Remote Install Client Hangs at the End of Text-Mode Setup

When you are installing Windows 2000 on a client computer using the Remote Installation service (RIS), the client computer may stop responding (hang) at the end of the text-mode portion of Setup.

This behavior can occur because RIS clients keep an open handle to some files on the server. At the end of the text-mode portion, Setup attempts to close these files. If the server is not available, the client computer hangs. RIS clients keep an open handle to the following files on the server during the text-mode portion of Setup:

• Ntdll.dll
• Smss.exe
• Kbdus.dll

These files are loaded from the server early in the Setup process and the handle to these files remains open.

To prevent this issue from occurring, make sure that the server is available until the text-mode portion of Setup is finished.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

When you start a remote installation, files are copied from the server to the local hard disk (to the $win_nt$.~ls folder). Once the copying is complete, text-mode Setup copies the files to the target folder specified by the template file from the server. Even though all files are local, the handles to the files noted above are still kept open.