Interesting problem

[Richard]

I created a component from my Tap file and added the prototype component to
it. So far so good.
If I decide to not install Printer and Floppy drive support then FBA dies
during PNP. Screen goes black, no error message or anything else. If I
reboot, it goes thru FBA again then dies again during PNP.

If I turn on Floppy Drive and Print support it works fine. Any reason why
it expects me to support these two items if I don't want to? Autoresolve
resolves everything fine.

I'm making progress, I'm down to 140 megs but I have to trim another 20
megs off of it some how and still support:
WinLogon, Custom Shell, TCP/IP with File Sharing, Remote Desktop, USB Mass
Storage, DiskOnKey.

Minlogon would be cool, if we could get past the file sharing and remote
desktop issues (No user accounts). Seems like you still should be able to
logon under the system account for sharing.

Got to get it all on a 128 CF. This Internet Explorer deal is for the
Birds. No matter what just about everything wants to pull it in. I'd like
to get down to 100 megs or so if possible so I will keep hacking away at it.


Richard

 

[KM]

Richard,

If I turn on Floppy Drive and Print support it works fine. Any reason why
it expects me to support these two items if I don't want to? Autoresolve
resolves everything fine.

Sounds unbelievable but everything is possible
Have you anylized why FBA is dying without the components? (FBALog.txt will
help you, as well as setupapi.log).

Minlogon would be cool, if we could get past the file sharing and remote
desktop issues (No user accounts). Seems like you still should be able to
logon under the system account for sharing.

Do you really need a file sharing from the image? Have you considered using
a server share to exchange files (if it is the purpose of the file sharing
for you)?
I never tried terminal services under Minlogon but my first thought would
be - it is not going to work.

Got to get it all on a 128 CF. This Internet Explorer deal is for the
Birds. No matter what just about everything wants to pull it in. I'd like
to get down to 100 megs or so if possible so I will keep hacking away at

it.

Compression (NTFS)? Do you use that or can you use that? Something it helps
to compress an image in half.

KM

 

[Mule Skinner]

Do you really need a file sharing from the image? Have you considered
using

a server share to exchange files (if it is the purpose of the file sharing
for you)?
I never tried terminal services under Minlogon but my first thought would
be - it is not going to work.

Really, File Sharing could be replaced with a simple FTP Server in my
application, however since Remote Desktop "Is" a requirement at this point
there isn't much sense in trying to do that. Boss does want a remote GUI
and it's already in there. I have an internal Web Server in the application
and I'm slowly installing a full user interface there as I have time. It's
about 60% complete so far. I'm using all the Indy components in order not
to use all the ISS stuff and helps keep the size down.
Once the Webserver and all the pages are complete then it may migrate to a
minlogon image. I could transfer files with the webserver.

Compression (NTFS)? Do you use that or can you use that? Something it helps
to compress an image in half.

No, I'm using standard FAT. I'll read up on NTFS and compression. Are
there any other benefits besides the smaller size? What is the trade offs,
slower boot time?.....

Richard

 

[KM]

Richard,

Really, File Sharing could be replaced with a simple FTP Server in my
application, however since Remote Desktop "Is" a requirement at this point
there isn't much sense in trying to do that. Boss does want a remote GUI
and it's already in there. I have an internal Web Server in the application
and I'm slowly installing a full user interface there as I have time. It's
about 60% complete so far. I'm using all the Indy components in order not
to use all the ISS stuff and helps keep the size down.
Once the Webserver and all the pages are complete then it may migrate to a
minlogon image. I could transfer files with the webserver.

Have you thought of 3rd party solutions? Like VNC, RAdmin (www.radmin.com),
etc. Btw, from my knowledge RAdmin 2.1 and ealier does not have much
dependencies and potentially can work without NTLM authentication meaning
that you can try using it under Minlogon (I wanted to test it there a while
ago but could not find enough time). Also, RAdmin has simple FTP
client/server implementation in it.

Of course using a 3rd party solution may change the price of your device.
But sometimes (and it depends on marketing desicions and could be negotiable
enough to make everyone's happy) it is not a bad idea to switch off the MS
standard stuff to a 3rd party.

No, I'm using standard FAT. I'll read up on NTFS and compression. Are
there any other benefits besides the smaller size? What is the trade offs,
slower boot time?.....

Of course, there is always a performance trade off - with NTFS compression
you have to uncompress things on the fly.
Depends on your target hardware performance but I'd say that you won't
notice a big difference with NTFS compressed vs FAT or NTFS uncompressed.
NTFS is more chatter that FAT so FAT may be a better choice if you use EWF.
But again, making sure to set up properly image to keep EWF RAM usage lower
you can easy leave with NTFS.

I believe the best answer to these questions you can get just running an
image with NTFS compression on your target. If the performance is
acceptable, you are good to go with it.

KM