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• Forum thread added

  timo created the error : could'nt find NTLDR forum thread

  posted by timo 3446 days ago

• File released: /jacal/0.03/jacal-0.03.tgz

  posted 3477 days ago

• jacal 0.03 file released: jacal-0.03.tgz

  Version 0.03 - changed mkzip to create tgz with base directory "jacal_version" - Added TODO file - Discovered solution to bootdisk append truncation bug. Bug with Lilo, newest lilo version fixes this. - Moved netlogon directory in jacal_samba directory - wrote "_create_distro" script to pull in the various components to the distro directory. - moved "mkzip" to "_mkzip" to improve directory listing readability - Converted all documentation to sgml

  posted 3477 days ago

• jacal 0.02 file released: JACAL-0.02.tgz

  Version 0.02 - Changed document titles to get rid of "JACAL_" at beginning of each one. - Made many other naming changes to documentation - Combined Description and README to just README, updated README - Added Linux_Process.txt

  posted 3497 days ago

• File released: /jacal/0.02/JACAL-0.02.tgz

  posted 3497 days ago

• jacal 0.01 file released: JACAL-0.01.tgz

  -First release

  posted 3497 days ago

• File released: /jacal/0.01/JACAL-0.01.tgz

  posted 3497 days ago

• Long Summary

  There are certain inherent problems with image duplicating for NT box propagation. While having identical hardware helps immensely with avoiding wierd and unusual problems, this is no guarantee. I've had identical machines with very small chip revisions in devices as insignificant as IOMega Zip drives cause BAD systemic problems when machines are duplicated with copying programs such as Ghost. A year two Taylor University network administrators, Aaron Brooks and Joel Martin, created a linux boot disk system which can build any of our lab in about an hour and a half. The build process is a true NT install complete with 75+ applications which serve the CSS and Science divisions which we service. Did I mention that these machines dual boot to linux too and that is part of the build? The components are the following: * A boot disk containing only a DHCP kernel-autoconfig NFS root kernel * an NFS server with the NT i386 image and a base unattend.txt file. This NFS server doesn't necessarily need to be a Linux box. This could be an NT box running WarNFS or something like that if someone wanted to do that. * a series of perl scripts which, given the machine name and hardware probe information, customize the unattend.txt file * a perl script which sucessively launch installation of apps after the initial NT build is complete * a perl script which installs diffs from Microsoft's SysDiff program (we have really augmented this process if you are rightfully having doubts about the standard SysDiff process) * a script which does DLL and other file conflict and version resolution * a SaMBa server which houses the diffs of the applications * a series of ScriptIt files to install apps that don't SysDiff well (MS IE 5, MS Publisher 2000, MS NT SP 5 (6? not yet baby, not yet), sense a theme. Typically these are things which perform OS upgrades (are apps supposed to do that>??)) * Perl and ActiveState Perl run the system from the Linux and NT sides This is the only way that our network is managable. Our hardware is totally heterogeneous, our custom configurations is broad, we need some machines to run all apps on the network, some machines need to run some off of the network and others that need all apps to be local. The system is entirely customizable. A full, proper installation is done, dual booting linux, in about 1-2 hours depending on config. (It used to be under an hour before we started installing MetroWerks Codewarrior and Visual Studio locally for performance reasons.) Things this system doesn't do right now or could do better: * Run with little configuration for a novice NT/UN*X admin. This currently requires some know-how. It turns knowledge into power, configuration, and most importantly freed time. (Oh, yeah, and stability -- we control the DLL versions... this really helps out a lot (see MSDN newsletter Jan/Feb 2000, article "The End DLL Hell") * Resolve conficts of registry keys. This is a very rare occurance since the registry, at least in some manner, compartmentalizes apps' information. Generally we have to hand manipulate any shared path keys in the diff. Rare but it would be nice to have done automatically -- does require some level of programmable smarts. * One word: Multicast -- unicast hurts us the most for performance. The performance is still outstanding considering the sheer volume of apps that we run but if you need a machine redone in 1/2 an hour this project currently isn't for you. This project is not necessarily tied to SaMBa but if you really want to have an automated network you will want a Linux/UN*X box at the back end and SaMBa

  posted by jabber 3569 days ago

• Welcome and News

  Welcome to our project. We have been using this system internally at Taylor Univeristy for over a year now and it has made site administration much easier. This project is NOT ready for public use. I repeat it is not yet ready for public use. It is hardcoded to our internal structure. We are working as we have time to move to a more universal method. We will be releasing parts of the project as time goes on. If you really have a strong interest in this project and can't wait then e-mail me (jabber) and I will send you what I can. Hopefully this project will become really useful. By the way, this project is one of the several branches of the DEBAR project (it can also be found on sourceforge).

  posted by jabber 3570 days ago

• Project Description

  The JACAL Project is a suite of programs, scripts, guidelines, protocols, documentation, diskettes, etc. that assist in quick, network based loads/builds of machines. A single build diskette is placed in the target machine and the machine is rebooted. The diskette contains a small network based Linux installation that prompts for the machine name. Build options are then selected and the machine is built automatically from start to finish. Build options include setting up a multiboot system with Windows NT, Windows 9X, and/or Linux installed and fully configured for that particular machine's hardware and network configuration. The original purpose of this project was to facilitate the complete automatic rebuild of Taylor University's Computer Science (http://www.css.tayloru.edu/) labs complete with 75+ Win NT applications and a full Linux installation on the same machine in an hour.

  posted by jabber 3570 days ago