You Want me to stick What Where Installing XP on the Intel Mac

1
You Want me to stick What Where?Installing XP on
the Intel Mac

• Vince Spiars
• Wesleyan University
• Jan. 30, 2007 (revised April 26)

2
The concept of XP on a Mac

• Users need 1 to several PC-only apps to do their
  job but prefer or need a Mac for the majority of
  their work
• They are just stubborn and dont want to learn
  the Mac version/equivilant

3
How Windows on Intel Macs came to be

• Apple switched to Intel chips from the PPC unit
  supplied from Motorola and IBM.
• First units hit the street in Jan.06
• onmac had a contest to see if it could be done
  (Windows run natively on an Intel Mac)--Contest
  completed with success
• Apple responded (by pressure or plan?)a few weeks
  later with Boot Camp.

4
Overview of options ups and downs

• Wine--Open-source project that installs Windows
  librariy files to allow apps to run within OS X
  without a Windows OS. Older project based on PPC
  chip
• OnMac--now superceeded by Boot Camp due to
  general compatibility and a start-up control
  panel for XP
• Parallels--the 1st Intel-based Virtual Machine
  app.

5
Overview--(cont)

• MS announces no more Virtual PC
• VMWare announced/released Fusion beta Dec. 22,
  2006
• Cross-Over --Utopia?

6
Methods for distribution

• Radmind from within X to reimage the XP partition
  (can be done with both NTFS and FAT32 XP
  partitions)
• Ghost--conflicting reports on use of Console, but
  BartPE would be your conduit if the Ghost console
  does not work.
• NetRestore

7
Methods explained -Radmind

• Radmind--You must have ntfsprogs installed in
  your image. A link can be found at Mike
  Bombichs site on his explanation of how to use
  NetBoot/NetRestore to re-image the XP partition
• As Radmind does not recognize registries this is
  a time-consuming process. The entire XP
  partition will be downloaded each time. And you
  will have to make an overload of just the XP
  partition each time you wish to push an update.

8
Methods explained-Radmind (cont)

• Being this is a second partition you will need to
  point to this partition for Radmind to load the
  files to the correct place
• As these systems are somewhat distinct with
  hardware you will need to know and use
  Microsofts Sysprep utility to prepare the OS for
  system semi-agnostic installations.
• Sysprep actually has very good documentation as
  to how best set it up and run it. Who knew a
  FREE app from Microsoft would be useful?

9
Ghost 11.0/Solution Suite 2.0 update

• The latest version of Ghost (v 11.0 or Solution
  Suite 2.0) both sees all partitions and file
  formats on Intel Macs and will write to them. It
  sees the EFI, HFS and NTFS partitions. It will
  still restore the XP partition without issue.
  However, it is a mixed result when restoring the
  X partition. X will boot to the same-sized
  partition. However, the boot tables are all
  corrupted as the drive is then seen as MBR by
  Ghost and other Apple disk utilities. To do any
  work on the partition you will need to write
  zeros to the drive in a reformat.

10
Ghost--Console and BartPE

• I have not been able to reproduce a post on Mac
  Enterprise stating a user was able to install X
  AND XP on an MBR formatted drive. This
  supposedly gave the user the ability to run Ghost
  Console and image the XP partition (you must be
  booted in to XP).
• At present there is NO WAY to be able to control
  from ARD or a script/scheduled task to get from
  XP to X. You must physically visit each station.
  Or run VNC/MS Remote Desktop to run the Startup
  Disk app and make the selection.

11
Ghost--BartPE

• Bart writes some great utilities. His
  documentation is lacking, at best.
• You will need to create a new BartPE boot CD with
  the necessary drivers (NIC) and network drive
  mapping plug-in
• Windows scripting will help if you want to
  automate the drive mapping process. Otherwise,
  it is a manual process. And this must be done at
  each system each time you want to use BartPE.

12
Ghost--BartPE (cont)

• You must have valid Ghost licenses. And you must
  have enough licenses to cover this hardware (only
  important if you are adding more XP stations with
  Intel Macs and not replacing Wintel machines with
  Macs).
• NOTE--When you edit your list of plug-ins be sure
  to leave Boot Fix (Enabling Press any key to
  boot from CD) to NO. Otherwise, you will have
  the issues I mention about unplugging the
  keyboard and doing quick plugs/unplugs.

13
Radmind-PC

• Again, selecting your boot OS via a script or
  mechanism other than manual process is the
  stumbling block.
• This product was written to replicate the
  functionality and method to run the NIX version
  of Radmind. It had to add the Registry overload
  creation to the scheme.
• Cumbersome as it has 3 overloads/baseloads you
  have to manage

14
Radmind-PC (cont)

• Very immature app. Great concept. But the main
  developers have moved on to other functions and
  projects. This is more of an orphan, at present.
  But great potential.
• Very similar (All Radminds) to Assimilator for OS
  9, RevRdist/PCRdist. File comparison utility.
• Very limited documentation. I am 1 of 6 users I
  have seen post about it. This limits the ability
  to overcome base/overload creation issues. Some
  files will not like to be copied/Radminded
  (Sharing violations/permissions). Editing the
  Negative.K file is difficult for beginners.

15
PCRdist

• File comparison utility (similar to Radmind and
  Assimilator)
• Still hobbled by inability to have control of
  when to boot back to X from XP
• No longer commercially available
• No longer officially supported
• Vista compatibility?

16
Deep Freeze

• Still No control of partition bootability.
• Once initial XP image is installed maintenance
  can be as relatively simple as unfreezing XP,
  reboooting for thaw, using Ghost AI
  (AutoInstall--file capture utiltiy) to push-out
  changes and reboot to frozen state
• CRITICAL NOTE--You can not create an AI package
  from a DeepFreeze machine. All AI packages MUST
  be created on machines that do not have Deep
  Freeze installed.

17
Netboot/NetRestore

• Mike Bombich has made some changes to his app and
  suggests the use of ntfsprogs (link found at his
  NetRestore page). This will allow NetRrestore to
  write an NTFS captured ASR image to the NTFS
  partition.
• Still no automatable control over boot partition.
• Can be used in conjunction with mASR

18
WinClone

• Excellent application from Tim Perffitt --
  http//www.twocanoes.com/winclone/
• Recommended deployment method. Compression of
  image file by 1/2 of data on live original image
  partition, approx 1 minute per GB for restore
  when done imaging done locally.
• http//macenterprise.org/content/view/301/77/
  --instructions on how I did it and with which
  tools.

19
The 1 Common limitation

• No control of on-demand partition bootability.
• All this is relatively significant for mass
  distribution of partition imaging of the 2 OSes.
  At present it makes such events not viable.
• This makes Wine/Cross-Over the only real
  industrial solution at this time.--CRITICAL
  NOTE--SPSS will not certify on BootCamp or
  Cross-cver.
• Apple has heard the need for item 1.
• Watch for 10.5 and the ARD update for it.

20
Why did I choose dual-boot?

• At the time it was the only real option.
• My concern for users and the ability to train
  them on the many steps required for a parallels
  implementation.
• Cost. The way the MS license agreement is
  written--One OS at a time is acceptable. Two
  Oses, simultaneously will cost for a full seat of
  XP/Vista plus Parallels.

21
Helpful implementation ideas

• Maybe one of these solutions. Maybe status-quo
  (doing nothing new for now)
• Poll your audience/users (mostly focus on
  faculty)
• Come prepared with info and be braced for a good
  lashing.
• Educate your users.
• Pilot the project. Use the feedback
  constructively.

22
Helpful implementation ideas-cont

• Economics may not be the main driving force. Be
  prepared for Penny-wise pound-foolish. You may
  save a boatload of money, initially. But what is
  it costing you or the support group in time,
  support calls, aggrevation and reputation from
  users?
• train faculty.
• give faculty plenty of warning of the move.
• It is still all about Customer Service

23
Helpful implementation ideas-cont

• Know what your Mac model needs are. Higher
  video-intensive apps need the 17-20 iMacs to
  Mac Pro. Mac Minis are great for word processing
  farms and less processor-intensive apps.

24
QA
25
Links

• Mike Bombich-- http//bombich./
• Parallels --http//parallels.com/en/products/deskt
  op/ and http//forum.parallels.com/
• MS Sysprep -- http//msdn.microsoft.com/library/de
  fault.asp?url/library/en-us/sakOPK/sak_preparing_
  the_os_for_replication.asp
• Faronics Deep Freeze-- http//www.faronics.com/
• Cross-Over-- http//www.codeweavers.com/products/c
  xmac/

26
Links-continued

• http//www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ and
  http//www.bootcd.us/BartPE_Plugins_Repository.php
  --About BartPE and the driver/plugin repository
• http//blog.case.edu/djc6/2005/08/28/automated_bar
  tpe_ghost_cd_installer --Ghost plugin help
• VMWare--http//www.vmware.com/
• http//docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum303
  572 --BootCamp

27
Links-continued

• Symantec Ghost --http//www.symantec.com/press/200
  4/n041116.html
• Binary Research (reseller of Ghost)--http//www.bi
  naryresearch.net/
• UIU (Universal Imaging Utility)--http//www.uiu4yo
  u.com/uiu_description.html
• NTFSprogs--http//packages.debian.otitrg/unstable/
  otherosfs/ntfsprogs

28
Links-continued

• http//macenterprise.org/content/view/269/139/
• http//macenterprise.org/content/view/301/77/
  --This is a method using WinClone and supercedes
  the Ghost method.

29
Links-continued

• Radmind-- http//rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/radmi
  nd/ (be sure to read Ofir Gals documentation.
  It is a bible)
• Winclone-- http//www.twocanoes.com/winclone/