Installer options

[Tobin]

Howdy - First up i'd like to say that Daemon Tools is fantastic

My only prob with it is the installer

I'd love to be able to script an install somehow - I work at several schools, and we all use Daemon Tools - However rolling it out is next to impossible.

What i've love to see is (in order of preference):
An MSI based installer with a .inf file for settings (so I can roll out using active directory)
Command line options in the installer (so I can roll out in a login script or somesuch)

Options i'd love to have are:
Set default settings (eg: emulation, tray icon, automount etc)
Set drive letter (eg: I always use one drive, and make it "V" for "virtual" - makes it easier for the kiddies to remember then)
Upgrade or replace (eg: If I go to a new school that the previous tech has completely stuffed, I can choose replace which would remove all previous versions and settings)

Cheers,

Tobin.

[darthasp]

Installer Options

I to work in a school and think this product is great. Thanks for all the hard work!

As to your question about custom install - it is possible and not too difficult... - This method only works on new installs and I have only tested on WXPSP2.

First install Daemon.msi with reboot supressed.
then run simple reg file with your options.
Then reboot.

I use this line to start the install - I am using version 3.4.7

start /wait %systemdrive%\dir\daemon.msi /qb REBOOT=Suppress

I then run following reg file:


; tells daemon to use letter z
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices]

"\\DosDevices\\Z:"=hex:5c,00,3f,00,3f,00,5c,00,53, 00,43,00,53,00,49,00,23,00,\
43,00,64,00,52,00,6f,00,6d,00,26,00,56,00,65,00,6e ,00,5f,00,47,00,65,00,6e,\
00,65,00,72,00,69,00,63,00,26,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00 ,64,00,5f,00,44,00,56,00,\
44,00,2d,00,52,00,4f,00,4d,00,26,00,52,00,65,00,76 ,00,5f,00,31,00,2e,00,30,\
00,23,00,32,00,26,00,31,00,32,00,62,00,31,00,64,00 ,65,00,32,00,30,00,26,00,\
30,00,26,00,30,00,30,00,30,00,23,00,7b,00,35,00,33 ,00,66,00,35,00,36,00,33,\
00,30,00,64,00,2d,00,62,00,36,00,62,00,66,00,2d,00 ,31,00,31,00,64,00,30,00,\
2d,00,39,00,34,00,66,00,32,00,2d,00,30,00,30,00,61 ,00,30,00,63,00,39,00,31,\
00,65,00,66,00,62,00,38,00,62,00,7d,00

; overwrites default install setting so that trayicon doesn't show and dll is locked
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run]
"DAEMON Tools-1033"="\"C:\\Program Files\\D-Tools\\daemon.exe\" -lang 1033 -noicon -lock"

; turns off automount
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\d347bus\Cfg]
"khjeh"=hex:14,01,00,00,7f,04,b3,1f,65,59,99,ae,62 ,58,44,86,6e,ff,37,9b,c5,6b,\
9e,76,28,12,76,a5,e7,1f,b7,1d,9f,29,0a,10,ec,7c,e1 ,c9,43,30,b0,6f,3a,15,e0,\
f3,05,9e,ed,2a,84,61,91,fb,97,61,0f,33,fe,ab,d7,32 ,89,15,25,f3,38,80,52,96,\
7b,42,b9,ad,f2,31,91,03,7d,b2,bb,5b,9c,34,6d,7b,0f ,05,4e,72,36,5b,5a,f0,61,\
97,86,70,b0,82,ec,c5,13,87,fb,a6,8a,ac,13,56,55,71 ,58,46,94,66,c9,9c,a7,73,\
70,af,4e,4a,48,ed,d9,e3,e3,ae,08,64,67,93,0b,4f,1e ,07,42,4f,21,83,8d,32,fd,\
0e,ec,df,da,e3,df,2d,f7,08,86,5f,99,7e,b1,6a,cc,7c ,80,f4,55,90,23,fa,c1,d8,\
1a,f8,12,a6,e5,5f,fe,58,e4,7f,d4,0d,77,72,68,31,de ,6c,0c,d9,69,8d,1c,5f,18,\
1c,c4,dd,db,f8,5f,7c,d2,98,2c,12,dd,47,6d,b9,fc,26 ,97,d9,ef,b9,75,4e,16,50,\
88,2d,c1,92,be,33,90,b2,97,a4,f3,a1,29,76,ea,0f,3d ,ff,35,4a,99,d1,f4,b4,26,\
80,07,64,d8,06,ae,fa,e8,85,b9,f2,fe,b3,68,a8,0f,36 ,eb,5d,46,3d,a2,2d,1d,fe,\
6d,d8,94,91


It is very important that daemon does not mount a drive before this reg file is run otherwise it will pick the letter E or another free letter etc.

After this file is run reboot. When windows installs drive on reboot it will assign it letter z or what ever you want.

Let me know how you get on.

[weatherilt]

Re: Installer Options

Hi,

I cannot agree more. This is a great product and the DT team can teach a lesson in ethics to many. Thanks on behalf of our local school!

We are upgrading to 2003server and want to use GPO to role out too. But we can't make the 3.4.7 msi work in this environment. Additional install parameters would be cool. Even as properties in the msi, that could be edited using WinINSTALL LE. We don't mind putting the registry edits in the msi either. The problem for us is the GPO based install hanging when assigned to computer.

Any clues on solving that?

Also for my fellow educational users... are you doing anything about software metering/licence management? We are looking for a solution here too.

Thanks

Martin Weatherilt

[darthasp]

Hi there

Sorry it's taken a while to reply but been busy rolling out machines.

In answer to your two questions...

I cannot help with the first as we currently do not have many installed PC's so I have not had to roll out software to an existing network - rather I am building from the ground up so every machine I build has a 'standard build'. Further in the last place I worked we used the black art of SMS to roll out new software so we never used GPO.
Sorry about that...

In answer to your second question I am logging everything on a spreadsheet - not very techincal I know but it works!!! and is very easy as I have a standard build!!

However begining from next term I will be rolling out individual software to different area's of the school based on the area needs - maths, english etc.
I haven't customised machinses yet as it has been a case of 'get them in the classroooms' - so people can start using the net and writing docs and spreadsheets etc.

therefore I am currently testing the following audit products which may be of some interest to you....

Evertest - www.lavalys.com
Astra - www.sysinfolab.com
OCSI - http://ocsinventory.sourceforge.net


I hope I have been of some help