Device drivers support in El-Torito Disk

[farrukh.arshad]

Hello,

I am working on deploying my product on XP Embedded El-Torito DVD. I
have done every other things. I just wanted to know how can i provide
support for different hardware i.e Most probably rather definately my
client's hardware will exactly not match with my hardware on which i've
build the XPE DVD so how can I add support in my XPE DVD so that when
my client boots from it XPE configure appropriate driver (like VGA or
audio etc). Lets assume I want to provide support for 5 different VGA
Cards ? Do I need to create components of 5 different drivers and add
them to the run-time image !

Regards
Farrukh Arshad

 

[Adora Belle Dearheart]

Hello,

I am working on deploying my product on XP Embedded El-Torito DVD. I
have done every other things. I just wanted to know how can i provide
support for different hardware i.e Most probably rather definately my
client's hardware will exactly not match with my hardware on which i've
build the XPE DVD so how can I add support in my XPE DVD so that when
my client boots from it XPE configure appropriate driver (like VGA or
audio etc). Lets assume I want to provide support for 5 different VGA
Cards ? Do I need to create components of 5 different drivers and add
them to the run-time image !

In short, yes. I'm currently working on an image that supports just two
different base PCs and a variety of peripherals, and I have to include
all the drivers for devices we might have... though some things can be
installed after the fact, not everything can as you may well not have
the support stuff needed for that particular type of device.
I also have a project manager getting his knickers in a twist over a
webcam that doesn't work on an old build he's got from
goodness-knows-where. Not a lot I can do about that without a
disproportionate amount of work.

 

[Dietmar]

Hi Farrukh Arshad,
build your image only with those drivers, that are needed for all compis.

After FBA, install to your harddisk every driver that is needed for
different hardware from XP Pro.
Now test your harddisk image, whether all drivers work on the different
hardware.
When you make this work, build your *.iso.

Good luck
Dietmar

PS: Sometimes, XP(E) has amnesia. So, after you are sure that all the
different hardware works,
test ALL the hardware ONCE MORE.

 

[Sean Liming \(eMVP\)]

I developed a CD with multiple network cards so it can boot from any system
and access the network.

You can either create the components and include them in the configuration,
or you can try to install the drivers after the OS has run through FBA on
the hard drive. Of course, the video cards wil have to be in the system for
the isntall to work. It is probably better to create components for video

Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
XP Embedded Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental
Toolkit.

 

[farrukh.arshad]

Thanx everyone, I think creating the component is better option coz it
does not require the hardware to be installed in the system.

Regards
Farrukh

 

[microsoft.public.windows]

One more thing to understand...
When creating a new custom component from say an OEM driver for XP PRO
you will sometimes find that they use one standard driver for several
versions of their products. Intel (Chipsets and NICs) does this a lot
and so does ATI (within graphic families). Try importing some OEM .inf
drivers into Component Designer and you will see what I mean. You
probably ran into this already. Normally the designer wants to remove
all of this extra "fluff" but in your case this seems to be of value.
Sean Liming has some nice add-on software tools (as well as books) for
XPe development available at sjjmicro.com that can really aid your
development by parsing the OEM .inf files etc. to get you at a good
starting point for your custom driver(s). Microsoft Highly
recommendeds Sean and he has some nice tools.

Dan
Avnet FAE supporting Microsoft Embedded products

 

[Sean Liming \(eMVP\)]

I appreciate the plug. Thanks!

The tools will help in some areas, but Component Designer has a nice INF
import processes. You then have to look at the PnP ID found with Target
Analyzer to hunt down, which component from the INF file is the correct one.

Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
XP Embedded Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental
Toolkit.