One image for two systems - some problems

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ralph A. Schmid, DK5RAS
  • Start date Start date
R

Ralph A. Schmid, DK5RAS

Hi out there!

At the moment I try to build an XPe image which has to support two
different PC mainboards. So far nothing too special, but it is
necessary (due to some tweaking and fiddling) that the first boot
agent runs only once, here in our office, and the images we deliver to
the customer are bootable at once, without running through the FBA.

Now I run into the problem that everything works just fine until I
install the Intel gfx drivers. One board is the Intel 855 chipset, the
other is Intel 945, and when installing the drivers for one system,
the other one hangs when attempting to boot with a BSOD.

FBA on-site at the customer is _not_ an option - of course we could
try to put all tweaking into the FBA, but running from a flash card it
takes ages to complete, nothing we could afforf in a production
environment, and the possibility of failure is too big (powering off
the system to early, and stuff like that). Also we must avoid that the
customer can influence the initial setup, due to warranty and
reliability reasons.

Also not an option is using the gfx default drivers from MS XPe brings
up automatically, because their performance is poor (more CPU load,
more power consumption, leading to more heat).

Who has an idea to bring me onto the right track? At the moment I am
stuck :(

Thank you very much in advance, and with best regards

Ralph.
 
Ralph A. Schmid said:
Who has an idea to bring me onto the right track? At the moment I am
stuck :(
Click to expand...

I can not believe that nobody has an answer?! Anyway, I found out
myself how to solve my problem. Just took the lates driver package
from Intel for the 855 graphics, unpacked it and found that it also
supports the 945. So now both boards run from the same driver, and it
seems to work just fine, one image, bootable without FBA on two
different platforms. The other stuff (audio, touchscreen) were no
problem at all.

Ralph.
 
Hi Ralph,

you were lucky, I'm not. I have to support machines with video hardware
from i815 till i9xx.
Right now Intel has 3 different drivers that cover all this range of
hardware.

What I do:
During the first boot (after FBA!) I check with a special custom written
program which PNP id the current machine has. According to this ID a
proper driver is selected and a batch file with installation commands is
written. Then I execute this batch file and get proper driver installed.
The same for ATi and RealteckHDA sound.
 
Nikolai Vorontsov said:
Hi Ralph,

you were lucky, I'm not. I have to support machines with video hardware
from i815 till i9xx.
Right now Intel has 3 different drivers that cover all this range of
hardware.
Click to expand...

Yes, I really had luck. This is the package that works for me just
fine:

******************2K_XP***********************************
* Production Version Releases
*
*
* Microsoft Windows* 2000 * Microsoft Windows* XP * Driver
Revision: 6.14.10.4497
*
* Package: 26137
*
* Production Version 14.19.50.4497 *
*
* February 8, 2006
*
* NOTE: This document refers to systems containing the
* following Intel chipsets:
*
* Intel(R) 855GM Chipset
* Intel(R) 852GM Chipset
* Intel(R) 855GME Chipset
* Intel(R) 852GME Chipset
* Intel(R) 910GL Express Chipset
* Intel(R) 915GV Express Chipset
* Intel(R) 945G Express Chipset
* Mobile Intel(R) 915GM Express Chipset
* Mobile Intel(R) 910GML Express Chipset
* Mobile Intel(R) 915GMS Express Chipset
* Intel(R) 915G Chipset
* Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset
*
What I do:
During the first boot (after FBA!) I check with a special custom written
program which PNP id the current machine has. According to this ID a
proper driver is selected and a batch file with installation commands is
written. Then I execute this batch file and get proper driver installed.
The same for ATi and RealteckHDA sound.
Click to expand...

Sounds interesting. Are you able to run the tool early enough to
prevent the machine from crashing?
Still I have trouble settinmg the proper video modes (I need video
ouitput via internal LCD and VGA at the same time, called Twin
Display), and although I would have liked to avoid spending valuable
RAM for the Intel tools it looks as I will have to keep them -
patching around in the registry seems quite complicated to meet both
hardwares.

With best regards

Ralph.
 
Hi Ralph,
Sounds interesting. Are you able to run the tool early enough to
prevent the machine from crashing?
Click to expand...
Yes, because I don't have any Intel video driver installed after FBA.
Machine boots with the Standard VGA driver and only then my program
selects right driver. It requires additional reboot, but I can live with it.
Still I have trouble settinmg the proper video modes (I need video
ouitput via internal LCD and VGA at the same time, called Twin
Display), and although I would have liked to avoid spending valuable
RAM for the Intel tools it looks as I will have to keep them -
patching around in the registry seems quite complicated to meet both
hardwares.
Click to expand...
I use qres.exe utility to change the screen resolution and color depth.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/Other-VIDEO-Tools/QRes.shtml
 
Nikolai Vorontsov said:
Yes, because I don't have any Intel video driver installed after FBA.
Machine boots with the Standard VGA driver and only then my program
selects right driver. It requires additional reboot, but I can live with it.
Click to expand...

Ah, ok, I see. These reboots are not a problem, when we roll out a
software update it also does some reboots, as the attached device is
flash programmed and some hacks and startup scripts are executed.
I use qres.exe utility to change the screen resolution and color depth.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/Other-VIDEO-Tools/QRes.shtml
Click to expand...

I will have a look at it, thank you for the tip!

(5 minutes later, back from the test setup)

It is a fine tool (quite small and simple) to set the graphic mode,
but it does not allow making dedicated settings for the way how the
two display ports (LVDS and VGA) are used...

Will keep on searching :)

Ralph.
 
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