[MDT] Deploying SMART drivers

[CraigM]

Hi everyone,

 

Since you need to use the later SMART drivers to enable the SB680 boards to work with Windows 10, I thought I'd make it part of my MDT setup. However, when actually running the file during deployment, it barely runs before exiting and moving on. I've looked in the MDT logs and the application is marked as having been installed successfully, with a return code of 0. No error messages I can see.

 

I've customised the exe file with the SMART Install Manager and am passing the XML to the installer as per documentation. When I run this exact same command on CMD, the software installs fine.

 

In MDT I'm using it as an Application with Source files.

 

Has anyone been able to deploy the SMART EXE driver successfully? I can't find any MSI driver files anymore, I think SMART stopped supplying those years ago. I feel like I'm at my wits end trying to get this one stupid file deployed.

 

Alternatively, how would one deploy this via batch file in MDT?

[computer_expert]

It sounds to me like it may be having trouble trying to locate the xml file - what is your run command in the MDT application?

 

You may have better luck with using powershell ADT: https://psappdeploytoolkit.com/

 

I've used it successfully with MDT with a few stubborn programs as it gives much better logs than MDT ever does (make sure you use CMtrace to view the log files generated by ADT though!).

[CraigM]

It sounds to me like it may be having trouble trying to locate the xml file - what is your run command in the MDT application?

 

You may have better luck with using powershell ADT: https://psappdeploytoolkit.com/

 

I've used it successfully with MDT with a few stubborn programs as it gives much better logs than MDT ever does (make sure you use CMtrace to view the log files generated by ADT though!).

 

Thanks so much for the reply. I had a chance to test the driver install some more and it's a stubborn thing. If I put in the "Parameter" and "Properties" syntax as per SMART's document, the driver fails to install. Even from a command line, passing Parameters fails. About the only thing that worked was doing drivers.exe /qf, which actually ran the driver and let me install it by going through the wizard. Unfortunately this isn't automated nor is it silent, so it wasn't the solution for me. I tried playing with the --adminfile syntax again as well, no luck.

 

In the end I've downloaded the massive MSI install of the whole Suite from SMART's site, customised it and am testing it now to see if installing it first and then Notebook 11.4 afterwards will do the trick. Earlier I tried it the other way around and the Suite install removed Notebook, even though it didn't install Notebook 18.

 

What absolute fun. I really wish SMART would just make their drivers and Ink installer available in MSI format again, or provide an exe that actually works for deployment!

[bknaggs]

Try installing the exe manually and then checking C:\Windows\Installer you might find the MSIs you're looking for. I got MSIs for Smart Ink and drivers this way when installing (I think) the 12.9 drivers.

[Rob_D]

We've always managed to get the Smart MSI installers from https://education.smarttech.com/en/products/notebook/download#admin

 

I've customised the exe file with the SMART Install Manager and am passing the XML to the installer as per documentation.

You mean the MST right? When we've done it, you generate an MST using the Smart Install Manager and then apply that to the MSI using

msiexec /i "SMARTLearningSuite.msi" TRANSFORMS="{full path to location of transform .mst}\SMARTProducts.mst" /qn

[CraigM]

Try installing the exe manually and then checking C:\Windows\Installer you might find the MSIs you're looking for. I got MSIs for Smart Ink and drivers this way when installing (I think) the 12.9 drivers.

 

We've always managed to get the Smart MSI installers from https://education.smarttech.com/en/products/notebook/download#admin

 

 

You mean the MST right? When we've done it, you generate an MST using the Smart Install Manager and then apply that to the MSI using

msiexec /i "SMARTLearningSuite.msi" TRANSFORMS="{full path to location of transform .mst}\SMARTProducts.mst" /qn

 

Thanks everyone for the replies. Just an update on my progress. I downloaded the big 2GB installer from SMART's site, customised it and added it to the deployment list. Ran a deployment to test and discovered that whilst it installed the drivers fine, the installer removes Notebook 11.4 - that's a fail. If I reverse the order and install the latest suite first then try Notebook 11.4 afterwards, Notebook fails to install as it detects that a later version of the product is installed.

 

I went back to the separate driver EXE and used 7Zip to actually extract the MSI files from the package. Tested them individually and passed some command line parameters to the packages which seemed to work correctly. I have now added these MSI's to my deployment task and am busy running a deployment now to see if everything works as it should.

 

Final update in a few minutes

[CraigM]

Final update a bit later than expected: My deployment worked and I have verified it with a 2nd deployment. The key was to extract the MSI's from the EXE package and use those in the right order in the task sequence - drivers before Ink and make sure to install the Visual C Office tools package before the Ink MSI gets installed. Also make sure that INSTALL_SPU=0 is passed to both drivers and Ink MSI packages or the Product Update tool gets installed.

 

It's a cobbled together monster, but it's the best that can be done until/if we ever get to licensing a newer version of Notebook for the entire school.