Driver Wizard not finding all sys files?

[DWillis]

When I use the Driver Wizard to add a device driver to the installation, I select the inf file, and the next step that tells me the system files that are associated with the inf comes up, there are no other files listed other than my original inf. The inf resides in the same folder as the .sys files, so I am unsure where to look from this point.

I've tried installing the other files by hand, both as part of the same component containing the .inf and creating a second component that only holds the .sys files.

I have been trying to run the installer via msiexec logging to try and find what's going on, but I don't get any definitive idea as to what's going on.

Does anyone have any thoughts or suggests as to how I should proceed from here?

This is a problem because the driver doesn't install through the installer. It does install manually (right-click on .inf, install). What is more interesting is that I don't really get any errors with the installer, but the driver just doesn't get installed...

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
D

[Holger_G]

First make sure that the .inf file has been authored correctly. Take a look at 'Creating an INF File' topic in the latest Windows DDK. The DDK includes also a INF File Syntax Checker tool called infchk.
Second, don´t use the driver wizard. Just drop all driver package related files into a single component and activate the driver settings at the advanced settings. Then try to install the package and log the installation.

[DWillis]

Ok, Thanks.

I will review the documentation today and will use the manual method. I'll post back with my results later this afternoon.

[DWillis]

DWillis wrote:
Ok, Thanks.

I will review the documentation today and will use the manual method. I'll post back with my results later this afternoon.

Ok, digging deeper, I am finding that it seems difx won't install a non pnp driver (which mine is) So I have to use another method to install it other than the included installshield method.

Any suggestions? I obviously need to write some installscript to make this work, but I have to figure out what I need to use in order to install this first. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[mr_slava]

Difx perfectly works with many types of drivers, not just device drivers. For instance I have file system driver and use difx built in wizard to add it into the project. From my experience it is much better use difx wizard other than do it manually. I would not agree with mr. Holger on the fact that you need to put everything ( inf, sys, cat ) in the same component, because component can hold only one key file. In order to properly do maintenance ( modify, upgrade, etc. ) you need to have inf file as key as well as driver file(s). This is why standard wizard will create component for each driver file.

As mention mr. Holger more likely the problem with your inf file and you should refer to documentation he advise you to look at. For example: in my package I have 3 drivers, one of them mini filter driver and I had one inf file which perfectly install all of them manually, but I couldn’t make it work with difx. After going through documentation for inf files I realized that must be one inf file for each filter driver and my problem with difx gone. Well this is just example from my experience, but may be it helps you to understand where to dig and there is nothing wrong with installshield difx wizard.

All the best,
Slava

[DWillis]

mr_slava wrote:
Difx perfectly works with many types of drivers, not just device drivers. For instance I have file system driver and use difx built in wizard to add it into the project. From my experience it is much better use difx wizard other than do it manually. I would not agree with mr. Holger on the fact that you need to put everything ( inf, sys, cat ) in the same component, because component can hold only one key file. In order to properly do maintenance ( modify, upgrade, etc. ) you need to have inf file as key as well as driver file(s). This is why standard wizard will create component for each driver file.

As mention mr. Holger more likely the problem with your inf file and you should refer to documentation he advise you to look at. For example: in my package I have 3 drivers, one of them mini filter driver and I had one inf file which perfectly install all of them manually, but I couldn’t make it work with difx. After going through documentation for inf files I realized that must be one inf file for each filter driver and my problem with difx gone. Well this is just example from my experience, but may be it helps you to understand where to dig and there is nothing wrong with installshield difx wizard.

All the best,
Slava

Ya, Thanks for the additional confirmation. I'm currently using dpinst.exe to hunt down the problems with the inf file, and working to get the inf file adjusted... Hopefully, this will rectify the problem (of course I'm now running into issues with the inf, but that's a different conversation and not related to IS installers).

[Holger_G]

mr_slava wrote:
Difx perfectly works with many types of drivers, not just device drivers. For instance I have file system driver and use difx built in wizard to add it into the project. From my experience it is much better use difx wizard other than do it manually. I would not agree with mr. Holger on the fact that you need to put everything ( inf, sys, cat ) in the same component, because component can hold only one key file. In order to properly do maintenance ( modify, upgrade, etc. ) you need to have inf file as key as well as driver file(s). This is why standard wizard will create component for each driver file.

Does the driver wizard really creates seperate components for each driver file?!? From my experience in the past using the wizard it was only creating two components (comp1: inf & cat; comp2: rest of driver files). But maybe I am wrong (didn´t used it for a long time...).
If we provide a driver package update for our PnP devices the .inf file changes always (due to a new DriverVer entry). I mark all .inf files as key files. Since we change the .inf file always for a new driver package all companion files are being updated during Upgrade or a Patch. That´s why I don´t need to create seperate components.

mr_slava wrote:

As mention mr. Holger more likely the problem with your inf file and you should refer to documentation he advise you to look at. For example: in my package I have 3 drivers, one of them mini filter driver and I had one inf file which perfectly install all of them manually, but I couldn’t make it work with difx. After going through documentation for inf files I realized that must be one inf file for each filter driver and my problem with difx gone. Well this is just example from my experience, but may be it helps you to understand where to dig and there is nothing wrong with installshield difx wizard.

All the best,
Slava

DIFx can be used to install Plug and Play (PnP) function drivers and class filter drivers. It looks like that you want to install some virtual device or so. That installation is not supported by DIFx by default without some pre-work (for example, to install a virtual bus device you have to create a devnode first using SetupAPI, afterwards you can use DIFx to install the driver package).

[DWillis]

I'm definitely having problems with the inf, so I will revist the installer once I get the inf issues hammered out.

more to come.