More efficient XPE development procedure?

[Justin_Fang]

Dear All,

Maybe this is a stupid question. But any suggestion will be welcome.

1. During XPE development, if I want to add one componet for test
purpose, do I need to add it in TD, check dependencies, build image,
copy image to target, reboot, FBA, and then test? It takes a long
time. Any simulation tool or can I just update a component to my
original image?

2. Once I add a componet and run dependencies check, sometimes lots
componet will be added automatically. In case I find the componet is
not what I need. How to remove it? Disable "Auto-resolve dependencies"
and log all related componet?

3. This question may relate to question 1. If my device is shipped and
customer reports an issue which need to add an extra componet to solve
it. How to do it? Use "Device Update Agent"? Or give customer a
recovery CD to recovery full image?

Thanks,
Justin

 

[Sean Liming \(eMVP\)]

1. If it is a feature that can be installed post-FBA via a MSI like .NET
Framwork, than you will have to build and image to test the feature.

2. You could remove the component and turn Auto-resolve. You could use
XPECMD taht comes with XPe tools or my Dependency Hunter porgram to track
down dependency relationships. The simplest method is to do an auto-resolve
and watch the output at the bottom to see what gets pulled in.

3. If it is a feature that requires a minor registry or file update you can
used DUA or any custom method to update the image. A more complex component
may require a full image replacement.

Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
XP Embedded Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental
Toolkit

 

[Justin_Fang]

1. Beacause the procedure takes long time, in case I am looking for
Disk management function of control panel. I will add all related
componets which maybe useless.
It's not possible to try the componets one by one. I do think this
"groups" helps me a lot. But it's really hard to optimum XPE image.

2. Hm...I will study the information you gave. Thanks.

3. Recovery is not a good but acceptable idea.

Thanks,
Justin

 

[dalai lamah]

Un bel giorno Justin_Fang digitò:

1. During XPE development, if I want to add one componet for test
purpose, do I need to add it in TD, check dependencies, build image,
copy image to target, reboot, FBA, and then test? It takes a long
time. Any simulation tool or can I just update a component to my
original image?

You can see which files the packet contains (it can be found in the online
help) and copy them directly to the post-FBA image, even with the system
running. I did it several times, it works often. Of course if you have to
add an entire subsystem it won't work, but still.

 

[Sean Liming \(eMVP\)]

I would do groups at a time. The help system has good information on
individual components. It takes a while to learn the different components
and the features before one really can optimize the solution.

Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
XP Embedded Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental
Toolkit

 

[KM]

Justin,

You can also try another approach that is often useful especially with drivers.
You can look at the component resource, grab its files and registry entries and put them on the device manually. Most of the objects
(driver, services, COM objects, etc.) can be installed there relatively easy with a help of command line tools (devcon, sc.exe,
regsvr32, regedit/reg, etc.). This way you can test if the component is really needed to fix particular issues at run time.
Obviously the above approach would only work if you have the component dependencies in the image and the component resources are not
heavy (otherwise it would be a big effort by itself). This is why I said it is easier with drivers.

Also, it all depends on the means of "for test purpose". If you are trying to fix some issues at run time, often it is easier to
investigate the issue and find the missing files and reg.entries (tools like DependencyWalker, RegMon/FileMon/ProcessMonitor,
ProcessExplorer, RegSnap, etc.). Then, when you know he missing parts you can use TD Filters or DeviceExplorer tool (see below) to
find the right components that need to be added to the image.

Just to mention. There is a set of tools posted on www.xpefiles.com. They are called and grouped under XPeTools. The tools are just
a set of components that may help you exploring dependencies of the components in XPe database or your configuration only. Other
features include searching for components by file name, registry value name, registry path, etc.

 

[Justin_Fang]

Thanks for everyone's information.
They are all useful for me.

Justin