Guide: Installing Windows XP on eBox 33xxMX/MX+ & K-PC

[PedroR]

Hi ruijten

Yes you can run Windows XP Home Edition (and also Professional Edition) on eBox 3350MX.

It will run the 32 bit versions (Windows XP 64 bit is not compatible).

Make sure to follow the instructions for INStalling Windows XP that we posted on our forum.

Regards

Pedro.

[patpat]

Is it possible to directly install XP by PXE using Serva as described here?

http://www.vercot.com/~serva/howto/WindowsPXE1.html

[PedroR]

Hi papat

According to the eBox Manual, PXE boot is supported on eBoxes (on the native (wired) LAN port).

This is the only method supported, out of the many listed on the website you mentioned.

It is also the most common method for booting from LAN.

Please note that I can only speak about the functionality of PXE diskless boot; the "Serva" software you mention is a third party software and therefore I am unable to speak about this software's compatibility with eBox.
If you wish to obtain information from "Serva" I can only suggest forwarding this information "support for PXE diskless boot and i586 architecture (i.e. no CMOV/SSE)" to the makers of that software to confirm compatibility.

Regards
Pedro.

[patpat]

Hi,
what I want to know is not if I can run Serva on eBox, I'm asking if someone with an eBox can try to install XP directly to the eBox SD by Serva's RIS capabilities... I do not have the hardware if not I'd try it myself
thanks

[joserobo]

Hi everybody:

Im having problems to install Xp in my 3350MX from usb. I boot from usb and i can select part 1 of xp. Then it begins to search components but then i screen appears with error. Ive tried with two different versions of xp with sp3, one error was 0x0000006f and the other 0x000007b.

Do u know any site where i can read a solution?

Ive read it could be a problem with any component that is not present in the image.

Thanks in advance for your answer

[PedroR]

Hi joserobo

When you say you're trying to install from USB, can you be more specific?
1) Are you trying to install from a USB thumb drive
2) or from a USB CD ROM drive


The first thing to check is confirm in the BIOS that the SD card is being recognized as an HDD. It should show some indication of the brand or marking on the SD card identified as the Hard drive.

If you're installing using a USB thumb drive, try installing with a USB CD Rom.
(XP does not natively support installing from a USB thumb drive a number of steps and extra files are required to make a working installation Thumb Drive for XP, so we always recommend installing from CD)


Additionally make sure to follow these best practices for the installation:

- In the BIOS settings, "Load Failsafe defaults" and save
- Some people have also reported that turning on the "Enable Standard IDE Compatible" option helps with installing XP.
(it is unconfirmed if this is needed but it is still worth trying the install with this option enabled).

- The errors you are getting are all related to HDD (in the case of the eBox, the SD card) or a bad Installation media.

Try using a different SD card, from a reputable vendor.
I think almost all the times people reported issues with the installation they were solved by using another (good quality) SD card.

- The other thing we recommend - for these 2 particular errors - is that you delete all the partitions on the SD card and re create them during the Windows XP setup.
In the textual part of the setup (the first part), where you choose on which partition you want to install, delete all the partitions and recreate them.

- Additionally you can install using NTFS or FAT32 file system. Some users have reported better results with NTFS, others with FAT32 and for others it didn't make any difference (both worked fine).

I'm sure that after checking all of the above, your installation should work.

Also let us know what power adapter you are using.
Is it the eBox Power adapter for the 3350MX or some other adapter?

Kind Regards
Pedro

[joserobo]

Hi Pedro, and thanks:

Im trying to install from a thumb drive. Its a imation flash drive with 2Gb of capacity.

The SD is a trascend class 10 with 8GB. I purchased it in the official distributor of dmp, with my ebox. And is recognized as an HDD when i turn on ebox.

The power adapter is from dmp too.

I select "Load failsafe" and use NTFS.

Thanks again

[PedroR]

Hi Joserobo

I would strongly recommend that you install from CD Rom drive.

You can find many reports on the INternet about Blue Screen errors when trying to install Windows XP from a USB thumb drive.
The explanation about how to make the installation of XP from a USB drive is beyond the purpose of this thread and is not the officially supported method for XP installation so we won't be able to help with this particular way of installation.

As I said, we strongly recommend you install it from CD (and use a CD with at least SP2 or SP3 already slipstreamed as explained in the instructions).

Additionally if you suspect the memory may be faulty you can run memtest86 on the eBox (we've never encountered any problems with RAM on eboxes but you might want to check just in case).

Regards
Pedro.

[joserobo]

Hi:

Finally, Im trying to install from cd rom drive. But now, another blue screen with the error 0x00000008 appears. Do you know about this error?

Thaks

[PedroR]

Hi joserobo

There is not much information about that error. if you're still getting the error after following all of the recommendations I posted above than I suggest you contact your place of purchase for assistance.

You mentioned you obtained both the unit and SD card from an EU DMP distributor. I suggest you contact them.

Kind Regards
Pedro.

[wkulesza]

Hey guys,
thanks for the tutorial on installing win xp on the box.
I have tried to follow it and everytime the proc
For testing purposes i have used my legitimate copy of windows that i use on a laptop.
a) i tried to install windows, using original cd and trying to install it on a USB pendrive or SD card and windows wasnt happy about this choice, informing me that it cant install windows on those drives
b) i tried putting the installation cd onto a usb drive (using wintoflash utility), run this installation cd (put on usb drive) directly on the box, trying to install onto another usb stick - also windows installer didn't let me do it.

help !
wojtek kulesza

[PedroR]

Hi wkulesza

The correct - and supported - procedure to install Windows XP is to:

1) Burn it to a CD
2) Connect a USB CD/DVD drive, Keyboard and Mouse to the eBox
- Install from the CD directly to the SD card on the eBox.
Due to the eBox architecture, to Windows the SD card will look just like a normal HDD drive so the installation can't detect the difference.

What you are trying to do (avoid using a CD and CD Rom drive) is not a supported installation scenario on the eBox.
We strongly recommend that you sue a real CD Rom drive, which I can confirm works for the several hundred customers we have for eBox.

As a side note Windows XP itself does not natively support installing from a pendrive.
I know there are some un-official workarounds to add support for this but the correct procedure to install XP on eBox is indeed to use a CD Rom drive as natively supported by XP.

Regards
Pedro.

[TiBi]

Hi

I bought recently one DMP - eBox 3310MX-L3U4-AP for an application running with WinXP.

Impossible to install XP on my eBox. I followed the Pedro's guide ("Installing Windows XP on
eBox 33xxMX/MX+ & K-PC") without success.

The installation started normally with no-GUI blue screen, loading files was done normally,
after the end of the loading-files I had black screen with white blinking cursor on the top
left of the screen...

I used an installation CD XP SP3 with an USB-CD-ROM drive and a SD SanDisk class 10.

In the BIOS the SD card is being recognized as an HDD.

I followed the best practices for the installation:
- In the BIOS settings, "Load Failsafe defaults" and save

Has anyone else experienced this and how can this be remedied?

Kind Regards
Thierry

[PedroR]

Hi Tibi

In order to be able to help you need to provide more information about the error and when it happens. The information provided is not sufficient:

There are several steps during the installation of Windows XP can you explain when it fails?

Step 1: text mode setup.
The machine should boot from CD Rom and enter the text mode setup (which has a Blue background).
In this part you must be able to create the necessary partitions (or choose to do it automatically) and then the installation files are copied to the HDD (in this case the SD card).

Step 2: the machine reboots and it should now boot from the HDD to continue the installation process.
In this part you will now be in Graphical mode.
This part has several steps and the installation _may_ appear to hang for some time during the hardware recognition (the mouse may even freeze).
You should wait and it should complete the hardware recognition.
In the case of the L3U4, there is additional ahrdware so this step may atke a bit longer.

Step 3: Installation completes and final reboot
After installation completes it should reboot and initiate Windows XP.


Regarding the SD card, can you please inform what is the exact size and model of SD card you are using?

The eBox can only use SD cards up to 32Gb.
If you need more storage capacity than 32Gb you can install a 2.5HDD on the ebox 3310MX-L3U4.

Regards
Pedro.

[TiBi]

Hi Pedro

Thanks a lot for your answer!

The problem stays entire. The XP installation process freezes in the step 1:

- The 3310MX-L3U4-AP boots from CD Rom and enters the text mode setup.

- After that, I am not able to create the necessary partition because after the "setup is loading files (drivers)" I had black screen with white blinking cursor on the top left of it...

I used a SD card SanDisk Extreme 45 MB/s, class 10, 16 Go.

Pls, do you have an idea to solve that?

Regards,
Thierry