problem getting boot verbosity

  • Thread starter Thread starter Robert Grasso
  • Start date Start date
R

Robert Grasso

Hello,

I am trying, for the first time, to increase the verbosity level; I have
the full admin rights on two PC, one running WXP SP2, and another one
running W2K SP4 (both french versions)
On both, I ran gpedit.msc, and enabled

"Verbose vs normal status messages"

in

Administrative Templates\System

according to

VerboseStatus
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/05037047-9b98-4b5e-be9e-63f07bcf0b4b1033.mspx

unfortunately, I don't see any further log at boot.

So I disabled DisableStatusMessages in gpedit.msc and rebooted - no
luck, nothing changed !

Can anybody give me a hint ?

More : what should I see, and when ?

Can it be blocked by a recent security patch ?

Regards
 
Try using the /sos switch in the boot.ini

/SOS
Causes Windows to list the device drivers marked to load at boot time and
then to display the system version number (including the build number),
amount of physical memory, and number of processors. By default, the
Windows Loader screen only echoes progress dots.

You can do this with the System Configuration Utility (msconfig.exe)
Start | Run | Type: msconfig | Click OK |
BOOT.INI tab | Select /SOS | Click Apply | Click OK

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
Wesley said:
Try using the /sos switch in the boot.ini

/SOS
Causes Windows to list the device drivers marked to load at boot time and
then to display the system version number (including the build number),
amount of physical memory, and number of processors. By default, the
Windows Loader screen only echoes progress dots.

You can do this with the System Configuration Utility (msconfig.exe)
Start | Run | Type: msconfig | Click OK |
BOOT.INI tab | Select /SOS | Click Apply | Click OK
Click to expand...
thanks. even if it is not completely satisfying. I am still wondering
why this official feature does not work
 
It does work, but it doesn't change much. Messages are fleeting. They only stay long enough to see on shutdown. What are you expecting. This is not an exciting feature.

You'll see "Saving Profile" and a couple of others.
 
David said:
It does work, but it doesn't change much. Messages are fleeting. They only stay long enough to see on shutdown. What are you expecting. This is not an exciting feature.

You'll see "Saving Profile" and a couple of others.
Click to expand...
As I am mainly a Unix/Linux sysadmin, I was expecting some thorough log
such as the ones we have on Unix/Linux : THERE you do see how the OS
boots - every bit of hardware and software is telling you what it's doing
 
We also have boot logs, user logon logs, and many others. The principle is to not bother the user but allow troubleshooting and logging anyway.
 
David said:
We also have boot logs, user logon logs, and many others. The principle is to not bother the user but allow troubleshooting and logging anyway.
Click to expand...
David,

thank you for you kind help and patience. I have been learning Windows
for a while now, and I know the Event viewer; I never found how to tune
it (or components logging into it) in order to get such verbose boot logs.
I also noticed several logs into %systemroot% and below, strangely not
with a single layout; the Event viewer reads from encrypted files for
"security reasons", whereas other logs are in plain text. Well, why not ?
I discovered that at boot, you can select (I don't remember the name)
among several options, such an option that yields some verbosity during
boot, but at the end it is listing only which drivers are loaded into
memory : quite short a log !

So I felt relieved when I found this option setting "verbosestatus" in
gpedit.msc, it sounded "professional" and seemed to be there just to be
enabled by sysadmins - and as you say not to bother end users - alas, so
far I am not getting what I was expecting ...
 
(sorry for the faked address)David,

thank you for you kind help and patience. I have been learning Windows
for a while now, and I know the Event viewer; I never found how to tune
it (or components logging into it) in order to get such verbose boot logs.
I also noticed several logs into %systemroot% and below, strangely not
with a single layout; the Event viewer reads from encrypted files for
"security reasons", whereas other logs are in plain text. Well, why not ?
I discovered that at boot, you can select (I don't remember the name)
among several options, such an option that yields some verbosity during
boot, but at the end it is listing only which drivers are loaded into
memory : quite short a log !

So I felt relieved when I found this option setting "verbosestatus" in
gpedit.msc, it sounded "professional" and seemed to be there just to be
enabled by sysadmins - and as you say not to bother end users - alas, so
far I am not getting what I was expecting ...
 
David said:
We also have boot logs, user logon logs, and many others. The principle is to not bother the user but allow troubleshooting and logging anyway.
Click to expand...
David,

thank you for you kind help and patience. I have been learning Windows
for a while now, and I know the Event viewer; I never found how to tune
it (or components logging into it) in order to get such verbose boot logs.
I also noticed several logs into %systemroot% and below, strangely not
with a single layout; the Event viewer reads from encrypted files for
"security reasons", whereas other logs are in plain text. Well, why not ?
I discovered that at boot, you can select (I don't remember the name)
among several options, such an option that yields some verbosity during
boot, but at the end it is listing only which drivers are loaded into
memory : quite short a log !

So I felt relieved when I found this option setting "verbosestatus" in
gpedit.msc, it sounded "professional" and seemed to be there just to be
enabled by sysadmins - and as you say not to bother end users - alas, so
far I am not getting what I was expecting ...
 
Type bootlog in Help for local help. Type userenv in help while online (the page is on MS servers). These are the two main logs. There are MANY others for specific purpose like modems, news, and mail that are set by specific components or programs. Logging is slower so it is normally off or set to minimal. Type gflags too - not strictly logging but maintains extra data structures to allow tracking.
 
David said:
Type bootlog in Help for local help. Type userenv in help while online (the page is on MS servers). These are the two main logs. There are MANY others for specific purpose like modems, news, and mail that are set by specific components or programs. Logging is slower so it is normally off or set to minimal. Type gflags too - not strictly logging but maintains extra data structures to allow tracking.
Click to expand...
thank you David. Thanks to your suggestions, I discovered the boot.ini
reference at Sysinternals, and just tried /sos and /bootlog. The
ntbtlog.txt yielded in systemroot is the same I got when using some
option at boot (when you can select the safe boot) : there are only the
drivers listed. Anyway, you made me discover the boot.ini reference,
which is interesting.

I guess that MS OSes won't log anything more at boot - it's sad.
Thank you anyway. Feel free to ask if you need help on GNU/Linux ;-)

Robert
 
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