Network settings are not kept after system cloning is done

[Meinhard Siegel]

Has anybody an idea? I am running XP Embedded OS on a PC with two
ethernet and one firewire adapter.

In my master image I disabled the firewire adapter and changed the order
in which the adapters are accessed by network services.

The problem is after system cloning is done and the image is deployed to
a identical target machine my firewire adapter is enabled and the order
in which the adapters are accessed by network services have changed.

Bevor cloning I run Fbreseal.exe with the following options: -autologon
-keepdomain -keepnet -keepuser -keepmounted


Thank you in advance

 

[KM]

Meinhard,

You probably know that two network adapters cannot be identically the same. At least MAC addresses are different and etc.
When XP(e) will enumerate an adapter very first time (in your case it happens after cloning) it will create and assign a default
connection settings to it.

The only cure I can see is to run a set of netsh based command to set up the right configuration at run time after cloning (you can
either set up after-cloning FBA phase command or use startup folder item to run the script if Explorer shell is used). Basically
from the script you'd want to disable firewire adapter and order the ethernet adapters.

 

[Meinhard Siegel]

Meinhard,

You probably know that two network adapters cannot be identically the same. At least MAC addresses are different and etc.
When XP(e) will enumerate an adapter very first time (in your case it happens after cloning) it will create and assign a default
connection settings to it.

The only cure I can see is to run a set of netsh based command to set up the right configuration at run time after cloning (you can
either set up after-cloning FBA phase command or use startup folder item to run the script if Explorer shell is used). Basically
from the script you'd want to disable firewire adapter and order the ethernet adapters.

Was looking for netsh commands, couldn't find a commands to change the
order of the adapters or how to enable / disable the firewire adapter,
only found commands for setting other parameters,

Any other idea?

Thanks

Meinard

 

[KM]

Meinard,

I am sorry. I actually meant NetSet.exe tool from Resource Kit (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/268781).
Looking closely at the tool I don't think it is goign to help you with the adapter order either.

Well, then you may want to stick to the old good registry approach.
Here is the reg.key you may want to preserve: [HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Linkage],"Bind".
This Bind reg value is a multi-string value that contains a list of network adapters in binding order. The first entry in the list
is the first bound network adapter; the second entry is the second network adapter in the binding order; and so forth.

To disable adapter it is even easier. Just find the reg.key for the NIC driver under [HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services] and
change the Start value there to "4".
Or use devcon.exe command line device manager for the same purpose
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q311272).
The netsh could be used to disable particualr inteface (e.g., netsh ip set interface "1394 Connection" DISABLED) but frankly, I
can't seem to get this command working even on XP SP2 (used to work in 2K though).

 

[Meinhard Siegel]

Meinard,

I am sorry. I actually meant NetSet.exe tool from Resource Kit (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/268781).
Looking closely at the tool I don't think it is goign to help you with the adapter order either.

Well, then you may want to stick to the old good registry approach.
Here is the reg.key you may want to preserve: [HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Linkage],"Bind".
This Bind reg value is a multi-string value that contains a list of network adapters in binding order. The first entry in the list
is the first bound network adapter; the second entry is the second network adapter in the binding order; and so forth.

To disable adapter it is even easier. Just find the reg.key for the NIC driver under [HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services] and
change the Start value there to "4".
Or use devcon.exe command line device manager for the same purpose
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q311272).
The netsh could be used to disable particualr inteface (e.g., netsh ip set interface "1394 Connection" DISABLED) but frankly, I
can't seem to get this command working even on XP SP2 (used to work in 2K though).

Hey KM,
thanks for your help, I tried your suggestions, netset.exe doesn't have
the feature, to manipulate the adapter order. To change the parameters
within HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Linkage is not enough.
In the meantime I found an answer to my problem but I am not happy about
this answer:

....How to influence the binding order in Windows XP during unattended setup
You cannot change the connection order during an unattended setup. There
also is no programmatic way to change the binding order of network
adapters for a computer that is running. This inability to make a change
is a problem if you want to programmatically move one local area
connection ahead of another local area connection. However, no
documented programmatic method exists for changing the order of the
adapters.
Found at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894564/en-us
The only way to change is by hand.

After all to disable adapter doesn't work in your suggested way.

When setting Start value of nic1394 to "4" under
[HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services] this works for the current
image but after deploying images this value is set to "3" again.

Meinhard

 

[KM]

Meinard,

Yup, the only documented way there has always been the one where you change it manually via ncpa.cpl. I thought that's what you're
trying to avoid
As I said earlier, I didn't expect NetSet help you.

However, I am curious though why Linkage/Bind didn't work for you. IIRC, in my experiments on a small Minlogon image it worked.
Frankly, I don't remember details since it was long time ago and I didn't need that feature for a final product.

--
=========
Regards,
KM

Meinard,

I am sorry. I actually meant NetSet.exe tool from Resource Kit (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/268781).
Looking closely at the tool I don't think it is goign to help you with the adapter order either.

Well, then you may want to stick to the old good registry approach.
Here is the reg.key you may want to preserve: [HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Linkage],"Bind".
This Bind reg value is a multi-string value that contains a list of network adapters in binding order. The first entry in the
list is the first bound network adapter; the second entry is the second network adapter in the binding order; and so forth.

To disable adapter it is even easier. Just find the reg.key for the NIC driver under [HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services]
and change the Start value there to "4".
Or use devcon.exe command line device manager for the same purpose
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q311272).
The netsh could be used to disable particualr inteface (e.g., netsh ip set interface "1394 Connection" DISABLED) but frankly, I
can't seem to get this command working even on XP SP2 (used to work in 2K though).

Hey KM,
thanks for your help, I tried your suggestions, netset.exe doesn't have the feature, to manipulate the adapter order. To change
the parameters within HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Linkage is not enough.
In the meantime I found an answer to my problem but I am not happy about this answer:

...How to influence the binding order in Windows XP during unattended setup
You cannot change the connection order during an unattended setup. There also is no programmatic way to change the binding order
of network adapters for a computer that is running. This inability to make a change is a problem if you want to programmatically
move one local area connection ahead of another local area connection. However, no documented programmatic method exists for
changing the order of the adapters.
Found at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894564/en-us
The only way to change is by hand.

After all to disable adapter doesn't work in your suggested way.

When setting Start value of nic1394 to "4" under [HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services] this works for the current image but
after deploying images this value is set to "3" again.

Meinhard