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DWMRC 6.7.x.x Mirror Driver & BartPE (WinPe / XPE)
by dcolpitts on Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:58 am
I've built a support CD that is based on BartPE with Sherpya's XPE plugin interface, using Windows Server 2003 R2 (so SP1) media, that allows us to either boot machines via PXE into BartPE, or using a ramdisk, boot.ini and winnt.sif on the machine's hard drive, boot a copy of our ISO image from a folder. I started out integrating DWMRC into my BartPE image back with version 6.4.0.5. I generally update my ISO image every month or so with the newest DWMRC, antivirus defs, other drivers, etc, and have never had issues using DWMRC until 6.7.0.x. Now when we attempted to connect to the machine booted with BartPE, we are getting the message that theMirror Driver is not able to load, or the machine needs to reboot for it to become active. Yeah, I know we can click by it, but it is a pain, and the performance over DSL to some client locations is less than acceptable.
To integrate DWMRC into the BartPE image, I have created a folder on the ISO image (\Programs\Dameware) and into there, I have placed DWRCK.dll, DWRCS.exe, DWRCSET.dll, DWRCSI.dll, and DWRCST.exe. Next, I've modified the start init for BartPe (actually I'm using Sherpya's XPE interface over top of BartPE) that adds two entries the Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx key:
%ProgramFiles%\Dameware\DWRCS.EXE -install <-- installs DWMRC + start it
net user administrator clear_text_password <-- creates administrator account and sets it's password as BartPE does not have user accounts as per se
This basically installs and starts DWRCS from %ProgramFiles%\Dameware without adding any files to the %systemroot%\system32 and %systemroot%\system32\drivers folers - and since the ISO image is read only, updating the %systemroot%\system32 and %systemroot%\system32\drivers folders is impossible anyways once it is booted.
So, my question is, what has changed in the mirror driver installation between 6.6.x.x and6.7.x.x and how do I go about integrating the mirror driver of 6.7.x.x into my BartPE ISO. I thought it may just be a matter of adding DamewareDisp.dll to system32 and DamewareMini.sys to drivers, and that they would already be there when the mirror driver tries to install, but that did not help. If I had a copy of the registry entries that DWMRC creates when it installs themirror driver, then I could embedded those in the system hive that exists prior to BartPE booting.
dcc
Dean Colpitts
Members IT Group
Salisbury, NB
Re: DWMRC 6.7.x.x Mirror Driver & BartPE (WinPe / XPE)
by bryan on Wed Mar 12, 2008 2:46 am
Hi Dean,
Basically nothing has changed in the Mirror Driver itself. The only thing new was the addition of the actual message, letting you know the Mirror Driver couldn't be initialized during this connection for some reason. For example, in a non-standard machine config when the Terminal Services Service has been disabled.
Previously under conditions like this the software would just connect without using the MirrorDriver when it couldn't be loaded for whatever reason. In other words, it would just automatically switch over to non-Mirror mode without notifying you. In this latest version we decided to notify the user of this condition, but all you should have to do is click on OK to continue your connection.
I hope this helps.
Bryan Brinkman
Support Engineer
DameWare Development, LLC.
http://www.dameware.com
Re: DWMRC 6.7.x.x Mirror Driver & BartPE (WinPe / XPE)
by andrewsun on Wed Mar 04, 2009 8:17 am
I used the same method to integrate DWMRC into windows PE 2. After the computer booted from this windows PE CD, DWRCS.EXE was installed fine and DWMRCS service was started as well. From another computer, dameware remote control is able to authenticate to it but the process stucked at "initializing desktop, please wait". This message stayed on screen and dameware remote control could not show the remote desktop. I have tried DWMRC 6.2.x, 6.7.x, 6.8.1.4 and windows PE 2.0, 2.1, 3, but no luck. Did I miss any step or there is some other reason? We are using windows PE CD to image computers at remote sites. It will be great helpful if DWMRCcan work on windows PE CD.
Re: DWMRC 6.7.x.x Mirror Driver & BartPE (WinPe / XPE)
by dcolpitts on Wed Mar 04, 2009 8:54 am
I'm not sure if this will help you or not, but I use Dameware with BartPE 3.1.10a and here is my plugin files:
CODE: SELECT ALL
; dameware.inf
; PE Builder v3 plug-in INF file for Dameware Mini Remote Control
; Created by Dean Colpitts, Members IT Group
[Version]
Signature= "$Windows NT$"
[PEBuilder]
Name="Dameware Remote Control Agent"
Enable=1
[WinntDirectories]
[SourceDisksFiles]
Files\System32\*.*=2,,3
[Software.AddReg]
; XPE Shortcuts
0x1,"Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx\900","198","||xpeinit.exe -f -s -m ""Starting Dameware Remote Client"" %Windir%\System32\DWRCS.EXE -install"
0x1,"Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx\900","199","||xpeinit.exe -f -s -m ""Starting Dameware Remote Client"" net user administrator password"
Note that the username / password to connect with is saved in clear text within the registry of BartPE and is assigned on the last line of of dameware.inf file.
Below is the script I use to ensure my Plugin folder is update to date from the current installed build on my BartPE compiling machine prior to building a new version of my BartPE image:
CODE: SELECT ALL
rem UPDATE_DAMEWARE_PLUGIN.CMD
C:
copy /y "C:\Program Files\DameWare Development\DameWare Mini Remote Control\DWRCK.dll" C:\_bartpe_3.1.10a_xpe\plugin\DAMEWARE\files\system32
copy /y "C:\Program Files\DameWare Development\DameWare Mini Remote Control\DWRCS.exe" C:\_bartpe_3.1.10a_xpe\plugin\DAMEWARE\files\system32
copy /y "C:\Program Files\DameWare Development\DameWare Mini Remote Control\DWRCSET.dll" C:\_bartpe_3.1.10a_xpe\plugin\DAMEWARE\files\system32
copy /y "C:\Program Files\DameWare Development\DameWare Mini Remote Control\DWRCShell.dlx" C:\_bartpe_3.1.10a_xpe\plugin\DAMEWARE\files\system32
copy /y "C:\Program Files\DameWare Development\DameWare Mini Remote Control\DWRCSI.dll" C:\_bartpe_3.1.10a_xpe\plugin\DAMEWARE\files\system32
copy /y "C:\Program Files\DameWare Development\DameWare Mini Remote Control\DWRCST.exe" C:\_bartpe_3.1.10a_xpe\plugin\DAMEWARE\files\system32
copy /y "C:\Program Files\DameWare Development\DameWare Mini Remote Control\DWRCST.exe.manifest" C:\_bartpe_3.1.10a_xpe\plugin\DAMEWARE\files\system32
I build my code from a mounted Windows 2003 SP1 ISO image on my BartPE development machine (actually it's a VM that I do my building in) and I use Sherpya's XPE 1.0.7 plugin for my user interface instead of the nu2menu. I use a default resolution of 1024 x 768 x 32bit.
Once we have the BartPE image created, we then install it into Windows boot loader (or boot.ini) and we also use it with PXE for reimaging / repairing machines at remote sites across the country. This way we can modify the boot.ini remotely to force the machine to boot the BartPE image without any user intervention, or if the machine's HDD is dead / blank / new, we can have the end user PXE boot the machine for us so we can re-image it / repair it as required.
Actually I used these methods yesterday at one client site to install Windows XP on a desktop that we didn't have an image for by invoking an unattended XP setup from within BartPE and once the pc rebooted, it automatically installed XP and joined the domain, where a GPO pushed the Dameware client to the machine and I was able to finish the software installation and customization of the machine.
I know for one thing for sure, BartPE & Dameware have significantly help us cut our response time and costs for reimaging / repairing remote machines.
dcc
Re: DWMRC 6.7.x.x Mirror Driver & BartPE (WinPe / XPE)
by andrewsun on Sat Mar 07, 2009 4:05 am
Hi Dean,
Your method works perfect on BartPE, however windows PE does not like it. I guess MS puts some restrictions on their PE. One benefit of winpe is that it has all device drivers we are using though it is easy to add device drivers to BartPE. I expect some one knows how to fix it on windows pe, otherwise I will switch to BartPE.
Re: DWMRC 6.7.x.x Mirror Driver & BartPE (WinPe / XPE)
by andrewsun on Thu Mar 26, 2009 7:38 am
PCAnywhere Thinhost is able to work well on Windows PE 2.0 and 3.0. Hope Dameware can develop a similar product as well.
Re: DWMRC 6.7.x.x Mirror Driver & BartPE (WinPe / XPE)
by guy on Tue May 11, 2010 11:58 am
I have not been able to make DW work with any WinPE at all it just saying "Initalzing Desktop. Please Wait...."
I've got a post running here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2052&p=5221#p5221
anyone have any ideas?
Re: DWMRC 6.7.x.x Mirror Driver & BartPE (WinPe / XPE)
by nhelp4k6 on Wed Jun 02, 2010 1:01 pm
I'm curious as to why folks are using mrc (or any similar product) in a PE environment - just not seeing the utility.
The core of WinPE hasn't changed much from 2.x to 3.0, the overview of what WinPE is designed and scoped for can be found here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd799308(WS.10).aspx
tl;dr: WinPE is designed to load the OS or prep hw for the OS, not to be the replacement....
Re: DWMRC 6.7.x.x Mirror Driver & BartPE (WinPe / XPE)
by guy on Tue Aug 10, 2010 5:48 am
The reason I want to use Dameware in PE is that I could remotely boot a PC but then I have no way to dial into the computer and kick off a build or recover a file etc.
Symantec have created PCAnywhere Thinhost for the exact reasons which I want but it's stupidly expensive.