Specifying boot option to enable kd in unattended install mode

NTDEV
1

Hi,

On w2k3, is there a way to modify the txtsetup.sif or winnt.sif such that kd is enabled on the first gui boot? I managed to enable KD to non-default setting on a w2k3 install CD so that I can debug my text mode setup.

But the problem is when the OS boots to GUI mode for the first time (GUI installation part), the boot.ini is default w/o kd. I have to watch the txtmode setup to finish, power it down, use other machine to login to the iSCSI target to change the boot.ini and then boot the SUT to GUI install mode from the target. It's PITA. There ough to be a way to tell the installation to use my boot option. Any idea?

thanks,

Calvin Guan
Broadcom Corp.
Connecting Everything(r)

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2

Hi Calvin,

I did LOTS of text mode installs over the summer and found no direct
settings to get the first GUI boot to have debugger support.

The docs seemed to claim it was possible, and I tried many times to find the
right magic, with no success.

I’d run the text mode install, and then on reboot, select a PXE boot to a
WinPE image that munged boot.ini with the debug settings, and then let it
reboot to the first GUI boot. It was indead a real PITA, so your not the
only one.

Jan

On w2k3, is there a way to modify the txtsetup.sif or
winnt.sif such that kd is enabled on the first gui boot? I
managed to enable KD to non-default setting on a w2k3 install
CD so that I can debug my text mode setup.

But the problem is when the OS boots to GUI mode for the
first time (GUI installation part), the boot.ini is default
w/o kd. I have to watch the txtmode setup to finish, power it
down, use other machine to login to the iSCSI target to
change the boot.ini and then boot the SUT to GUI install mode
from the target. It’s PITA. There ough to be a way to tell
the installation to use my boot option. Any idea?

3

Ok I see the brick wall. Thanks Jan!

Calvin

----- Original Message ----
From: Jan Bottorff
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2008 1:42:27 PM
Subject: RE: [ntdev] Specifying boot option to enable kd in unattended install mode

Hi Calvin,

I did LOTS of text mode installs over the summer and found no direct
settings to get the first GUI boot to have debugger support.

The docs seemed to claim it was possible, and I tried many times to find the
right magic, with no success.

I’d run the text mode install, and then on reboot, select a PXE boot to a
WinPE image that munged boot.ini with the debug settings, and then let it
reboot to the first GUI boot. It was indead a real PITA, so your not the
only one.

Jan

> On w2k3, is there a way to modify the txtsetup.sif or
> winnt.sif such that kd is enabled on the first gui boot? I
> managed to enable KD to non-default setting on a w2k3 install
> CD so that I can debug my text mode setup.
>
> But the problem is when the OS boots to GUI mode for the
> first time (GUI installation part), the boot.ini is default
> w/o kd. I have to watch the txtmode setup to finish, power it
> down, use other machine to login to the iSCSI target to
> change the boot.ini and then boot the SUT to GUI install mode
> from the target. It’s PITA. There ough to be a way to tell
> the installation to use my boot option. Any idea?

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4

Calvin & Jan:

So changing OsLoadOptions in the TXTSETUP.SIF on the .ISO does not change the GUI boot? I also see that in the ‘checked’ build ISO that the [SetupData] section contains a line

SetupDebugOptions = “/debug /debugport=com1 /baudrate=115200”

Does that only effect boots after GUI setup?

I am sorry, I am being a bit of lazy leach here. What I should be doing is making ISOs with changes to these and installing VMs to see the effect. But I figure you probably did all that already and I was curious about the outcome.

Thanks,
-dave

5

Yep, the TXTSETUP.SIF file settings only impact the text mode setup. The
only approaches that work for GUI mode setup are:

  1. Have another partition and boot into that then edit the boot.ini on
    the install partition

  2. Assuming you can get to the point of starting the install use
    SHIFT-F10 (not all OS’es) once the gui mode has started and edit the
    boot.ini then reboot. This will for instance allow debugging of network
    drivers since they are not loaded yet.

All the above is for Windows Server 2003 and before, for Vista and later the
whole install is a black hole.

–
Don Burn (MVP, Windows DDK)
Windows Filesystem and Driver Consulting
Website: http://www.windrvr.com
Blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/WinDrvr
Remove StopSpam to reply

wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> Calvin & Jan:
>
> So changing OsLoadOptions in the TXTSETUP.SIF on the .ISO does not change
> the GUI boot? I also see that in the ‘checked’ build ISO that the
> [SetupData] section contains a line
>
> SetupDebugOptions = “/debug /debugport=com1 /baudrate=115200”
>
> Does that only effect boots after GUI setup?
>
> I am sorry, I am being a bit of lazy leach here. What I should be doing
> is making ISOs with changes to these and installing VMs to see the effect.
> But I figure you probably did all that already and I was curious about the
> outcome.
>
> Thanks,
> -dave
>

6

Hello Dave,

I have done a lot of homework before asking help from the list. No, I can’t find a solution to automatically enable debug option on the first GUI boot. I think the general solution is to modify the boot.ini before it boot into GUI mode as Jan and Don suggested.

In my case, I don’t have any harddisk as I was debugging the diskless blade server installation scenario. The txtmode setup starts from CD-rom. During txtmode setup my bus driver along with the kmdf are F6’d in and enumerates my hw iscsi initiator so that I can install the OS to the remote iSCSI target in the text mode part of the installation. So to enable debugging on first gui (as other part of our installation is involved), I use the other system with iscsi initiator to login to the target and modify the boot.ini of the SUT before it reboots – simple but royal PITA.

[rant mode on]
IMHO, debugging text mode setup game is a pesky process – you need one or more floppy diskettes which are hard to find nowadays, burn a custom install CD. Need to push the right keys/buttons at the right time. If you missed, you need to start it all over again.
[rant mode off]

–
Calvin Guan
Broadcom Corp.
Connecting Everything(r)

----- Original Message ----
From: “xxxxx@msn.com”
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Sent: Monday, January 5, 2009 8:21:15 AM
Subject: RE:[ntdev] Specifying boot option to enable kd in unattended install mode

Calvin & Jan:

So changing OsLoadOptions in the TXTSETUP.SIF on the .ISO does not change the GUI boot? I also see that in the ‘checked’ build ISO that the [SetupData] section contains a line

SetupDebugOptions = “/debug /debugport=com1 /baudrate=115200”

Does that only effect boots after GUI setup?

I am sorry, I am being a bit of lazy leach here. What I should be doing is making ISOs with changes to these and installing VMs to see the effect. But I figure you probably did all that already and I was curious about the outcome.

Thanks,
-dave

—
NTDEV is sponsored by OSR

For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
http://www.osr.com/seminars

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7

> 1. Have another partition and boot into that then edit the boot.ini on

the install partition

boot.ini is always on partition 0 where the boot loader itself resides, not on the partition where the OS is installed (except in the simplest case of 1 OS).

–
Maxim S. Shatskih
Windows DDK MVP
xxxxx@storagecraft.com
http://www.storagecraft.com

8

But that is not what I was referring to at all. The simplest way to add the
debug option is on the reboot for GUI boot into a partition with a working
OS and edit the boot.ini. I see my wording was in error on the boot.ini
being in the install partition.

–
Don Burn (MVP, Windows DDK)
Windows Filesystem and Driver Consulting
Website: http://www.windrvr.com
Blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/WinDrvr
Remove StopSpam to reply

“Maxim S. Shatskih” wrote in message
news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> 1. Have another partition and boot into that then edit the boot.ini on
> the install partition

boot.ini is always on partition 0 where the boot loader itself resides, not
on the partition where the OS is installed (except in the simplest case of 1
OS).

–
Maxim S. Shatskih
Windows DDK MVP
xxxxx@storagecraft.com
http://www.storagecraft.com

9

The osloadoptions of the [SetupData]-section in unattended.txt might do the
trick.

According to
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/tools/DrvTest_BestPrac.mspx,
it appears as if the osloadoptions would be parsed during textmode (and
applied to boot.ini), so that the boot-option will be effective during the
GUI mode setup (in contrast to txtsetup.dif).

> From DrvText_BestPrac
Unattend.txt. A default Unattend.txt can be found in the SKU-specific
directory (I386, IA64, AMD64) on the CD. If you edit Unattend.txt, you
should add a section like this one. (This will enable the debugger only when
the Setup program enters GUI mode setup):

[SetupData]
Osloadoptions=“”/debug /debugport=comx /baudrate=115200

For information about the Unattend.txt file, see the related Windows
Resource Kit or the OEM Pre-Installation Kit for the version of Windows you
are using for testing.

<<

I hope it will save some boot cycles,

Andreas Nilsson
C2SAT communications AB

10

Seems like I have that document and it did not work when I tried it (about a
dozen times).

It does occur to me that a driver could do something like process a shutdown
irp and modify boot.ini from kernel mode. This development only code could
save a ton of time during development/testing.

Jan

The osloadoptions of the [SetupData]-section in
unattended.txt might do the trick.

According to
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/tools/DrvTest_BestPrac.mspx,
it appears as if the osloadoptions would be parsed during
textmode (and applied to boot.ini), so that the boot-option
will be effective during the GUI mode setup (in contrast to
txtsetup.dif).

>> From DrvText_BestPrac
Unattend.txt. A default Unattend.txt can be found in the
SKU-specific directory (I386, IA64, AMD64) on the CD. If you
edit Unattend.txt, you should add a section like this one.
(This will enable the debugger only when the Setup program
enters GUI mode setup):

[SetupData]
Osloadoptions=“”/debug /debugport=comx /baudrate=115200

For information about the Unattend.txt file, see the related
Windows Resource Kit or the OEM Pre-Installation Kit for the
version of Windows you are using for testing.

11

“Jan Bottorff” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> Seems like I have that document and it did not work when I tried it (about
> a
> dozen times).
>

Did you try to rename the “unattended.txt”-file to “winnt.sif”?

No progress by passing “WINNT32.exe /unattend:c:\unattend.txt”-arguments to
the winn32-pre-setup-launcher?

I saw a note regarding the “setupacc.txt” which implied to cause some
interactions with the textmode setup phase.
No documents at technet or support site though.

12

I concur with Jan. I have tried the same (and now probably join the ranks
of Don, Jan, and Calvin along with many others) and have discovered that
those flags get applied to the boot line that starts after guisetup but not
for the boot line that starts the system after txtsetup. The
SetupDebugOptions appear to effect the actual txtsetup ‘boot’ but not the
boot line that starts the system to run guisetup. Aarrrgh.

As all have frustratingly pointed out. It would seem that only booting an
alternate OS and whacking boot.ini directly after txtsetup completes can get
/Debug enabled *during* guisetup.

I found the Vista recovery CD worked well enough and let me use notepad. A
custom .ISO built with the WAIK / WinPE would probably be simpler than
wading through the Vista setup panels to get to the recovery console.

Sometimes the dragon wins.

Thanks for replies.
-dave

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of Jan Bottorff
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 4:09 PM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: RE: [ntdev] Specifying boot option to enable kd in unattended
install mode

Seems like I have that document and it did not work when I tried it (about a
dozen times).

It does occur to me that a driver could do something like process a shutdown
irp and modify boot.ini from kernel mode. This development only code could
save a ton of time during development/testing.

Jan

The osloadoptions of the [SetupData]-section in
unattended.txt might do the trick.

According to
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/tools/DrvTest_BestPrac.mspx,
it appears as if the osloadoptions would be parsed during
textmode (and applied to boot.ini), so that the boot-option
will be effective during the GUI mode setup (in contrast to
txtsetup.dif).

>> From DrvText_BestPrac
Unattend.txt. A default Unattend.txt can be found in the
SKU-specific directory (I386, IA64, AMD64) on the CD. If you
edit Unattend.txt, you should add a section like this one.
(This will enable the debugger only when the Setup program
enters GUI mode setup):

[SetupData]
Osloadoptions=“”/debug /debugport=comx /baudrate=115200

For information about the Unattend.txt file, see the related
Windows Resource Kit or the OEM Pre-Installation Kit for the
version of Windows you are using for testing.

NTDEV is sponsored by OSR

For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
http://www.osr.com/seminars

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

13

Jan’s proposal of whacking the boot.ini at IRP_MJ_SHUTDOWN sounds brilliant to me if the boot.ini is stabilized at that point. It’d allow me to toggle an initial bp from windbag and take a coffee break as long as I please without worrying about missing the boat.

I also have a custom FreeBSD bootable usb pen drive that allows me to mount the target and use “the sixth editor” to modify the boot.ini. No flame war on *nix vs windows please-:slight_smile:

–
Calvin Guan
Broadcom Corp.
Connecting Everything(r)

----- Original Message ----
From: David R. Cattley
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Sent: Monday, January 5, 2009 2:34:44 PM
Subject: RE: [ntdev] Specifying boot option to enable kd in unattended install mode

I concur with Jan. I have tried the same (and now probably join the ranks
of Don, Jan, and Calvin along with many others) and have discovered that
those flags get applied to the boot line that starts after guisetup but not
for the boot line that starts the system after txtsetup. The
SetupDebugOptions appear to effect the actual txtsetup ‘boot’ but not the
boot line that starts the system to run guisetup. Aarrrgh.

As all have frustratingly pointed out. It would seem that only booting an
alternate OS and whacking boot.ini directly after txtsetup completes can get
/Debug enabled during guisetup.

I found the Vista recovery CD worked well enough and let me use notepad. A
custom .ISO built with the WAIK / WinPE would probably be simpler than
wading through the Vista setup panels to get to the recovery console.

Sometimes the dragon wins.

Thanks for replies.
-dave

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of Jan Bottorff
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 4:09 PM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: RE: [ntdev] Specifying boot option to enable kd in unattended
install mode

Seems like I have that document and it did not work when I tried it (about a
dozen times).

It does occur to me that a driver could do something like process a shutdown
irp and modify boot.ini from kernel mode. This development only code could
save a ton of time during development/testing.

Jan

> The osloadoptions of the [SetupData]-section in
> unattended.txt might do the trick.
>
> According to
> http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/tools/DrvTest_BestPrac.mspx,
> it appears as if the osloadoptions would be parsed during
> textmode (and applied to boot.ini), so that the boot-option
> will be effective during the GUI mode setup (in contrast to
> txtsetup.dif).
>
> >> From DrvText_BestPrac
> Unattend.txt. A default Unattend.txt can be found in the
> SKU-specific directory (I386, IA64, AMD64) on the CD. If you
> edit Unattend.txt, you should add a section like this one.
> (This will enable the debugger only when the Setup program
> enters GUI mode setup):
>
> [SetupData]
> Osloadoptions=“”/debug /debugport=comx /baudrate=115200
>
> For information about the Unattend.txt file, see the related
> Windows Resource Kit or the OEM Pre-Installation Kit for the
> version of Windows you are using for testing.

—
NTDEV is sponsored by OSR

For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
http://www.osr.com/seminars

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

—
NTDEV is sponsored by OSR

For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
http://www.osr.com/seminars

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer