Help w/ Headless Dual Boot System

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tony
  • Start date Start date
T

Tony

I'm preparing to working on a target with no keyboard, mouse or video.
There is a chance I'll be able to wire up a keyboard, but this is not
too helpful since I will have no video.

I have built a stable XPe image for a similar target, and it
successfully shares its drives over the network. My plan was to place
a modified version of this image onto one flash drive, and use the
other flash drive in the unit to test out smaller XPe images until I
have what I need.

I was planning on dual-booting the system. But the standard way to do
this involves setting up boot.ini to point to the 2 dirrerent images,
then relies on KEYBOARD INPUT (whcih I won't have) from the user to
determine which source to boot from.

My stupid question: Is there a way I can specify which boot option to
use via a serial or parallel port (or something similar)? Or is there
another way to accomplish this ridiculous goal?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
- Tony H.
 
Tony,

From NT Loader I don't know any documented way how to force boot into one of the boot.ini paths.

Why can't you change the boot.ini remotely (over network share, or RDP, or whatever way of remote access your have to your headless
device) from any of your two images booted? From XPe you may get a few options how to change the boot.ini.
That is how I have automated switching between images on one of my systems.
 
I'm not sure what kind of target you're working with, but if there is a BIOS
that supports serial console redirection, you could set that up, and then
attach to the serial port with a terminal/Hyperterm and access the boot menu
that way.

If you want to set up some sort of automatic switching back and forth,
that's a little more complex...

Ann
 
KM,
I can change the boot.ini remotely as long as the stable image is loaded.
Say I change boot.ini to load the test image (so FBA can run and do its
thing). If installation fails, then I don't have a way to access boot.ini
and change it to load the stable image on the other disk. i.e. I'm stuck
trying to load the failed test image (which may not have successfully
installed network properly). I guess I could just plan on removing the
disk from the system and make the file changes elsewhere in those cases.

Ann,
Serial console may be an option, thanks. But I heard word that it may
have been taken out of our design somehow. (I don't know if our designers
consulted with the SW Dept in this particular product design :-(

Thanks.
- Tony H.
 
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