Putting a driver into text mode RIS setup

This procedure is only necessary for the hardware drivers that are required for text mode RIS setup: network card drivers (if your images are located on a RIS server) and storage drivers. For all other drivers there is an easier way of deployment but more on that later on.

Ingredients: Raw driver, RIS image and text editor. By raw driver I mean the .INF-file and the accompanying files, usually .SYS files and .CAT files. If the driver is in a ZIP file or a self-extracting archive you’ll have to unpack it. Some driver packages contain drivers in various languages and for various platforms, i.e. XP, Win2000, NT and so on. Pick the right architecture for your RIS image. If you find an .INF file in a directory, you need all the files in that directory.

On the RIS server, you should have a share called REMINST that contains the RIS images created through RIPrep and the CD based image (RISetup image). The RISetup image was created when you installed RIS on your server. Connect to the REMINST share. Assuming that your server is called SERVER, the RIPrep and RISetup images are in \\​SERVER\\​REMINST\​Setup\​Language\​Images. Let’s say the RISetup image is called RISetup and the RIPrep is called RIPPrep.

Create a directory called $oem$ in

\\​SERVER\\​REMINST\​Setup\​Language\​Images\​RISetup. In $oem$ create another directory called $1.

In $1 create the directory Drivers.

In Drivers create a directory using a name no longer than 8 characters that describes the hardware for which you are installing the driver; for example, Broadcom. You end up with the empty destination directory

\\​SERVER\\​REMINST\​Setup\​Language\​Images\​RISetup\​$oem$\​$1\​Drivers\​Broadcom.

Copy the raw driver into that directory. The drivers that I came across all had a flat layout (everything in one directory) but if the source directory that contains the INF file has sub-directories, MS suggests that you create these sub-directories in the destination directory as well.

Copy the INF and SYS files into \\​SERVER\\​REMINST\​Setup\​Language\​Images\​RISetup\​i386.

In \\​SERVER\\​REMINST\​Setup\​Language\​Images\​RISetup\​i386 and its subdirectories, search for a file called Ristndrd.sif. It’s usually located directly in i386 but MS says it’s in i386\​templates. Add or update the following statements to the

[Unattended] section

DriverSigningPolicy = Ignore

OemPreinstall = yes

OemPnpDriversPath = Drivers\Broadcom

Make sure there is only one line starting with OemPreinstall. For example, my SIF file already had OemPreinstall = no. In this case do not add a second one, but change the no into yes. The same applies to the other two statements.

Repeat steps the steps 3 to 6 for every driver you want included in text mode setup. Separate the entries in OemPnpDriversPath by a semicolon.

OemPnpDriversPath = Drivers\Broadcom;Drivers\Hamster

On the RIS server, restart the BINL service by launching cmd.exe and typing

net stop binlsvc
net start binlsvc