ramses123
25th June 2007 15:23 UTC

drivers install
hi,

could anybody please tell me how to proceed if i want to install drivers on e.g. WinXP and i have folowing files available:

- *.cat
- *.inf
- *.sys

the drivers should be preinstalled, so when the user attach the hardware to the laptop the drivers should be installed without user interaction. The installation is indicated in the ballon messages in the taskbar. Also the pre-installation procedure should be not visible for the user (only the progress on installation).

the more precise questions are:
- where to copy this files
- what registry keys must be set and how
- any other steps to do...

maybe an plug in that handle these steps automatically ?

thanks a lot !

br
ramsi

Afrow UK
25th June 2007 15:37 UTC

Have you searched this forum?

Stu

vc6
25th June 2007 16:47 UTC

Ramsi, I had a very similar question not long ago. You can read all about it here:

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....hreadid=273261

forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=273261

Basically, it all boils down to using Microsoft's DPInst.

HTH,
Victor

vc6
25th June 2007 20:11 UTC

Another possibility, if you're in a hurry, is to use Microsoft's DevCon (devcon.exe).

You can read all about it here (and download it, too):

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms792824.aspx
msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms792824.aspx

The most useful commands for me are:

devcon install <hardwareid>
devcon install <.inffile> <hardwareid>


Good luck!
Victor

ramses123
26th June 2007 08:54 UTC

thanks a lot guys !
i will check this and will come back to you if something is going wrong :up:

ramses123
29th June 2007 22:58 UTC

after reading a lot about devcon and install drivers i assume that this issue is not a easy one.
it would be very helpful for me if you can post some code examples of how to integrate the devcon in the nsis (special call to @vc6).
and yes, it must work on W2K, XP and Vista (32/64bit)

thank you!

demiller9
29th June 2007 23:25 UTC

Before you get too deep into using Devcon, please note that Microsoft says it is not redistributable. (First sentence in 'More Information' here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311272/ )

ramses123
29th June 2007 23:33 UTC

great news :-(
and how it is possible then to install drivers with nsis ?

ramses123
29th June 2007 23:42 UTC

something found again about SetupCopyOEMInf but no idea how to integrate this into nsis...

CancerFace
30th June 2007 15:27 UTC

If you got as far as SetupCopyOEMInf you have probably seen this thread and this wiki page. Between the two you can get an idea of what you need to come up with using the System plugin to call SetupCopyOEMInf and UpdateDriverForPlugAndPlayDevices to get your driver installed.

If you have an MSDN subscription you can download the windows driver kit (WDK) according to MS
It contains Devcon along with its source code. You can then look at the APIs used and either create a plugin for NSIS or use the System plugin to call those APIs.

Alternatively you can download the DDK (Windows Driver Development Kit) which also includes information about installing devices and drivers.

Also check my post on this thread. The Driver Install Frameworks Tools (which can be downloaded from this page) contains detailed description of the APIs needed to go through an installation of a device, but you would still need to translate those API calls to System plugin commands in NSIS (look for the documentation of DIFxAPI within the MSI file).

Hope this helps

CF