Builds That Support Multiple Configurations

T

Tim Houle

Is there any way to have the same build/image work for
multiple different hardware configurations? For example,
I have 2 different computer hardware configurations I
would like to support. Would I have to create 2 separate
builds/images or is it possible to include all the
drivers necessary to support both hardware configurations
in 1 build/image?

Thanks in advance.
 
S

Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)

Hi Tim,

If you have similar hardware (for instance all ACPI compliant) you can
include all required drivers in one build (pre FBA image).
So you will have one build, but you should run FBA on all different
platforms. At the end you will have image for each hardware type that you
need.

Regards,
Slobodan
 
N

Nikolai Vorontsov

Hi, Tim!
Is there any way to have the same build/image work for
multiple different hardware configurations? For example,
I have 2 different computer hardware configurations I
would like to support. Would I have to create 2 separate
builds/images or is it possible to include all the
drivers necessary to support both hardware configurations
in 1 build/image?
Actually it depends on what do you mean by "different computer".
For some "similar" PC you don't need to have different builds, and even
different FBAs.
Personally I have 3 builds - one for P3 hardware, one for the P4 based,
and one for XEONs. They work on 9 different motherboards now, but I do
only 3 FBA.
 
R

Roy Hodgkinson

Tim,

I support 3 motherboards (basically they must all use the same HAL)
and a collection of peripherals -- 3 cameras, 3 custom I/O boards, 6
graphics adapters, multiple NICs, etc. I leave the XPE Image unsealed
and move a hard drive with that image through various machine
configurations to expose it to all the hardware and to set any driver
configuration details not easily supported otherwise (this pre-empts
the Hardware Wizard activating later in front of customers). Now that
all the drivers have been loaded and proven to work correctly, I run
FBReseal and capture this "universal" image for cloning via Symantec
Ghost. FBA runs automatically on the cloned hard drives and then our
custom drive build scripts are activated to load a database driven
application set.

HTH, Roy
 
D

Doug Hoeffel

Roy:

I'm curious about your method of deployment. Does you ghost image have fba
ready to run? Or has fba already run and you move this HD from your various
machines to detect new/different h/w before making you final master ghost
image?

Thanks... Doug
 
R

Roy Hodgkinson

Doug,

You are correct. FBA is fully run on the image I move across the
hardware. The last thing I do before shutting down XPE is the
FBReseal; then I boot from DOS to do the Ghost capture. What I was
referring to is that on the next boot after FBReseal is done (i.e.
when the Ghost image is copied to a drive and XPE is booted up), a
"mini-FBA/Setup" runs to do hardware detect, assign a generated
Computername, unique SID, etc.

Roy
 
D

Doug Hoeffel

Roy:

Just so I understand... before you move your HD from one mobo. to another
you do some tweak so that when you first boot on this other mobo. fba
re-reruns the h/w detect. If you don't mind me asking but what do you do to
get fba to just re-run h/w detect?

And, you do the reseal once, i.e. after you detect h/w on your last mobo.
you do the reseal then restart. It's on this next restart that you boot to
DOS and capture your "master" ghost image right?

Thanks.. Doug
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S

Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)

Hi Doug,

I don't use this method, but if you need it I suggest you to analyze
component "FBA: PnP".

This component will make FBA call FBAInstallPnpDevices at phase 3100.
You can copy this entry to your component and make it run after the cloning
is done.

Also you can check FBAInstallPnpClassInstallers if you want.
Library FBAPNP.DLL is filled with some nice undocumented functions.

Let me know if it is working when you decide to try this.

Regards,
Slobodan

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R

Roy Hodgkinson

Doug,

I'm not doing anything special between motherboards, just booting the
image and letting the OS do its normal hardware enumeration at
startup. With the drivers active, I can test and re-configure them
just as I wish. The ability to defer Reseal is an option in System
Cloning Tool component in the XPE toolkit.

References:
1. See Tip http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/community/tips/xp/cloning/default.aspx).
2. Open Target Designer | Help and Search on "Cloning" for all the
details.

Good Luck, Roy
 

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