Anyone here using, or used, it?
Esp booting from flash
Yes, but it has been a couple of years. The doctors say I should be well
really soon now.
Observations: It was not possible to make a really minimum booting
system. There were so many interlocking dependencies that it ended up
with a really large flash image. Otherwise the boot process would die
with an error (IIRC) 7, unable to find boot (or disk?) device
I wanted to build it analytically, starting from a recommended minimal
system and then adding just the necessary additional components to
support the I/O and display. Fail. Ended up with the tool (don't
remember the name offhand - notes are at the office) that looks at a
working "regular" XP image on the same hardware and which then uses that
info to direct what packages to include in the XPe build.
Found some notes on the disk here. Not on building the image but it
might help on the installation once you get working copy:
Prepare the compact flash
1. Boot to MS-DOS with the 6.22 boot floppy in A: and the CF in C:,
with no other hard drives attached.
Compact flash assignment (master/slave) is controlled by jumper block
V4:1-2 (the pair closest to the edge of the board).
2. If required, partition the CF as FAT and set the partition active.
3. If required, format the partition as FAT.
4. Run bootprep /dC. Note that bootprep is taken from the XPe
toolkit’s utility directory and is not a normal component of MS-DOS
6.22. Answer Y to the “do you really want to do this” questions.
5. The CF module is now ready to accept the XPe image. If preparing
multiple modules, shutdown and goto step 1 of this section.
Prepare the XPe image
1. Setup the development machine with the normal boot drive as C and
the XPe image drive as D:.
2. Create the raw XP image on the development machine. In addition to
the components required for the target environment, check the following:
a. On the EWF component, clear the Start EWF Enabled check box.
b. On the System Cloning Tool component, set the cmiResealPhase to “0"
(manual).
c. Ensure that the Background Disk Defrag Disable and Registry Editor
components are added and that the “run” component is enabled for the
Start menu.
3. Copy the contents of the resulting Windows Embedded Images
directory to drive D:.
4. Shutdown the development machine, remove the XPe image drive D:.
5. On the target hardware, setup the XPe image drive as C: and the CF
module as D:. There should be no second hard drive on the drive cable.
Removing the jumper at V4:1-2 sets the CF as D:.
6. Boot the target hardware. Observe that FBA runs to completion. The
system will reboot itself and should finish the process with the final
app running.
7. Terminate the app. Run regedit and add the parameter:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ewf\Parameters\Protected\Volume0
Name: Enabled
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0
8. Reseal the XPe image by running fbreseal. A dialog box will be
presented when the reseal is complete. Select the option to shutdown.[1]
9. Remove the compact flash, switch the XPe image drive to the slave
position (D
and install the normal boot drive as master (C
.
10. Restart. Copy the contents of the XPe image drive (D
to a
directory on the boot drive (C
with the exception of the System Volume
Information folder. Shutdown.
11. Remove the XPe image drive.
Enter at step 12 to install the XPe runtime image onto subsequent CF
modules. The PC/104 stack should be configured as per step (1) in the
PC/104 section, with the system hard drive as C: and the compact flash
as D:.
12. Install the CF module as the slave drive on the PC/104 stack.
13. Restart and boot from the “normal” XP boot drive. Copy the contents
of the image directory created in step 10 of this section to the CF
module. Shutdown. If configuring multiple CF
modules, remove the newly-written module and goto step 12 of this
section.
Enter at step 14 if working from a previously prepared CF module. It
should not be necessary to have a hard drive cable installed on the
PC/104 stack if this is the case.
14. If required, remove the boot drive and set the CF as master (install
jumper V4:1-2).
15. Boot from the CF module. The SID should be resolved, the boot
process should complete, and [2] then end with the target app running.
Shutdown. [3]
16. Restart and let the boot process continue until the target app is
running. Exit the app and open a command prompt. Enable EWF by running
ewfmgr c: -enable. Note that the resulting display will show EWF as
“disabled”; that status is expected at this step. Shutdown.
17. Restart and let the boot process complete. Exit the target app when
it has completed its setup. Open a command prompt and verify that EWF is
enabled in RAM (REG) mode by running
ewfmgr c:. Shutdown.
18. Installation is complete. Ensure that the CF module is marked with
the serial number of the PC/104 stack. The CF module and the PC/104
stack must operate as a unit.
19. Remove the power cable, video cable, 50-conductor cable, and the
drive cable.
Notes
[1] When the PC/104 stack is shut down by XP, the power supply is still
running since we don’t have a full ACPI system. Remember to turn off the
power at the front panel before adding/removing any components.
[2] The boot-up time will be somewhat longer than normal due to the SID
process. If it boots at all, then the system probably isn’t hung. Have
patience and let it finish.
[3] If the app starts but reports that it has failed to find the COM
ports then the BIOS preparation step was skipped for this particular
assembly. Goto Prepare the PC/104 stack and fix the BIOS. Check the BIOS
version too.
Additional:
1. The “resealing” process and subsequent SID resolution seems to take
care of the potential problem with I/O card device designators.
Post-reseal cloning is possible.
2. Ensure that the BIOS is setup with a reasonable date/time. Also
setup the drive assignments and, more importantly, the IRQ assignments
as per the following: ...