Windows XP Embedded Boot Time

[Guest]

Hello Everybody

I'm working with XPE for quite a while and I have gathered various useful information from this newsgroup. Thanxs..

One question, which I also asked myself, was

How can I optimize XPE for faster boot times

In most of the cases, the answer was:
- use ta.exe instead of tap.ex
- start with a small example, add what is missin
- keep the image size as small as possibl
or short
- try and (in most of the cases) erro

I did it this way, but the result was not as good as expected. The bigger image resulted sometimes in better boot perfomance..

I was looking for tools to analyze the boot perfomance - result
- bootviz
-> image had not the required components for using bootvi
-> result (on my workstation) was not as expected. I expected a tool which tells me, what I can modify for a better performance. Not just some graphs and a few reboots..
- windows bootlo
-> a log file without time stamps... so I couldn't see the where most of the time was los

So I stopped looking for tools..

I then tried the way which was not recommended: remove parts from a big image..
1 - The initial (slow) image (130MB) build up from small and adding components booted in 80
2 - A second image (180MB) including IE, Terminal Services, MMC, ... booted in 50
3 - I removed IE and all components requiring IE -> still ca 50
4 - I wanted to compare the two slx files to see, which components vary. But: .slx files are binaries and thus, comparing not possibl
5 - I compared the build outpu
6 - I started removing single components, building, booting, comparin
7 - This process lead to the result, that the Event Log component screwed myu boot time: With this component, the boottime was 60s, without 42s

Now my questions
- Can anybody explain this (Event Log vs. boot time)
- What could be the better approach
- How can I gather information about the boot process (just a file... a simple text file _with_ timestamps
- How can I compare .slx file

My Conclusion
- With XPE you got a running prototype relatively fast (It's like driving on a highway...
- Problems arise suddenly and solving them is time consuming and frustrating since after the problem is solved, you don't know much more about the system or, if the problem is solved the right way (a lot of try and error) (It's lika a big wall made out of glass in the middle of the highway - you can't see it, thus you can't avoid it
- For a next project, I would recommend not to use XPE and suggest an approach with a free and scalable operating system..

rgd
Ret

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi,

130 MB is small image?

Small image would be something like 20-40 MB. And then you will build up on that.

Use "MinLogon Sample Macro" component without anything else. Perhaps you will need component or two on top of this. (After you
resolve all dependencies).
But this will work without TA, TAP results.

You should see speed that this give you.

Some things like network support without DHCP server present can slow your image boot time. Use google groups for this.

You are right that there is no easy way to tell what is happening, but the more drivers/services behavior you know the better you
will be able to handle XPe.
Mine images are booting in much less than 15 seconds. But then this can be because of hardware platform I use. What hardware do you
use for XPe boot?

Save SLX files as XML.


Best regards,
Slobodan

PS:
"It's lika a big wall made out of glass in the middle of the highway - you can't see it, thus you can't avoid it"
Perhaps you should have better radar, or bigger hammer

Hello Everybody,

I'm working with XPE for quite a while and I have gathered various useful information from this newsgroup. Thanxs...

One question, which I also asked myself, was:

How can I optimize XPE for faster boot times?

In most of the cases, the answer was:
- use ta.exe instead of tap.exe
- start with a small example, add what is missing
- keep the image size as small as possible
or short:
- try and (in most of the cases) error

I did it this way, but the result was not as good as expected. The bigger image resulted sometimes in better boot perfomance...

I was looking for tools to analyze the boot perfomance - result:
- bootviz
-> image had not the required components for using bootviz
-> result (on my workstation) was not as expected. I expected a tool which tells me, what I can modify for a better performance.

Not just some graphs and a few reboots...

- windows bootlog
-> a log file without time stamps... so I couldn't see the where most of the time was lost

So I stopped looking for tools...

I then tried the way which was not recommended: remove parts from a big image...
1 - The initial (slow) image (130MB) build up from small and adding components booted in 80s
2 - A second image (180MB) including IE, Terminal Services, MMC, ... booted in 50s
3 - I removed IE and all components requiring IE -> still ca 50s
4 - I wanted to compare the two slx files to see, which components vary. But: .slx files are binaries and thus, comparing not possible
5 - I compared the build output
6 - I started removing single components, building, booting, comparing
7 - This process lead to the result, that the Event Log component screwed myu boot time: With this component, the boottime was 60s, without 42s.

Now my questions:
- Can anybody explain this (Event Log vs. boot time)?
- What could be the better approach?
- How can I gather information about the boot process (just a file... a simple text file _with_ timestamps)
- How can I compare .slx files

My Conclusion:
- With XPE you got a running prototype relatively fast (It's like driving on a highway...)
- Problems arise suddenly and solving them is time consuming and frustrating since after the problem is solved, you don't know

much more about the system or, if the problem is solved the right way (a lot of try and error) (It's lika a big wall made out of
glass in the middle of the highway - you can't see it, thus you can't avoid it)

 

[Mule Skinner]

And what hardware platform do you use Slobodan?

Hi,

130 MB is small image?

Small image would be something like 20-40 MB. And then you will build up on that.

Use "MinLogon Sample Macro" component without anything else. Perhaps you

will need component or two on top of this. (After you

resolve all dependencies).
But this will work without TA, TAP results.

You should see speed that this give you.

Some things like network support without DHCP server present can slow your

image boot time. Use google groups for this.

You are right that there is no easy way to tell what is happening, but the

more drivers/services behavior you know the better you

will be able to handle XPe.
Mine images are booting in much less than 15 seconds. But then this can be

because of hardware platform I use. What hardware do you

use for XPe boot?

Save SLX files as XML.


Best regards,
Slobodan

PS:
"It's lika a big wall made out of glass in the middle of the highway - you

can't see it, thus you can't avoid it"

Perhaps you should have better radar, or bigger hammer

which tells me, what I can modify for a better performance.

Not just some graphs and a few reboots...

But: .slx files are binaries and thus, comparing not

possible

screwed myu boot time: With this component, the boottime was

60s, without 42s.

frustrating since after the problem is solved, you don't know

much more about the system or, if the problem is solved the right way (a

lot of try and error) (It's lika a big wall made out of

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Anything that can fit P4-2400+ HTT with at least 2x256 DDR @400 MHz and have gigabit network that is not connected to PCI 33.
Any NVIDIA graphic cards with AGP 8x. We are using boot from HDD. Although boot from M-Systems USB 2.0 disks give same results.

Don't worry most our XPe images with our applications can fit on 64 MB this is to tell you about image size.

Regards,
Slobodan