Hi
Heard some rumours that Reatogo uses my idea of ramfiles - and wanted to have a look how you implement it.

Thought that I would be able to build something out of the box with some clicks ...

some hours later ...

Can I built on a system that has no C: - drive?
Can I built on a system that is installed to X:\sbin?
Can a 2k3-sp1 host built with 2k3-sp1 sources?
Is it possible to run autoconfigure with a 2k3-sp1 host?
Is it possible to run autoconfigure with a 2k3-sp1 host without having to change the layout of the current install?

Is it possible to disable or bypass the autoconfigure script - as it always fails?
Can I disable the localize XPE script as it always fails ?

Is it possible to built when the host is offline?

Well - at least the error-messages are quite entertaining ;-)

Error: Cannot find file "Error: Cannot find file "Error: Cannot find file "Error: Cannot find file "Error: Cann"

Ulli

Ulli,
what is your point?

You´re using the package outside its specs and tell us, that it doesn´t work.
We knew that (and you know it too).

Regards, Siegfried



Very few users will have that problem. But I´m sure you know the answer. So why do you ask?



As outlined in the system requirements, the host has to be XP-sp2.
2k3 has the wrong reg.exe for the scripts to work.



It doesn´t if you meet the system requirements


Yes.

Hi Siegfried

Sorry - I simply hadn't noticed that the host had to be XP-sp2.
Last time I tried your built it has worked out of the box with 2k3 - I guess that was half a year ago - but maybe I also changed to XP at that time???

Do you plan to implement it?

Siegfried - I realize that my question may have looked rather unfriendly - no offense was intended.
At the moment I'm a little bit frustrated - it would save me so much time if I could simply use your built as a basesystem for the VMware-stuff - it worked quite well some months ago but no longer does.


Anyway - I wanted to look at the way you use the ramfiles.
Would you mind answering some questions as I can't test on my own?

You still use the same number of disks that I started with - 100MB - 8GB - what do your users say? Do they really use all of them?
I have replaced the 9 files by a single one - and I use this one fully configured( formatted and directory-structure)

I guess you have received more feedback on this technic than I got - have you ever heard about any problems? Do your users miss anything?

By the way - this week I found a simple trick to create virtual-disks with contig.exe from sysinternals.com - if you boot on hosts where a few GB diskspace won't matter you can use that trick to improve performance and to replace a bunch of archives with a single batch.

Have you ever tried to re-use ramfiles on next boot?
In case you have - have you had problems to mount them on the second boot?

Writing batchs is not my strong point - maybe you already created the two that I need:
I need a batch that
closes all open programs,
kills explorer.exe when it is running,
use sysinternals sync.exe to sync all open virtual disks and
close them cleanly and then
powers down the system

I need a batch that searches local filesystems for virtual disks with a 'ready2mount.tag' - if it finds one or more it should ask the user if he wants to mount any of them.


... a last question: do you use RAMfile + RAMdisk or RAMfile or RAMdisk ?





Here's a little reward for your patience with answering my questions ;-)

Are you interested in 2.88 MB writeable diskspace ? - behaves like a RAMdrive, can use a configurable driveletter (registry) or the first unassigned one, activate and deactivate at will, safe to or restore from file ....
Have a look at Ken Katos vfd.exe with inram option ... load at boot with fixed driveletter

I used to have a 2.88MB floppy-image on CD that contained my startup-scripts and ini-files. After boot I mounted the floppy as Q: and launched my startup-scripts - the startup.bat always asked me if I wanted to edit pe.shell.ini, penetcfg.ini or a register-dlls.cmd ...

This allows to edit AND SAFE configurations before you have even started a RAMdrive - if you swap virtual and real floppy you can edit your startup-sequence to a floppy - instead of having to rebuild the CD ...

I don't build for lowmem often so I lost interest after a while and don't longer use it.

Works fine with XP - I wouldn't recommend it for 2k3-sp1 - I got the impression that it slows things down after a few hours)


Regards Ulli

Hi Ulli,
I do appreciate the cooperative spirit of your reply and can assure you that this attitude is absolutely mutual!

It would certainly be nice, if you are prepared to help improve those areas of the Reatogo package you are referring to.

Kind regards, Siegfried





As far as I know, the missing XP reg.exe is the only problem with a 2k3 host that makes the scrips crash. However, whether the XP-based entries we parse for in the 2k3 registry will be found in the right places, I don´t know.

One way of fixing it in general, could be to have a renamed XP reg.exe (XPreg.exe) in system32 of the host and change all our included scripts to call "XPreg" instead of "reg".
I wouldn´t mind the work involved to do it, but the problem with that is, that if someone used regular "free hand" commandline code in his plugins, "reg" whould still call the wrong one.

Another fix (by a user) is to have a folder like "C:\1_in_PATH" and give it the first priority position in "PATH". Put an XP-sp2 Reg.exe into it and have a little script in the plugin folder that "toggles" its name between "Reg.exe" and "-Reg.exe".
That enables you to switch between that XP version and the 2k3-version in sys32 of the 2k3 host, just during the use of the reatogo setup.

A fix for a situation with XP-host and 2k3 source is implemented in the package:
A copy of the XP version from host is copied to CD to ensure any scripts on CD that depend on it run.





I can see your point!
Well I guess you had the version before post-processing was added. That version didn´t have any script based pre-processing either (some limited loacalisation by Reatogo.exe only).

I´m quite happy to give you a link to the older versions if you want to base your setup on that.
But you are also quite welcome to suggest conkrete changes to the current version, that would make it suitable for your needs (as long as it doesn´t break what we have now ).
This is the type of input AEC gave to the project and the package would´nt be, what it is today without his knowhow and continuing input !!!


As far as your other questions directly relating to VM issues:
Ulli, I have to admit, that I have very limited knowledge about and own experience with these issues.

I personally test on real CDs and my own use of BartPE clearly is "Windowns XP, running from CD" as a recovery environment.
I personally (!!!) don´t have any ambitions to install it to HD and to use BartPE as a lite OS. I´m quite happy with a full MS XP as an OS and want to use my CD only to get back to it as easy and comfortable as possible if there is a problem.

However, this is only my personal view and preference and can not be the yardstick for the project!

I know that many users want it and it is certainly a challenging and popular issue!

So, the fact that USB-stick, VM, HDinstall etc. is not on my personal whish-list doesn´t mean, it wouldn´t be great if the package supports all that out of the box!
I just don´t have the knowhow (and desire) to push the project into that direction. But I certainly wouldn´t be in the way at all if someone did...

Your help and input is appreciated...
...and I´m sure, many users will love these features!

On those of your questions I havn´t answered, I would have to hope, that AEC, who is the author of "ReatogoLogon" can give you the answeres you need...

Hi Siegfried



Beeing cooperative is in my very own interest. I'd like to see that more people use my VMware-plugins. My problem is the fact that the VMware-stuff is quite picky with the underlying network setup. So it would be very nice if I could tell people to use Reatogo "Out-of-the-box"

I appreciate your offer to make the older version available again - but I think it's better to look ahead than going back one step.
I would like to start a discussion about setting the specs of a minimal core-system with explorer as shell. If we can agree on something like that - I could use this core-system to run my VMware-stuff and you could easily adopt my startup-sequence which allows for example to re-use a profiles-directory on a travel-disk.

Adding programs to this core-system will be much easier than it is nowadays. As I use a BartPE-layout that is a mirror of a normal system I have installed in a VM I can add simple programs by drag and drop. For more complex programs I can use registry-records of the installation to my special normal system with small changes only.
For this to work you have to do a radical change: now you have your programs in X:\programs - I have my programs in R:\programs. R:\programs is a link to a virtual disk that I mount read-and-write which makes actions like extracting sfx-archives into Ramdrive obsolete. When you adopt my way you can run 100MB programs in a 32MB ramdrive - like I do with Dreamweaver for example.
If you adopt to this layout you can easily use programs from local harddisks or mapped network-drives without having to rewrite any entry in registry.

Ponzandro asked me to make a list of items that I have changed to make things like this possible. I will do so pretty soon.
Some of this changes are quite radical - and I think it is impossible to add them to your Reatogo-built in one step - but I am sure you will like some of them and hope that in the long range you may adopt some of them for the Reatogo-built.

Ulli