Bart Pe On Pxe Bootable Sdi Ramdisk, Network Boot Bart PE Options

[tenno]

Hello,

currently I am evaluating some XP Network boot techiques for maintenance
and installation of Systems Gigabit LAN +HardDisk (but no DVD/CD,USB 2.0).

Ms Windows XP Embedded allows PXE network boot a RAMDisk Image.
The system is envoked by a special XPE version of ntldr and Microsoft
ramdisk.sys driver is envoked.

I have working BartPE from CD/DVD with ISOFS and minint on Hardisk with
ntfs filesystem. My XP-Embbed Ramdisk-Builds designed with Target-Designer
are functional and boot from Linux PXE server and MS Remote Boot Service.

When i copy the BartPE minint from harddisk to a SDI image (ntfs) i am
not able to boot.
Now my questions:
Has anybody tried this approach ?

Is it neccessary to manipulate the SDI Boot sector for launching setupldr.bin
and does this work when ntldr was loaded by tftp.

I replaced XPE-ntldr by setupldr.exe (Win2003/SP1) on the TFTP-Server.
Both loaders can fetch and start the SDI Image but end in blue Screen.

I can't figure out wheather BartPE starts the MS ramdisk.sys device on boot?
( It was already include in my PEBuild )

Can BartPE use both ramdisk.sys and Q-Soft Ramdriver at the same time?

Perhaps I need usefull information how the MS loaders switch from network
loading to the ramdisk filesystem and how the final ramdisk.sys is started.
Bart does some manipulation on bootsect.bin to accomplish BartPE harddisk
boot. But bootsector.bin which laonches setupldr.bin seems to call BIOS for
I/O. Is it neccessary to make the Ramdisk also accessible by BIOS routines?

In this forum i saw that Win2003RIS server can be used to PXE-Boot PartPE
ISO-images. SDI Images have the advantnage that you can use then
as read/write device and NTFS compression can be turned on to minimize
the footprint of the boot image.

Any tips on this subject are welcome.

Kind regards

Harald

[Sam]

I also tried this some time ago. I started with NT4 because of the smaller footprint. I gave up on this, because IMO there was no way to do this. It relies on the capability of the NTLDR.
AFAIK (somebody proof me wrong) you have the setupldr, sometimes renamed to ntldr, that is used to load windows in setup mode. This includes Windows PE and the Recovery Console. This uses txtsetup.sif or winnt.sif to get boot options.
On the other side, there is the NTLDR, that loads windows in normal mode. It uses boot.ini to configure a list of boot options. This can also point to a new boot sector to load a non windows operating system (DOS, Linux) or the setupldr.

Considering that and the documented behavior of the XPembetted NTLDR does load all files from the image, no loader from the image is started. I think you can't put both options in one line into the file boot.ini. Or: there is no way to tell the loader to load an alternativ boot sector.

To load the XPembetted SDI:
ramdisk(0)\windows="XPe" /fastdetect /rdpath=net(0)\maint.sdi

To load windows PE from boot.ini:
c:\MININT\peboot.bin="Windows PE"

Hope that helped.
Hope you find a way and let us know in case.

SAM

[tenno]

Hi SAM you are the man

I got a working SDI with BartPE

Conclusion:

- BartPE works with SDI Images too.

- SDI supports NTFS compression and saves a lot of space
Example Default BARTPE 313 ISO BUILD -> 160MB
SDI Image Size transfered over network -> 128MB (20s)
SDI Image Used Space compressed -> 92MB
SDI Image Free space -> 34MB

- SDI Ramdisk are read write -> no need for QSoft RAMDISK

- SDI Ramdisks can be loaded from USB if your BIOS supports USB-EHCI.
I tested with 2 Motherboards
a) Intel Motherboard D845GVRS ( <10s for 128MB)
Gigabyte GA8SIM-LH Award Bios (~320s for 128MB)

- The ramdisk.sys driver has Drive Letter X:
The local disks can use their Driveletter C: as usual.
This is great because XPE Ramdisk always claims Driveletter C:
and Harddisk Driveletter appears elsewhere. Under special
circumstances the first primary partition may be hidden at all.

- with Bart PE you can partiton and format the local harddisk without
doing registry hacks. No need to remove HKLM\...\Criticaldevices\gendisk
key before you use diskpart ( as in XP-Embedded Builds ).


For those who want to try the steps were:


1. Download MS Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (RC). It is a SFX CAB archive.
You may use WinRAR to open it. Extract the SETUPLDR.EX_ and RAMDISK.SY_.
Expand SETUPLDR.EX_ and ramdisk.sy_ to get SETUPLDR.EXE RAMDISK.SYS.
2. Build a normal pebuilder Directory (not the ISO) with any source you like but
replace the driver RAMDISK.SYS with the one from W2k3-SP1
(keep however the size sufficiently small since the SDI will be loaded in RAM)

3. Prepare SDI-Image with XPE Utilities from a CMD Console

The following listing should be interpreted like a CMD-batch File
even if it cannot be directy copyied and executed. Diskpart and
sdiloader still need some automation.

CODE

set SDIMGR=cscript "C:\Program Files\Windows Embedded\utilities\SDIMgr.wsf"
::#
::# Store Files in SDI-Image
set SDI=BARTPE.SDI
::#
::# Get Files From PEBuilder output directory
set PEBUILD=C:\TEMP\BARTPE
::#
::# Create new SDI-Image 128MB
%SDIMGR% %SDI% /new
%SDIMGR% %SDI% /createdisk:140000000
::#
::# envoke sdiloader (GUI) to add the Disk
sdiloader [%SDI% Add]
::# browse to %SDI% and ADD
diskpart.exe
::# on diskpart prompt find and partition the new Disk
    list disk
    select disk ?
    clean
    create partition primary
    assign letter=R
    exit
::# Create NTFS Filesystem
format R: /FS:NTFS /V:BARTPE_SDI /Q /C /Y
::# copy the contents from PEBUID-Directory into the SDI Image
::# Use Robocopy because we expect that normal copy will fail
::# on NTFS compressed volumes with disk full error.
::# I gave  robocopy.exe 3 retries (/R:3) with  4s (/W:4) delay to let
::# NTFS compress which  results in free disk space.
::#
robocopy.exe /MIR %PEBUILD%\ R:\ /MIN:150000 /R:3 /W:4
defrag.exe
robocopy.exe /MIR %PEBUILD%\ R:\ /MAX:150000 /R:3 /W:4
::#
::# envoke sdiloader (GUI) to remove the Disk
sdiloader  [%SDI% remove]
::#
::# Copy the %SDI% to the Tftp server for PXE-BOOT

4. Create a WINNT.SIF text file containing the code

CODE

[SetupData]
BootDevice = "ramdisk(0)"
BootPath = "\i386\System32\"
OsLoadOptions = "/noguiboot /fastdetect /minint /rdimageoffset=36352 /rdpath=WINPE.SDI"

5. Prepare PXE/TFTP Server (details can be found elsewhere in this forum)
Linux File system needs further workarounds (realized with symlinks)

CODE

Startrom.n12
winnt.sif    ( symlink to WINNT.SIF   !! lowercase !!)
WINNT.SIF  
NTDETECT.COM
ntdetect.com ( symlink to NTDETECT.COM !! lowercase !!)
NTLDR        ( renamed setupldr.exe !! not setupldr.bin !! from W2k3-SP1 )
WINPE.SDI    ( symlink to my images/bart_pe/%SDI%)

6) An example menu driven multipurpose PXELinux loader
I tested with Knoppix 3.7 DHCP3/PXE/TFTP Server (on HD)

CODE

File: /tftpboot/PXEClient/messages
/----------------------------------------------------------\
|    Welcome to li1.tenno.de PXE Server  192.168.0.1       |
|    Bootimages: V 0.9.9 24-feb-2005                       |
|    type "<tag>{_<opt>}<CR>" to boot {a special} image    |
|    <Tag>   : <Description>                               |
|    dos     : DOS 8.0 with network for PQDI               |
|    grub    | PXEGRUB                                     |
|    knoppix : KNOPPIX 3.7 192.168.0.1 Kernel 2.6.9        |
|    knx37v24: KNOPPIX 3.7 192.168.0.1 Kernel 2.4.27       |
|    memtest : KNOPPIX 3.7 memtest                         |
|    vmedemo : Elinos_30                                   |
|    vx      : VxWorks Options:                            |
|    pe      : Bart PE RAMDISK              (setupldr.exe) |
|    xp      : WINDOWS XP Embedded RAMDISKS (ntldr)        |
|    <CR>    : Boot from local Disk                        |
\----------------------------------------------------------/

CODE

File: /tftpboot/PXEClient/pxelinux.cfg/default

PROMPT  1
DEFAULT local
DISPLAY messages
TIMEOUT 0

LABEL   local
    LOCALBOOT 0

LABEL   dos
    KERNEL memdisk
    APPEND initrd=images/dos_80/net_pci.img
# Obsolete Bart DOS Boot Disk
LABEL   grub
    KERNEL pxegrub.0

# startldr.0 is symlink to startldr.n12 (a patched startrom.n12)
LABEL   pe
    KERNEL startldr.0

# startrom.0 is symlink to startrom.n12 (original from MS XPE RemoteBootService)
LABEL   xp
    KERNEL startrom.0

LABEL   knoppix
    KERNEL images/knoppix_37v26/vmlinuz
    APPEND initrd=images/knoppix_37v26/miniroot.gz nodhcp nfsdir=192.168.0.1:/cdrom lang=de ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init apm=power-off wheelmouse

LABEL   knx37v24
    KERNEL images/knoppix_37v24/vmlinuz
    APPEND initrd=images/knoppix_37v24/miniroot.gz nodhcp nfsdir=192.168.0.1:/cdrom lang=de wheelmouse ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init apm=power-off nomce

#(  VXWORKS/ELINOS stuff removed for 911CD posting )
LABEL   vmedemo
    KERNEL images/elinos_30/vmedemo
    APPEND initrd=images/elinos_30/vmedemo.tgz rootfstype=tmpfs root=/dev/ram rw ip=dhcp

# memory test
LABEL  memtest
     KERNEL images/knoppix_37v26/memtest

7)  The menu driven multipurpose PXELinux loader can be used without modifications
    on a WIN2K/XP with XP Embeddes RemoteBootService installed.
 

Kind Regards

Harald

[Macfox]

Any suggestions on how to boot different images via PXE.

The above method only allows for a single image, as it always loads the same winnt.sif.

There is a SYSLINUX patch that allows loading of SDI images, however it uses the startrom.n12 and NTLDR from XPEmbedded. This means you have to run the XP embedded OS and not the typical WinPE Minint boot style.

Any idea on how to boot multiple images from SYSLINUX?

Regards
Rob

[cornhoulio]

Hi,

is there any chance to boot a Win XP Embedded SDI image without a RIS-Server?

I'm trying this under Windows with TFTPD32, PXE Linux and startrom.n12.
After downloading the ntldr nothing happans any more. The boot.ini will not be downloaded to the client.
Do I need a patched ntldr?

[pavel]

@cornhoulio

is there any chance to boot a Win XP Embedded SDI image without a RIS-Server?

Is this what are you looking for?
http://www.eggheadcafe.com/ng/microsoft.pu...ost20737141.asp

Pavel

[cornhoulio]

Thank you pavel.

This brought me on the right way. I have to use the ntldr which comes with the Remote Boot Manager. I have it running now.

[Macfox]

Note that the RBM version of the ntldr doesn't support the MININT functionality, needed to load WinPE Images.

Any XPe images you create for loading over PXE will customised for that particular HW platform, so it's applications are limited.

[hilander999]

@tenno

/rdimageoffset=36352

Where does this number come from???

Is the offset different with the size of the .SDI image file?

[Macfox]

If I remeber correctly, it comes from the XPe SDIMgr.vbs script whe nyou create the various BLOBs. It's the offset to the DISK BLOB basically. It tells the loader to ignore the other BLOBs and just load the data after the offset into a RAMDisk.

Rob

[cgroenheide]

Why is that??? I built a compilation 3 times as for now, and using x(pe) over xp(e), i get an error.. Which starts with file not found.. wscript error. Then main shell died with code -1 or so.. dropping to command prompt.. as where the same compilation on iso works... hmmmmmm... just asking, but i guess someone of you is gonna tell me something like: It's application is limited.. Or... screw svenska's xpe, we all use nu2menu and suites us well..... GRRRRR!! I'm not gonna give up on ntfs!

Sorry, Sherpya's XPE.. (sorry d00ds)

[bilou_gateux]

::# copy the contents from PEBUID-Directory into the SDI Image
::# Use Robocopy because we expect that normal copy will fail
::# on NTFS compressed volumes with disk full error.
::# I gave  robocopy.exe 3 retries (/R:3) with  4s (/W:4) delay to let
::# NTFS compress which  results in free disk space.
::#

I'm using a small utility for the robocopy part:
RoboCopy GUI

Features:
Graphical User Interface for the most robocopy functions
Simple usage
no Installation required

[ponzandro]

There is another GUI frontend for MS robocopy. CopyRite XP

[morphly]

Hi guys,

I tried what tenno posted here but i putted it on a CD.
so facts are:

Image gets loaded into RAM but i'm receiving an error like "txtsetup.sif not found, file missing or corrupt, status 2"

my WINNT.SIF

CODE

[SetupData]
BootDevice = "ramdisk(0)"
BootPath = "\i386\System32\"
OsLoadOptions = "/noguiboot /fastdetect /minint /rdoffsetsize=28672 /rdpath=MINI.SDI"

sdimgr shows me 7000(HEX-Value) as offset for the DISK-BLOB so my rdoffsetsize is 28672, right?

The MINI.SDI contains a slimmed-down BartPE and is about 65MB


Any Ideas, or did some suceed with what i am trying?


Regards morphly

[cdob]

@morphly

I'm using rdimageoffset=36352 and differen't sdi image sizes. Booting from hard disk and cd is possible.

"txtsetup.sif not missing or corrupt, status 2" indicates a wrong rdimageoffset.

Did you tried rdimageoffset=36352?

[morphly]

@cdob:

Found the error: I was using rdoffsetsize instead of rdimageoffset.

Silly me. Should try more coffee next time


But there is another thing: I am testing under VMware and when the windows-screen is coming up just before nu2menu comes up as shell it reboots.

I'm using W2k3 SP1 as source... should try XPSP2 instead


Regards morphly

[pavel]

But there is another thing: I am testing under VMware and when the windows-screen is coming up just before nu2menu comes up as shell it reboots.

I think it could be becouse you have to add memory in your VMware. So increase memory settings and try again.

Pavel

[morphly]

@pavel

no it seems like it has something to do with W2K3-SP1 and Nu2Shell

I disabled the NU2Shell and everything works like a charm...


btw: does anyone know a plugin for MMC which works with W2K3-SP1 as Source?
The plugins around here in the forum do not seem to work

Regards morphly

[hj_fr]

edit: nothing.

[allens]

Macfox asked:

Any suggestions on how to boot different images via PXE.

I hope this may be of some use to you.

I don't use sdi images (yet) but following instructions on another thread, with loads of help from Macfox & others I pxe boot and load a ram image to the client from a 2003 server.

Using pxelinux I have found a dirty way of having multiple iso images.
Each of my iso and STARTROM.0 files are in a separate sub dir of my tftpboot root.

My method of loading the first iso is as documented.
To load the second iso I hexedit (say) \ISOWIN_384\STARTROM.0 and search & replace every NTDLR with NTDLA (3 found).
Next copy NTLDR (which was orginally setupldr.exe) to NTLDA, this is in my tftpboot root. Hexedit NTLDA search & replace every winnt.sif with winna.sif (6 found) and WINNT.SIF with WINNA.SIF (3 found).

Copy winnt.sif to winna.sif, and edit OsLoadOptions to point to equiv of \ISOWIN_384\WINPE2.ISO

Finally my pxelinux.cfg\default has:

CODE

label 5
kernel ISOWIN_256\STARTROM.0

label 6
kernel ISOWIN_384\STARTROM.0

I now have three iso images to select from, working fine.
Is the sort of thing you are after?
Regards
SteveA