219 replies to this topic

[Brito]

I don't know about femto, but sanOS can get a good scoreboard on this: 872Kb file (also includes qemu inside for testing the image)..

Features
--------

- Minimalistic no nonsense application server operating system kernel.
- Open Source (BSD style license).
- Runs on standard PC hardware.
- Simple installation.
- 32-bit protected mode.
- Interrupt driven.
- Multitasking.
- Single address space.
- Kernel protection.
- Virtual memory.
- PE dynamically loadable modules (standard EXE/DLL format).
- Both kernel and user modules.
- Low memory footprint (less than 512 KB RAM)
- Lightweight
- Embedding support with PC104 and Flash devices
- Self configuring (PCI, PnP & DHCP support)
- TCP/IP networking stack with BSD socket interface
- SMB file system support
- Very efficient multithreading
- Written in C (98%) and x86 assembler (2%)
- Development using Microsoft Visual C.
- Remote source level debugging support (windbg)


Supported hardware
------------------

- Standard PC architecture
- Minimum 2MB RAM (Maximum 4GB RAM)
- Intel IA-32 and compatible processors (486 and Pentium)
- IDE disks (PIO and UDMA mode)
- IDE cdrom (PIO mode)
- Floppy disks (3½" 1.44MB)
- Keyboard (US and DK)
- Text mode video
- Serial ports (8250, 16450, 16550 and 16550A)
- Supported network interface cards:
- 3Com 3C905
- Intel EtherExpress Pro/100 (i82557/558/559 based boards)
- RealTek 8139 and compatible
- SiS 900 and compatible
- AMD PCNET32 and compatible
- Novell NE2000 (DP8390) and compatible

It might also be worth to take a closer look..

Edited by Nuno Brito, 24 July 2006 - 04:03 PM.

[Yorn]

When I hit SHIFT-3 to type a "pound" symbol (#) it gives me a circle with two squigglies coming off of it, instead. Also, when I hit "/" to type in a "dir /w" it instead types "dir -w". Is there a keyboard setting that changed? I see in the thread there was talk of this, but it also says that link has the latest version? Anyway, just wondering.

[pscEx]

When I hit SHIFT-3 to type a "pound" symbol (#) it gives me a circle with two squigglies coming off of it, instead. Also, when I hit "/" to type in a "dir /w" it instead types "dir -w". Is there a keyboard setting that changed? I see in the thread there was talk of this, but it also says that link has the latest version? Anyway, just wondering.

Sorry, the standard keyboard is still German. Maybe I'll fix that.

But I think when many people across the world use these scripts a lot of them have to customize something before starting.

Choosing the default keyboard layout using the local system's settings is a task I'm thinking about.

So, do not worry and accept that you have to make one or two clicks in the very first start of your project run.

Peter

Edited by psc, 24 July 2006 - 04:54 PM.

[Yorn]

Also, don't update the scripts using the update button! That will break the scripts for those of you that have the mouclass.sys error.

[pscEx]

There is a new version for download (see first post).

Unzip PicoXP into %BaseDir% and add PicoXP in the scripts list in OpenBuilder.ini.

Actual Scripts are not overwritten. PicoXP scripts in the Archive folder have a prefix PX in their name and in their title.

The Standard and NanoXP scripts can be adapted to use PX scripts.

New is:

- ProjectInfo uses the new variables from version 048
- AutoKeyBoard
- Generating of empty hives
- RamBoot script does not overwrite the ISO
- CDRecord and qEmu scripts decide whether to use the 'standard' or the RAMBoot ISO
- ...

Have fun!

Peter

[Brito]

Unzip PicoXP into %BaseDir% and add PicoXP in the scripts list in OpenBuilder.ini.

Editing openbuilder.ini might lead to some people confusing the reason why %BaseDir% is used.

Here's an alternative:

• Unzip the project folder into the "Projects" folder from where openbuilder is working
  
• Start Openbuilder and press the "Open" button (next to the "Run" button) and select your unzipped folder, whenever in doubt wich folder to select, just look for the one who has a file "script.project" inside..

------------------------------------

I should really add some informations regarding window buttons on the wiki..


When using the "Open" button, openbuilder.ini is written and the part of path matching the path where your working openbuilder.exe is located gets replaced by %BaseDir%.

It can be used to open any location, and whenever a "script.project" file is not found it will create a new one to hold all settings. From this starting folder, it will search for scripts, plugins and link files inside the folder and subfolders.




I'll wait for the next version adapted to the beta 4 to give more feedback, excellent work psc!

[pscEx]

[*] Unzip the project folder into the "Projects" folder from where openbuilder is working

[*] Start Openbuilder and press the "Open" button (next to the "Run" button) and select your unzipped folder, whenever in doubt wich folder to select, just look for the one who has a file "script.project" inside..

Unzip must still be in the Openbulder directory because the Zip contains the Project and Archive folders.

Peter

[pscEx]

Now PicoXP ready for version 048 beta 4 is uploaded.

Peter

[Brito]

Just tested your project and it worked really good..

Your coding skills have improven quite a lot, congratulations!

I've spent the last few hours rewriting the standard project and picoxp to get them working along, perhaps at the end of the day a release is ready..

[g_BonE]

how about that:

picoxp with BootSDI support and the a43 filemanager as shell ? possible ?

[pscEx]

how about that:

picoxp with BootSDI support and the a43 filemanager as shell ? possible ?

I never thought about that or tried to do some tests.

My opinion is: a43 needs some graphical files to be installed. Therefore it cannot work in PicoXP.

As a motivation: maybe there are only some files needed for a43 ...
Try Depends.exe. If adding the necessary files to 'PicoXP43' is difficult for you, post here an I'll try (look the very last line of this answer)

BootSDI: I think that this is no issue.

Peter

[g_BonE]

well since i couldnt warp my head around to get sdi images working and thereby getting rid of the 0x07 bluescreen i moved on to vistape which seems so work hasslefree so far. there's still some things i need to find out but surely this is not the right thread for it.

thanks for the help so far !

[SlimShady]

what was the idea behind PicoXP? what is it good for?

[pscEx]

what was the idea behind PicoXP? what is it good for?

There has been a project 'NanoXP' which offered a full functioning PE with

• NTFS access
• Full 'DOS' cmd accessibilty
• No graphics (unnecessary for the 'DOS' access)

When creating the nativeEx idea, I also created PicoXP as one possible nativeEx project, showing that a 'very high' amount of bytes (if I remember correctly, something below 1000) could be saved using my project.

But joke away:

PicoXP can be a root of 'DOS' based PEs.
And if there is any serious question for that, I would be glad to help.

Peter

[Brito]

Well.. How about the smallest possible XP ever from an install CD only?!?

It will strip just about anything and now it's a matter of adding back the pieces to make it run the apps you need..

Seriously - it boots in sparse seconds, can acess NTFS drives, use network drivers and use a 32bit environment with overall speed when compared to 16Bit DOS.


Imagine it for quick deploying over PXE with network and SATA drivers to restore images back to the target machines or a simple quick tool to run console apps.

Around 21Mb with GUI support you can add bblean, with 31Mb goes explorer support - as said before - pick up the pieces and add them up so picoXP is a test project to go way down and strip remove pieces, nice to learn more about PE XP environments.

[pscEx]

@All
@Nuno
I'm very satisfied and glad:
Our time crossing answers show different views. But logically the answers are identical

Peter

[detroit]

where can i get picoxp if its "opened for public"

[TheHive]

where can i get picoxp if its "opened for public"

You can add this server to Winbuilder to download the project
http://picoxp.boot-land.net/

[detroit]

You can add this server to Winbuilder to download the project
http://picoxp.boot-land.net/

tyty

[g_BonE]

picoxp --- reloaded ???

psc,

i had a look over your picoxp project, added some things to it for increased usability (16bit support, usb-driver, universal video driver) by taking some scripts from other projetcs and placing them in the former picoxp project folder. the image is now at still acceptable 23mb using BootSDI.

still, i could use some help/suggestions on sliming the scripts and copied files. also i'd like some info on how to check a file "dependencies" because im looking into trying to get A43 and boot-us to work.

attached are my project files:
 USBPE_Project.rar   1.98MB   923 downloads

[pscEx]

. also i'd like some info on how to check a file "dependencies"

Try this link: http://www.dependencywalker.com/

Peter

[Brito]

Very cool results indeed!!

Thanks for sharing your project modifications.

----------

You might run into trouble trying to make dependency walker work right on picoXP.

I recommend logging all dependencies from a "normal" windows box before jumping into picoXP.


Also suggest adapting the current api.script that is used on the other nativeEx based projects to use some of the cool functions inside and make your scripting easier and portable.

http://livexp.boot-l...XP/Basic/Build/

There are many topics around this forums about this matter.

-------------------------

Good luck with your research!

[MedEvil]

Can anyone explain to me the reason behind PicoXP? I mean, besides the purely academic, trying to get it as small as possible.
From my point of view there's just no practical use for it.
nativeEx _barebone is imo probably the smallest useful build. And even that suffers from the nonsense that it is way smaller, than the media you're going to put it on.

The smallest available Media sizes, which nobody uses anyway are
- 64MB USB Stick (anyone still having one of those oldies?)
- 128MB USB Stick
- 210MB MiniCD
- 256MB USB Stick

So why would anyone want to use a VERY feature reduced build, just to leave a lot of free space on the media, if he could have a more full featured one and no empty space?

[TheHive]

One use, could be having the small footprint of the base to use it to run a Virtual Machine and carry a real Windows XP image to load. Or something similar.

[g_BonE]

well for me the reason behind this is: im working on a XP installation straight from my usb pendrive, i.e. have smallest possible winpe start and then install a full xp from there, all from one 1gig pendrive. since 2 of my computers refuse to enable usb2.0 during POST i'm ending up with a very slow speed to load the image from the pendrive, so small size helps here too