Misc. Ramblings

To coninue the sage of installing Windows Media Center Edition 2005 from yesterday, I had a copy of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP at work so I brought that home, and re-installed Windows MCE 2005. As a brief review, during the install, Windows MCE requires files found on the SP2 CD. I don't know why this would be so, but it is. Unfortunately, the files the install requires apparently weren't on the SP2 CD that I had (which I got directly from MS).

So, I downloaded SP2 from the MS website. Unfortunately, the download is in the form of an executable, not an ISO image file that would create a CD. I seem to recall that if you use the special incantation, while facing Redmond, you can create from the executable the files required. However, I don't remember where I saw that and didn't feel like trying to Google it.

Even more unfortunately, running the SP2 executable creates the files in a temporary directory. Said directory is erased after the SP2 installs. Since the MCE install was looking for files, not an single executable and since the files created by the executable exist only while the SP2 executable is being run, I was kind of stuck.

I first tried running the SP2 executable on my laptop and before ending the install, I copied the temporary files to another directory. I then burned those files to a CD. Unfortunately, the directory structure created by the SP2 executable goes deeper than the maximum allowed under the standards for CDs (Joliet and ISO). Hence, when I tried to use the CD in the MCE install, MCE could not read the CD. Sigh.

My second try was to burn the SP2 executable to CD, let MCE run to conclusion without the needed files, then when MCE booted up, copy the executable to my D: partition. Once there, I ran the SP2 executable, copied the temporary files to another directory on D:, then rebooted and re-installed MCE. When MCE got to the point where it asked for the SP2 files, I pointed the install to the D: partition directory where it found the files and the install continued on. Yes!

That is, it continued on until it said it could not find hscsp_w3.cab. Sigh. I paused the install while I went back to my laptop and searched for the file. I found it in the SP2 directory /i386/ip/hscsp_w3.ca_. Okay, I went back to the MCE install and pointed it to that file on the D: drive. The install then continued until an error came up saying it couldn't find Oobedisk.htm. Sigh. Back to the laptop to look for this file. I found it in /i386/new/oobedisk.ht_. Back over to the the MCE install, point it to that directory on D:, and Bob's your uncle, the install went to completion.

This time, after the install rebooted and I installed the Nvidia driver for the network card, I had Internet access. MCE still had an Internet connection for the firewire bus but that didn't seem to matter and I disabled it in MCE.

After six hours over two days, there is still much to install before my MCE will be a fully operational battle star computer, but at least I have Windows itself installed and, I think, working. Next up are the drivers for the analog TV tuner card and the VFD. More when I know more.

Note: Monday is a state holiday to commemorate the Hawaiian who, by force of arms, invaded, conquered, and united all the Hawaiian islands. So, no post on Monday.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!