Issues with sysprep and static IPs

[Keitero]

I have about 100 machines here in the office I work where they are AMD Athlon 64/X2s with nForce4/5 chipsets with built-in NICs. The issue is when I finish the install, about 1/2 of them will detect and assign the on-board firewire port as a NIC and assign the static IP I set on the unattended answer file and not on the on-board NIC. I have tried using netset to change it but it doesn't let me change it. Rather than going to each machine and having to set each IP via the network properties, does anyone have a solution to mass deploy something like this?

 

[Crusty]

Well, is there a reason to have static IPs? I only set static IPs for servers, and use DHCP for all the workstations. You could easily setup static leases if some computers need it for whatever reason, but for the most part that's only for special cases.

 

[Keitero]

The server admin wants it that may to make it easier to micro manage every computer. I just follow what he wants done.

Edit: If it was me, I would let DHCP handle it all and have the IPs pushed via MAC address.

 

[tcsenter]

Disable firewire? You may need to use Setup Manager from the latest XP/2003 OPK, rather than using the Deploy Tools as a stand-alone toolset.

See, also (from MS System Builder website):

Q. After running Sysprep, all network drivers and settings are removed

A. Removal of network class drivers (i.e. modems and network cards) is expected behavior when using Sysprep to reseal the system.

For example: Let?s say you have a system that you have resealed with a network card installed. When you deliver the system to your customer, providing the network card was not removed after being resealed, the drivers for the network card will be reinstalled on the next boot after resealing the system.

As long as the network devices are supported in Box by Windows XP or updated third drivers have been included in the search path using one of the methods listed below, the network devices will be reinstalled.

Examples
Sysprep.inf
OEMPNPDriversPath=Drivers\Nic;

Additional information can be found in the following article: How to Add OEM Plug and Play Drivers to Windows XP

If you have applied custom settings, such as Static IP Address etc., those settings will not be re-applied. If you are running Mini Setup (Sysprep -Mini) you can include the custom network settings to be re-applied in the Sysprep.inf.

If running Windows Welcome (OOBE) (Sysprep -Reseal), the networking section of Sysprep.inf is not processed; therefore, netset.exe needs to be used.

Netset.exe can be found on the Windows XP Product CD under \Support\Tools\Support.cab. Below is an example of netset.exe c:\net.txt using a sample script:

Example net.txt
[Networking]
InstallDefaultComponents=No

[Identification]
JoinWorkgroup = Workgroup

[NetAdapters]
Adapter01=Params.Adapter01

[Params.Adapter01]
InfID=*

[NetProtocols]
MS_TCPIP=Params.MS_TCPIP

[Params.MS_TCPIP]
AdapterSections=params.TCPIP.Adapter01
EnableLMHosts=No

[params.TCPIP.Adapter01]
SpecificTo=adapter01
WINS=no
DHCP=no
IPAddress=192.168.30.30
SubnetMask=255.255.255.0

In the C:\Sysprep folder, create the following directory structure: c:\Sysprep\I386\$OEM$

Create a cmdlines.txt and copy it to your c:\sysprep\I386\$OEM$ folder.

Example Cmdlines.txt
[Commands]
"c:\sysprep\netset.exe c:\sysprep\net.txt"

Add the following information to the Sysprep.inf in the C:\sysprep folder.

[Unattended] InstallFilesPath = "C:\Sysprep\i386"

After selecting Finish on the last Windows Welcome screen, the cmdlines.txt will be processed.

Q. Static IP Address in Winbom.ini is not being applied when booting with WinPE 2004 (SP2)

A. When the Static IP Address in Winbom.ini is not being applied when booting with WinPE 2004 (SP2), the symptoms are:

You receive error "Cannot authenticate to server: Incorrect" OR

When launching IPConfig, the Static IP Address included in the Winbom.ini is not reflected.

If the same Winbom.ini works when booting the system with WinPE SP1/RTM without issue and only fails when using WinPE 2004 (SP2), the Gateway=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx value is missing from the WinPE.Net section of the winbom.ini being used. The Gateway value should be the IP Address of the Technician System hosting your OPKTools Folder.

Example
[winpe.net]
Ipconfig=192.168.10.4
Subnetmask=255.255.255.0
Gateway=192.168.10.1

Preinstallations Involving Nvidia Nforce Drivers

Nvidia Nforce drivers seem to be a common problem lately in the newsgroups. The main issue with the Nforce driver set is they require a bus driver to be loaded before the network driver will install. For System Builders using WinPE this has proven to be a major source of confusion. The following steps are how to get the Nvidia Bus and network drivers loaded into WinPE.

Insert a XP SP2 OPKTools CD (WinPE) into your Technician machine and copy the WinPE folder to the harddrive. These steps also apply if you are using a Server 2003 SP1 OPKTools CD.

Copy all the files from the \Tools\x86 (or \Tools\x64 for x64) folder on the OPKTools CD into the WinPE folder on the harddrive.

Insert an OS CD (XP SP2 Pro or better (x64 Pro or Server 2003 SP1 is also supported)). Note: Keep the CDs mated - If you use XP SP2 OPKTools then only use a XP SP2 Pro OS CD for the next step. Likewise if you use Server 2003 SP1 OPKTools then only use a Server 2003 SP1 CD. This also goes for the x64 tools...x64 (32bit WinPE/OPKTools) with x64 Pro OS CD only.

Open a command prompt and use the MKIMG command to make a temporary WinPE image on the harddrive. Make sure you include the /PnP switch with the MKIMG command to turn on Plug and Play.

C:\WINPE>mkimg D: C:\PETEMP /PnP

Download the current nForce driver set from Nvidia?s website and extract the drivers to a folder called c:\nvidia. If it brings up an install-shield wizard cancel it. The Nvidia folder should remain.

Located the network bus driver inf file and use the drvinst.exe tool to inject it into your Windows PE image. The Nvidia network bus driver INF file is usually called NVNETBUS.INF and should be located in the Ethernet subfolder.

C:\WINPE>drvinst /INF:c:\Nvidia\Ethernet\NVNETBUS.INF /INJECT:C:\PETEMP

Note: If in the future Nvidia ever decides to change the inf filenames into something less obvious you can determine the purpose of an INF by opening it with notepad and reading the descriptive text in the [strings] section to determine what hardware component the INF is for.

Next located the network driver inf and use the drvinst.exe tool to inject it into your Windows PE image.

C:\WINPE>drvinst /INF:c:\Nvidia\Ethernet\NVENETFD.INF /INJECT:C:\PETEMP

Comment out the following section in C:\PETEMP\i386inf\nvenetfd.inf. Just place a semi-colon at the beginning of each line to comment it out.

;section used by coinstaller and generates INF checker warning
;[FDCoInfo]
;OriginalInfSourcePath = %1%

Comment out the following section in C:\PETEMP\i386\inf\nvnetbus.inf.

;[BDCoInfo]
;OriginalInfSourcePath = %1%

The final step is to use the OSCDIMG tool to generate and ISO file. The ISO file can then be burn used the CD recording software of your choice.

C:\WINPE>oscdimg ?BETFSBOOT.COM ?n ?h c:\PETEMP C:\NEWPE.ISO