Posts made by Lee Rowlett

Just another alternative I guess…

it looks like you cannot get a service to show a messagebox or GUI but you CAN get an application and service to communicate… maybe we could utilise the FOG Tray and move the responsibility of the actual GUI (Messagebox) into the FOG Tray application, that way you could get message boxes again… but it would also mean FOG Tray would need to be compulsary, i know some people don’t like having the tray icon, maybe add “Hide Tray Icon” to the application?.. just my suggestions

if you need help composing the unattend.xml just follow step 4 in this tutorial
[url]http://fogproject.org/forum/threads/windows-7-deployment-fog-sad2-driver-tool.380/[/url]

sorry, only just read your above post about not using an unattend.xml, i’d recommend just making a very basic one and add the above into it aswell just for testing

i always use multiple partition none resizable and let sysprep expand the disk instead (just make sure your base image is always smaller than the smallest drive you plan to deploy to i.e if your smallest HDD you have is 40GB make your base image with a 20GB-30GB partition and in your unattend.xml under specialize have this:

<ExtendOSPartition>
<Extend>true</Extend>
</ExtendOSPartition>

this will extend the os partition to amount of space left on the HDD - hasn’t failed on me yet and i get the same result as a single disk resizable - hope this helps

I believe its the snapinclient.dll that handles this, there aren’t any php files as such that tell the client to pull snapin from a certain server- everything web side related to location of data is in the patch , there is info in the wiki on how to change .dlls in the fogclient and recompile, I just never looked at it because I just use rsync and init.gz to pull the snapins down straight after imaging and execute from root instead.

Hope this helps

See this post. Instructions are in there too now: [url]http://fogproject.org/forum/threads/hostname-change-joining-domain-before-sysprep-runs-xp-win7.3332/#post-7964[/url]

It changes it straight after fog has imaged the machine before the machine reboots into the os

Let me know how you get on

[B]“Machine already registered” change:[/B]

change [I]man.hostexists.php[/I] under [I]/var/www/service[/I] and change it to this (it’s around line 57):
[CODE]
$sql = “select hostName, count(*) as cnt from hosts where hostMAC = '” . $mac . “'”;
$res = mysql_query( $sql, $conn ) or die( mysql_error() );
while( $ar = mysql_fetch_array( $res ) )
{
if ( $ar[“cnt”] == 0 )
{
echo “#!ok”;
}
else
echo “”._(“This Machine is already registed as”).": " . $ar[“hostName”] . “”;
}[/CODE]

i actually have a solution for this, i’ve written code so that once fog has deployed the image to the machine it will change sysprep.inf for xp and unattend.xml to the hostname in the fog database and will add ad information from fog if set to join AD so when sysprep runs it already matches what has been set in FOG, this would solve all this but i don’t think the developers will go for it as it renders hostname change early un-needed and these features in FOGClient are no longer needed. if you want info on how to do this pm me as it’d be a lengthy tutorial/set of instructions to write. if a few people find it easy to implement then i’ll post an how to when i have the time to sit down and write one up…

if you map a network drive under audit mode it will be part of the default profile aslong as you specify in your unattend.xml to copyprofile. Every profile change you make will be captured in audit mode, i think the idea of audit mode is so that nothing machine specific is copied over which and makes it easier to handle licensing and to skip oobe and have un-needed personalisation.

AHCI drivers were a headache with windows XP but I’m quite suprised you’re having this issue with windows 7, as windows 7 has basic ahci driver in built, how are you sysprepping the image, I would check to see if sysprep is completing and running correctly.

Hi All,

As this would be a lengthy tutorial to show you how to add this to FOG i thought i would give a summary first and if anyone is interested pm me and i’ll go through in detail, if enough people interested and find it easy to implement and happy with it, i’ll post the tutorial.

How it works:
Additional code added to the fog file within init.gz and a couple of .php files added to the service folder on the fog server. Just after fog has deployed the image, the code queries the fog database and gets fog to change the sysprep.inf/unattend.xml file to the information accordingly. so when the machine boots into sysprep it will have the right hostname and ad details if required.

Pros:

1. No more reboots required!
2. Makes imaging quicker and if snapins aren’t used stops the need for the FOGClient
3. Robust and hands the responsibility to sysprep and has never failed (been using for 12months)
4. Works for XP, Win7 x64 & x86.

Cons (as the code stands):

1. Conflicts with hostname change early as this would no longer be required.
2. requires sed package added to init.gz (Although a good guide on how modify the init exists in the wiki)
3. Alot of information is hardcoded (can be easily changed but would need to be put into variables if considered for fog to be universal - maybe be able to change the variable and info set in fog settings page?):
   Hardcoded example - location of sysprep.inf/unattend.xml.
4. Would need to get the init.gz to decrypt the ad password like the FOGClient.
5. unattend.xml must contain certain empty options line to suceed.

This has really helped and shaved around 10mins off our imaging time (suprising how long two reboots can take and waiting for snapin to checkin) the snapins can now be deployed almost instantly!

hey networkguy,

if you want - i can try and get some images done (will probably get it to follow the same style as the new web GUI) do you reckon you could get the GUI loaded once the init/bzimage is loaded? if so, we could get it looking really nice!! this would be a fantastic contribution to FOG!!!

pm me with what you need and i’ll get cracking on it.

Hi All,

i have made changes slightly to the full host registration, quickimage. In active task page, i have added “started by” which shows which user/engineer started the task. I’ve also added the “started by/created by” into the imaging log (for auditing purposes) and it also nice to easy check active tasks page and see which engineer’s imaging at the time. so these are the reasons behind these changes.

1: Quickimage - when you use quickimage, it does not add into the sql database, who created the task even though it requests credentials before you can send the image request. i therefore changed it to pass this information and add it to the task information.

2. Full Host Registration - instead of asking you to type “fog” to confirm imaging, i’ve changed it to use the same process as quickimage and request username and password (more secure i guess) but main reason is so it can pass the user who sent the task request and add it to the task information.

When the machine exists - instead of stating that
[B][I]machine already exists in the fog database![/I][/B]
it states:
[I][B]This Machine is already registed as: “HostName”[/B][/I]

this makes it easier to identify the machine in the host list rather than getting the mac address and searching that way.

These are simple changes but if everyone would find these useful i’d propose them to the developers to add to FOG.

[url]https://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/redobackup/index.php?title=Live_CD_Developer's_Guide#7._Update_plymouth_splash_screen[/url]

i can’t remember who the original author was but, you have to change the “fog” file within the init.gz. i haven’t got the original to hand but it’s around line 450 depending on what version you’re running but this is what the code needs to change to:
[CODE]
if [ -f “$imgpart” ]; then
if [ “$mc” = “yes” ]; then
udp-receiver --nokbd --portbase ${port} --mcast-rdv-address ${storageip} 2>/dev/null | partimage -f3 -b restore $part stdin;
else
# NEW: Added to make progress bar work for multi-partition image, added on 8/17/2011
if [ “$capone” == “1” ]; then
export FOGSTATS=“0”;
else
export FOGSTATS=“1”;
fi
fog.statusreporter $mac $web &
# CHANGED: next line add to end: 2>/tmp/status.fog
partimage restore $part $imgpart -f3 -b 2>/tmp/status.fog
fi
else
echo " * Partition File missing: $imgpart";
fi
[/CODE]

added bigger chunk of the code so you can work out what needs to be changed.
check out [URL=‘http://www.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/Modifying_the_Init_Image’]Modifying the Init Image[/URL] in the wiki.

hope this helps

it does indeed! i’ve had a quick flick through the sourcecode and can’t see where or how it compiles the gui for partimage, it uses something called glade? i don’t suppose it’s something you could work your magic on is it blackout?

no problem, do you want some want to come and doubt the spinning email icons with flames once the imaging is done?