Parallels + BootCamp = No SP3??

Ladies and Gents,

With the release of Windows XP SP3 today, I downloaded the installer pack from MS and tried to install it. The same installer pack went fine on my PCs at home.
However, when I tried to install the SP on my Macbook Pro running Windows in Boot Camp, this error happened:

"The core system file (kernel) used to start this computer is not a Microsoft Windows files. The Service Pack will not be installed. For more information, se Knowledge Base article Q327101 at http://support.microsoft.com"

(See attached)

I did a bit more research and realized that my computer has been running off of an "different" NT kernel than the standard ntoskrnl.exe file, from the boot.ini file we have:

Code:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /kernel=ntkopvs_.exe /hal=halopvs_.dll
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Parallels configuration" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptOut

I realized that the 2 additional "kernel" and "hal" flags in my XP boot config is Parallel's doing from 6 months ago when I tested the "boot native boot camp install" feature of Parallels and never really used that feature again. I tried to simply remove the kernel and hal flags to restore it back to "normal" but my OS would boot only with the keyboard and mouse completely nonfunctional, as an added bonus, USB devices will not work either. I'll spare you the details of the 4 frustrating hours I spent today breaking and fixing the install trying to get my "normal" Windows kernel back and work again but nothing seems to get me there.

Any one else out there with this issue or just me? Any thoughts on how to fix it?

Thank you so much in advance

 

no one else has this issue?

 

You should try editing your boot.ini file and remove that /kernel= setting. I had to do that in order to get past that kernel error message. I have BootXP for my customized boot screen. I didn't uninstall BootXP, but instead just removed the /kernel= setting from my boot.ini. I was hoping that XP SP3 would then boot all the way through to my regular user account and then I could just run BootXP to customize my boot screen under the new XP SP3. But although I was then able to run the SP3 install file, I was only able to get into safe mode and not into my regular user account because of a subsequent WPA error message. I'm guessing if I set up a completely new different user account, then XP SP3 will work fine for me, but I want my already tweaked existing user account. And so I have to make a slipstream XP SP3 CD and then do an upgrade install from the slipstream XP SP3 CD and see if that results in a successful installation of SP3 where I can boot into my existing user account. Either that or I'll wait for XP SP3 to finally show up in Windows Update and try installing it that way.

 

Wow - it sounds like Boot Camp users should consider carefully before installing SP3. I'll certainly wait a bit, and hopefully the Parallels team can tell us how SP3 seems to be working in their test environment under Boot Camp installations. If it's not working, a fix will surely take longer, but a current status report would be very helpful. This could turn out to be the even that persuades me to abandon Boot Camp, since Transporter can now convert Boot Camp installations.

 

@scotto: http://forum.parallels.com/showpost.php?p=102907&postcount=34 .

 

Specimen-
Thank you for the reference to a procedure to get things working, particularly if I'd already installed SP3. If I felt desperate for SP3 I'd be all over it, but honestly the procedure sounds somewhat painful, time-consuming, and potentially risky - if my system stops working I stop earning a living. I'm thinking that the attractive (to me) alternate approach would be to patiently wait for Parallels to get things working effortlessly (at least effortlessly for users). OTOH I sure wish our friends at Parallels would post *something* to this thread. Even a "we're working on it" would be comforting. If I get some down time I think I'd be more likely to abandon Boot Camp, since Parallels' support for it seems a bit tepid.

 

I personally feel confortable with this sort of procedure cause I've been doing this sort of stuff for years, but I can certainly understand if it scares people, so I only recommend doing this if you think you must have this update or already have deployed SP3, you can't boot it and you really need it working. That being said, you can always use Winclone to clone your Windows partition and restore it if anything goes wrong, so you'll have nothing to lose, again I can say that I've restored partitions with Winclone.

Of course, I totally agree that Parallels should have had an update BEFORE SP3 was released publicly.

 

Okay, it seems strange to me that no one from Parallels has even commented here. According to this thread a major, current XP security update (SP3) doesn't work properly with a basic, current, supported Parallels configuration (Boot Camp, Leopard). Some pretty arcane tinkering is required, and we're not talking about unusual hardware or software. Have I missed something? Is it actually working for many/most folks, and the original post just made me nervous? Inquiring minds want to know.

 

there are other message threads discussing XP SP3 like the one at
http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=20740 (three pages)
do a search here in this discussion forum for XP SP3 and you'll probably find others.
there are issues specific to parallels, but it seems to me that some of the problems (at least the ones I've had to deal with) when installing SP3 are also the same problems encountered by regular windows users on windows PCs. a lot of tips that i found were from elsewhere where parallels is not involved and no bootcamp because they are on windows-only PCs. if you look at the computer news sites, you'll see that installing XP SP3 could possibly be problematic for a bunch people whether they are installing on windows PCs or on macs with parallels. in the windows-PC world it seems like at the moment that either the SP3 upgrade either goes smoothly or otherwise. upgrading an existing SP2 had me run into problems because all the stuff that i had tweaked on my existing SP2. a clean new install of XP SP3 using a slipstream CD went best and easiest for me.

 

note that the first post in this thread that you are reading right now deals with a problem with a /kernel setting that was added to the boot.ini file. you normally shouldn't have that /kernel setting in the boot.ini if you aren't doing an customizing of your windows like with a custom boot screen like when using BootXP or some other program that replaces the default windows boot screen (the black screen with the windows logo on it that has the progress bar in the middle of the screen). SP3 will refuse to install if you have a /kernel setting in the boot.ini file. if you have that, you can easily edit it out using notepad.

 

Thanks for the pointer, ruel. It doesn't look quite so hopeless now, though I remain surprised at the silence from Parallels. And I'm still wondering if abandoning Boot Camp altogether might not be the more reliable path.

 

stick with what you have if you have bootcamp and work the solution that others seem to have done to get parallels to work with bootcamp. switch over to parallels only if you give up on the parallels-bootcamp combo. don't expect much response from the official parallels folks except maybe infrequently because this is a discussion forum where my guess is they want us to do the self-help group-help.

 

I've got the same problem. Was anyone ever able to fix it?

 

yea, after 6 hours of kicking around with no help by Parallels...

Basically there's a thread here which teaches you how to change the ntoskrnl.exe and hal.dll back to the normal names and it will work. It was regarding how to fix the bootcamp install of windows after the version 3 beta broke it.

 

Login in Mac OS start parallels Desktop - hold Command key to access Configuration Editor- Hard disk 1-Advanced -click Clear
Login back to boot camp and install SP3

 

This didn't solve my problem when I tried it, I had to manually edit the changed kernel and DLL file back.