I didn't have any /bootskin settings set. I've just tried both of these but they have absolutely no effect. System booted normally without any change in bootskin.

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Advanced Server" /FASTDETECT /bootskin=1:0:0:0:0:0:416:640:10:4

Is this with V3 or V4-test1, or with the early ones? The early ones won't do anything with them since there's no bootskin code in there.

Edited October 13, 201114 yr by WildBill

Oh, I'm sorry I missed the v3/v4-test part. But I can't use v3 or v4-test here as the system won't boot after installing one of them.

What if you set boot.ini and then install one? (not slipstreaming)

Edited October 13, 201114 yr by WildBill

It doesn't work. Still the same issue occurs I tried both /bootskin=0 and the other one.

Edited October 13, 201114 yr by tomasz86

Ugh. Ok, here's a V4-test2. It has all the V4 stuff but has bootskin support disabled. Still, it will test some of the altered code that supports bootskins even if custom settings are disabled.

Windows2000-KB2393802-v4-test2-x86-ENU.exe

Edited October 13, 201114 yr by WildBill

Well, the problem persists with v4-test2 There's also a graphic bug - progress bar on bootskin is displayed in the left-up corner.

Well, the problem persists with v4-test2 There's also a graphic bug - progress bar on bootskin is displayed in the left-up corner.

I expected the progress bar issue: the values are never getting set, so they're defaulting to 0, 0. But if you got the progress bar, then doesn't the default boot image also show up? I'm confused...is the problem that the boot screen never shows at all or that the system freezes at some point?

It's like this, there are two cases:

1. Without /sos switch I see the bootscreen, progress bar goes 100% and then everything disappears, monitor goes off and system doesn't start.

2. With /sos switch it loads drivers up to acpitabl.dat and then screen goes off.

So you can say that booting goes further without the /sos switch as when it's enabled I don't even see this screen.

Ok... that rules out some more potential causes. When /sos on, does the progress bar still reach 100%?

As I said before, with /sos on it fails before even reaching this level so there's no progress bar at all.

Edited October 14, 201114 yr by tomasz86

Hmm. I'll have to do some more analysis then. So just so I can be sure to understand: when you have /sos on, do you get any graphical display at all after it's done with the text-mode "starting windows" stuff (e.g. the Windows 2000 Server banner at the top, empty progress bar, etc.)

Edited October 14, 201114 yr by WildBill

Forgive me if you mentioned this before, but do you get anything if you add /BOOTLOG to boot.ini?

Hmm. Here's a v4-test 3 to try. I'm not sure if it will help, but we'll see. I changed a lot of the code that saves registers to be super-paranoid and save them all. I only made the change to the non-PAE multiprocessor one, so you'll have to have PAE off and be using the MP kernel.

Windows2000-KB2393802-v4-test3-x86-ENU.exe

1. No graphical interface when /sos enabled. The text-mode stuff gets up to acpitabl.dat and then monitor goes off.

2. Bootlog doesn't get created at all.

3. v4-test3 doesn't change anything