Erwan's Blog – Page 22 – Yes : again another blog…

TinyPXE Server 1.0.0.16 is out

Boot, TinyPXE Server No Responses »

Jan 132014

fixed: remoteport=4011 when srcport=4011 -> was preventing some ipxe client to boot (uefi for exemple)
changed: opt60=empty by default when using opt67 (was ‘PXEClient’ before) -> was preventing ipxe client to boot with opt67
changed: opt60=’PXEClient’ when proxydhcp=1 (was hardcoded before) -> more flexible
fixed: xid is now displayed correctly -> was reversed order
fixed: was sending an empty boot filename in proxydhcp in the dhcp_offer stage -> removed, was preventing proxydhcp+opt67
changed: bind=true by default when multiple interfaces detected -> was preventing pxe boot with multiple interfaces when bind=false

Discuss it here.

Boot WINPE over PXE on a UEFI computer

Boot, TinyPXE Server, WinPE 78 Responses »

Jan 122014

Here below some drafts notes on how to boot WINPE on a UEFI computers.

1/Files you need from your windows x64 dvd

-\efi\boot\bootx64.efi file (1)
-\efi\boot\bcd file (2)
-\efi\boot\boot.sdi file (3)
-\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts folder (4)
-\sources\boot.wim (5)

If you dont find bootx64.efi, you can use bootmgfw.efi which is in install.wim on your dvd (sources folder).
Use 7zip to extract this file from the wim file and rename it to bootx64.efi

2/Files you need in your tftp root

-get in your tftp root
put bootx64.efi (from 1)
-create a SOURCES folder
put boot.wim in there (from 5)
-create a BOOT folder
put boot.sdi in there (from 3)
put bcd in there (from 2) / applies for Win8
-create a EFI/MICROSOFT/BOOT folder
put bcd in there (from 2) / applies for Win7
put the FONT folder in there (from 4)

You should end up with the following :
=>ROOT
-bootx64.efi
==>SOURCES
==boot.wim
==>BOOT
==boot.sdi
==bcd (for win8)
==>EFI/MICROSOFT/BOOT
==bcd (for win7)
===>FONTS
===*.ttf

3/Things you need to do on your boot.wim

Add the following winpeshl.ini (create it with notepad) file in your boot.wim (system32), making it a « cheap » winpe.

To modify your boot.wim, you can either mount/change/commit it with DISM (from the command line), or with CloneDisk or else modify it with wimlib :
wimlib-imagex update boot.wim 1 --command="add CustomWinpeshl.ini \Windows\System32\winpeshl.ini"

[LaunchApps] %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Windows\system32\startnet.cmd %SYSTEMDRIVE%\windows\system32\cmd.exe

4/Things you need to do in your PXE Server :

Set bootx64.efi as the bootp filename.

The UEFI + PXE boot process will be the following :
–pxe->bootx64.efi (from windows install dvd)->bcd (pointing to winload.efi)->boot.wim (x64 only)

as opposed to a legacy bios computer :
–pxe->pxeboot.n12 (from windows install dvd)-> bootmgr.exe -> bcd (pointing to winload.exe) -> boot.wim

Site note : you can use option dhcp 252 to decide which BCD file to load.
Can be handy when you want to switch from a UEFI computer to a legacy BIOS computer : efi\microsoft\boot or boot\bcd

side note : you can check if you booted on uefi with the following reg query HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control /v PEFirmwareType Will output 0x1 for bios, 0x2 for uefi.

Cheers,
Erwan

Note that the following would aso work : PXE-> IPXE.efi ->MS Bootx64.efi ->BCD (winload.efi) ->Boot.wim (x64).

Ipxe script
#!ipxe #change with you dhcp or proxydhcp server set next-server 192.168.1.11 set filename boot/x64/bootmgfw.efi chain tftp://${next-server}/${filename}

And changes to apply to your BCD : bcdedit.exe /store my.bcd /set {bootmgr} nointegritychecks yes

Clonedisk v2.0.2 is out

clonedisk No Responses »

Jan 122014

Clonedisk now supports WIM format to backup/restore a logical disk.
Clonedisk currently focuses on 2 standard format : RAW and WIM.

In the advanced menu, one can also retrieve WIM informations, capture/apply, export, mount …

Discuss it here.

Cheers,
Erwan

How to install Windows (7 or 8) thru WINPE, via PXE

Boot, PXE, TinyPXE Server 6 Responses »

Jan 112014

There are times where you may not have a dvd drive or media available, or else, you may also want to perform some tasks before triggering the windows setup.

Agenda

Prepare winpe with QuickPE
Prepare the ipxe script
Prepare the PXE server with TinyPxe Server
Boot to winpe and Install windows
Reboot and complete the installation on the local drive

Prepare winpe with QuickPE

You can either use MS WAIK (winpe3), or MS ADK (winpe4) or an existing windows setup DVD or ISO file.
Launch _run_me.cmd and make your choice.

Prepare the ipxe script

The following will attach an iscsi drive and will boot your winpe

#!ipxe dhcp net0 set boot-url http://${dhcp-server} initrd ${boot-url}/images/winpe4.iso kernel ${boot-url}/memdisk iso raw boot

Prepare the PXE server with TinyPxe Server

Use ipxe-undionly.kpxe as « boot file name » and the above script (name it install.ipxe) as « filename if user-class=iPXE »

Boot to Winpe

Now lets network boot (pxe as first device in the bios).
Computer will pxe boot, load ipxe, then load your script.
The script will boot into winpe.

Now we are ready to perform the installation : map a drive thanks to PeNetwork (in the tinyshell launchbar) and map a network share containing your windows installation files.
You could eventually script this part (in batch file) :
net use \\servername\sharename /user:username password \\servername\sharename\setup.exe

Note1 : CloneDisk can also mount a virtual dvd drive from an iso file (only in winpe4).

Note2 : Rather than launching the setup.exe from the windows DVD, you can also apply a wim file to the target drive using imagex (or clonedisk).
If so, then remember that you need to prepare the drive (partition active, boot sector …).
Example code using imagex (we’ll assume the partition has been made active already) :
Imagex /apply \\servername\sharename\install.wim 1 c: bcdboot c:\windows /s c: bootsect /nt60 c: /mbr

Launch the windows setup and let it run.

Reboot to local drive

Windows should the complete the installation, and reboot one last to your windows desktop.

See below a video demonstrating the above steps.

Synology DS210j and SQUID

synology No Responses »

Déc 272013

For a while, I was (very) upset with ads on my tablets (android and ipad).
And unlike browsers on my windows (firefox or chrome) I could not find something like adblock for ipad.

Therefore I decided to setup a squid on my synology ds210j and to setup an adblock like in squid.
And success, no more nasty popups, quicker web sites, etc 🙂

the steps:

-install ipkg (see here for an how to, in french sorry).
-install squid : ipkg install squid
-customize squid.conf
-use a list of domain you wish to block (i used a list from this site)

my list of blocked domains : denied_domains

my squid.conf
negative_dns_ttl 10 second connect_timeout 60 second read_timeout 60 second request_timeout 60 second cache_dir ufs /opt/var/squid/cache 512 16 256 cache_access_log /opt/var/squid/logs/access.log cache_log /opt/var/squid/logs/debug cache_store_log /opt/var/squid/logs/storage acl all src all acl manager proto cache_object acl localhost src 127.0.0.1/32 acl to_localhost dst 127.0.0.0/8 0.0.0.0/32


acl localnet src 192.168.1.0/24
#on which ports do we allow connections using the proxy

acl SSL_ports port 443        # https

acl Safe_ports port 80        # http

acl Safe_ports port 21        # ftp

acl Safe_ports port 443        # https

acl purge method PURGE

acl CONNECT method CONNECT

#acl url_ads url_regex "/opt/etc/squid/denied_ads.txt"

acl denied_domains dstdomain "/opt/etc/squid/denied_domains.txt"
#http_access deny url_ads

http_access deny denied_domains

http_access allow localnet

http_access allow manager localhost

http_access deny manager

http_access deny !Safe_ports

http_access deny CONNECT !SSL_ports

http_access allow localhost

http_access deny all

miss_access allow all
http_port 8080

via off forwarded_for off header_access From deny all header_access Server deny all header_access WWW-Authenticate deny all header_access Link deny all header_access Cache-Control deny all header_access Proxy-Connection deny all header_access X-Cache deny all header_access X-Cache-Lookup deny all header_access Via deny all header_access Forwarded-For deny all header_access X-Forwarded-For deny all header_access Pragma deny all header_access Keep-Alive deny all

note : you can use the dns_nameservers directive in squid.conf to use specific dns servers (i use opendns).
note : you can set a vpn client on your synology and your proxy will then use a different network (i use vyrvpn from giganews)
note : you can tweak your dhcp server to set the proxy for your clients automatically (see here)

VB.Net and XNA : Tiled Map Editor

dotnet, xna No Responses »

Déc 082013

As seen in article 19 (a platform game), I had came up with a text file format which I used to create levels.

I was about to start coding a level editor when I came on this editor : http://www.mapeditor.org/ .
This is freeware and it seems active enough.
Note : a nice thread here around possible tile editors.

I decided to use it with my current game project (a platform).
I choose the xml format (tmx format). See an example here : level .

I then had to code a method to parse the xml file.
In the process I also completed the multi-tiles to one block trick to avoid the edge-catching bug.
I also managed the texture tiling.

A class to create level in a farseer world will come in a next article.

Here below a screenshot of a level made with Tiled.

Here below a video playing this level.

VB.Net and XNA : Article 23 – Use DebugViewXNA in Farseer

dotnet, xna No Responses »

Déc 052013

Farseer has one specific not always easy to deal with : your world is meant in KMS (kilo meter second) whereas your rendering is in pixel.
Added to that, your world and rendering are two complete different things which does not make it easy to debug.

This where the DebugViewXNA class kicks in : it will render your world 🙂
This and a few other things like stats, datas, etc.

The how to use the DebugViewXNA class is rather easy :

–add the project reference to debugview.xna.dll
–add an imports to FarseerPhysics.DebugView
–declare a _debugView As DebugViewXNA
–set it up in loadcontent (for instance) :
_debugView = New DebugViewXNA(world) _debugView.AppendFlags(DebugViewFlags.DebugPanel) _debugView.DebugPanelPosition = New Vector2(15, 15) _debugView.DefaultShapeColor = Color.White _debugView.SleepingShapeColor = Color.LightGray _debugView.LoadContent(GraphicsDevice, Content)
-use it in your draw method (after your spritebatch.end) :
Dim projection As Matrix = Matrix.CreateOrthographicOffCenter(0.0F, graphics.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width * DrawablePhysicsObject.pixelToUnit, graphics.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height * DrawablePhysicsObject.pixelToUnit, 0.0F, 0.0F, 1.0F) _debugView.RenderDebugDataVB(projection)

A video to illustrate switching between rendering and debugging.

VB.Net and XNA : Recap #3

dotnet, xna No Responses »

Déc 032013

Recap #3 of recent articles around VB.Net and XNA :

VB.Net and Article 22 : 2 classes to handle character move
VB.Net and Article 21 : A simple 2D camera Version 2
VB.Net and XNA : Article 20 – A simple 2D camera
VB.Net and XNA : Article 19 – A platform game with FPE 3.5
XNA to Monogame part2
XNA to Monogame part1
VB.Net and XNA : Article 18 – Get text input from user
VB.Net and XNA : Article 17 – Farseer mouse joint & body from texture
VB.Net and XNA : Article 16 – Animating a sprite

Recap #2 of recent articles around VB.Net and XNA :

VB.Net and XNA : Vrooom V3 (car racing game)
VB.Net and XNA : PixDead by my 12 years old son 🙂
VB.Net and XNA : Article 15 – Screen Manager (i.e multi screens in XNA)
VB.Net and XNA : Article 14 – simple buttons
VB.Net and XNA : Article 13 – First steps with Farseer Physics Engine
VB.Net and XNA : Article 12 – Pixel collision on rotated shapes
VB.Net and XNA : Article 11 – Use a gamepad
VB.Net and XNA : Article 10 – A simple progressbar
XNA Games : how to distribute with Inno Setup

previous recap of recent articles around VB.Net and XNA :

VB.Net and XNA : Article 9 – A Pong Game
VB.Net and XNA : Vroom V1
VB.Net and XNA : Article 8 (pixel collision)
VB.Net and XNA : Article 7 (Scrolling)
VB.Net and XNA : Article 6 (move a texture, add a background, play some sound)
VB.Net and XNA : Article 5 (mouse input)
VB.NET and XNA : Article 4 (keyboard input)
VB.NET and XNA : Article 3 (draw text)
VB.Net and XNA : Article 2 (moving texture)
VB.Net and XNA : Article 1 (skeleton class)
VB.Net and XNA : Article 0 (introduction)

VB.Net and Article 22 : 2 classes to handle character move

dotnet, xna No Responses »

Déc 032013

In previous article, I have regularly used either a rotating sprite (a car, a rocket, a tank, etc) OR an animated sprite (a walking character).

Here below these 2 classes.
You can use them in as a quick start for a game so that you dont have to bother with this part.

To use it the animated class :
–declare it Dim animated As Animated
–load it animated = New Animated(mTexture, 1, position, 0, 28, 32)
–update it animated.Update(position, direction_)
–draw it animated.Draw(spriteBatch)

Same goes with the rotating class :
–declare it Dim rotated As rotated
–load it rotated = New rotated(texture, _scale, New Vector2(50, 50), New Vector2(0, 0), _rotation, _speed)
–update it rotated.Update(_rotation, _speed)
–draw it rotated.Draw(SpriteBatch)

The animated class here : clsRotated .
The rotating class here : clsAnimated .

VB.Net and Article 21 : A simple 2D camera Version 2

dotnet, xna No Responses »

Déc 022013

This time, lets add a zoom and rotating effect on our camera.

And lets re use the rotated sprite class you may have seen in Article 12 – Pixel collision on rotated shapes.

The only major change in the camera is the following where we will now use the position + rotation + zoom.
viewmatrix = Matrix.CreateTranslation(New Vector3(-position, 0)) * Matrix.CreateRotationZ(_rotation) * Matrix.CreateScale(New Vector3(_zoom, _zoom, 1))

The video.

The source code.
XNA_DEMO_20.2

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