adding packages to install.wim: does order change anything?

7point5 · June 1, 2016

when editing an install wim file suppose there's 2 independent updates A & B

case 1) first add A then add B then commit

case 2) first add B then add A then commit

will the wim file be the same in the end (byte by byte)?

mrwoberts · June 2, 2016

I'm assuming this is an offline integration...

So, in my understanding, order can often be important, especially in the case of this recent Windows 7 rollup (KB3125574).

Often you can fire off a DISM /add-package command that simply points to a directory full of updates, but you'd need to be sure that any of those updates in that folder have their pre-requisites already integrated, in a separate DISM session.

For example, in order to integrate the KB3125574 rollup you first need to integrate the updated servicing stack (KB3020369), and that would need to be issued with a separate DISM command.

Like so...

DISM   /image:D:\offlineWIM  /add-package  /packagepath:D:\updates\KB3020369\Windows6.1-KB3020369-x64.cab
DISM   /image:D:\offlineWIM  /add-package  /packagepath:D:\updates\KB3125574\Windows6.1-KB3125574-x64.cab

It would not work if you placed both of those updates in an update folder, 'updates' and then issued the following command

DISM   /image:D:\offlineWIM  /add-package  /packagepath:D:\updates

Although it would try to integrated those updates, even in the correct order, 3020369 then 3125574, it will fail because technically KB3020369 has not yet been integrated - it is pending the rest of the package installs for that session (single DISM command).

However, once you've integrated your particular updates, you can then issue this command to integrate the remaining, non-dependant updates...

DISM   /image:D:\offlineWIM  /add-package  /packagepath:D:\updates

I'm sure someone can put that in a more concise way, but you just need to issue a separate DISM command line /add-package, for updates that are pre-requisites to others. If you want to know which ones you'll have to do some digging and look around at what is already written on the interweb thingy.

Alternatively, do some testing yourself and see if any of your updates fail during integration, that may tell you that they are depending on another update...

Edited June 2, 2016 by mrwoberts

7point5 · June 2, 2016

bummer that complicates things

and btw and did the same set of dism commands on the same install.wim file twice (after resetting the wim file I mean)

and each time the size of the wim file is different - what gives?

the files inside the edited .wim file should be the same each time right? (same content even if meta data like date & time are different)

mrwoberts · June 2, 2016

the files inside the edited .wim file should be the same each time right? (same content even if meta data like date & time are different)

Not necessarily, it depends if DISM did exactly the same process each time. I don't usually pay that much attention to the size of the wim file, assuming the output to the DISM commands all went smoothly.

Post your integration script/commands in full and let us see how you are doing things... As conversations like this are a bit like trying to help a patient when they're not telling you everything

Arthur · June 2, 2016

It would not work if you placed both of those updates in an update folder, 'updates' and then issued the following command
DISM   /image:D:\offlineWIM  /add-package  /packagepath:D:\updates

Another way of doing it would be to separate the updates into multiple folders so that the .cab or .msu files are still integrated in the correct order. e.g.

DISM /image:D:\offlineWIM /Add-Package /PackagePath:D:\Updates\001_ServicingStack
DISM /image:D:\offlineWIM /Add-Package /PackagePath:D:\Updates\002_PlatformUpdate
DISM /image:D:\offlineWIM /Add-Package /PackagePath:D:\Updates\003_IE11
DISM /image:D:\offlineWIM /Add-Package /PackagePath:D:\Updates\004_IE11_Updates

[...]

DISM /image:D:\offlineWIM /Add-Package /PackagePath:D:\Updates\099_ConvenienceRollup

Post your integration script/commands in full and let us see how you are doing things... As conversations like this are a bit like trying to help a patient when they're not telling you everything

+1,000,000!

Edited June 2, 2016 by Arthur

7point5 · June 2, 2016

Post your integration script/commands in full and let us see how you are doing things... As conversations like this are a bit like trying to help a patient when they're not telling you everything

alrite so both times I do it from a win7 VM

alrite so each time I reset everything (especially the install.wim file)

the first time I do this (on the same original install.wim):

Dism /Mount-WIM /WimFile:e:\Win7SP1ISO\sources\install.wim /index:3 /MountDir:e:\Win7SP1ISO\offline

Dism /Image:e:\Win7SP1ISO\offline /Add-Package /PackagePath:e:\updates\Windows6.1-KB2670838-x64.msu

Dism /Image:e:\Win7SP1ISO\offline /Add-Package /PackagePath:e:\updates\Windows6.1-KB3020369-x64.msu

Dism /Image:e:\Win7SP1ISO\offline /Add-Package /PackagePath:e:\updates\Windows6.1-KB3102810-x64.msu

Dism /Image:e:\Win7SP1ISO\offline /Add-Package /PackagePath:e:\updates\Windows6.1-KB3138612-x64.msu

Dism /Image:e:\Win7SP1ISO\offline /Add-Package /PackagePath:e:\updates\Windows6.1-KB3145739-x64.msu

Dism /Image:e:\Win7SP1ISO\offline /Add-Package /PackagePath:e:\updates\Windows6.1-KB3153199-x64.msu

Dism /Image:e:\Win7SP1ISO\offline /Add-Package /PackagePath:e:\updates\Windows6.1-KB3156017-x64.msu

Dism /Image:e:\Win7SP1ISO\offline /Add-Package /PackagePath:e:\updates\windows6.1-kb3125574-v4-x64.msu

Dism /Unmount-WIM /MountDir:e:\Win7SP1ISO\offline /Commit

then I save the new install.wim to another drive as 1.wim & reset everything

and the 2nd time I do this: