first boot AFTER cloning

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jeff
  • Start date Start date
J

Jeff

I've recently noticed that when a deployed image boots for the first time,
it stays on a blue screen with nothing on it except the mouse cursor for
quite some time ( a minute or so). Is there a way to display a dialog with a
message during this screen? It's not clear to the user what is going on
here. They may try to reboot or something equally silly. Or they may just
think the unit is broken.
Thanks,

-Jeff-
 
Jeff,

Are you sure you see just a blue screen during the cloning phase?
I have always seen there a FBA screen with text displaying a progress and saying something (don't remember exactly) which makes
sense and does not scare end users.

I don't think there is a publicly available way to customize the cloning phase. Only for reseal phase you can change the message
boxes.

You can, however, create your own app that shows whatever UI you prefer (e.g. display a message box). You wrap the app into a
component and set its launch as FBA Generic Command with the FBA phase after reseal (at or > 12000). For the command, just set
Flags=1 and control the timeout for the app inside its code.
I guess the app UI should be very simple and does not have to reply on user accounts data and/or shell.

I wish MS provides more control over FBA code.
 
The way I thought this worked was:

The reseal phase is at 12000. If you set a generic command's phase to 12000+
it will run after first boot. But it will never get run for the user,
because it gets run before the user even gets the image.

This is true as far as I can tell, but it's not what I want. I want a hook
that runs my little dialog app first thing once the cloned image boots for
the first time and that's whereI have my problem. This would be after the
reseal has happend and I don't see any way to get anything to run then. Run
once items don't run soon enough in the boot process. They run after the
computer is pretty much fully booted. Any other ideas? Even hacky ones?

Thanks,
-Jeff-


KM said:
Jeff,

Are you sure you see just a blue screen during the cloning phase?
I have always seen there a FBA screen with text displaying a progress and
Click to expand...
saying something (don't remember exactly) which makes
sense and does not scare end users.

I don't think there is a publicly available way to customize the cloning
Click to expand...
phase. Only for reseal phase you can change the message
boxes.

You can, however, create your own app that shows whatever UI you prefer
Click to expand...
(e.g. display a message box). You wrap the app into a
component and set its launch as FBA Generic Command with the FBA phase
Click to expand...
after reseal (at or > 12000). For the command, just set
Flags=1 and control the timeout for the app inside its code.
I guess the app UI should be very simple and does not have to reply on
Click to expand...
user accounts data and/or shell.
 
Jeff,
The reseal phase is at 12000. If you set a generic command's phase to 12000+
it will run after first boot. But it will never get run for the user,
because it gets run before the user even gets the image.
Click to expand...

I am sorry I am a little slow today.

What did you mean by the last statement above? Specifically, what did you
mean by "it gets run before the user even gets the image"?

KM
 
What I mean is that my generic command gets run too early -- before I even
get a chance to manually reseal. So the users never see it. It's already
happend. Does that make more sense?

As I re-read the documentation, I get the impression that there should be a
message during the cloning phase. I don't think I'm seeing it. Is there
something special you need to do to see this message?

From the documentation:

"During the cloning phase, you see a message in the Windows XP boot
monitor stating that Windows is starting."

Windows XP boot monitor? Is that it?

Thanks,
-Jeff-
 
Jeff,
What I mean is that my generic command gets run too early -- before I even
get a chance to manually reseal. So the users never see it. It's already
happend. Does that make more sense?
Click to expand...

No, it does not. If you set your FBA generic command phase 12,001+ it will
happen after the reseal phase. Regardless of what whether you manually
reseal or not.
What phase do you set for your command?
As I re-read the documentation, I get the impression that there should be a
message during the cloning phase. I don't think I'm seeing it. Is there
something special you need to do to see this message?

From the documentation:

"During the cloning phase, you see a message in the Windows XP boot
monitor stating that Windows is starting."

Windows XP boot monitor? Is that it?
Click to expand...

That is the message I was referring to earlier.
There is no settings to enable/disable the message I know of.

KM
 
Hi,
Jeff,




No, it does not. If you set your FBA generic command phase 12,001+ it will
happen after the reseal phase. Regardless of what whether you manually
reseal or not.
What phase do you set for your command?
Click to expand...

Jeff is maybe running into the same problem as I am. I set the Reseal phase
to '0', in order to get a chance to set some custom configuration, install
certain applicationes.
When I'm done I would call fbreseal which on the next boot leads to a black
screen in my case (it's the desktop color, I guess) without any progress bar.

Well, this maybe where the DLL comes in that you can specify in the advanced
options...

Hmmm... I can't see it as well.

Ulf
 
Well, I tried 12000 and it happens before I reseal. I tried 50000 and it
happens before I reseal. I can't get anything to happen after reseal. Could
this be a problem with the cmiResealPhase property in the System Cloning
Tool component? The documentation says set it to 0 if you want to manually
reseal, so that's what I did. I must be missing something here. It doesn't
seem to be working the way the documentation describes.
 
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