New to XP Embedded HELP!

[Cnewman]

I've been given the task to experiment with XPE for a POS application.
We are a very large POS software company with over 30,000 resturants and see
this as a money saving opportunity for our clients.
I have read most everything on it and I also am IT saavy. I want to boot
w/out a harddrive (LAN), to the server having the XPE Image.
If the harddrive is necessary then whats the smallest I would need?
Is there any simple tutorial on this? What I need (Server wise), I have an
XPE compatible System (BIOS, NIC) so I just need help with setup.

Thanks,
Curtis

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi,

You can find more info in this news group archives:
You can boot from flash medium or network server if you have it.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...a=group=microsoft.public.windowsxp.embedded.*

After reading trough this posts please let us know if you encounter on the problems on the route.

BTW:
You will have to run FBA on Hard Disk before you make SDI image for remote boot.

Best regards,
Slobodan

 

[KM]

And just to add to that a couple of more useful links:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/xpehelp/html/xeconDisklessSystem.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/remboot/html/xpconRemoteBootOverview.asp

This tutorial may also be helpful to you:
http://docs.msdnaa.net/ark_new3.0/c...P_Embedded_Remote Boot Step_by_Step_Guide.doc

KM

 

[Cnewman]

Thanks for the replies and no Flamming
I will look these over and give them a try.

 

[Robert]

Don't forget about the distinction between running the First Boot Agent
(FBA) and running a completed install. The image that the TD builds for you
MUST be run once from real hardware to allow the installation to complete.
So you'll need one of your devices with some captive storage. I've not had
luck booting from USB or FireWire and getting FBA to be happy. I use a
USB/1394 external enclosure to image the drive and then move it to the
target machine for boot. Also make sure you use a bootable FAT partition
(not NTFS). After you have run through the FBA and you're happy with the
image you'll need to get the image of that hard drive into an SDI file.
Again, I've removed the hard drive and placed it into an enclosure and used
the XPe SDI tools to copy the disk image into an SDI file. Then you can use
the SDI file and the PXE-based network boot server that comes with XPe tools
to boot the image.

I'm not sure if you're allowed to redistribute the PXE-based network boot
server that comes with the XPe development environment. That's the only
catch I can think of. You should check the fine print and make sure you can
before you invest a bunch in that direction.

You could also use a small compact flash to store your OS, etc. Depending
on how large your image is it may fit fine in a 512MB compact flash. They
are relatively cheap.

Just my $0.02 FWIW...

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Robert,

Don't forget about the distinction between running the First Boot Agent
(FBA) and running a completed install. The image that the TD builds for you
MUST be run once from real hardware to allow the installation to complete.

I'm not forgetting this, and actually USB disk is real hardware (in my opinion at least).
You can use M-Systems uDOC disks and with them you will get XP Embedded support tools and XPe component (with driver included) that
allow you to run FBA directly on it.
Very easy for development just plug uDOC on dev machine and build files to it then move it to target and you are ready to go.
Considering the fact that old uDOC versions were running on up to 10MB/s read speed which was equivalent of HDD speed (because of
seek time) new versions with read speed >20 MB/s leave HDD far behind.
Because of True FFS there is no possibility of damage to flash blocks that FBA can make on some CF due to extensive writes to
certain sectors on beginning of disk.

Also there is additional option available that allow you to place write protection on one part of uDOC device so without 128 bytes
key you can't delete or change data on this part of device Other part is still available for log data that need to be saved.

For general info read:
http://www.m-sys.com/Content/Products/Product.asp?pid=29

If you need detailed information's let me know so I can give you contact address of person in charge.

Best regards,
Slobodan

PS: I never gave any info how he should make any flash type or network bootable. This I left for him to ask if and when he need more
info.