11 replies to this topic

[RadioFlyer]

Hello all,

I am conducting a research project and I am looking for a PE that has network capabilities (as in able to map a network share on a Win2003 server) as well as being small enough to be able to be transmitted through PXE. For this purpose, the build is limited to 32mb. (as far as I am aware)

I had not seen the project "Guidance" table until today but I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to add networking to a PicoXP build. As far as the "table" is concerned, is the info for networking with PicoXP accurate? I have been able to add networking files to my build using Holgen's PE Network script but have not been able to activate networking within it. What exactly is missing from PicoXP to be able to do this?

If networking with PicoXP is definitely impossible, is there another project that fits my criteria? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.


Sean

[TheHive]

It might be possible but I dont know how to. So I cant suggest much on Pico.

You can try the NativeEx Project. Deselecting Compression or Reducing the amount of RAM used for the Ramdisk. This might result in a usable 32 MB or less Usage of RAM.
I think I was able manage it like that in the past tests I did.

[MedEvil]

If networking with PicoXP is definitely impossible, is there another project that fits my criteria? Any help is appreciated.

PicoXP can't handle GUI applications and PENetwork is a GUI application. You will need to have to start network by commandline tools alone!

[RadioFlyer]

Thanks guys. I have been able to create a nativeEX build that can map a network drive at the command prompt. However, that is still using PENetwork which is launched from the Explorer shell. I am unsure of what is required to launch the network from a command line.

Does anybody know what files are needed to activate network support from the command line? Maybe someone already has a script that could save me some time?

I'm really new to this and I am not a programmer in the least bit. I have only gotten this far using pre-built scripts so I really don't know where to start if I have to make my own.



Sean

[pscEx]

Thanks guys. I have been able to create a nativeEX build that can map a network drive at the command prompt. However, that is still using PENetwork which is launched from the Explorer shell. I am unsure of what is required to launch the network from a command line.

Does anybody know what files are needed to activate network support from the command line? Maybe someone already has a script that could save me some time?

nativeEx_trackWBInstall has cmd as shell and inspite can start GUI apps.

If you have enough knowledge, try to add PENetwork.script and the other apps you need.

I currently unfortunatelly do not have enough free time to help actively.

Peter

[RadioFlyer]

Hello again,

It's been a while but I have had a chance to try a few more things.

Like has been noted, I have a NativeEx build that I can boot and map a network drive with.....from CD. Now I want to boot it from PXE.

I have been using TFTPD32 to push an ISO of this build but it won't boot. First, a brief history of what I have tried and how I got here.

I found THIS writeup of how to boot using Bart's MODBOOT. (A link I followed from a post by Jaclaz) I was able to make that work so I decided to see if I could push my NativeEx build through instead. To my surprise it goes through but it does not boot. the message I get on the remote machine is:

Loading boot sector... booting...

Unfortunately, that is where it hangs. I am not sure if using this method will work as I had hoped so I tried another way. Following THIS link, I set up TFTPD32 a little differently but I don't even get as far with it. The remote machine gets an IP and then hangs.

I have followed the links off of here as well as many others without success. Does anybody have any suggestions or other links that I can explore?


Sean

[RadioFlyer]

Ok it would help if the startrom files were extracted first right? Now when I try it, the remote machine gets an IP, TFTP flashes for a split second and then the screen gets cleared and that's where it now hangs. From there I cannot simply do a Ctrl+Alt+Del to reboot, I actually have to hold the power button until it shuts down. (remote machines are an Acer 292 laptop and a Dell D620 laptop)

The PE I am using (to mimic the how-tos I have been following) was made with PEBuilder 3.1.10 and W2K3 SP1. I will check my support files again and make sure I am using the right ones. Do I have to replace the ramdisk file in PEBuilder with a specific version?

My winnt.sif file looks like this:

[SetupData]
BootDevice = "ramdisk(0)"
BootPath = "\i386\System32\"
OsLoadOptions = "/noguiboot /fastdetect /minint /rdexportascd /rdpath=PE1.iso"

The ISO file is in the root directory of my TFTP folder.


Sean

[was_jaclaz]

Cannot say if it applies to you and in this case, but sometimes there can be CaSe SeNsiTiVe problems:
PE1.iso
may not be equal to:
pe1.iso
or to:
PE1.ISO



The RAMDISK.SYS/RAMDISK.SY_ and SETUPLDR.BIN need to come from Server 2003 SP1 or R2 not SP2 or XP any version.



jaclaz

[RadioFlyer]

Cannot say if it applies to you and in this case, but sometimes there can be CaSe SeNsiTiVe problems:
PE1.iso
may not be equal to:
pe1.iso
or to:
PE1.ISO



The RAMDISK.SYS/RAMDISK.SY_ and SETUPLDR.BIN need to come from Server 2003 SP1 or R2 not SP2 or XP any version.



jaclaz

I'm coming to realize this. Also DOS 8.3 format may come into play. I am rechecking all my files and making sure syntax is correct. Thanks for the heads up Jaclaz.


Sean

[RadioFlyer]

I have it working now. NTDETECT.COM had to be in the root of the TFTPBOOT folder, not in the i386 subfolder.

I am able to load a BartPE into a ramdisk and boot off of it.

The challenge now will be to load my NativeEx PE ISO to the remote machine. I am able to do that but I get A BSOD caused by a ramdisk error. Perhaps the build does not have the proper version of ramdisk. I will have to do some more research to find out what the problem is.

Thanks for all the help sofar.


Sean

[Krokodox]

I have it working now. NTDETECT.COM had to be in the root of the TFTPBOOT folder, not in the i386 subfolder.

I am able to load a BartPE into a ramdisk and boot off of it.

The challenge now will be to load my NativeEx PE ISO to the remote machine. I am able to do that but I get A BSOD caused by a ramdisk error. Perhaps the build does not have the proper version of ramdisk. I will have to do some more research to find out what the problem is.

Thanks for all the help sofar.


Sean

I have the PXE booting working for both LiveXP and NativeEx. The LiveXP is about 130 MB, but then it contains WMI (which starts as a service but does not pass WBEMTEST.EXE due to something missing in LiveXP) and a complete toolkit from DELL to handle their servers. The LiveXP is smaller, about 80MB .ISO file and contains no WMI and a smaller subset of the DELL toolkit (only Intel SATA, MegaRAID SCSI, Broadcom LAN and Intel LAN drivers) together with RAIDCFG util that does not need WMI.

Right now I concentrate on the NativeEx since it gives me a smaller bootimage. TFTPD transfer is stuck at 3(!) Mbps even though I use a Gb LAN.

Please feel free to checkout my scripts and documents describing how to setup MS TFTP / DHCP / PXE server and how to configure the LiveXP in WB to make all this work:

http://krokodox.winbuilder.net

I will update the site with modified scripts and documents to reflect my current success with NativeEx. As it is now I can come very close to my goal of having an Explorer enabled PXE bootable image with remote administration capabilities and tools for handling DELL servers. With NativeEx I came closer to this goal than with LiveXP, mostly because of the resulting size difference. Unfortunately I have not found any way to improve the TFTPD transfer speed, that would really be the icing on the cake!

[TheHive]

Might be a good idea to create youre own Project using NativeEx Project.