7 replies to this topic

[Nix Marl]

Here's what I want to do.

Install WinXPpro on a machine with a small HDD and low memory (ie. client).
I would like to have the entire OS installed on a Network Drive and be able to boot from it (preferably not an image) with the "client".
I would like it to be able to function as a workstation, but I would like to be able to store things that I install on the client machine to it's own HDD and have it update it's files on the server so they will be there the next time it's booted.

Each client machine would have it's own "boot directory" on the server so each machine can be different in hardware configuration.

I know it's possible, I've seen it done at major corporations over the internet. I'm only on a small network and would like to save the space on the other machine for applications instead of a bloated Windows OS.

My question is:
How would I go about setting this up?
What other files will I need? (See below)
And what configuration steps would I take?

I already have Tftpd32, SysAngel DVD Generator, and the computers set to network boot.
DCHP (proxy) is installed and turned on in the server machine. DCHP is handled by the routers.

I come to you in this forum, because there seems to be the best minds about network booting represented in here. *Hopefully flattery will get me everywhere.*

If you have more questions, feel free to ask them.

*edit* I was thinking, is there a way that I can make a "hidden" boot part. on the current HDD about the size of a floppy and have it boot from there and have it store all other information except the OS itself on the local HDD?

[Brito]

Hi Nix Marl!

Welcome to the boot land community!


I am still trying to completely understand your request, but I find it a bit confusing - to solve this challenge I think we should start by separating each "feature" into different parts before moving onto a complete solution.

#1:

Install WinXPpro on a machine with a small HDD and low memory (ie. client).

More details are needed - how small is the HDD and memory? Using XP SP2?

Do you intend to install Windows XP on the client machine using PXE - or you mean installing from the client machine on the remote computer's hdd?


#2:

Each client machine would have it's own "boot directory" on the server so each machine can be different in hardware configuration.

Multibooting under PXE or with GRUB can be a solution - you can either use a single IP and select with grub or try to set up several IP's - each for a single machine specification.


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


Have you taken a look on the mobileOS project?

http://www.boot-land...leOS-t1218.html

It is aimed to boot and run Windows XP OS from *any* medium and it is fairly small sized and not very demanding on memory resources.

As another plus factor it will allow you to boot from all these machine specifications, removing the need to install XP on each one of them, complete with all the apps you need inside - One image could probably fit all machines or easily be copied to create others with small customizations to quickly suit your needs.

I've never tried it as a PXE boot - but it migth be worth doing some field experiences if you're really interested in testing this project.

Good luck!

[Nix Marl]

Hi Nix Marl!

Welcome to the boot land community!
I am still trying to completely understand your request, but I find it a bit confusing - to solve this challenge I think we should start by separating each "feature" into different parts before moving onto a complete solution.

#1:
More details are needed - how small is the HDD and memory? Using XP SP2?

Do you intend to install Windows XP on the client machine using PXE - or you mean installing from the client machine on the remote computer's hdd?
#2:
Multibooting under PXE or with GRUB can be a solution - you can either use a single IP and select with grub or try to set up several IP's - each for a single machine specification.
-------------------------------------
Have you taken a look on the mobileOS project?

http://www.boot-land...leOS-t1218.html

It is aimed to boot and run Windows XP OS from *any* medium and it is fairly small sized and not very demanding on memory resources.

As another plus factor it will allow you to boot from all these machine specifications, removing the need to install XP on each one of them, complete with all the apps you need inside - One image could probably fit all machines or easily be copied to create others with small customizations to quickly suit your needs.

I've never tried it as a PXE boot - but it migth be worth doing some field experiences if you're really interested in testing this project.

Good luck!

Ok, let's disect this one chunk at a time. Local life has thrown several cogs out of my wheels slowing me down a bit working on this "home" project and has morphed it slightly...

#1, thank you for the welcome to the community.
#2, the "client"/"slave"/"workstation" machine(s)Range from 450MHz to 2.8GHz
HDD Range in size from None to 40GB
RAM Ranges from 256Meg to 768Meg (Most with IGA video-yippie...bleh)
#3, the OS is WinXP Pro SP2 (retail box) CD
#4, Server machine running WinXP Pro (SP2) with TFTPD32.
-----
Now the hard part... Pinpointing what I'm looking at doing...
-----
What I'm wanting to do is to Network Boot (I'm assuming PXE) the Client machine with a ramdisk, extreme minimum, and setup a network connection to the Server machine. From there, I want it to be able to load the OS installed on the Server's HDD. The OS files for the Client machine would (more than likely) be in seperate directories for each client machine so modification to one will not "break" the other machines. Guess what I'm saying is that I want the "Client" machines to work like ThinClients, but if there is a HDD installed, I want them to be able to store things like "My Documents" and "Installed Software" locally, but not have an actual OS installed on the HDD (Space Limitations).
I want to try to stay away from an Image file because of the inability of the clients to change them "on-the-fly".

Hope this helped out with my thinking. I'm still running circles in my mind, so if you need any more info, please feel free to ask.

[Brito]

Using PXE seems the way to go - booting with something like mobileOS would also allow to run a satisfatory OS with themes support, network drivers and point to the local C:\Documents folder on the HDD.

But writing back changes on the image seems a bit more complicated - Maybe you could help euhenio further extending mobileOS and if it is possible he'll probably know how and help getting this done.

Look here:
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=1218

[Captain Dan]

So...this kind of thing but with XP?

http://drbl.sourceforge.net/

or

https://vamos.bountysource.com/

or commercially this

http://www.ardence.c...ucts.aspx?ID=83

I was interested in doing this for a while but didn't follow through. It would most likely be possible to have a linux server to handle the XP clients.

I hope you have gigabit LAN!

d

[Moon Goon]

I've been looking into this from time to time.. unfortunately, from what I've gathered, a full-blown XP from network isn't possible (yet)

Windows 9x may work if you connect to the share from your autoexec.bat but the install would be tricky.

I've heard rumors of people booting from iSCSI from MCE and XP though.

One idea is to somehow make that network install of 9x and have a shared local folder. Next, run a terminal services client and have that users login profile mount that local share.

[Nix Marl]

I've been looking into this from time to time.. unfortunately, from what I've gathered, a full-blown XP from network isn't possible (yet)

Windows 9x may work if you connect to the share from your autoexec.bat but the install would be tricky.

I've heard rumors of people booting from iSCSI from MCE and XP though.

One idea is to somehow make that network install of 9x and have a shared local folder. Next, run a terminal services client and have that users login profile mount that local share.

What I was hoping to do was to PXE over a ramdisk that would open a network "share" drive and boot the OS from there.

However, I am giving up on the idea for a while. I can't even get a simple ramdisk image to PXE over and boot. At best I keep getting cannot boot from CD and it stops; that, and, locking up, or a file too big error...

[Alexei]

@Nix Marl,
I'm not sure you really need NET boot, as client PCs have HDDs.
What I have in mind is that you can use NTFS mounting points to link common files from server to the partitions on user's PCs.
"Relocation" of the files should be completely transparent to the clients.
In addition to the mounting points you can add some server's folders to the system path. Also, registry settings allow to specify location of "My Documents", etc. (you may need it to redirect "relocations" back to client's PCs).
However, you may prefer very different solution, for example: run terminal server on your server and RDC from PE on user's PCs. Even more interesting is to run several VMs on the server and have users RDC to them.

Alexei