Headless system with no VGA adapter Help

[LIKAI]

Hi,
I am currently porting xp embedded on a headless system. It is a Transmeta
cpu with no on board VGA function or external adapter.

I followed the porting guide on MSDN. (posted at the end of this email).

The system cannot even go to FBA when I try the compiled image on board. It
will work if I plugged a external VGA adapter.

I tried to use windbg and add "/debug /debugport=com1 /baudrate=115200" at
the boot.ini for any debug information. However, without the external VGA
adapter, I don't even get any message on the windbg on the host.

I found the debug message will only output at the end of the white bar when
I use an external VGA adapter. I am guessing the system hangs during the
first white bar.

I also tried to use the external VGA adapter to pass the FBA initialization.
In the next boot up, I unplug the VGA adapter. It fails exactly the same as
if I first try before the FBA.

I tried the use only one of the Headless VGA Driver and Terminal Services
Core or both without success.

Questions:
1. Did I miss something for the configuration of headless system?
2. I found if I only include the "Terminal Service Core", "headless vga
driver" component will be loaded automatically during dependency check, why
is the help file on the MSDN mention " you must include one of these
components, but not both"?
3. Is there any special BIOS modification for this system?

Thanks for the help.

Victor

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To add support for a headless system

1.. In Target Designer, open your configuration.
2.. Add one of the following components to your configuration.
Headless VGA Driver

-or-

Terminal Services Core

To build a system that boots with no VGA card, you must include one of
these components, but not both.

If you add the Terminal Services component to your configuration, it will
considerably increase the size of your run-time image footprint.

3.. Add the VGA Boot Driver Component to your configuration. The VGA Boot
Driver component, Bootvid.dll, is required by NTLDR regardless of whether a
VGA card is present in your configuration.
To see this component, you must set the visibility threshold in Target
Designer to 200 or less.

4.. Check dependencies and build your run-time image.
If a video card is present and you want to use an attached display, the
VGA Save Driver Component is required. It is not required for a headless
system with no graphics adapter. However, a dependency check error occurs if
you do not include it in your configuration. You can disregard this error.
To see this component, you must set the visibility threshold in Target
Designer to 200 or less.

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi LIKAI,

I'm sorry I do not see what is manufacturer of your board and what model.
For headless boot to work, BIOS must be able to pass control to MBR code instead of reporting error with video adapter. If not then
boot will not happen.
Check in BIOS there might be some error reporting option regarding the video adapter.

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[LIKAI]

Dear Slobodan,
The system can boot to DOS with no problem. Dos Windows XPE need special
reporting on the bios call return?

I'll check BIOS code again and see if I can find something similar to
"report no error if no video adapter".

Thanks!

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi LIKAI,

Then BIOS is not your problem.

You might have a problem with either debugger over RS-232 port (This happens with some EHCI controllers enabled). In this case you
can connect and break in system with debugger after system is running. At least this will let you know if this is a problems for
you.

Other option that you have is to use debug version of ntldr that you can monitor. This you should use in case that drivers won't
load at all.

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[KM]

How about building Min Kernel Demo image and connecting to it with KD?

If debug version of ntldr does not help much (if ntldr phase is passed fine), then kernel can be tested a bit. At least you should
see the "Hello World"

KM

 

[LIKAI]

May I ask where I can find the debug version of ntldr?

I've always thought using "/debug /debugport=com1 /baudrate=115200" on
boot.ini is all there is.

Thanks for the help.

 

[KM]

LIKAI,

WinDDK.

Or contact MS support. I don't think it will be of any charge but you better check.

KM

 

[KM]

LIKAI,

We forgot to mention one more thing you may be missing if you are using SP1: QFE 331042.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...5e-d373-4d14-85af-960a3c620cb0&DisplayLang=en

KM

 

[LIKAI]

Thanks, KM. But we did that.

Besides that, we tried both SP1 and SP2 (SP2 does not need the fix because
the version number is higher than the fix.)

 

[KM]

LIKAI,

Yup. SP2 does not need this fix.
That was pretty old QFE. MS could not have missed it in SP2

For SP1 it was worth to mention.

KM