Michael Niehaus' Windows and Office deployment ramblings
With the release of the Windows AIK for Windows 7 SP1 supplement (see http://blogs.technet.com/b/mniehaus/archive/2011/02/17/windows-aik-for-windows-7-sp1-released.aspx for details), there is a new version 3.1 version of Windows PE available. If you plan to install this update, you need to be aware of an issue when using this with MDT 2010 Update 1.
To explain the issue, first you need to understand the way the MDT boot image creation process works. Fortunately, I explained that almost two years ago (http://blogs.technet.com/b/mniehaus/archive/2009/06/27/mdt-2010-new-feature-7-boot-image-creation-optimized.aspx):
With MDT 2010, Deployment Workbench will look for a “boot.wim” file from one of the imported operating systems that has the same build number as Windows AIK (e.g. “boot.wim” from a Windows 7 RC, build 7100, operating system to go with the Windows AIK for Windows 7 RC). If it finds a match, it will use that WIM instead. Why do we do this? Because the “boot.wim” contains the Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE), a component that isn’t available in Windows AIK.
That’s kind of high level, so let’s get a little more specific. First, some background details:
Now, let’s assume that you have Windows 7 RTM x86 installation files present in your deployment share, and you haven’t installed the Windows 7 AIK for Windows 7 SP1 supplement. MDT’s processing when creating a boot image will look like this:
Now, install the Windows 7 AIK for Windows 7 SP1 supplement and update the deployment share:
The actual error will look something like this (repeated for each Windows PE feature pack):
Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool Version: 6.1.7600.16385 Image Version: 6.1.7600.16385 Processing 1 of 1 - Adding package WinPE-HTA-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~~6.1.7601.17514 Error: 0x800f081e The specified package is not applicable to this image. The DISM log file can be found at C:\Windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log Exit code = –2146498530 DISM /Add-Package failed for component C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\amd64\WinPE_FPs\winpe-hta.cab, rc = -2146498530.
Uh oh – you can’t get past this error to generate boot images. So what should you do? There are two options:
There is one downside to the second option, which goes back to why MDT attempts to use the boot.wim in the first place: The winpe.wim doesn’t contain Windows RE. Since there’s no way to add Windows RE to a Windows PE image built from the Windows AIK winpe.wim, that means the resulting Lite Touch boot WIM won’t have Windows RE. If you aren’t using Windows RE, that doesn’t matter.
Let’s look at some other scenarios too to see what will happen:
Note that this will never be an issue with MDT-generated boot images used with ConfigMgr 2007, as MDT will always use the winpe.wim from Windows AIK when generating these. (ConfigMgr 2007 doesn’t yet support Windows PE 3.1, so don’t install the Windows AIK for Windows 7 SP1 supplement yet if you are using ConfigMgr.)
If there are any additional questions about this, let me know (mniehaus@microsoft.com).
Thanks very much for the update Michael, perfectly explained as usual. So to sum up - a massive cockup by Microsoft. Obviously they should never have used that crazy way to install the new WAIK, it was clearly an afterthought. We now have 10% of machines in the office that could not be rebuilt due to this MDT problem after the SP1 WSUS update caused a "fatal error".
At least we can get that it sorted on Monday - thanks.
Kieran.
I'd like to me more polite than other posters may be inclined to be, but this illustrates perfectly why SP1 warranted a clean reissue of WAIK. In fact another blog I subscribe to is titled "Setup isn't XCOPY". It isn't.
As an off-topic aside, VS2010 SP1 breaks SDK 7.1. Microsoft's luck with SP1 Anything has been quite star-crossed lately.
There's a very long story about why there isn't an installer or a re-release for the Windows AIK update. In the end, I was just happy that it was released :-)
-Michael
Any news on when MDT will be updated for Windows 7 SP1 so we can restore RE functionality?
Thanks
Thank you for the explanation of the problem. We actully just started using EFI-based servers, so having a version of AIK / MDT that allows us to use the SP1 WinPE is a big help. Our issue manifested itself when we updated the boot images, then tried to boot from them...WinPE did exactly what it should do. It tried to run the wizard HTA, found that there was no HTA processor available because it was an optional pack, and just fell off the end of the script and rebooted.
Here's a question about a third option -- couldn't we just modify the registry (which keys?) to point MDT to the later AIK files? That would allow the Toolkit to search for boot files with the updated version number in the deployment share, while keeping all of our RTM media in the deployment share.
What do you think of that?
Thanks for blogging this Michael! This issue was "doing my head in", to use a British phrase ;)
As Eric T mentions... can we update the registryvalue to get it working? I'm about to set up MDT2010 but have no installation to test on.
I am still waiting on that answer too. It seems most logical to update the registry and all would be fine. That could have been scripted as part of the update. Xcopy, regfix, done.
MDT 2010 is driving me crazy!!! The fix for sp1 causes issues that need a fix, and that fix needs a fix.......
Stop the madness
Thank you so much for this. It fixed my problem right away. We shouldn't have to deal with bugs like this though.
I changed the settings.xml file but it still just reboots. Can I do this in "notepad" or do I need to use another editor. Is there a better solution for this now?
The Settings.xml file can be edited with Notepad. Make sure after you change it that you "comletely regenerate" the boot image when you next update the deployment share.
I'm having similar issues in MDT 2012 with the AIK SP1 supplement installed. The error isn't identical, and I unfortunately don't have it in front of me, but DISM reports something along the lines of unable to open winpe-hta.cab. In some cases, there were two sequential backslashes (like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit\\something\\something) in the directory given in the error output, which I thought may be related.
I've removed AIK SP1 and the error has disappeared.
Is this a known issue?
Modifying settings.xml in the above fashion did not make a change.
Sorry for the inexact error reporting.
Thanks!
こんにちはマイケルさん、私はTechnetのチュートリアルを参考にしてWindow RE イメージの作成を勉強していています。するとその他のパッケージ追加コマンドを実行したところで、0x800f081eエラーが発生してパッケージは追加できない。その理由を調べたがTechnetオプション コンポーネントのセットアップ ログ診断ツール記載の0x800f081eエラーコードの説明では｢適用可能なパッケージではありませんでした｣のわかりきった答え、ユーザーが求めているのはなぜ適用可能とならないのかと言うことなのです、また解決策も結局は「CSSに問い合わせてください」となっていていて、これではエラーの理由もその解決策も解らずさらに調べていてビルド番号が違いが原因と言うことが解りましたが、WindowsREイメージ作成でのパッケージの追加の解決策が不明なため質問します。
WindowsREイメージ作成方式では0x800f081eエラーが発生し既定パッケージ外のパッケージは追加できないので、WindowsPEイメージ作成方式でWindows RE作成をしようとすると、パッケージの追加処理はどれでもエラーなく実行できるけれども、WAIKにはWinPE-SRTパッケージは含まれていないのでWindowsREイメージ作成そのものが不可能と言うことになります。
ということは、Windows 7とWAIKではパッケージをWinPE-HTAパッケージなどをカスタマイズ追加したWindows REは作成できないことになります。
カスタマイズパッケージ追加したWindowsREイメージ作成をしたいときはWinPE-SRTパッケージの含まれているWindows 7のWindows OPKを使用するよりほかにない、ということになります。
しかしせっかくWAIKが入力されているのに、Windows OPKのダウンロードから始めるのは面倒です。Windows 7SP1とWAIKのパッケージファイルのビルド番号の違いを解決してその他のパッケージ追加を行う良い方法はないのでしょう？教えてください。