Using XPe in real embedded systems

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Guest

Hi,
I want to use XPe on an embedded PC.
Embedded PC means for me this:
- I power up the PC and a few seconds later it ist ready to work with
( XPe needs some more seconds to boot, but its ok... )
- After I end my job, I will switch off the PC without run a long shutdown
- While working with this PC, ther are some files open...
If the power is switched off now,like a powerfailure the PC mußt start at
next boot normaly. The open files will be lost, but the XPe must be safe.
( this should work with the EWF, a sealed partition for XPe and a partition
on wich tempfiles and configurationfiles could be write. Is it true ??? )

Thank you for your help
Dietmar
 
Hi Dietmar,

I'm actually interested in what "few seconds" exactly means.
Please read in SP2 documentation about new feature "How to Configure EWF to Boot from a Hibernation File"

Best regards,
Slobodan
 
Dietmar:

Just curious... what kind of device do you plan to use for mass storage?

.... Doug
 
Hi Slobodan,

we want to use this PC in a car. You start the engine and - no, you can not
start driving, you wait for the startup of the measuretment-PC. A few seconds
is about 3 seconds like an ECU in a car, but 20-30 seconds seems to be a fast
start up for XPe.

Hibernation is only working when all hardware is suporting it. We use a
CAN-card in this PC wich did not support hibernation - bad.
By the way: I do not know any CAN card wich supports hibernation. If you /
anyone know ...

We want to use this one: Nano Server E3-L or M-R on this site:
http://www.dsm-computer.de/pr_embeddedpc-en.html
 
Hi Doug,

now we use a 3,5" HDD with Windows 2000. We can not use something like a
CFcard because of the writecycles of the pagefile.
When we use XPe without pagefile we try to use a CFcard (as fixed disk ! )
for OS only, if the CFcard is much faster than a HDD. We have not done a
final test.

I don not think, that a CFcard is faster than a 2,5" HDD. I heard very
different opinnions. What do you think...?
 
Hi Sören,

than I have to buy a non evaluation Version of XPe (but I will wait for SP2)
and I had to fight with third party drivers and ini files...

Thank you
Dietmar
(if ther is another member from Germany, feel free to contact me... )
 
Hi Dietmar,

SP2 Tech Preview can be downloaded from MS site.
And in development phase you can do with eval version same things as you can with non eval version. Only difference is that your
image will expire. (This is not a problem during the testing).
and I had to fight with third party drivers and ini files...
Click to expand...
Usually you have to do this, especially if you want better performances.

Best regards,
Slobodan
 
Hi Dietmar,

I know someone else was on this thread, but I will add my comments as well.

As for pagefile, Write cycles, ETC, that is one of the primary uses of the
EWF... use a RAM based overlay, and then the OS will load from CF directly
into RAM. all Paging, writebacks, ETC will happen in the RAM. This will keep
your CF viable for a long time. (like as long as a hard drive) Just make
sure your BIOS supports CF boot, and also the CF Card has to be reset as a
"fixed disk:" and not removable. (tool to do this available from CF MFR)

Another nice feature that will be in SP2 is the Hibernate once, resume
Many... This allows you to set a designated wake point to boot the PC from
(allowing faster boot times) Again, Your CAN controller will most likely
still be an issue, but with this feature, you might want to look around a
little further for a card that supports it.

CF is not noticibly faster than a HDD but in an automotive environment it's
leaps and bounds more reliable.

Hope this helps a little.

JC
 
Dietmar:

Currently my product uses a 3.5" HDD. I use the registry RAM-based EWF to
protect my boot partition. This is working great! The issue I have is my
other 2 partitions can get corrupted due to abnormal power-loss. These
persistant partitions are where I re-located the temp files, event logs,
store my registry hive, configuration data, image data etc. Usually this
can be fixed with chkdsk /F or /R etc.

At one point I had started to look at SSD devices since they basically have
zero access times as compared to HDD's. I was overcome by events so this
path was never completed. Cost was one of the factors.

I have never evaluated CF cards so I can't offer an opinion on performance
when compared to other storage devices. I'm sure others in this NG can
offer opinions :-)

HTH... Doug
 
Hi Dietmar,

Yes normal startup you can expect above 20s + BIOS startup time.
Resume from HDD can be extremely fast.

If you have one or two non-boot critical drivers that do not support hibernation. You can make an ugly workaround.


Make sure that you do not install drivers before you run following program.
Make program that will.
1. Copy driver files to their places. Remove all driver hardware nodes, and do all other pre installation operations.
2. Hibernate but program should stay active after resume.
Resume:
3. Wait for all drivers to install. (There is a small chance that you might need to tell PnP to reenumerate hardware)
4. Run your program.

This should work.

Best regards,
Slobodan
 
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