Windows Server 2003 RELEASED

[Mevi]

It's been a long time since I've run a windows machine at home at this spec level. Very hazy memories of Windows 98SE and using defrag tools to get the page file on the outside sectors of the HDD platter. I've not needed a page file since about 2004!

I ordered one of the 16GB Kingspec sticks - I was lured by the higher read/write speeds above those of the 8GB.

[pete]

Yes it was the 90's and initially a race between IBM OS2 and Windows 95; who was going to win. IBM OS2 initially got out of the door first; but totally plagued with driver issues; I remember have to look and find drivers for sound , video, etc; difficult at the time. Windows 95 came and ran circles around IBM OS2. Before that though my favorite was the C-64/C-128 and Amiga. The Amiga was way ahead of its time. Think I still have both a C-64 and Amiga around; saved for who knows what for. I think I have an old Atari 2600 and a box of games.

[danfoshizzle]

sorry for not posting in a while, local store ran out of psus so i ordered one will be here wednesday, so that kinda halts all progress for the time being

sorry guys

[Mevi]

Not a problem, Dan.

I found pstools which can kill processes without any service dependencies and change the auto login password. Then added that password to the registry. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... s/bb896649

Useful suite of command line tools.

[Mevi]

My first PC was a Pentium p120 & Windows 95. With a 3dfx card, Quake played well, but it could only just about manage a game of Half Life when it came out. Ah, memories. The good old days, eh?

[danb79]

i remember my first computer was an atari 64! and i currently have an old pentium2 400Mhz 128mb ram running XP! i use it as a basic home fileserver.

danfoshizzle, looking forward to the next release happy to wait. I realy appreciate your work.

[BuZz]

i remember my first computer was an atari 64!

is that a bit like a sinclair amiga ?

[danb79]

yes it is, i got the name slightly wrong it was an Atari 65XE

[BuZz]

OT: nice machine. i have an 800xl and a 130xe here. Love the look of the 800xl design most though

[noodles2k]

There seems to be an error in the current (25th Oct) image, as it won't boot. Moving xom.efi. vga.rom and boot.nsh from EFI/workingefi to EFI/ fixed it.

[Mevi]

The registry setting for windows Internet time to work with the Joggler (ignoring the system date being 6+ years behind) is:

Subkey
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config

Change MaxPosPhaseCorrection to FFFFFFFF.

I think that should work until about 2045.

[danb79]

dont think its been mentiond so... try chrometouch addon for google chrome makes chrome browser finger friendly

[Mevi]

I'll check that one out. I use a tiny wireless keyboard/trackpad which is quite nice to use and the dongle doesn't take up much juice so I'm still on an unpowered hub.

I tried changing the Ethernet adapter's IP address to static and on the next power cycle it failed to boot much beyond crcdisk.sys - started redrawing the screen and stuck there with no disk access. That was the only thing that had changed between boots. Might be one to watch out for. The reason I changed it anyway, was down to a DNS problem with the current build - VNC will only connect for me using the IP address and not the machine name.

Once this Joggler is set up (again), I'll stop fiddling with it. Now we have Windows, I have just bought a second one. Winning bid of £43 on eBay.

[pete]

There is still an ethernet "problem" which requires some manual intervention; which is a PITA.

The last reboot it stayed at the crcdisk.sys; so I tried unplugging the now Gb connected interface for a second or two; then plugged it back in; and it booted via the NIC. I would indeed like to make it a bit more plug n play with a 100% reboot to the NIC with every cold or warm boot.

With the Joggler running Ubuntu; it'll boot using the NIC 100% of the time; whether its a cold or warm boot.

[Mevi]

crap. Do you mean I've just rebuilt my Joggler when I just needed to unplug the Ethernet? AAAAAAAAGH!

Hilarious.

[pete]

I think the issue with the NIC is related to the power saving "stuff". There is some power on the NIC still when you unplug the Joggler.

That though is my best guess combing through some google searches and specfically with the Realtek NIC card / drivers and specfically to Wintel.

The NIC doesn't have its own MAC address is another concern; but not really a big deal as you can let it do its own thing or write a new MAC address. I think there is a way to write to the firmware on the NIC such that it has a MAC address. You have to do it in DOS with modified FW. This FW and Updater are on the Realtek site.

Ideally some means of doing some sort of cold reset to the NIC before Wintel tries / attempts to utilize it would be optimal.

Apologies; I thought I mentioned this before; as I have too "redone"/"rebuilt" both Wintel images a "few" times in the last few weeks.

Driver mentioned and included in the last W2003 update "seems" to work the best; but there is still an issue. If you power down the Joggler via Wintel; there is still power on the bus (sleeping of sorts).

Try keeping the NIC disconnected up until the middle of the boot process in either the W2003 or XPSP3 image. I'm seeing that it'll boot utilizing the NIC 100% of the time (well I've only tried it maybe 10 times) if I plug in the NIC in the middle of the boot process.

[Mevi]

No need to apologise.

I'd been using WIFI up til today and it never occurred to me to read up first. I'm still surprised it boots Windows at all.

Not so much of a problem for me as my boot is still a whole lot of carefully timed plugging in at various stages of boot. 2nd USB stick, keyboard dongle and now Ethernet.

I only stopped using WIFI as we already have 2 iphones, 2 laptops, 1 ipad, 1 PC & a Wii all fighting for a connection. All the other stuff (another 2 PCs & XBOX 360) is connected via powerline or ethernet. To say we're a heavy internet usage family is an understatement.

[Mevi]

A quick Google found a how-to for writing a MAC into the registry. When my 2nd Joggler arrives in the next few days, I'll see what happens when I pull the wifi adapter and write it's MAC into the registry for the NIC.

http://www.ehow.com/how_7287670_change- ... gedit.html

[pete]

Thanks Mevi.

I am getting better cold/warm reboot HW NIC thing with the WLAN USB stick inside of the Joggler than not present in the Joggler.

Instead of making up new MAC's I'm just using the MAC address from the WLAN cards. I'm currently testing now with 1 Joggler without the USB WLAN card and 2 Jogglers with the WLAN card inside (although I will be removing the inside WLAN cards).

I believe though the NIC issue though is only partly due to the not having a MAC address when first booting; a firmware upgrade though putting a MAC address in the NIC firmware might fix the rest of the problems with the NIC card though.

[Mevi]

I'm less confident about flashing the NIC... not that I don't think that it'll work, I'm just nervous of borking my HW!!!! haha. I'll leave it to those who know what they're doing. I'll continue to google for a SW workaround as it's the windows part of the boot that is stalling on mine.

edit: Googling similar problems seems to trace back to the driver, so I wonder if disabling the network driver with DevCon or similar as part of a shutdown batch file and re-enabling them at the end of the boot up makes a difference. Be nice to get a working unattended reboot.