?

      Thanks,
      Shafiq

       
    • Wednesday, January 10, 2007 7:31 PM
       
       
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      First of all, every question makes sense... but now I'm a little bit confused honestly.

      The Recovery DVD is the one of Ghost or is it the WinRE?

      Ok... try to figure out the structure of your setup.

      1. You have a basic install.wim and boot.wim (including no additional drivers)?
      2. You have a network share with all kind of mass storage and addational drivers in it?
      3. You log on to your WDS starting offlineServicing to get the image applied to that one machine and drivers are integrated to install.wim during this procedure?
      4. When Setup is finished you seysprep the machine and make your ghost image?

      Is this what you're doing for the moment?

      Martin
       
    • Wednesday, January 10, 2007 11:17 PM
       
       
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      Hi Martin,

              The recovery DVD is RTM disc with some customization and mass storage drivers / Network Drivers slipstream using Offlineservicing pass and Pkgmgr.exe.

             1. You have a basic install.wim and boot.wim (including no additional drivers)?

                I do have Basic Install.wim and Boot.wim which includes all the mass storage drivers as i mentioned above.


      2. You have a network share with all kind of mass storage and addational drivers in it?

            I am doing CD install using same recovery DVD i made with Mass storage drivers. ( No network).


      3. You log on to your WDS starting offlineServicing to get the image applied to that one machine and drivers are integrated to install.wim during this procedure?

             No network and WDS.


      4. When Setup is finished you seysprep the machine and make your ghost image?

            Once I install Windows Vista using Recovery DVD. I create Ghost image. Now here is the problem, If i create image using Single Hard drive and Vista has native drivers the drivers which I added in Install.wim do not copy over to this system. And I can not use this Image with Raid Controller system. It seems like when you install windows Vista using DVD, it only copies hardware specific drivers. NO additional drivers.

      Thanks for your support.

      Shafiq

       
    • Thursday, January 11, 2007 8:50 AM
       
       
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      Hello Shafiq!

      I'll do some repro steps the next two days using "your" method, and let you know which drivers will be copied at which state. Can't to do the ghost part, cause I don't use it.

      Martin
       
    • Thursday, January 11, 2007 11:07 PM
       
       
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      Thanks Martin!

      Shafiq

       
    • Sunday, January 21, 2007 2:43 AM
       
       
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      Hi Martin,

            Any luck ?

      Thanks,
      Shafiq
       
    • Tuesday, January 23, 2007 2:17 PM
       
       
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      Hi Martin,

      I found one of your Post on this forms, I was making the same mistake, inserting the drivers only in "1" in install.wim, instead of all the subimages. I tested it and it works fine.

      Thanks for your support!

      Shafiq 

       

       

      It's right that you don't need sysprep for this method!

      2. The logs are looking ok, I could imagine that you've integrated the drivers into the wrong subimage. This was exactly the misstake I've had and it took 2 weeks to find out. :(

       Here are the commands you've to use to mount and unmount the image:

      Mount:

      imagex /mountrw D:\VistaDVD\soureces\install.wim 4 D:\TestDeploy\mount\

      The red part is the path to your install.wim

      The blue 4 is the number of the subimage. My install.wim looks like this:
      1 Business
      2 Homebasic
      3 Homepremium
      4 Ultimate
      5 HomebasicN
      6 BusinessN
      7 Starter

      The example above is mounting the Ultimate subimage (4). Your install.wim may looks diffrent.

      The green part is the path where the image is mounted to.

      Unmount:

      imagex /unmount /commit D:\TestDeploy\mount\

      Here the /commit switch is important! If you just use imagex /unmount D:\TestDeploy\mount\ than your changes would get lost.


      These are the two things that could solve the problem.

      I've used RC1 and BDD 2007 Beta 2 (Download Date: 10-03-2006) to test this method.

      Martin

       
    • Tuesday, August 24, 2010 9:24 PM
       
       
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      Note If your WDS is 2008 R2 you can insert drivers from the WDS Console like so, WDS Inject Drivers
       
    • Friday, September 23, 2011 9:57 PM
       
       
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      There's a nice tool called Platform Manager (part of SmartDeploy) that allows you to keep your drivers and your image separate. You basically just keep one image around and then inject drivers when you go to deploy. I don't know how it works inside, but it sounds like it does exactly what you're looking for.