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Add Support for Additional Mass Storage Drivers for Scripted Installs of Windows in DS for Dell 2.0 

Sep 05, 2006 03:44 PM

This article will help users who want to add support for a driver that does not come from the DSA CD, or have a need to resolve an issue with driver naming conflicts.

Deployment Solution for Dell Servers 2.0 automatically detects the Mass Storage driver that should be used during the scripted install process. It then copies the correct driver and modifies the unattend.txt file appropriately. This process has been tested with the drivers available on the Dell Server Assistant (DSA) CD.

This article explains how to add support for additional mass storage drivers for use during a script install of Windows, and can also be used to resolve naming conflicts with certain drivers. There are a few drivers that are known to use the same driver name. The Configuration Utility will copy the driver files to a folder named after the driver. This can cause drivers to be overwritten when two drivers with the same name are copied using the Configuration Utility. To resolve this issue follow the steps described in this article to add the driver, once the copy driver step is completed, rename the folder that the driver files were copied to. Use the name of the new folder when adding or changing entries in the sys.ini file. This will enable two drivers with the same name to coexist on your system for use during scripted installs.


Note
This article is only for DS for Dell 2.0. The mass storage drivers feature was redesigned in DS for Dell 2.0 SP1. To add mass storage drivers to DS for Dell 2.0 SP1, simply use the Dell Configuration Utility (accessed from the DS console by clicking Tools > Dell Tools > Configuration Utility), and add the drivers using the OS Deployment tab.

Gather Needed Information

Included with the mass storage driver should be a file called TXTSETUP.OEM. Open this file and examine the contents. Some files contain information about several different versions of Windows; it is important to make sure you are gathering information for the correct OS.

The file will contain several different sections. One of these sections should be labeled "[Disks]". This will contain several key, value pairs. Find the one which description matches the OS you want. Remember the key name.

Example:
      [Disks]
      FOO = "FOO Driver for Windows 2003"

Now find the section labeled "[Files.scsi.665X]" where 665X corresponds to the key name you found earlier (FOO in our example). In this section you will see a list of file names and a few other entries. Find the line with the key name "driver", and note the name of the driver located to the far right on the line.

Example:
      [Files.scsi.FOO]
      driver = FOO, foo.sys, foo2k3
      inf = FOO, foo.inf, foo2k3
      catalog = FOO, foo.cat
      FOO = "PCI\VEN_6876&DEV_A5B6&SUBSYS_12543253", "foo2k3"
      FOO = "PCI\VEN_2134&DEV_1002&SUBSYS_12543253", "foo2k3"
      FOO = "PCI\VEN_1043&DEV_0045&SUBSYS_12543253", "foo2k3"

You want to remember two numbers from each line, the one right before &DEV, and the one right before &SUBSYS. So in the example above the numbers I'd write down are:

Example:
      6876,8332
      6876,8331
      2345,A5B7
      6876,A5B6
      2134,1002
      1043,0045

Now you can close this file; we'll use the information you gathered in a little bit.

Copying the Driver to the $OEM$ Folder

You should be able to use the Configuration Utility to copy the mass storage drivers. To open the configuration utility click on tools, then Dell Tools, then Configuration Utility from the DS console.

Go to the OS Deployment tab and click Add in the add drivers section.

Figure 1

Click to view.

Now select the OS you want to add drivers for in the drop down box in the Add drivers from another source section.

Select Mass Storage as the driver type. Then click "Add From Other Source".

Figure 2

Click to view.

Navigate to the folder that contains the driver you want to add. Point to the TXTSETUP.OEM file that corresponds to the driver you are adding. This file must be present for it to be used by Windows during the install.

The configuration utility should place the driver into a directory that corresponds to the driver name you found earlier. Mass storage drivers are placed in the $OEM$ folder off the main OS source files folder. For example, Windows 2003 mass storage drivers can be found in the .\Dell\OSSup\W2K3\$OEM$ folder.

Adding Needed Entries to the sys.ini File

To finish the process, you need to add the appropriate entries to the sys.ini that correspond to the OS the drivers are for. Windows 2000 (all versions) drivers use the file W2Ksys.ini, and Windows 2003 (all versions) drivers use the file W2K3sys.ini. Both files can be found in the .\Dell\Toolkit\Systems folder. You will need to add an entry for each of the hardware IDs you found earlier.

Open the sys.ini file that corresponds to the OS for the driver you are adding. The entries will need to be added in one of two sections, either in the "[DRAID]" section or the "[DSCSI]" section. If the driver is for a RAID controller, add the entries to the "[DRAID]" section, otherwise add the entries to the "[DSCSI]" section. The entries need to be added in the format 665X,YYYY=ZZZZ where 665X,YYYY is the hardware ID and ZZZZ is the driver name you found earlier. So if our example driver was a RAID driver, we would add the following lines:

Example:
[DRAID]
      6876,8332=FOO2K3
      6876,8331=FOO2K3
      2345,A5B7=FOO2K3
      6876,A5B6=FOO2K3
      2134,1002=FOO2K3
      1043,0045=FOO2K3

That should be all you have to do. The next time you do a scripted install of Windows the correct drivers should detect automatically, and the driver you just added should be used when appropriate.

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