[Unattended] Parameters for automating application installation.
In our win2000 clients we often have to install software that requires the input of some parameters in order to customize the user connection data. Is there a way to easily add additional questions in the initial phase of the Unattended installation in order to provide extra parameters that could be then be available during the execution of the application installation scripts? If this is not possible it would be a nice feature to have available. Thanks Oriol de los Santos --- This SF.Net email sponsored by: ApacheCon 2003, 16-19 November in Las Vegas. Learn firsthand the latest developments in Apache, PHP, Perl, XML, Java, MySQL, WebDAV, and more! http://www.apachecon.com/ ___ unattended-info mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/unattended-info
RE: [Unattended] Creating Dial-Up connections during installation.
I use dial up magic, which is a small program that makes an exe file to duplicate an existing DUN connectoid, it is cheap and seems to work reasonably well, the home page is http://www.techmagic.com/ I run the resulting .exe by hand since it only applies to very few of my machines, but I see no reason why you couldn't script it Kevin Lawry -Original Message- From: DE-LOS-SANTOS,ORIOL (HP-Spain,ex1) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 11 November 2003 09:35 To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: [Unattended] Creating Dial-Up connections during installation. Can anyone provide me with tips on how to automate the configuration of dial-up connections? If it can be done without AUTOIT. Thanks Oriol de los Santos --- This SF.Net email sponsored by: ApacheCon 2003, 16-19 November in Las Vegas. Learn firsthand the latest developments in Apache, PHP, Perl, XML, Java, MySQL, WebDAV, and more! http://www.apachecon.com/ ___ unattended-info mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/unattended-info --- This SF.Net email sponsored by: ApacheCon 2003, 16-19 November in Las Vegas. Learn firsthand the latest developments in Apache, PHP, Perl, XML, Java, MySQL, WebDAV, and more! http://www.apachecon.com/ ___ unattended-info mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/unattended-info
[Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart
Title: Message Hi all, when todo.pl processes .reboot (or one of its variations) it places the run command in theHKCU Run reg key I have need to set the computer to logon as a administrator (using autolog.pl), reboot the machine, log on as admin, install program, clear autologon and then finally reboot. all the above I can do quite successfully, once I manually kick of the todo.pl --go after the initial reboot and logon as admin does anyone else do something like this if so how did you get round the problem ??? my initial thoughts is to write a bat file to the allusers/start-up directory to run the "mapznrun.bat z:\bin\todo.pl --go" command and then clear it out at the end. much the same as the current method, just allowing for anyuser to logon afterwards and the command to still run. other thoughts included changing the reg key from HKCU to HKLM but users by default do not have write permission All advice greatly appreciated _ Steven Pretlove Dominos Pizza Group Limited Infrastructure Support Analyst ( Tel: 01908 580623 ( Fax: 01908 282582 * E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _ ** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by MIMEsweeper for the presence of computer viruses. Dominos Pizza Group Ltd - 01908 58 - www.dominos.co.uk **
RE: [Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart
Title: Message I do something similar, but I have a shutdown script make the registry change, the system has permission to change the registry. In my case it is triggered by a change to a central database (a grand name for a shared ini file), however you could use any trigger you like. as an alternative, if you are at the machine, have you tried running the script using RUNAS and your admin credentials? Regards Kevin Lawry -Original Message-From: Steven D. Pretlove [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]Sent: 11 November 2003 14:17To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: [Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart Hi all, when todo.pl processes .reboot (or one of its variations) it places the run command in theHKCU Run reg key I have need to set the computer to logon as a administrator (using autolog.pl), reboot the machine, log on as admin, install program, clear autologon and then finally reboot. all the above I can do quite successfully, once I manually kick of the todo.pl --go after the initial reboot and logon as admin does anyone else do something like this if so how did you get round the problem ??? my initial thoughts is to write a bat file to the allusers/start-up directory to run the "mapznrun.bat z:\bin\todo.pl --go" command and then clear it out at the end. much the same as the current method, just allowing for anyuser to logon afterwards and the command to still run. other thoughts included changing the reg key from HKCU to HKLM but users by default do not have write permission All advice greatly appreciated _ Steven Pretlove Dominos Pizza Group Limited Infrastructure Support Analyst ( Tel: 01908 580623 ( Fax: 01908 282582 * E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _ **This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential andintended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom theyare addressed. If you have received this email in error please notifythe system manager.This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept byMIMEsweeper for the presence of computer viruses.Dominos Pizza Group Ltd - 01908 58 - www.dominos.co.uk**
RE: [Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart
ASP can execute, but it will execute at the server because ASP is server- side. Change the *WWW Service* to allow it to interact with the desktop, and set the IIS web that is hosting the ASP page to a Low Process so things are executed as SYSTEM, not IUSR_MACHINE_NAME. That will allow for things to execute. There's also a COM add-in for IIS called ASPExecute that make executing things a little easier, but you still have to follow the above steps. -Original Message- From: Steven D. Pretlove [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], unattended- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2003 14:57:35 - Subject: RE: [Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart the main use for this, is to distribute applications after the inital roll out. My first attempt was to create an asp page that created the remote process on the clients machine running the mapznrun program under its context, but microsoft has put a stop to that by not allowing the spawned process to interact with the desktop. Second was to get it to produce an AT job (which does allow the job to interact with the desktop) but relies heaverly on the times being Identical (issue in its own right) plus the job would have to be scheduled upto 60 secs in the future (problem for users) Third is to use the mapznrun in its native enviroment, but this can also cause problems. i.e. if a user ctrl breaks while the todo.pl is running they are sitting there with a admin logon in front of them (NOT GOOD) you can not script the RUNAS command as you say so that, is a no go the idea is to allow the users to install applications if they need to. Cheers Steve (01908) 580623 -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 11 November 2003 14:40 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart I do something similar, but I have a shutdown script make the registry change, the system has permission to change the registry. In my case it is triggered by a change to a central database (a grand name for a shared ini file), however you could use any trigger you like. as an alternative, if you are at the machine, have you tried running the script using RUNAS and your admin credentials? Regards Kevin Lawry -Original Message- From: Steven D. Pretlove [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 11 November 2003 14:17 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart Hi all, when todo.pl processes .reboot (or one of its variations) it places the run command in the HKCU Run reg key I have need to set the computer to logon as a administrator (using autolog.pl), reboot the machine, log on as admin, install program, clear autologon and then finally reboot. all the above I can do quite successfully, once I manually kick of the todo.pl --go after the initial reboot and logon as admin does anyone else do something like this if so how did you get round the problem ??? my initial thoughts is to write a bat file to the allusers/start-up directory to run the mapznrun.bat z:\bin\todo.pl --go command and then clear it out at the end. much the same as the current method, just allowing for anyuser to logon afterwards and the command to still run. other thoughts included changing the reg key from HKCU to HKLM but users by default do not have write permission All advice greatly appreciated _ Steven Pretlove Dominos Pizza Group Limited Infrastructure Support Analyst * Tel: 01908 580623 * Fax: 01908 282582 * E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _ * * This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by MIMEsweeper for the presence of computer viruses. Dominos Pizza Group Ltd - 01908 58 - www.dominos.co.uk
RE: [Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart
This was how I was spawning the process % Sub tst() strComputer = ACOMPUTER Set objWMIService = GetObject(winmgmts: _ {impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\ strComputer \root\cimv2:Win32_Process) 'process = c:\netinst\mapznrun.bat z:\bin\todo.pl install.bat Error = objWMIService.Create(process, c:\, Null, intProcessID) If Error = 0 Then response.Write(process was started with a process ID of _ intProcessID .) Else response.Write(process could not be started due to error _ Error .) End If End sub % Steve (01908) 580623 -Original Message- From: Kevin P. Jacobson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 11 November 2003 15:15 To: Steven D. Pretlove; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart ASP can execute, but it will execute at the server because ASP is server- side. Change the *WWW Service* to allow it to interact with the desktop, and set the IIS web that is hosting the ASP page to a Low Process so things are executed as SYSTEM, not IUSR_MACHINE_NAME. That will allow for things to execute. There's also a COM add-in for IIS called ASPExecute that make executing things a little easier, but you still have to follow the above steps. -Original Message- From: Steven D. Pretlove [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], unattended- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2003 14:57:35 - Subject: RE: [Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart the main use for this, is to distribute applications after the inital roll out. My first attempt was to create an asp page that created the remote process on the clients machine running the mapznrun program under its context, but microsoft has put a stop to that by not allowing the spawned process to interact with the desktop. Second was to get it to produce an AT job (which does allow the job to interact with the desktop) but relies heaverly on the times being Identical (issue in its own right) plus the job would have to be scheduled upto 60 secs in the future (problem for users) Third is to use the mapznrun in its native enviroment, but this can also cause problems. i.e. if a user ctrl breaks while the todo.pl is running they are sitting there with a admin logon in front of them (NOT GOOD) you can not script the RUNAS command as you say so that, is a no go the idea is to allow the users to install applications if they need to. Cheers Steve (01908) 580623 -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 11 November 2003 14:40 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart I do something similar, but I have a shutdown script make the registry change, the system has permission to change the registry. In my case it is triggered by a change to a central database (a grand name for a shared ini file), however you could use any trigger you like. as an alternative, if you are at the machine, have you tried running the script using RUNAS and your admin credentials? Regards Kevin Lawry -Original Message- From: Steven D. Pretlove [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 11 November 2003 14:17 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart Hi all, when todo.pl processes .reboot (or one of its variations) it places the run command in the HKCU Run reg key I have need to set the computer to logon as a administrator (using autolog.pl), reboot the machine, log on as admin, install program, clear autologon and then finally reboot. all the above I can do quite successfully, once I manually kick of the todo.pl --go after the initial reboot and logon as admin does anyone else do something like this if so how did you get round the problem ??? my initial thoughts is to write a bat file to the allusers/start-up directory to run the mapznrun.bat z:\bin\todo.pl --go command and then clear it out at the end. much the same as the current method, just allowing for anyuser to logon afterwards and the command to still run. other thoughts included changing the reg key from HKCU to HKLM but users by default do not have write permission All advice greatly appreciated _ Steven Pretlove Dominos Pizza Group Limited Infrastructure Support Analyst * Tel: 01908 580623 * Fax: 01908 282582 * E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _
[Unattended] Automating RAS connections
Checkout Microsoft Connection Manager Administration Kit, you'll find it in Add/Remove windows components on W2k Server. It was also in NT4 Option pack. With it you can create a dailler with phonebook and pre post connection commands. Eg after connecting you can make it run a login script, fetch updates. I used it to make a dialler for MCI with all its worldwide pops (MCI's dialer was 16bit numbers out of date). If you install the Phonebook service on IIS your dialler can get its numbers updated automatically. Or you can do something with the command line RASDIAL.exe in Windows XP. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 11/11/2003 14:58 Please respond to unattended-info To:[EMAIL PROTECTED] cc: bcc: Subject:unattended-info digest, Vol 1 #214 - 6 msgs Send unattended-info mailing list submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/unattended-info or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can reach the person managing the list at [EMAIL PROTECTED] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than Re: Contents of unattended-info digest... Today's Topics: 1. Creating Dial-Up connections during installation. (DE-LOS-SANTOS,ORIOL (HP-Spain,ex1)) 2. Parameters for automating application installation. (DE-LOS-SANTOS,ORIOL (HP-Spain,ex1)) 3. RE: Creating Dial-Up connections during installation. ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) 4. Todo.pl -- Restart (Steven D. Pretlove) 5. RE: Todo.pl -- Restart ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) 6. RE: Todo.pl -- Restart (Steven D. Pretlove) - Message from DE-LOS-SANTOS,ORIOL (HP-Spain,ex1) [EMAIL PROTECTED] on Tue, 11 Nov 2003 10:34:32 +0100 - To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Unattended] Creating Dial-Up connections during installation. Can anyone provide me with tips on how to automate the configuration of dial-up connections? If it can be done without AUTOIT. Thanks Oriol de los Santos - Message from DE-LOS-SANTOS,ORIOL (HP-Spain,ex1) [EMAIL PROTECTED] on Tue, 11 Nov 2003 10:39:49 +0100 - To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Unattended] Parameters for automating application installation. In our win2000 clients we often have to install software that requires the input of some parameters in order to customize the user connection data. Is there a way to easily add additional questions in the initial phase of the Unattended installation in order to provide extra parameters that could be then be available during the execution of the application installation scripts? If this is not possible it would be a nice feature to have available. Thanks Oriol de los Santos - Message from [EMAIL PROTECTED] on Tue, 11 Nov 2003 10:35:11 - - To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [Unattended] Creating Dial-Up connections during installation. I use dial up magic, which is a small program that makes an exe file to duplicate an existing DUN connectoid, it is cheap and seems to work reasonably well, the home page is http://www.techmagic.com/ I run the resulting .exe by hand since it only applies to very few of my machines, but I see no reason why you couldn't script it Kevin Lawry -Original Message- From: DE-LOS-SANTOS,ORIOL (HP-Spain,ex1) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 11 November 2003 09:35 To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: [Unattended] Creating Dial-Up connections during installation. Can anyone provide me with tips on how to automate the configuration of dial-up connections? If it can be done without AUTOIT. Thanks Oriol de los Santos --- This SF.Net email sponsored by: ApacheCon 2003, 16-19 November in Las Vegas. Learn firsthand the latest developments in Apache, PHP, Perl, XML, Java, MySQL, WebDAV, and more! http://www.apachecon.com/ ___ unattended-info mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/unattended-info - Message from Steven D. Pretlove [EMAIL PROTECTED] on Tue, 11 Nov 2003 14:16:58 - - To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart Hi all, when todo.pl processes .reboot (or one of its variations) it places the run command in the HKCU Run reg key I have need to set the computer to logon as a administrator (using autolog.pl), reboot the machine, log on as admin, install program, clear autologon and then finally reboot. all the above I can do quite successfully, once I manually kick of the todo.pl --go after the initial reboot and logon as admin does anyone else do something like this if so how did you get round the problem ??? my initial thoughts is to write a bat file to the allusers/start-up directory to run the mapznrun.bat z:\bin\todo.pl --go command and then clear it out at the end. much the same as
Re: [Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart
Steven D. Pretlove [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: My first attempt was to create an asp page that created the remote process on the clients machine running the mapznrun program under its context, but microsoft has put a stop to that by not allowing the spawned process to interact with the desktop. Could you elaborate a bit? I thought processes created by Win32_Process.Create would have an off-screen windowstation and desktop. What failure are you getting, exactly? - Pat --- This SF.Net email sponsored by: ApacheCon 2003, 16-19 November in Las Vegas. Learn firsthand the latest developments in Apache, PHP, Perl, XML, Java, MySQL, WebDAV, and more! http://www.apachecon.com/ ___ unattended-info mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/unattended-info
RE: [Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart
Pat, There is no failure the procedure works fine, see my last post for example. The only problem is that it does not all the user to see whats going on, so I can not trouble shoot when something goes wrong, when testing I was running the mapznrun batch file with a batch file that contained three lines todo.pl .restart todo.pl outlook.bat todo.pl --go Outlook installed fine but the system didn't restart. As I said it's not the idea is flawed (well it may be :)) but that windows (since SP3 / SP1 for xp) won't allow a remotely spawned process to interact with the desktop, if you test the script, with a w2k sp2 or lower it works without fail cheers Steve (01908) 580623 -Original Message- From: Patrick J. LoPresti [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 11 November 2003 16:03 To: Steven D. Pretlove Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart Steven D. Pretlove [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: My first attempt was to create an asp page that created the remote process on the clients machine running the mapznrun program under its context, but microsoft has put a stop to that by not allowing the spawned process to interact with the desktop. Could you elaborate a bit? I thought processes created by Win32_Process.Create would have an off-screen windowstation and desktop. What failure are you getting, exactly? - Pat ** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by MIMEsweeper for the presence of computer viruses. Dominos Pizza Group Ltd - 01908 58 - www.dominos.co.uk ** --- This SF.Net email sponsored by: ApacheCon 2003, 16-19 November in Las Vegas. Learn firsthand the latest developments in Apache, PHP, Perl, XML, Java, MySQL, WebDAV, and more! http://www.apachecon.com/ ___ unattended-info mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/unattended-info
RE: [Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart
P.s See http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/wmisdk/ wmi/win32_process.asp For info on the w32_process.create method Steve (01908) 580623 -Original Message- From: Patrick J. LoPresti [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 11 November 2003 16:03 To: Steven D. Pretlove Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart Steven D. Pretlove [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: My first attempt was to create an asp page that created the remote process on the clients machine running the mapznrun program under its context, but microsoft has put a stop to that by not allowing the spawned process to interact with the desktop. Could you elaborate a bit? I thought processes created by Win32_Process.Create would have an off-screen windowstation and desktop. What failure are you getting, exactly? - Pat ** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by MIMEsweeper for the presence of computer viruses. Dominos Pizza Group Ltd - 01908 58 - www.dominos.co.uk ** --- This SF.Net email sponsored by: ApacheCon 2003, 16-19 November in Las Vegas. Learn firsthand the latest developments in Apache, PHP, Perl, XML, Java, MySQL, WebDAV, and more! http://www.apachecon.com/ ___ unattended-info mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/unattended-info
Re: [Unattended] Parameters for automating application installation.
DE-LOS-SANTOS,ORIOL (HP-Spain,ex1) [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Is there a way to easily add additional questions in the initial phase of the Unattended installation in order to provide extra parameters that could be then be available during the execution of the application installation scripts? Yes, but you will need to learn a little Perl. Start by reading http://unattended.sourceforge.net/advanced.html, especially the later sections. Then look at the simpler settings in Z:\dosbin\install.pl for ideas... By way of example, you could create a Z:\site\config.pl like this: use warnings; use strict; $u-{'_hp'}-{'ExtraInfo1'} = sub { my $ret; while (!defined $ret) { $ret = simple_q (Enter HP ExtraInfo1:\n); } return $ret; }; This creates a new section [_hp] and a new setting ExtraInfo1 in the answer file. It causes install.pl to stop and ask the user a question to obtain the value. If the user provides no answer, it will ask again until it gets one. Suppose the user answers hi there. Then this section will appear in C:\netinst\unattend.txt: [_hp] ExtraInfo1 = hi there Now you just need a way to read this information when it is time to install your application. The easiest way is to use the Unattend::IniFile module from the distribution. This means writing your installation script in Perl and doing something like this: use Unattend::Inifile; my $u = new Unattend::Inifile ('C:\\netinst\\unattend.txt'); my $extra_info_1 = $u-{'_hp'}-{'ExtraInfo1'}; ... (do what you want with $extra_info_1) ... I realize this is a little skeletal. But what you are asking is complex enough that it requires using some kind of scripting language, and Perl is as good a choice as any... - Pat --- This SF.Net email sponsored by: ApacheCon 2003, 16-19 November in Las Vegas. Learn firsthand the latest developments in Apache, PHP, Perl, XML, Java, MySQL, WebDAV, and more! http://www.apachecon.com/ ___ unattended-info mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/unattended-info
Re: [Unattended] Todo.pl -- Restart
Steven D. Pretlove [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: The only problem is that it does not all the user to see whats going on, so I can not trouble shoot when something goes wrong, when testing I was running the mapznrun batch file with a batch file that contained three lines todo.pl .restart todo.pl outlook.bat todo.pl --go Outlook installed fine but the system didn't restart. I assume you meant todo.pl .reboot ? Yeah, this is a bit annoying. But it appears to be by design: http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=126ca01c21a9c%2426e33500%2435ef2ecf%40TKMSFTNGXA11 But it is not clear that you really want these things interacting with the user's desktop anyway. A better idea is probably to redirect todo.pl's stdout and stderr to a file, and to enable what logging you can for all of the installers. Unless there is some way to capture/display the off-screen desktop? Now that would be cool... - Pat --- This SF.Net email sponsored by: ApacheCon 2003, 16-19 November in Las Vegas. Learn firsthand the latest developments in Apache, PHP, Perl, XML, Java, MySQL, WebDAV, and more! http://www.apachecon.com/ ___ unattended-info mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/unattended-info