Boot large Partition from USB to RAM

[Dietmar]

Hi all,
Today I succeed to boot a 501 MB *.sdi file build with XPE SP2 from a USB
harddrive to Ram.
Drhardware shows 600.000 Mbyte/second. Boottime is about 1 minute. Then I
disconnected the USB drive and all works still fine as a diskless
Computer.
My first attempt was to use syslinux with SDI support that has been build
by Rémi Lefèvre.
But it always hangs after loading the image to ram,loud beeping. I think
it is therefor, that the adress, where the image is found in ram, is
incorrect.
Do You have another idea?
The same behavior appears in the boot.ini. under Windows. What a terrible
documentation by Microsoft. You have to run sdimgr Image.sdi for to know,
where the partition starts.It is 7000h , you have to set in boot.ini
rdimageoffset=28672 (is 7000h in dezimal)and not at 4096. In all other
cases you get the Sound Of Death hal.dll ...
There is another chance with new Win2003 Server.
You can download the srsp1.exe at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...9D-5C71-49CE-9091-3AEDC9E5979F&displaylang=en

With that you can deploy *.iso images through network
to ram.
Now I try Ram boot as above with an image of XPPRO and 890 MB on NTFS
compressed.

Nice to hear from You all
Dietmar

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Dietmar,

Huh! What was the question?

How many BLOB's do you have in your SDI file?
Do you use DISK or PART BLOB?

So far is you have one blob is should begin at 1000h. I can't speak for SP2 though. But if tools did not change then it should
remain 1000h offset.

600.000 MBytes/second? This would be the twice of speed of light if we replace millimeter with byte Do you mean bytes? I that
case your BIOS int 13 implementation is extremely slow :-(
There are third party BIOSes available to SBC that are working on theoretical USB disk speeds.

I lost you with W2003 server comments.

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Dietmar]

Hi Slobodan,
I mean the velocity of the Ramdrive, now shown as C:
Here is my xpe.sdi


C:\>SDIMgr.wsf xpe.sdi
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host, Version 5.6
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-2001. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

SDI File Manager version 1.00.621
Copyright (C) 1999-2001 Microsoft Corp. All Rights Reserved.

SDI File : C:\xpe.sdi
MDB Type : ---
Boot Code Offset : 0x00000000.00001000
Boot Code Size : 0x00000000.00005EC2
Vendor ID : 0x0000 (0)
Device ID : 0x0000 (0)
Device Model : {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
Device Role : 0
Runtime GUID : {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
Runtime OEM Rev : 0
Page Alignment : 1 (4096 bytes)

Type Offset Size Base Address Attr
---- ------------------- ------------------- -------------------
----------
BOOT 0x00000000.00001000 0x00000000.00005EC2 0x00000000.00000000
0x00000000
PART 0x00000000.00007000 0x00000000.1DE77C00 0x00000000.00000006
0x00000000
LOAD 0x00000000.1DE7F000 0x00000000.00034400 0x00000000.00000000
0x00000000

C:\>

Ciao Dietmar
I am still working...hihi

 

[KM]

Dietmar,

Why do you have BOOT/LOAD blobs? Do you implement a custom boot?
If you just do the boot.ini/rdpath boot, you will only need PART blob. Then the PART blob offset starts (by default) at 1000h.

KM

 

[Dietmar]

Hi Konstantin,
I tried to boot with syslinux with SDI support.
I did all, that Remi said ins his tutorial.
But this image doesnt boot, I dont know why.
In this version of memdisk you can only give CHS, thats all.

Dietmar

 

[Dietmar]

Hi all,
I have a question.
Cenatek Ramdisk is *.msi.
My Windows embedded doesnt know any *.msi, and it refused the Microsoft
Installer. How should I install an *.msi application in my image?
Dietmar

 

[KM]

Dietmar,

Add Windows Installer Service component to your image configuration.

KM

 

[KM]

Dietmar,

Do you refer to a manual on how to boot syslinux with SDI? Do you have a link?

Also, why bother with syslinux when you are trying to boot XPe image?

Konstantin

 

[Dietmar]

Thank you Konstantin,
I have to build a new Image.
I do that tomorrow.
Dietmar

 

[Dietmar]

Hi Konstantin,
here is the link

http://remile.free.fr/syslinux/

Good Luck,
Dietmar

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Dietmar,

You have a great threshold for pain
Why are you bothering to mix Linux and XP?

Also I fail to see how and why do you use CHS addressing.

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Dietmar,

You should componentize installed files and registry entries from XPP folder and registry.
This put in your component and no msi file that you need to deal with.

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[KM]

Slobodan,

He can actually add Winsows Installer Service with no harm and test the (any) software in msi form.
With 890 Mb image (or even with 501 Mb image) there will unlikely be a need to concern about the footprint ;-)

Konstantin

 

[KM]

Dietmar,

I think I've seen this link being posted in this NG.

Anyway, you are now trying local boot off a hard disk, right?
So, under root you've got ntldr, ntdetect.com, .sdi file and boot.ini with rdpath switch, right? (if it is NTFS compressed, hope you
uncompressed these files). You will need only a part blob in the sdi file.

Let us know if you see any problems loading your sdi file this way (local boot).

Konstantin

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Konstantin,

Although he mentioned XP Embedded I must admit that you got a point here about the footprint
In 890Mb image it is hard to miss some functionality.

Slobodan