bleedinggums
asked on
Diskless Win95 Setup Problem
I'm in the process of seting up diskless Win95 clients booting off on NT4.0 server. I'm almost through the setup procedure (Win95 rebooting to complete the setup) and I get the following error message "Cannot find or load required file KRNL386.EXE. The path was not found."
I'm using a 486 machine there is a hard drive in it now. I'm not using the bootrom yet I'm just trying to create a bootable diskette to create the bootimage. I have a machines.ini with appropriate settings. The registry is being set to the clients machine directory on NT server. The bootup echos that the registry is transfered to the right location.
I booted with a bootlog.txt and showed only four files that did not load:
loadfailed = ndis2sup.vxd
loadfailed = x:\system\vmm32\ebios.vxd
loadfailed = x:\system\vmm32\vshare.vxd
loadfailed = x:\system\vmm32\ebios.vxd
Now if the machine is a 486 would it need extended bios drivers? I don't think so but I could be wrong.
Good luck boys and girls.
I'm using a 486 machine there is a hard drive in it now. I'm not using the bootrom yet I'm just trying to create a bootable diskette to create the bootimage. I have a machines.ini with appropriate settings. The registry is being set to the clients machine directory on NT server. The bootup echos that the registry is transfered to the right location.
I booted with a bootlog.txt and showed only four files that did not load:
loadfailed = ndis2sup.vxd
loadfailed = x:\system\vmm32\ebios.vxd
loadfailed = x:\system\vmm32\vshare.vxd
loadfailed = x:\system\vmm32\ebios.vxd
Now if the machine is a 486 would it need extended bios drivers? I don't think so but I could be wrong.
Good luck boys and girls.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
A couple of spelling mistakes, should read:
I tried setting the adapter to SMCEtherEZ and I could NOT create a share to the machine share on the server.
Is it possible that after reboot the networking IS failling and the shares aren't there anymore or it doesn't know about the shares?
I tried setting the adapter to SMCEtherEZ and I could NOT create a share to the machine share on the server.
Is it possible that after reboot the networking IS failling and the shares aren't there anymore or it doesn't know about the shares?
BG, it looks to me that the net is dropping out on reboot. There's an easy way to check though. Take a look and see where your installing Krnl386.exe if at all. This may lead to a clue as to when or where the drop is occuring during the process. Since your load-in appears to be fine up to the point where Windows begins the GUI, I suspect that the dropout is occuring either just before or just after windows boots for the first time and the vxd's are being built, presuming that you are not push loading, but rather controlling the install from the server.
Yes, and it is possible networking is failing after the reboot, and it might be right as Windows sets up GUI.
Dennis
Yes, and it is possible networking is failing after the reboot, and it might be right as Windows sets up GUI.
Dennis
ASKER
OK
I tried booting into safe mode with network support and I got the following error:
"While initializing device VFBACKUP:
VFBACKUP could not load VFD.VXD. Please run setup again."
So I booted into command prompt only and that completed properly.
At that point I wanted to look at the registry so I typed:
regedit /l:.\system.dat /e .\system.txt
I searched for \hkey_local_machine\root\n
and it was not there which tells me the networking is not being setup properly.
microsoft answer to this is to reinstall, but I've done this more times than I care to remember and it hasn't changed jack...
In response to your last response all the files are in areas that should be accesible
win95\system\krnl386.exe
win95\system\vmm32\ebios.v
....
So when I boot off floppy it runs autoexec.bat asks me to log in, creates above shares, echoes path which includes above shares, transfer from micro registry on floppy to full registry on machine directory then craps out.
So where do I go from here?
I tried booting into safe mode with network support and I got the following error:
"While initializing device VFBACKUP:
VFBACKUP could not load VFD.VXD. Please run setup again."
So I booted into command prompt only and that completed properly.
At that point I wanted to look at the registry so I typed:
regedit /l:.\system.dat /e .\system.txt
I searched for \hkey_local_machine\root\n
and it was not there which tells me the networking is not being setup properly.
microsoft answer to this is to reinstall, but I've done this more times than I care to remember and it hasn't changed jack...
In response to your last response all the files are in areas that should be accesible
win95\system\krnl386.exe
win95\system\vmm32\ebios.v
....
So when I boot off floppy it runs autoexec.bat asks me to log in, creates above shares, echoes path which includes above shares, transfer from micro registry on floppy to full registry on machine directory then craps out.
So where do I go from here?
BG: There's 2 ways to handle this problem.
1. Would be to load the network inf files and drivers from Msbatch during the setup routine and just before the first boot into windows.
2. The other would be to create a setup on the machine and upload it to a server directory and push load it to the individual workstations (we push load here).
Let me know which flavor appeals to you!
Dennis
1. Would be to load the network inf files and drivers from Msbatch during the setup routine and just before the first boot into windows.
2. The other would be to create a setup on the machine and upload it to a server directory and push load it to the individual workstations (we push load here).
Let me know which flavor appeals to you!
Dennis
ASKER
Well Dennis
You're working hard to earn your points here.
Would there be problems doing 2 locally then switching to diskless after the fact?
I'll look into both options and see which one is better.
Thanks
You're working hard to earn your points here.
Would there be problems doing 2 locally then switching to diskless after the fact?
I'll look into both options and see which one is better.
Thanks
ASKER
Dennis
SUCCESS!!!!
I tried loading adapter drivers from SMC and that would cause a GPF in SETUPX.DLL so for the hell of it I tried the SMC drivers that came with win95 again and this time it worked. So know I can get it booting into Win95 off a floppy. Next step is to create image and work from there.
Thanks for all the feedback, it's nice to be able to bounce ideas around.
I'll give full marks after I submit this
L8R
Bleeding Gums
SUCCESS!!!!
I tried loading adapter drivers from SMC and that would cause a GPF in SETUPX.DLL so for the hell of it I tried the SMC drivers that came with win95 again and this time it worked. So know I can get it booting into Win95 off a floppy. Next step is to create image and work from there.
Thanks for all the feedback, it's nice to be able to bounce ideas around.
I'll give full marks after I submit this
L8R
Bleeding Gums
Okay BG: I'll wait on you!
Dennis
Dennis
ASKER
To start the setup I connected to the server after booting into dos622 and net using a couple of shares. I then start setup msbatch.inf via these shares. When I got to the networking portion the adapter was ndis in use (paraphrasing), so I think that ndis2sup.vxd might be part of the problem. I tried setting the adapter to SMCEtherEZ and I could create connect to the machine share on the server. I also verified that the adapter resources were correct.
Next upon reboot on the floopy, I echo the path and at that point the path is:
PATH=X:\;X:\COMMAND;x:\sys
net use X: \\CS1\WIN95
net use d: \\cs1\machines
so it should be finding the windows\system directory
Is it possible that after reboot the networking if failling and the shares aren't there anymore or it doesn't know about the shares?
What about when running netsetup copying using a drive instead of unc would that have set some registry values that are not the same with my client setup? (grasping at straws here)
Let me know.
Bleeding Gums