Weird error with ram boot

[Guest]

Hi all,

I have a 256MB SDI image and put it on a server for PXE boot using Remote
Boot Service. It works fine with most PCs (>= 512 MB Ram). However, on some
types of motherboard, after the image was loaded from the server to the local
RAM, it boots up and hangs at the Windows Welcome Screen (the screen with a
progress bar in the middle). If I boot the image into the Debugging Mode, it
works fine. I tried modifying the boot.ini file in "c:\Program Files\Windows
Embedded\Remote Boot Service\Downloads" to add the "/debug" option, it still
doesn't work.

Could you please tell me what the problem is and what is the difference
between choosing the Debugging Mode in the boot menu and the "/debug" option
in the boot.ini file? How to fix it?

Thanks sincerely,
Arintel

 

[Sean Liming \(eMVP\)]

I have some basic questions - You are trying to run a single image on
different PCs wtih different processors and chipsets - is this correct? Or
are all the target PCs the same?
How generic is the original image? Is it using Standard PC as the HAL?

Regards,

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

 

[Guest]

Hi Sean,

Yes, I'm trying to run a single image on different PCs with different
processors and chipsets. And I'm using ACPI HAL. I guess all new motherboard
supports ACPI. Is it true? Should I use Standard PC instead? What's the
difference?

Anyway, do you have any idea about the problem I have? Also, I tried booting
the same image on the same problematic PC but from an external USB hard drive
and it worked. The only difference between the Ram image and the USB image is
that I have the Windows folder compressed in the former one.

Could you be more specific on your question "How generic..." ?

Thanks
Arintel

 

[Adam Nofsinger]

I believe that when Sean says "How Generic..." is your image, he means
how much driver support do you have for many different platforms.
Hmmm... I guess it is hard to describe. I'll give you an example. I
had a pretty generic Winlogon macro image that seemed to boot up on a
couple of different devices, but it would not boot up on the special
partition I made for it on my laptop. The boot would always freeze
right where you describe your freeze occurring, or I would get the STOP
0x7b Stop code error / blue screen of death.

I banged my head against it for a long time before I discovered that I
needed to build into the image a special driver for my laptop's hard
drive controller - specifically I needed drivers for the Intel(R)
82801GBM SATA AHCI Controller. I had a similar issue on another
platform (A VIA EPIA M10000 board) that I solved by adding another
special driver that ships with the board (this time the VIA IDE
Controller Bus driver).

So, these computers that won't boot of the image might need some special
drivers. Since it is booting in RAM, not off a disk, my particular
example probably won't be helpful to you.

 

[Sean Liming \(eMVP\)]

There are different ACPI HALs. In component browser look at
Hardware->Devices->Computers. The problem you are running into is that you
don't have the right components for the hardware. It is a bit of a challange
to create a single image that fits all systems. There are several past posts
on the subject.

You would have to use Standard PC, and include the VIA chip set drivers. The
trade off is that you loose ACPI functionality - in remote boot case it
doesn't matter - and the image size will grow.

Regards,

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

 

[Guest]

Adam,

I don't think the problem lies in the image itself since I can boot the same
image successfully in the Debugging Mode (PXE ram boot) or from a USB hard
drive (not ram boot).

I'm trying to RAM boot the image from a local hard drive (or a USB drive)
rather than from network to see how it behaves. Do you know how to do that?

Thanks
Arintel