boot.wim error on second deployment

[kts1337]

Hello
I'm reaching out to ask for help because I don't understand what's happening.
Last year I made a USB key for 24H2 and everything went fine.
I'm currently making a USB key for 25H2 but I'm having strange behavior.
I manage to deploy my modified image with NTLite a first time without any problem, but when I deploy it a second time, I get the message below instead of the window to enter the computer name.

The computer name entry could not be found on the installation media. This boot image was prepared for different media; please recreate the installation media and copy the boot.wim file to it.

Thank you in advance for your help. Best regards

 

[garlin]

There's not enough details to investigate. What changes did you make to the image? Are you specifying <ComputerName> in an unattended file?

Please attach your preset (after removing any user account passwords or license keys).

 

[kts1337]

Noted.
I'll grab the files as soon as I can.
What I noticed is that after deploying once,
the autounattend.xml file gets modified.
<computername> is no longer prompt, but instead contains the previously defined computer name.

 

[garlin]

Are you using NTLite's unattended feature to ask for a computer name? That creates a hidden run-time task to modify the unattended file on the USB, so the host name is used in later install passes.

I don't believe it resets itself if you re-use the same USB drive twice in a row. Open "\autounattend.xml" on the USB, and check if your hostname has replaced the %PROMPT% placeholder.

 

[kts1337]

I don't believe it resets itself if you re-use the same USB drive twice in a row. Open "\autounattend.xml" on the USB, and check if your hostname has replaced the %PROMPT% placeholder.

Yes, that's exactly it.

During my last test, I only applied this renaming module and I get the same behavior.
I boot the first time, everything goes fine.
For example, if I name the computer "azerty"
Before booting, I do have <computername>[Prompt]<computername> in the autounattend.xml file, but after deploying the image, if I go back into the autounattend.xml file on the USB key, there is <computername>azerty<computername>.
Since I don't have the computer with me, I'll upload the xml files to you on Monday.

I don't understand...

 

[garlin]

I don't think nuhi designed %Prompt% to be a re-usable feature.

NTLite detects you've selected %Prompt% in the Unattended screen, and injects an one-time script to the install image. This script runs during the specialize pass (before any user reaches the OOBE screens) to rewrite the unattended file. There isn't a cleanup step to revert the ComputerName change when the install is completed.

To make this work, NTLite would need a post-Setup task to search for the USB drive, and reverse the edit. Like save a backup unattended file during specialize, and switch to the unedited backup file.

It's not so much a bug, but I think you're the first user to want to make this a supported feature.