Win7x64 : Golden Image : partitions problems ...

Jonathan Cool · Oct 18, 2017, 7:49 AM

Server :
FOG Version: 1.4.2 SVN 6072
OS: Debian 8

Client :
Service Version: SmartInstaller v0.11.12
OS: Win7x64 PRO

Description :
I recently build my Win7x64PRO universal image using VirutalBox, postdownloadscripts and sysprep. It’s works perfectly but … i tried to deploy it to a small disk and partclone said « Target partition size is smaller then source » … so after some research, i discovered a big problem with my universal image : after a deploy on a big harddisk, the partitionning is not correct …
In fact, the reserved system partition is very big and the C partition is fixed like set to virtual box … How i can fix this ?
Below, i take somes screenshots to explain my problem …

VirtualBox configuration :
Version : 5.0.26
VM configuration disk :
Virtual Size : 160Go
Real Size : 9,12Go

Windows disk Manager on VM :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B48PuYLEHxQLUEU5clJOZC1Vb3c/view?usp=sharing

Definition of golden image on FOG GUI :
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B48PuYLEHxQLdXlTcW90RS1DWnc

Windows disk Manager on HP8000 after deploy :
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B48PuYLEHxQLdzRHb0EtY1k2NkU

We can see the big size of the reserved parition … not 100Mb but 72Go !

Windows disk Manager on DELL o7010 after deploy :
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B48PuYLEHxQLSUdpam1STEV0cjg

On the optiplex 7010, same problem … the reserved partition is more larger … 305Go.

On the both computers, the system C partition is always 159Go ….

I juste want this simple partitionning :

Reserved partition : always 100Mb
System C partition : rest of the disk ……

I don’t use sysprep to expand or touch any partition.

What can i do to use all space for the C partition and have a classic 100Mb reserved partition ?

ls -la of universal image folder on NAS

drwxrwxrwx  2 root root 4.0K Oct 17 11:01 .
drwxrwxrwx 63 fog  root 4.0K Oct 17 14:20 ..
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root    3 Oct 17 10:34 d1.fixed_size_partitions
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 1.0M Oct 17 10:34 d1.mbr
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root  190 Oct 17 10:34 d1.minimum.partitions
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root   30 Oct 17 10:34 d1.original.fstypes
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root    0 Oct 17 10:34 d1.original.swapuuids
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 8.1M Oct 17 10:34 d1p1.img
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 9.8G Oct 17 11:01 d1p2.img
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root root  190 Oct 17 10:34 d1.partitions

cat d1.minimum.partitions

label: dos
label-id: 0xc91a5cff
device: /dev/sda
unit: sectors

/dev/sda1 : start=        2048, size=       52316, type=7, bootable
/dev/sda2 : start=      206848, size=   335335424, type=7

cat d1.partitions

label: dos
label-id: 0xc91a5cff
device: /dev/sda
unit: sectors

/dev/sda1 : start=        2048, size=      204800, type=7, bootable
/dev/sda2 : start=      206848, size=   335335424, type=7

Many thank for your help.

I worked hard to build my universal image … and now, it’s ruined by this problem

Tom Elliott · Oct 18, 2017, 9:39 AM

Please open the d1.fixed_pattitions file and add :1 to the file. This should fix it for you.

Sebastian Roth · Oct 18, 2017, 6:14 PM

@Jonathan-Cool Tom is most probably right about how you can fix this issue. The problem is that on a French Windows system the reserved partition is labeled differently than on an English one. We haven’t yet found the time to figure out a more general way to detect this kind of partition.

Ok, opened a github issue for that so we don’t forget…
https://github.com/FOGProject/fogproject/issues/195

george1421 · Oct 18, 2017, 6:27 PM

@sebastian-roth FYI: Somewhere I create an idea to use postinit scripts to ‘patch’ the inits for the foreign (I realize I’m posting to a German) language versions of windows. I think that would be a quick fix as long as the change wouldn’t need to be dynamic (i.e. this system is language X and the next one is language Y).

ref: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/10306/windows-10-resizable-image-system-partition-issue/14

We could probably build a structure that is part of the postinit scripts that if we knew the language we could just change a file name in a config and have it switch. (I know I’m talking in circles its been a long day).

Sebastian Roth · Oct 18, 2017, 6:56 PM

@george1421 said in Win7x64 : Golden Image : partitions problems ...:

(I know I’m talking in circles its been a long day).

No, I clearly see what you mean! Though I still think this is something we should fix right in the original init scripts! But I am open to other ways of solving this properly as well.

george1421 · Oct 18, 2017, 7:43 PM

@sebastian-roth Well the issue (I see as a non-programmer) is that the fixed partitions names may be in a number if different base languages (I tried to find how many native language versions of windows there are, but failed. I can tell you there are 101 native language packs) managing that many different variations would be huge. Other than their label I’m not sure how we could properly identify the partitions. I’m open for ideas too. I wonder if windows uses a consistent UUID of the partition(??).

We could either poke the right values into the inits using a post install script, or the main inits would have to be able to reach out and read a file on the FOG server that would tell it about the native language for the windows clients. But some how the settings need to be IT Admin configurable. Possibly even via a FOG run time variable where it would pass the real (native language) name of reserved and system partitions… (just thinking out loud here).

Jonathan Cool · Oct 19, 2017, 12:21 PM

Hi,
Thanks to Tom … the issue is not completely resolved but “in progress” …

I edited the d1.fixed_size_partitions : “2:1”
after a new DL of the image, the resultt is :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B48PuYLEHxQLWWNDR2E0QWhPZEU/view?usp=sharing

Same result o7010, hp8000 or 640G2.

How can expand the space of C after deploy ?

Tom Elliott · Oct 19, 2017, 1:15 PM

@jonathan-cool Remove the 2 in the fixed file and deploy the image to a client…

Jonathan Cool · Oct 23, 2017, 9:04 AM

Hi,
If i add only « :1 » in the d1.fixed_size_partitions, i have this error :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B48PuYLEHxQLaUMxaWpOcmRnb3M/view?usp=sharing

If i add « 2:1 » in the file d1.fixed_size_partitions and use setupcomplete.cmd to expand the space of C after deploy (by using diskpart utility, https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/1178/extend-your-disk-partition-to-max/4), it work on Optiplex7010 … but NOT in a smaller disk (hp2530p, « Target partition size is smaller than source ») …

Quazz · Oct 23, 2017, 1:00 PM

@jonathan-cool Can you share a picture of the device that fails? (please check for plugged in USB sticks, SD cards and such as well)

Jonathan Cool · Oct 23, 2017, 1:16 PM

@quazz Hi,
You wants a picture of the error with the HP2530 computer ?

(no usb stick or any SD cards …)

Quazz · Oct 23, 2017, 1:17 PM

@jonathan-cool Yes, plus some info on the disk would be nice too.

Jonathan Cool · Oct 23, 2017, 1:36 PM

I used ssh connection to copy and paste the result …

 * Imaging using Partclone (gzip)
Partclone fail, please check /var/log/partclone.log !
##################################################
#                                                                            						#
#                        A warning has been detected!                        				#
#                                                                            						#
####################################################
Image failed to restore and exited with exit code 1 (writeImage)
   Info: Partclone v0.2.89 http://partclone.org
Starting to restore image (-) to device (/dev/sda2)
note: Storage Location xxxxx/images/, Image name ImgUniverselle
we need memory: 5247876 bytes
image head 4160, bitmap 5239616, crc 4100 bytes
Calculating bitmap... Please wait... get device size 159935889408 by ioctl BLKGETSIZE64,
Target partition size(159936 MB) is smaller than source(171692 MB). Use option -C to disable size checking(Dangerous).
   Args Passed: /images/ImgUniverselle/d1p2.img* /dev/sda2 
######################################################
#                                                                            						             #
#                          Will continue in 1 minute         					            #
#                                                                            						           #
#####################################################
* Press [Enter] key to continue

fdisk -l on the hp2530p :

Disk /dev/ram[0 – 15] : 124 MiB, 130048000 bytes, 254000 sectors ## there is many ram disk here ...
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk /dev/sda: 149.1 GiB, 160041885696 bytes, 312581808 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xc91a5cff

Device     Boot  Start       End   Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *      2048    206847    204800  100M  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2       206848 312581631 312374784  149G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Quazz · Oct 23, 2017, 1:52 PM

@jonathan-cool Makes sense. With 2:1 it will think that the OS partition shouldn’t get resized, so it reads the original size (which is 160GB) which in turn is bigger than the target hard drive.

I am not sure why :1 by itself wouldn’t work though.

Can you try leaving the file empty and see if that helps?

I have Dutch Windows which also doesn’t get have reserved system picked up properly and for me the file is simply empty. Which seems to work alright.

Jonathan Cool · Oct 23, 2017, 2:09 PM

@quazz said in Win7x64 : Golden Image : partitions problems ...:

Can you try leaving the file empty and see if that helps?

Failed … and same error.
But i agree with your idea and, it’s make sense.

Maybe i don’t use the right process to create my VM into Virtualbox …
I choosed a 160Gb Virtual Size disk …

Quazz · Oct 23, 2017, 2:21 PM

@jonathan-cool Dynamic or Static? (Dynamic could cause issues, not to mention it’s slow)

You do seem to have a lot of empty space in your virtual environment, but this shouldn’t really impact the deployment process, imo.

Resizable image type should be able to resize it correctly.

Jonathan Cool · Oct 23, 2017, 2:29 PM

During creation process of Golden Image, in VirtualBox, i choosed Dynamic disk …
On VirutalBox, i can see : Virutal Size : 160Gb.

Jonathan Cool · Oct 26, 2017, 7:27 AM

I’m alone now ? …

Quazz · Oct 26, 2017, 8:02 AM

@jonathan-cool Sorry, forgot to reply.

As far as I can recall, dynamic disk can give issues for resizable image type. I haven’t been able to find when/how this was a problem using the search, however.

Only advice I can give is to try and make it a fixed size drive and see if that helps at this point

Sebastian Roth · Dec 2, 2017, 6:58 AM

Marked this solved as the initial issue can be circumnavigated and we have a github issue open on that topic.

Win7x64 : Golden Image : partitions problems ...

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