Posts made by MichaelDigital

Thanks, this will help out greatly!!!

That’s great. Do you know any resources or where I might find directions for creating an xml unattended file?

Thanks for the clarification chad-bisd. By chance, would your walk threw listed above work with Windows 7, or even XP?

[quote=“chad-bisd, post: 22030, member: 18”]The hardest part about sysprep is getting your unattend.xml file prepared and learning some of the finer points of using sysprep with the FOG client and Windows/Office activation.[/quote]

But according to that video, no XML file was mentioned. Would one need an XML file to finetune the sysprep or could one simply follow the short instructions in that video and be okay? Also, I found this software to help with capturing windows and office activation. I dont know how well it is, because i have not tried it yet.
[url]http://joshcellsoftwares.com/products/advancedtokensmanager/#[/url]!

Hi guys,
Been working with FOG for a couple years now, but have never had the need to use sysprep for our purposes. I nailed a new job I will be starting soon, and they use sysprep when imaging. I don’t have any experience using sysprep but i’d like to at least become familiar with the process before having to put my skills into production. I found this quick video from MS and from the video, it makes me think the sysprep task is really simple. Here is the video: [url]http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preparing-an-image-using-sysprep-and-imagex.aspx[/url]
Is syspreping an image really this simple or am I missing something?
Thanks for your input!!

Thanks!
I will try this out out over the weekend in a VM and go from there!

Greetings all,

I am wondering, where can I download a copy of .33b? I’m eager to do some testing and if I can contribute any to the project I would love to.

Thanks,
Michael

Just an update everyone,

After hour and hours of research, I have found a way to convert a system GPT partition to MBR without losing data. I compiled a crude walkthrew for everyone.

[LIST=1]
[][FONT=Calibri]Boot your Fedora 16 Live media (I used Ubuntu and replaced yum with apt-get) and wait for your session to start. If you’re having troubles booting, press Tab at the boot loader screen and try booting with the [SIZE=12px][FONT=Monaco]nomodeset[/FONT][/SIZE] parameter added.[/FONT]
[][FONT=Calibri]Depending on your graphics card, you’ll either be presented with the new Gnome 3 Shell or with the traditional interface. Start a terminal session by putting your mouse in the top right corner of the screen and typing “terminal” in the search (Gnome Shell) or by selecting Applications > System Tools > Terminal (traditional interface)[/FONT]
[][FONT=Calibri]Install gdisk:[/FONT]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Monaco][FONT=Calibri]su -
yum -y install gdisk[/FONT][/FONT][/SIZE]
[FONT=Calibri]This may take a few moments.[/FONT]
[][FONT=Calibri]Make a backup of your current GPT scheme:[/FONT]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Monaco][FONT=Calibri]gdisk -b sda-preconvert.gpt /dev/sda[/FONT][/FONT][/SIZE]
[][FONT=Calibri]Now we will attempt to convert your GPT disk layout to MS-DOS/MBR. Start gdisk:[/FONT]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Monaco][FONT=Calibri]gdisk /dev/sda[/FONT][/FONT][/SIZE]
[FONT=Calibri]
You should be prompted with:[/FONT]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Monaco][FONT=Calibri]Command (? for help):[/FONT][/FONT][/SIZE]
[][FONT=Calibri]Press [SIZE=12px][FONT=Monaco]r[/FONT][/SIZE] to start recovery/transformation.[/FONT]
[][FONT=Calibri]Press [SIZE=12px][FONT=Monaco]g[/FONT][/SIZE] to convert GPT to MBR.[/FONT]
[][FONT=Calibri]Press [SIZE=12px][FONT=Monaco]p[/FONT][/SIZE] to preview the converted MBR partition table.[/FONT]
[][FONT=Calibri]Make any modification necessary to the partition layout. See Rod Smith’s [URL=‘http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/mbr2gpt.html#gpt2mbr’][COLOR=#047ac6]Converting to or from GPT[/COLOR][/URL] page for more details on this.[/FONT]
[][FONT=Calibri]When you’re happy with the MS-DOS/MBR layout, press [SIZE=12px][FONT=Monaco]w[/FONT][/SIZE] to write changes to the disk.[/FONT]
[][FONT=Calibri]Shutdown Fedora 16 and boot from the Windows 7 installation media[/FONT]
[][FONT=Calibri]Enter your language & keyboard layout and then select the option to repair your computer in the bottom left corner.[/FONT]
[][FONT=Calibri]From the available options, select Startup Repair. Windows will ask for a reboot.[/FONT]
[][FONT=Calibri]Follow the previous three steps again to boot the Windows 7 installation and run startup repair[/FONT]
[][FONT=Calibri]Once again, boot the Windows 7 installation media but this time opt to open a command prompt instead of choosing startup repair. Type:[/FONT]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=Monaco][FONT=Calibri]bootrec /scanos
bootrec /rebuildbcd
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot[/FONT][/FONT][/SIZE]
[][FONT=Calibri]Close the command prompt and run Startup Repair one last time.[/FONT]
[/LIST]
[FONT=Calibri][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=14px]Some noted they were successful with skipping the 2nd and 3rd startup repair in the windows 7 install disk. I did all steps. The Rebuildbcd and fixboot threw me an error. That’s when i discovered the next steps necessary.[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=14px][/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT]
[COLOR=#000000][SIZE=14px][FONT=Helvetica][FONT=Calibri]THEN…[/FONT][/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][SIZE=14px][FONT=Helvetica][FONT=Calibri][/FONT][/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]
[SIZE=15px][FONT=Helvetica][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Calibri]1: Boot into gparted[/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=15px][FONT=Helvetica][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Calibri]2: Right click on partition with windows[/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=15px][FONT=Helvetica][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Calibri]3: Flag as boot[/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=15px][FONT=Helvetica][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Calibri]4: Run windows recovery to fix any other errors (using startup repair, and sometimes when it scans for OS’s it repairs automatically) Run windows recovery startup repair twice.[/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=15px][FONT=Helvetica][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=15px][FONT=Helvetica][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE]
[FONT=Calibri][FONT=Helvetica][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=15px]I followed each step listed in order and was able to [/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=15px]successfully[/SIZE][/COLOR][FONT=Helvetica][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=15px] complete this operation. UEFI is here to stay so I hope that .33 supports GPT partitions and UEFI,[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][FONT=Helvetica][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=15px][/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT][/FONT]

Greetings Everyone.

I really need some help. I have been tasked with the imaging and deployment of 135 Acer Veriton Nettop PCs for one of our clients. Problem is, I can’t get FOG to image and deploy correctly with these Nettops. The PC’s have Windows 7 installed using a GPT Partition table instead of MBR and FOG is not liking it. First try, it appeared I was able to upload an image successfully but could not push it out. After the disk settled down it breezed threw the rest in a matter of couple seconds with a “task complete”. The Disks have 4 partitions. I have sought after software that would allow me to convert these partitions to MBR without loosing data but have found none compatible with system disks. Reinstalling Windows with a MBR partition is not an option due to licencing issues. I need to either be able to successfully pull and push an image with the existing windows 7 installed or somehow convert the partition table to MBR without data loss. (the bios supports legacy boot). Any help would be appreciated!!!

[quote=“Ozzy, post: 12320, member: 3595”]Chad,

Hope this can be used to update the wiki.

[B]How to Build a Custom Kernel for FOG Server using Ubuntu 12.04[/B]

First, make sure you have [B]G++ (GNU C++ compiler) and QT4 (Qt 4 Designer) [/B]installed through the Ubuntu software center.

Next, pick a Linux kernel you want to use to compile the kernel at [URL=‘http://www.kernel.org’]www.kernel.org[/URL]. (Used linux-3.10-rc2.tar.xz for this document; [url]https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/testing/linux-3.10-rc2.tar.xz[/url]) Download the file to the ‘home/user/Downloads/’ directory. (default)

Then, download the Fog installation package installer. (Current version 0.32;[url]http://sourceforge.net/projects/freeghost/files/FOG/fog_0.32/fog_0.32.tar.gz/download[/url]) Make sure to download to the ‘home/user/Downloads/’ directory. (default)

Now we will extract the files to their proper locations.

First, extract the FOG installer to the download folder. (see below for command)
[B]sudo [/B][B][FONT=Tahoma]tar -xvf /home/user/Downloads/fog_0.32.tar.gz[/FONT][/B]

Then, we will want to extract the kernel to the ‘/usr/src/kernels/’ directory. If the directory does not exist create it. You will also need to copy the tar.gz file to the kernels directory in order to extract properly. (see below for commands)
[B]sudo mkdir /usr/src/kernels/[/B]
[B]sudo cp /home/user/Downloads/linux-3.10-rc2.tar.xz /usr/src/kernels/[/B]
[B]cd /usr/src/kernels/[/B]
[B]sudo tar –xvf linux-3.10-rc2.tar.xz[/B]

Now we can either use CORE or Kitchen Sink to create the kernel.

To use [B]Core[/B] use the following command:
[B]sudo cp [/B][B][FONT=Tahoma]/home/username/Downloads/fog_0.32/kernel/core.config /usr/src/kernels/linux-3.10-rc2/.config[/FONT][/B]

To use [B]Kitchen Sink[/B] use the following command:
[B]sudo cp [/B][B][FONT=Tahoma]/home/username/Downloads/fog_0.32/kernel/kitchensink.config /usr/src/kernels/linux-3.10-rc2/.config[/FONT][/B]

Once the .config file is copied to /usr/src/kernels/ you can now run the make xconfig command.
[B]cd /usr/src/kernels/linux-3.10-rc2[/B]
[B]sudo make xconfig[/B]

Now the kernel editor should pop-up after a few seconds. Here is where you will locate and select/deselect drivers you want to load to your custom kernel. (see screenshot for example)

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/a49MUxh.jpg?1[/IMG]

Once you are done with your selections just [B]save and quit[/B].

Now you have to run one final command to write the kernel file.

For 64-bit systems:
[B][FONT=Tahoma]sudo make ARCH=i386 bzImage[/FONT][/B]

[FONT=Tahoma]For 32-bit systems:[/FONT]
[B][FONT=Tahoma]sudo make bzImage[/FONT][/B]

[FONT=Tahoma]You may get a few prompts during the compile, I just used default options (enter). It will take a while (10-30 minutes) to compile the kernel so be patient.[/FONT]

[FONT=Tahoma]Now that you have created a custom kernel you will need to copy/cut the file to your FOG server.[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma]Go to the [B]/usr/src/kernels/linux-3.10-rc2/arch/x86/boot/[/B] directory to find the new [B]bzImage[/B] file you created. That is the file you need to import to your FOG server kernels directory in order to use it. (You can rename it or use the new kernel as the default kernel for FOG to use if you leave the name bzImage)[/FONT]

[FONT=Tahoma]The directory where you should paste the new kernel is /tftpboot/fog/kernel/ on the FOG server.[/FONT]

[FONT=Tahoma]Make sure you assign the custom kernel to the proper host in the FOG management GUI and then you should be able to Upload/Deploy. You might need to add the host manually; you’ll just need the MAC address of the NIC for the host.[/FONT]

[B][I][FONT=Tahoma]Written by Ozzy[/FONT][/I][/B][/quote]

Awesome walk threw!!! I was able to build a custom kernel and it worked great. Thanks!

[quote=“Jaymes Driver, post: 12587, member: 3582”]What recommendation did you try?

Did you add the delay to the init.d file or did you change the way the job starts? I would like to find out if the “[I][SIZE=12px]start on (local-filesystems and net-device-up IFACE!=lo)” [/SIZE][/I][SIZE=12px]works or not :)[/SIZE][/quote]

I changed start on (local-filesystems and net-device-up IFACE!=lo)
I suppose if i had done more digging i would have known to try it. Thanks again Jaymes!

[quote=“Jaymes Driver, post: 12571, member: 3582”]the problem is with the way that ubuntu loads the tftp client, it starts the service too early and an ip address is not assigned.

This is a commonly known issue with that distribution, and a search would reveal a number of posts that have already been created for that specific problem, and the resolve we have is to delay the start of the service.

you can either run a command to restart the service
[B]sudo service tftpd-hpa restart[/B]
or you can put a delay to start the service
edit your /etc/rc.local and include
/bin/sleep30 && /etc/init.d/tftpd-hpa restart

I found a resolve that I keep posting but no one ever tells me if it works or not…

I am experiencing this problem in Ubuntu 12.04 Desktop (package: tftpd-5.2-1ubuntu1). The tftpd daemon does not start when the computer starts up, even though the tftpd-hpa job starts. As far as I can tell, the problem is that the tftpd service is starting before the network is properly configured. The problem seemed to go away when I changed the line
start on runlevel [2345]
in /etc/init/tftpd-hpa.conf to

start on (local-filesystems and net-device-up IFACE!=lo)

here is the post [url]http://fogproject.org/forum/threads/have-to-manually-start-dhcp-and-tftp-service-after-each-reboot.4232/[/url]
and another
[url]http://fogproject.org/forum/threads/pxe-e32-tftf-open-timeout.4146/#post-11644[/url]
where I keep doing the good Samaritan thing and doing the searching for you, I don’t mind but this is getting a bit ridiculous.[/quote]

It works!!! THANKS!!!

[quote=“ITSolutions, post: 12536, member: 4222”]I have set up 5 FOG .32 systems, all running Ubuntu 12.04. They all worked without an issue and I would recommend that you use 12.04 as it is a current LTS release of Ubuntu and will be supported for 5 yrs, so until 2017. This should avoid having to link to old repos. I personally have used the desktop version most of the time, simply due to the moderate requirement differences and sometimes easier when I am assisting a newbie configure the machine. But even with the server edition I had no troubles.[/quote]

Friend,

I tried your suggestion once more with using Ubuntu 12.04, but i am recieving an error PXE-E32 TFTP open timeout on the client screen. Can you tell me what might be causing this and how to fix this?

Greetings all,

I have been searching for months and trying different options with different Linux distros that are currently supported with FOG working on them. Well, perhaps it’s just me, but I have ALWAYS ran into one problem or another with getting FOG to work correctly. A few months ago, I finally found a distro that FOG works perfectly fine “out of the box” - Ubuntu 11.04. At the time I could still download repositories from archive.ubuntu.com no problem. Installed fog, didn’t have to modify not one file, it JUST WORKED. I go to create a new FOG machine for my company a few days ago, and i’m installing 11.04 and then i realize, Ubuntu can no longer download updates from the repo’s! The repo’s have been deleted! AAHH!!! Well i couldn’t figure out how to associate 11.04 with the 13.04 repo’s and it began to seem hopeless. Fortunately, one of my colleague’s found an old post about where Ubuntu moves their repo’s that are no longer supported or in archive. So again, I can use my tried and true distro of choice with fog! I would like to ease anyone new’s transition into the wonders of FOG by providing a guide and link to my Google Drive (where you can find the distro to download). PLEASE if someone else knows of a more current distro of Linux that “just works” or even with a little modification could work well, please let me know!!!

Begin by downloading Ubuntu 11.04 and installing it:
[url]https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-VEy_R4sHtUaGlHSDY4VlhzQWs/edit?usp=sharing[/url]

When don’t create an account with the name FOG. Use administrator.

Now,
After you installed 11.04, open a terminal
type: sudo passwd root
[I]it will ask for your admin password[/I]
[I]enter new root password which i leave same as admin password[/I]
[I]reenter it again[/I]

Next, we need to tell Ubuntu where it can find the old repositories from.
[SIZE=14px][FONT=Trebuchet MS][COLOR=#000000] edit your [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE][COLOR=#3366cc][FONT=Andale Mono][SIZE=14px]/etc/apt/sources.list[/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][SIZE=14px][FONT=Trebuchet MS][COLOR=#000000] and replace all instances of [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE][COLOR=#3366cc][FONT=Andale Mono][SIZE=14px]archive.ubuntu.com[/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][SIZE=14px][FONT=Trebuchet MS][COLOR=#000000] and [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE][COLOR=#3366cc][FONT=Andale Mono][SIZE=14px]security.ubuntu.com[/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][SIZE=14px][FONT=Trebuchet MS][COLOR=#000000] with [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE][COLOR=#3366cc][FONT=Andale Mono][SIZE=14px]old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu[/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR]
(I prefer NANO as it is easier for me to use than VI to edit text with)
ie.
su
nano /etc/apt/sources.list
After that, apt-get update and watch the updates start to roll. You will notice that just a couple will fail, dont worry, unless it’s more than 2 - 4 (can’t remember).

After apt repo has been updated, open Update Manager. Install all available updates. DO NOT UPGRADE TO 11.10!

Now, follow the instructions here [url]http://www.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/FOG_on_an_Isolated_Network[/url] if you are installing on an isolated network. If you are integrating it into an existing network, there are other guides you can use. Hope this helps. And if u got a newer distro that works well, let me know!!