eran.liberty
13th December 2005 10:47 UTC

How to write a good Device Driver installer?
I have 2 years old, C++ based, custom installer code for a SCSI CD drive emulation.
I wish to port it to NSIS.

The original code has references to functions like:
SetupDiRegisterDeviceInfo, SetupDiSetDeviceRegistryProperty, SetupDiCallClassInstaller and more SetupDiXXX commands, all of which are nicely documented in the MSDN. I have seen no reference for them in the NSIS, Examples or this forum.
(like to msdn info: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...ce_classes.asp)

A bit of google'ing raised the possibility that the paradigm for device driver installation may have changed to functions like: DriverPackagePreinstall(), DriverPackageInstall(), DriverPackageUninstall() and DriverPackageGetPath(). Those have no reference in NSIS as well.
(link to msdn info: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/driver...l/DIFxtls.mspx)

NSIS on its part suggest these two helpful links:
link1: http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Driver_i...ion_and_update
link2: http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Service_...s_on_NT/2K/XP)

Now here comes the question (at last):

1. What is the right way to write a device driver installer these days? (regardless to NSIS support on the matter)

2. What is NSIS support on the matter? (admit you did not see that one coming :) )

10x, Liberty

Afrow UK
13th December 2005 16:11 UTC

You can call external DLL functions with the System plugin which is bundled with NSIS.

-Stu

eran.liberty
13th December 2005 16:22 UTC

Originally posted by Afrow UK
You can call external DLL functions with the System plugin which is bundled with NSIS.
-Stu

kichik
13th December 2005 18:12 UTC

1. If it's not on the Wiki, it probably doesn't exist. It seems you'd have to write one yourself. If you do end up writing one, please upload it to the Wiki.
2. It seems DriverPackage* was created after SetupDi* and its description at microsoft.com also states it's simpler. So I guess it's preferable. But I'd make sure it works on all target platforms first. It's very new, so it might work on 2000 and above only, or even XP and above.

onad
14th December 2005 01:28 UTC

You could do an exec of the ".inf" file belonging to the driver... in NSIS, maybenot fully taking the posibillity NSIS has to offer , but you are helped maybe.

running an ".inf" is also not a easy task, some of my Delphi code I once used to install/uninstall device drivers. This Pseudo code you could convert to NSIS script

Whatever way you will solve it, I expect it will not be easy . Alternatively you could post a message with an offer to pay someone to do it for you.

-----------------------------------------

const
rsUSN = 'DefaultUninstall';
rsUSNntx86 = 'DefaultUninstall.ntx86'; //make sure these sections exist in your .inf file
rsShellRunDLL32 = 'rundll32.exe';


...

if IsWinNT then
UninstallSectionName:=rsUSNntx86
else
UninstallSectionName:=rsUSN;

...

UnInstallLine:='advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection '+UninstallInfFileName+', '+UninstallSectionName;
TargetPath:='';

shellexecute(h, 'open',pchar(rsShellRunDLL32),pchar(UnInstallLine),pchar(TargetPath),SW_SHOWNORMAL);

onad
14th December 2005 01:36 UTC

Oh, I forgot

On 9x/ME following the DriverPackage* will not work.

You can also just mimic the behaviour of the inf file alltougheter by writing to the registry, pathe etc yourself.

For this you can take a snapshot with system snapshot tools for the registry, and then monitor the API calls when the driver gets installed with other tools. http://www.sysinternals.com/ has some monitoring tools for free. Also the Windowze tool may help.

Good luck, you need that... and persistance!

eran.liberty
14th December 2005 12:42 UTC

Originally posted by kichik
It seems DriverPackage* was created after SetupDi* and its description at microsoft.com also states it's simpler. So I guess it's preferable. But I'd make sure it works on all target platforms first. It's very new, so it might work on 2000 and above only, or even XP and above.