Minlogon RBS Depoloyment

[Guest]

Hey guys,
After some help from KM and others in the forum, I decided to go the
Minlogon/RBS approach of distributing my image. I created a minlogon image
of about 17-20 mb, using the macro, added the Windows RamDisk component to
the image, and tried to use the RBS Manager to start the minlogon image. I
know it works because I have used the reboot.com program and it successfully
reboots. However when I use the minlogon sdi Image, it says
"Windows Could not start due to an error while booting from a RAMDISK.
Windows failed to open the RAMDISK IMAGE."


Does anyone have any ideas or shots in the dark?

 

[Guest]

Ok so I figured out that problem, apparently it won't accept a path to the
image it must be the name of he image, and be located in the RBS
folder....but now I have a new issue...

It loads the RamDisk image and says...

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows Root>\system32\hal.dll

Please reinstall a copy of the above file.



Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Mark,

Have you run trough FBA before creating that XPe image?
Also have you used C: for OS volume letter?
Also what offset did you used to partition data in SDI file?

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Guest]

Hey Slobodan-

I don't quite understand how I can run through FBA in a ramdisk image,
especially when it just loaded into memory and then stops. All I'm trying to
do is what has been suggested to me, create a minlogon, load it with RBS, and
deploy a larger image by mounting a network share, and using robocopy or
something similar.

Basically Slobodan, I used target designer to create a minlogon using their
sample macro, left the default settings, added the windows ram disk driver.
I'm looking at the Target Device Settings adn the Boot Drive is C:, Windows
Folder is C:\Windows, etc etc. I didn't know if I was supposed to change
that. I created a 25 mb sdi image, wrote the disk signature using computer
management, formatted using fat. Built the image directly to the image,
dismounted the image, placed it in the proper directory, and then setup rbs
with the image.

Again, this offset concept is new to me, I’ve read about BLOB and a bunch of
other things but I have no idea what I’m supposed to do, any clarification
would be really great, the msdn lit is very thorough on theory, but skinny on
example process.


Thanks for your help,

Mark

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hey Mark,

1. You must (or at least should) run trough FBA on target machine.
2. Then shutdown.
3. Create SDI file from post FBA image.

Please read trough following threads you will find many useful info directly and indirectly related to what you want to do.
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...a=group=microsoft.public.windowsxp.embedded.*

Read also with associated links:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnxpesp1/html/ram_sdi.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...n-us/remboot/html/xpconRemoteBootOverview.asp

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Guest]

Thanks Slobodan, looks like I have my reading for the day, I'm going to get
right on it....I just want to clarify something one last time.

What you're saying is that a Minlogon SDI image using RBS has to run through
FBA on the target machine.

I don't understand how I can do that. I have a completely blank pc (target)
and a win2k server machine with RBS and all the embedded products. I made a
minlogon image and built it into an sdi disk, dismounted and setup rbs. All
I want to do is get an image to a system that doesn't have any cd/floppy/etc.
So from the help in the forum, one of the only ways I can figure out how to
do that is use minlogon and xxcopy or robocopy from a network share to do
this.

Instead you're telling me what I have to do is somehow get the minlogon on
the physical machine and then copy back to an sdi image, and then be able to
load it using RBS? Then copy a larger image using the minlogon dos prompt?
Forgive me for being blunt, but that really sucks, because I'm going to have
to load images on about 3-4 different machine types, so I have to run the
minlogon fba on each image, for each machine type? Thats not very diverse.
Not to mention then load the actual image that I want, around 200+ mb.

BTW forget WINPE, I have the two embedded disks, but they're copies so we
didn't damage or loose the origional, and all the files are there, but it
won't boot winpe. I think it got fubared in the copy, the problem is we
can't find the oringals now......Otherwise I would use WINPE in an Remote
Installation services instance, and distribute the image using xxcopy. I'd
love it if someone could suggest a remedy to that.

Sorry to be such a pain, but I sincerly appreciate the help.

-Mark




A windows RamDISK image, that supposed to be loaded using RBS, possibly in a
Diskless Sitatuon has to run through FBA

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Mark,

What you're saying is that a Minlogon SDI image using RBS has to run through
FBA on the target machine.

It has to run trough FBA so all components are dynamically installed and registered. But it does not necessarily has to be on target
machine.
You can usually later boot same image (Based on Standard PC and generic drivers) on any computer and wait few extra seconds added by
PnP process while it detect and install new hardware instances. (This almost always happen is some amount even with same device
types).
But you should be aware about issues with ramdisk and seeing HDD on target device (covered by search link I gave you) and modify
post FBA registry offline accordingly.

Anyhow same XPe image can be made to boot on any computer type without additional FBA processes.

Sorry to be such a pain, but I sincerly appreciate the help.

No problems just ask what you need to be clarified

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Guest]

Slobodan -

Hey I distributed my minlogon sdi image to a machine that we had around the
office, it went through fba, and now I have a machine with an image on it
that I can't get off......What do you think is the best approach to recapture
this image, and what packages would I need to include if for example I wanted
to use "NET USE" to share a drive? Or are there any other viable
alternatives? Remember this is the most basic minlogon I could make, so I
might have to remake it to include things like net use and other utilities to
get it off.

 

[KM]

Mark,

Depending on what you got on that machine (another disk you can boot off XP Pro or floppy you can boot off DOS) you have options to
use SDIMgr (/readpart /readdisk switches) or sdi2hd DOS tool to capture the image in to a SDI file.
Although, for the ramdisk image I believe you must have PART blob in your image and therefore you have to use SDIMgr to capture the
image.

I did not quite get this "what packages would I need to include if for example I wanted to use "NET USE" to share a drive". What you
meant by packages? Components?
Please keep in mind that you have to capture the image off the target device storage.
Also, just a note that to support network and net.exe you image will grow from 20Mb to at least 40-50Mb (can't get your the right
estimate but the point is that it will grow in size).

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Mark,

Hey I distributed my minlogon sdi image to a machine that we had around the
office, it went through fba, and now I have a machine with an image on it
that I can't get off......What do you think is the best approach to recapture
this image, and what packages would I need to include if for example I wanted
to use "NET USE" to share a drive?

"NET USE" This is a separate issue for which you should create a new thread, so we can discuss it there. But look at google groups
and Konstantin answer.

How you will get your post FBA image I have no idea. From other OS(bootable CD), from USB, from DOS, etc.
Or you can do FBA on machine that you have easy access to.

Or are there any other viable
alternatives? Remember this is the most basic minlogon I could make, so I
might have to remake it to include things like net use and other utilities to
get it off.

You could make deploy application that will get your image trough TCP/IP and write it to HDD?
Or if you prefer add all things that you will need to support network sharing.
Remember you will want to read image file from shared volume on server. And not to share local unpartitioned HDD.

Regards,
Slobodan