bj-kaiser

update: Should have disabled the AutoReboot on BSOD "feature" earlier. Now I get this: STOP 0x0000007E(0xC000005, 0xF75E2750, 0xF78C942C, 0xF78C9128) what I found at support.microsoft.com is this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818966/ which essentially says this problem is fixed in SP2 if I'm not mistaken. This article (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/891892) is no help, as the BSOD I get doesn't mention a driver file.

I got some nut to crack for you. Lately I have been trying to create a unified Windows XP image. I have sysprepped Windows xp, added the necessary hdd drivers to sysprep.inf and the PnP drivers to the Registry DevicePath with the utility called "sysprep driver scanner". The Image is built inside a VMware instance, with 2 CPUs assigned, and sysprep.inf contains the "UpdateUPHAL = ..." entry. However, deploying the Image to a specific hardware set, the mentioned Asus A8V-MX, leads to a infinite reboot loop. I don't get to see a bit of mini-setup. After the reboot follows the "windows crashed, would you want to start safe-mode, last known good config ... etc" screen. So this tells me, that my image crashed. To be sure I tested the image on a identical machine, same problem. On another machine, mainboard AM39L by FIC, the image successfully boots and runs mini-setup. Both of these machines are Uniprocessor architecture. I see one cause of the problem so far, the Asus mainboard uses a VIA chipset, so I tried to integrate the Hyperion driver set from VIA with sysprep. So far I found one post on driverpacks.net forum indicating similar problems. Maybe someone here has experienced a similar problem with this drivers or can give me another clue where I could check to find the real cause of this problem. Seems the drivers are not at fault. Even without them, the Asus A8V-MX still crashes. And just to be sure, I checked in the device manager the computer/system type, both machines are ACPI Uniprocessor PCs, and have the hardware id ACPIAPIC_UP. Any ideas? some additional info, booting to safemode seems to work, but mini-setup doesnt seem to like that. I get a "Setup cannot run in safemode. Restarting setup" messagebox.

I think it comes with an OpenSSH in the package.

personally I would say sounds like a job for 'rsync'. however, I know the concept, but I'd have yet to set it up on a box. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rsync http://rsync.samba.org http://itefix.no/cwrsync/ (Cygwin build) If you can wait till next week, I could try to set 2 VMs up and look how cwrsync works out.

Before they do name the violations, it's nothing more than the usual FUD. IMO.

try adding the Ip or name of the file-server to the intranet sites in IE.

I'd use Isolinux (the same bootloader as on the original), but I have yet to build a CD with it myself. I only know the configuration from the network bootloader pxelinux, which is made by the same author and uses the same configuration syntax. http://syslinux.zytor.com/iso.php configuration: http://syslinux.zytor.com/faq.php download: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot...slinux-3.52.zip (latest version as of today) this package contains all the bootloaders and the source, but you will only need vesamenu.c32 and isolinux.bin from that. for short, you will need to create a bootable cd, with whatever software you use, and set isolinux.bin as bootfile. isolinux.cfg, isolinux.bin and vesamenu.c32 go to the ISOLINUX folder in your cd's root directory. To avoid coasters, use some virtualization software to test a ISO created by your cd burning software, such as VirtualPC, VirtualBox, VMware ... etc.

i was confused since you said your CD was "Partition Magic" and I never knew a linux based one before form PowerQuest. But since you posted the isolinux.cfg, I could see that the program you are using is based on "parted/GParted". Seems like you need at least bzImage (linux kernel), initrd (initial ram-disk) and the pmagic file. And you need a cd boot-loader that can handle booting linux. What are you planning to use as boot-loader on your own CD?

IIRC only the computer sharing the connection needs a static IP. the other computers just have to be set to use DHCP/dynamic addressing. (or just use the Internet connection wizard and answer according to your setup) However, all of this should be covered in windows help files.

Are you using some internet connection already with that router? If not, just setup internet connection sharing on your notebook with the aircard. (and disable DHCP in the Linksys Router/AP)

just open the 'pqmagic' file from Notepad. should be a plain text file. You should be able to find the path to the floppy image there. look for something like label partitionmagic kernel memdisk append initrd=/path/to/floppy/image

I'm just asking for isolinux, simply because if your CD uses the isolinux bootmanager, the bootimage extractor will only extract the bootloder. If it is isolinux, you should be able to find the path to the floppy image in it's configuration file.I'd try the following, first search the CD for '*isolinux*' and if that leads to nothing, try searching inside the files for the bootmenu entry i.e. 'Partition Magic'.

how did you come to the conclusion that it is a linux based boot image? for all I know Partition Magic as a DOS-based product. is there an "isolinux.cfg" or "isolinux" directory on the cd?

I'd think of something like enteo NetInstall, OCSInventory, wpkg ... Would be a unattended setup (eg. running a application setup package with predefined answers) good enough? That would be the preferable option. Other than that, the most non-MS software deployment solutions feature a 'snapshot' system. Ie. they collect information before and after you run a setup package and write the differences in files and registry into their deployment project. (however, I'd personally put more faith into the installer logic by the guys who made the software you are about to install) The concept with the 3 deployment apps is like this: create OS image with app deploy client apply image and do individual config (i.e. computername and network setup) the app deployment system runs the unattended setups or applies snapshots

you could script the built-in "netsh", create a unattended.xml file with static IP or use PENetCfg(http://www.geocities.com/pierremounir/) for example. DHCP would be the easier option since it works by default.

That sounds closely like a hdd driver error. "Inaccessible boot device"?

Honestly, if MS hasn't built-in a way to setup a password in the bootloader, my best idea would be to switch to another one. http://syslinux.zytor.com/pxe.php http://syslinux.zytor.com/menu.php Interesting in the 2nd link are the settings to keep users from editing the boot entries or using the boot command line. I can say from my own experience that booting one instance of Windows PE works quite well with PXELinux, how it works out with multiple PE images, I don''t know. (I have no WDS here, just plain DHCP and TFTP)

wild guess: SATA, SCSI or just another controller not supported by XP out of the box. In that case you will have to add the matching drivers to BartPE. I think it was in the docs into which folder you have to put the driver files.

this may be helpful http://www.vernalex.com/tools/spdrvscn/index.shtml it scans paths recursive for drivers and adds them to the driverpath in the registry. However, if you are talking about massstorage drivers, I don't know of a way to avoid manual work.

you need to install the scripting component with peimg.exe. peimg.exe /install=WinPE-Scripting-Package C:\your_pe_mountpoint

even with msiexecs /norestart option?

i found the advantage of VistaPE/WinPE 2.0 for me is that MS finally made it possible to boot WinPE from nothing more than TFTP (and DHCP), read total netboot, without any need for MS services (BINL, anyone?). So WinPE got sort of platform-agnostic (serverwise), the boot server can run any OS, as long as it supplies DHCP and TFTP service. Together with the PXElinux bootloader you have a nice tool for recovery and installation tasks. (I know there is RIS/WDS, but sorry we are a bit novell addict here )

one filemanager to add: http://www.freecommander.com

imagex.exe is a Windows application, right. But for that reason there is Windows PE 2.0 (contained in the freely available WAIK). It is bootable from USB, CD, Net and whatnot and is basically a boiled down Vista. If you have a environment that would allow you to use PXE (which requires at least DHCP and TFTP services on your network) you are good to go with Windows PE. I have to admit booting Windows PE from the net is way slower than booting a DOS floppy image, since the floppy is only 1.44 MB and is downloaded instantly to RAM where Windows PE needs 100 MB (my average build) to load. But you get a complete Windows system running from RAM.

tip: {yourPEImage}\windows\system32\startnet.cmd read the Windows PE docs about it.