Howdy,

I've been trying to use REATOGO-240 to create a (comaparatively) simple WinXP Pro PE disc.

All I need on it is the XP PE, Acronis True Image Workstation, and drivers for my NIC. I've carefully followed Mustang's excellent instructions for each step.

The process of running REATOGO seems smooth... and the build process concludes with no errors, and burns the CD.

But, then, when I try to test it, the boot process hangs (at about 22 seconds) displaying "PnP Device Detection."

How can I diagnose (and then correct) the problem.

Very sincere thanks,

Kenneth

Posting moved to the Reatogo section of the forums for better Reatogo visibility.

Are Mustang's instructions for Reatogo or BartPE? They are different animals and may not play well together.

Hi KennethSo,
this works for me without issues:

1.) REATOGO-240 in default configuration

2.) Plugin "1x1Support_On_CD"
http://www.bartpe.net/BartPE_Plugins/1x1Su..._On_CD/HELP.htm

3.) Plugin "z_UpperFilters"
http://www.bartpe.net/BartPE_Plugins/z_UpperFilters/HELP.htm

4.) Plugin "TrueImage9_PlugLab"
http://www.bartpe.net/BartPE_Plugins/TrueI...lugLab/HELP.htm

For your NIC just use AutoDriver to create a plugin for it (Reatogo MainGUI -> "Create Driver Plugins")
Regards, Siegfried

Hi Ed,

Mustang's instructions are, indeed, for BartPE.

Here's what I did to use REATOGO:

I launched it, and it ran its self-confriguration.

I then ran the search process, and it found my NIC, and put its drivers in the proper folder.

Next, I put the FixDell folder I needed in the Plugin folder.

Next, I put Mustang's True Image plugin into the Plugin folder, and ran its self-preparation routine.

Finally, I let REATOGO do the build...

Do you see any problems in that description?

Sincere thanks,

Kenneth

Hi Siegfried,

I am new to all this, but will certainly give your suggestions a try...

Very sincere thanks,

Kenneth

Hi again,

Please forgive my ignorance, but what should I be reading for guidance so that I can install the plugins properly...?

Sincere thanks,

Kenneth

Hi again Siegfried,

Well, things are getting better... but, I'm not there yet.

I tried the three plugins you suggested, ran the build, and booted the CD.

It did get further along than ever before, but then hangs at "Starting EventLog Service."

What should be my next steps?

Sincere thanks,

Kenneth

Kenneth,
I suggest the following to narrow it down a bit:

1.)
please do a fresh install of REATOGO-240.
Do the initial routines until you have all green flags and burn a CD before you add any plugins or change the default configuration.
Your problem may not be related to TrueImage. This test will show.

2.)
Please post your setup details:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?s=&...ost&p=91715

How much memory does the computer have where you booted the CD?

I assume you read this:
http://www.reatogo.de/Reatogo_Download_PREP.htm

... and followed the instructions given here:
http://www.bartpe.net/BartPE_Plugins/TrueI...lugLab/HELP.htm

Siegfried

Hi Siegfried,

Please see my comments inline below...





Done - and I still have problems, even before I can burn. I get 4 errors in the build process:

LoadKey() failed
CloseHive() failed
Delete file PETMHIVE failed
Delete file PETMHIVE.log failed




Please see attached file...



2 gig



Yes... but...

I am using a Dell "Windows XP Service Pack 2 Re-Installation" CD, and have copied its complete contents to a folder that I then use as the Builder source. Might my problems be that CD?



those are not relevant at this point, but I will certainly follow those steps when I next try with TI added.

And finally, please accept my sincere thanks!

Kenneth

Kenneth,
sorry but I don´t have a solution for you.

I don´t know wether the problem relates to Dell or the Dell OEM-CD as a source.
In your setupdetails I can see nothing that points to a problem and you certainly have enough ram for a succesful boot ...

Hope someone else can help you.

Regards, Siegfried

Hi again Siegfried,

I very much appreciate your effort, and do have another question...

Because I believe the problem is likely to be the Dell Installation CD from which I started, I would like to try another XP cd. I would be happy to buy one, but I know that there are many varieties out there:

Specifically, might it matter if it is an upgrade CD? Might it matter if it is an OEM disc?

Do you have any thoughts on what other issues I should consider if I were to get such a CD?

Sincere thanks as before,

Kenneth

An upgrade CD is what I use. Try to be sure that it has SP2 slipstreamed onto it, if not you will need to do that yourself.

Hi Ed,

Based on a quick check, it appears that the least costly I can find is a full OEM version (SP2).

Do you know if there is any reason that would not work well?

Sincere thanks,

Kenneth

I suspect it will but I don't speak from experience so you might want to wait for some others to post their experience.

It's a Dell.
Read FAQ Q.11 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=15138
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...amp;#entry82846

Hello again,

Are there any hassles related to using for the build, an original (that is, right from MS) XP Pro CD that is an UPGRADE version (rather than full, or OEM)??? Will it require proof of a previous installation etc.???

Sincere thanks,

Kenneth

I build my BartPE systems using files from an XP Home upgrade CD, in that Reatogo builds similar to BartPE I htink you should be fine.

Many thanks, today will be the day to give it a try...

All the best,

Kenneth

Hello to all,

I just tried using a MS XP Pro Upgrade CD for my build, and things are much better...

When I started, I got an error that my source did not have a PLUGIN.OCX in i386. That seemed odd, but I just moved a copy in, and with that, was able to burn with no hassles.

Next, I tried to add networking, but there, I am having a problem:

When I try to run the Auto Driver, it properly finds my NIC, but when I try to click on Create, I get the error -

"Inf-file does not exist "C:\WINDOWS\Inf\oem0.inf"

What should be my next step to get around this?

Sincere thanks,

Kenneth

Hi again,

Moments after posting, I realized that I could just look for the missing file on another system. I found it, copied it, and with that, the process moved forward.

Thanks,

Kenneth

Hello again,

I have continued, but got a build error telling me that in the folder for my NIC, I was missing a DLL. No biggie, I searched the net, found it, and put it in the ppropriate folder for the NIC.

I tried the build again, and got an error telling me that another file was missing...

Well, perhaps you can guess where this is going...

I have added about a dozen files, but it still ain't happy.

Should I just continue in this fashion, or is there a better approach?

Sincere thanks,

Kenneth

I would say you copied the wrong oem0.inf file. While the name of the file is important so to is it's contents.

Hello again,

I thought I had posted this information, but can't seem to find it...

In any case, I ran the process to create my NIC driver, it concluded successfully, and I tried to build. With that, I got a bunch of errors (one at a time) telling me that files were missing from the NIC driver folder. I searched for each, found them, and put them in that folder.

Eventually, I was able to build with no errors, and no warnings, but...

When I did the burn, the resulting CD boots properly, but Device Manager shows no NIC.

What should be my next step to get that NIC working?

Sincere thanks,

Kenneth

Kenneth,
Try this on your real system to manually create a driver plugin for your NIC:

1.) devicemanager ->yourNIC ->properties ->drivers ->driverdetails
... should show the *.dll and *.sys (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\DRIVERS\EL2K_XP.sys)

2.) search in WINDOWS folder for
filename: oem*.inf
+ "string inside the file": EL2K_XP.sys (example)

3.) the result will be e.g. oem3.inf

4.) look under [SourceDisksFiles] in that inf: should list the files you found in devicemanager in step 1

5.) rename a copy of the oem*.inf to EL2K_XP.inf (example)

6.) Put the INF, SYS and DLL into a folder together with this plugin-INF (e.g. MyNIC_Plugin.inf):


Good luck, I hope it works for you ...

Siegfried

Hi Siegfried,

Please see my comments inline below...



I am on a different system at the moment, but thought that I would experiment with your suggestions.

So, I looked at the driverdetails for this box's NIC. In there I see:

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ DRIVERS\b37XP32.sys

I see nothing there about a DLL. Are you suggesting that there is a b37XP32.DLL?




I am not certain that I understood the above, so this is exactly what I did:

I ran a search for the string "b37XP32.sys" (without the quotes) looking in files OEM*.inf. That search found nothing.

Next, I tried searching for the string "b37XP32" (without the quotes) in *.inf and again found nothing.

So, before going further (on this system, or the "real" one, I need to understand what I might be misinterpreting, or doing incorrectly...




I may be needing something more than luck, and sincerely appreciate your help on this,

Kenneth

Hi again Siegfried,

I just tried all this again, but with a different NIC on this machine. Earlier, I tried a NIC that was not Enabled right now. With that one, the search failed as I described.

Moments ago, I tried it all again but with the NIC that is Enabled. I found the INF file easily. Could the problem have been that the NIC was not enabled?

Thanks,

Kenneth

Edit: Kenneth, do you not see the ADD REPLY button?

Hi again Siegfried,

I offer my sincere apologies...

I had made a typo in the searches each time. Now that I have corrected that, I find the inf file as I should.

'Sorry for the confusion,

Kenneth

you did as I suggested.

The missing DLL might just mean that there is no DLL required in this case.
But it is strange that you didn´t find an INF.

I´m not a service-tech so I only have my own boxes as examples. They all have INF, DLL and SYS and work with a plugin of that principle.

Siegfried


Edit: just saw your second post.
Sounds better ...

6.) Put the INF, SYS and DLL into a folder together with this plugin-INF (e.g. MyNIC_Plugin.inf):



Good luck, I hope it works for you ...

Siegfried


Hi again Siegfried,

I believe I understand the first five steps, but want to check with you on step 6 above.

I assume that I am to create a TXT file called "NameOfMyNic.inf_plugin.inf" without the quotes. That file should include all the lines quoted above with the line:

Name="MyNIC"

modifed to be

Name="NameOfMyNic"


Then, I am to create a subfolder \Drivers\Net\NameOfMyNic

and in that folder I should put:


the INF file

the SYS file

the DLL (if there is one)

NameOfMyNic.inf_plugin.inf


Is my description correct?

Also, (and assuming that it is correct) could I then just do the same process for each of our 6 systems? That would produce 6 such driver subfolders.

I hope that would allow me to burn one CD to boot with network functionality for all 6 systems we have. Is that reasoning correct?


Sincere thanks for all your help, as before,

Kenneth

you got it all correct, Kenneth.

For the plugin-INF I suggest to use attribute 4 (instead of 1 as I originally had it).
This way it won´t complain if there is no DLL.




Not: <PeBuilderRoot>\Drivers\Net\NameOfMyNic
But: <PeBuilderRoot>\plugin\NameOfMyNic
... it is a plugin!

BTW: AutoDriver is using exactly this principle to create the driver plugins.
I wonder why it was not picking it up correctly for you ...
Did you possibly put the created plugins into <PeBuilderRoot>\Drivers ?

If yes, try again with autoDriver and leave them where autoDriver creates them.
If that works, just run autoDriver on every box and move all created plugins to your Reatogo setup.

Make sure you remove plugins you put into <PeBuilderRoot>\Drivers
Siegfried

Many thanks Siegfried, I will try it tomorrow...!

Hi Siegfried,

Well, this is getting very strange...

I am back at the machine where I started. First, I looked again at the NIC driver and found it to be b57XP32.sys.

I searched for that string in oem*.inf, but found nothing...

Then, I remembered that exactly the same driver was on another machine of mine, and did the search there. The driver name string was in OEM2.INF.

I searched for OEM2.INF on the first machine, but it was not there. (Do we know how the NIC could be working properly without it?)

In any case, I thought that I would copy OEM2.INF over to the first machine to see if AutoDriver could then build the driver properly. When I did that, the build process asked for missing files just as it had before. Rather than adding them one at a time though, I just added all of them.

With that, the build went forward with no errors, and with no warnings.

But, as before, the CD boots properly but Device Manager does not list any NIC.

I am baffled...

Might you have any suggestions?

(I will, of course, follow your suggested manual steps, but I strongly suspect that I will have the same problem. My suspicion is that the root of all this is that the system did not originally have the proper oem*.inf file though, as I mentioned, I assume it needed that file to run the NIC properly. Might it make sense for me to un-install, and then re-install the NIC?)

As before, I very much appreciate your help,

Kenneth

Hi Siegfried,

I should also have added that the NIC in question is an integrated (on the motherboard) Dell NIC...

Thanks,

Kenneth

Hello again,

I have some more information:

When I made the attempts I have described above, I had not manually created the MyNIC_Plugin.inf (because I assumed that the automated process would create it if needed.)

Next, I manually added it.

As before, I was asked to add a bunch of files, and I did.

When they were all added, I tried the build, and got an error.

I have not seen it before, and in a way, that feels like success. The error is:

SetupDecompressorOrCopyFile() "C:\WinXP-UPG-DISC\I386\*.sys" to "C:\REATOGO-240\ReatogoPE\i386\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\*.SYS 123: the filename, directory name, or volume label systax is incorrect.

Might you assist?

Thanks again,

Kenneth

Hello again,

I just noticed that beneath Drivers_AutoHelp I see one folder named K06.

That is the name of the system, but it is not the name of the NIC. That is K06-NIC.

Should I rename the folder in Drivers_AutoHelp...?

Thanks,

Kenneth

Kenneth,
I´m a bit in a hurry today, so just a few quick remarks that may help:

OEM*.inf numbers are assigned by the system. E.g. OEM3.inf on one box and OEM3.inf on an other box may be totally different files.

In general: the plugins generated by AutoDriver have to be somwhere in the folder "plugin". FolderNames of the driverPlugin or any subfolders and their names don´t matter.

"REATOGO-240\plugin\Drivers_AutoHelp\K06" is the location where AutoDriver creates all DriverPlugins of a system with a computername of "K06".
The reason is that it gives you a subfolder per box. If you put driver plugins there that you collected on other boxes, yu´ll always know where you got them.


Run AutoDriver on that box and see if the created plugin works on the box that does not have an INF.


"*.sys=4,,4" in the INF should not give you that error. "*.sys=4,,1" or "*.sys=4" will error like that if the file is not there.

Siegfried

Hi Siegfried,

I may be making progress on all of this...

After serching, I found that others were having similar problems the same NIC when building their disks.

The solution may be a recently offered driver from Dell.

I'm trying it right now and should know more soon.

Sincere thanks,

Kenneth

Hi Siegfried,

In a word... SUCCESS!

I now have network on machine #1, and can browse to other shares (that have the REG modification needed.)

Next, I will work on loading the True Image plugin I need.

Many thanks,

Kenneth

Hello again,

The plugin works pefectly...

Now, it only remains for me to add a few more drivers for other systems.

Very sincere thanks,

Kenneth

Hello again,

Two of our machines have the same (integrated) NIC, and both work perfectly, so I am now trying to add system
#3.

When I check its inf's [SourceDisksFiles] entry, I see five files. To my surprise, when I search for them in the system's WINNT (It's a Win 2000 box) only one of those files can be found.

I am trying to burn with that one file right now just to see if it works, but I am curious about this.

Why might more files be in [SourceDisksFiles] than are actually on the system.

By the way, all that I have described is based upon an installation of the most recent available drivers, and the NIC works properly.

Thanks for any halp on this,

Kenneth

Hello again,

To my surprise, it works fine with just the one available file, so... on to system #4.

Thanks,

Kenneth

Glad to see that you finally got it running, Kenneth!

Siegfried

Many thanks for your fine help!!!

Kenneth

Hello again,

Once I had some success, other machines soon followed but on the last one, I have a hitch...

I downloaded recent drivers for the NIC, and installed them.

Then, I looked at the driver details in Device Manager and it lists five files.

I searched for the first as a string in OEM*.INF, but found nothing.

I searched for each of the others, but had the same result.

Then, the surprise:

I searched for OEM*.INF and there is no such file on the system...

This is, by the way, an XP Home box, and it is the only one we have so, I suppose, it might be different.

But given that the system does not have the INF file that would allow me to see the list of drivers I need, should I just put all five of the files (listed in Device Manager) in the REATOGO drivers subfolder?

Thanks for any help on this,

Kenneth

Broaden your search and try searching for the string in *.INF files.

Hi Ed,

Your suggestion makes sense, but I had already done that...

Just to be safe, I did it again:

I searched the C: for *.inf

Of course, that generates a long list...

Then, I clicked to sort by Name, and scrolled down to the O's.

I see (in order)

NETWORK.INF
OUTLBAR.INF
PAD.INF

So, I remain baffled. This box seems not to have an OEM*.INF. (I will add that Show Hidden Files & Folders IS checked...

Thanks for any further thoughts,

Kenneth

A "long list" of inf files contain your NIC's search string!! Wow. You didn't forget the NIC's search string when you searched did you? My system has many NIC inf files named NET****.*. There is nothing magical about the Original Equipment Manufacturer file name. An inf file can be named anything.

Hi Ed,

I thank you once again...

It was my understanding that I needed to fine an OEM*.INF.

All the best,

Kenneth

Hello again,

Well, the Driver Details lists:


e100b325.sys
e100b325.din
e100bmsg.dll
intelnic.dll
prounstl.exe


and I copied all of 'em to the appropriate Drivers subfolder.

It burned with no errors, but when I boot, the machine shows no NIC in Device Manager.

Can you spot what I might have done in error?

Thanks,

Kenneth

Hi again,

I probably should also add:

Right now, I have one INF file in the Plugin folder. That file was provided me by Siegfried.

That (lonely) inf looks like this:



I realize now that as I continued, I simply created new driver subfolders, and added drivers to them. Each time I did, I tested, and it worked. Now, at my last system, I am stuck.

Would I ordinarily need an INF file for each of the NICS? That is, have I just been lucky that the one INF had worked for five systems?

If I do need an INF for this last NIC, how should I approach building it?

Very sincere thanks,

Kenneth