CraPE v0.3 beta - Boot from USB - Win8 PE Based Mining OS

[captchunk]

You should be able to load any drivers necessary to Gandalf's build like:

(ex. You've got Gandalf's iso extracted into C:\Gandalf)

1. Open Windows Deployment and Imaging Environment command prompt as admin

2.

Code:

dism /mount-wim /wimfile:c:\Gandalf\sources\boot.wim /index:1 /mountdir:c:\mount

3.

Code:

dism /image:C:\mount /add-driver /driver:[PATH TO DRIVERS FOLDER] /Recurse /ForceUnsigned

(this will add drivers in subfolders too)

4.

Code:

dism /unmount-wim /mountdir:c:\mount /commit

[Injust]

Admin issue seemed to go away with the second bootup. Still having issues however - mainly getting PENetwork to use the drivers for my USB wifi adapter. I installed them offline with DISM, added a line to load them at startup, and PENetwork lists it for an adapter choice, but I can't get it to send/receive any network traffic.

Sigh this is turning into such a headache. I might check out Gandalf's ISO again, my problem with it earlier was it didn't have the AMD drivers. Now that I know how to install them I might try that, and trim off a bunch of the bloat.

Same issues here. Plus I downloaded the whole pack and still can't open (even for viewing) the wim file. Gandalf's ISO works like a charm but won't install my atheros drivers so no wifi. I think I'll mess with it a bit more during the weekend. My mining machine works like a charm though and RealVNC gives it a perfect r/c which I desperately needed it... 

I've been toying around with WinPE ever since this CraPE was announced, and I guess I might be able to help some of you.
For not being able to open the WIM file using IMAGEX, you can try DISM, which should already be in your system32 folder. Just run it from the command prompt and look at the flags and how it's used.

Man I'm almost there...got everything I need to autostart, just need to get one of these remote desktop apps to automatically load with a configuration that grants access rights to my PC. Have to edit the registry though, one more thing that's gotta be learned.

Yeah I should have mentioned DISM, I've been getting much better results with it than imagex. This guy's guide is to build a new winPE image, but you can pick out some of the commands you need like dism /mount-wim, dism /unmount-wim, dism /add-driver. etc. http://reboot.pro/topic/19156-create-a-bootable-winpe-50-x64-usb-drive/

I used to use DISM, but then switched to IMAGEX because IMAGEX has an /export function that can reduce your image size by maybe 100 MB, which is a lot if whatever rig you're using it on does not have the most RAM.

[captchunk]

Admin issue seemed to go away with the second bootup. Still having issues however - mainly getting PENetwork to use the drivers for my USB wifi adapter. I installed them offline with DISM, added a line to load them at startup, and PENetwork lists it for an adapter choice, but I can't get it to send/receive any network traffic.

Sigh this is turning into such a headache. I might check out Gandalf's ISO again, my problem with it earlier was it didn't have the AMD drivers. Now that I know how to install them I might try that, and trim off a bunch of the bloat.

Same issues here. Plus I downloaded the whole pack and still can't open (even for viewing) the wim file. Gandalf's ISO works like a charm but won't install my atheros drivers so no wifi. I think I'll mess with it a bit more during the weekend. My mining machine works like a charm though and RealVNC gives it a perfect r/c which I desperately needed it... 

I've been toying around with WinPE ever since this CraPE was announced, and I guess I might be able to help some of you.
For not being able to open the WIM file using IMAGEX, you can try DISM, which should already be in your system32 folder. Just run it from the command prompt and look at the flags and how it's used.

Man I'm almost there...got everything I need to autostart, just need to get one of these remote desktop apps to automatically load with a configuration that grants access rights to my PC. Have to edit the registry though, one more thing that's gotta be learned.

Yeah I should have mentioned DISM, I've been getting much better results with it than imagex. This guy's guide is to build a new winPE image, but you can pick out some of the commands you need like dism /mount-wim, dism /unmount-wim, dism /add-driver. etc. http://reboot.pro/topic/19156-create-a-bootable-winpe-50-x64-usb-drive/

I used to use DISM, but then switched to IMAGEX because IMAGEX has an /export function that can reduce your image size by maybe 100 MB, which is a lot if whatever rig you're using it on does not have the most RAM.

Is it possible to just wait until your last mount/unmount to use that function and still get the benefits of reduced size?

[Injust]

Admin issue seemed to go away with the second bootup. Still having issues however - mainly getting PENetwork to use the drivers for my USB wifi adapter. I installed them offline with DISM, added a line to load them at startup, and PENetwork lists it for an adapter choice, but I can't get it to send/receive any network traffic.

Sigh this is turning into such a headache. I might check out Gandalf's ISO again, my problem with it earlier was it didn't have the AMD drivers. Now that I know how to install them I might try that, and trim off a bunch of the bloat.

Same issues here. Plus I downloaded the whole pack and still can't open (even for viewing) the wim file. Gandalf's ISO works like a charm but won't install my atheros drivers so no wifi. I think I'll mess with it a bit more during the weekend. My mining machine works like a charm though and RealVNC gives it a perfect r/c which I desperately needed it... 

I've been toying around with WinPE ever since this CraPE was announced, and I guess I might be able to help some of you.
For not being able to open the WIM file using IMAGEX, you can try DISM, which should already be in your system32 folder. Just run it from the command prompt and look at the flags and how it's used.

Man I'm almost there...got everything I need to autostart, just need to get one of these remote desktop apps to automatically load with a configuration that grants access rights to my PC. Have to edit the registry though, one more thing that's gotta be learned.

Yeah I should have mentioned DISM, I've been getting much better results with it than imagex. This guy's guide is to build a new winPE image, but you can pick out some of the commands you need like dism /mount-wim, dism /unmount-wim, dism /add-driver. etc. http://reboot.pro/topic/19156-create-a-bootable-winpe-50-x64-usb-drive/

I used to use DISM, but then switched to IMAGEX because IMAGEX has an /export function that can reduce your image size by maybe 100 MB, which is a lot if whatever rig you're using it on does not have the most RAM.

Is it possible to just wait until your last mount/unmount to use that function and still get the benefits of reduced size?

I've observed that if you start with an original image, and you make a change and commit it, the image size will increase maybe 2MB, which is very little, but probably adds up if you make a lot of modifications and tweaks. That, as far as I know, cannot be prevented nor removed. What the /export flag in IMAGEX does is remove the unnecessary WinPE files, which are contained in a folder called "[Files]", you can see it in 7-Zip.

My WinPE image is based on the CraPE image provided in this thread, with many modifications, so what I usually do is after making any changes and committing them, I mount the new image and the original CraPE image in separate folders, and then COPY my WinPE image files to the CraPE folder, overwriting the files. I then commit the new CraPE files and use the IMAGEX /export command.

Probably lost you a while back Congratulations if you made it through.

[captchunk]

Yeah I'll have to try it out, not getting a sense of how copying the new build over the old would be beneficial. Or why it's better than just using imagex /export by itself.

Anyways I think I'm just about done. Registry stuff was kind of a nightmare, so I just made a .bat file for TightVNC with some command line options. I'll make an iso of it later and share a link.

[macsga]

I have to report some progress too. I've managed to open the wim file with imagex and added several stuff inside. The iso became ENORMOUS though... I'll fix my mess up a little and ttyl. 

[captchunk]

Ok here's Crape w/ TightVNC: http://l.bitcasa.com/_dRoSjzn

I tried to set things up so others could modify the settings as needed without having to mount .wim files in Windows ADK. I guess we'll see if we succeeded. The only thing that I can think of that someone might have to mount boot.wim to install are possibly some network drivers for your various kinds of wifi adapters. If it comes to that look back about 5 posts for an explanation. Graphics card drivers have been updated to the latest AMD Catalyst set (13.12), these ones: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows+7+-+32

Configuring cgminer:

- For some reason I lost Crape's original drive structure with W: being the persistent drive - now it's C:. No clue how that happened.

- For GPU mining, edit C:\mining\cgminer\cgminer-LTC.conf. C:\mining\cgminer\cgminer-LTC.bat starts cgminer with your GPU settings. C:\mining\Akbash\akbash.exe starts GPU mining with Akbash to watch and reboot your miner if it fails (this still autostarts)

- For BTC mining, edit C:\mining\cgminer\cgminer\BTC.conf. C:\mining\cgminer\cgminer-BTC.bat starts cgminer with your BTC settings. C:mining\Akbash\cgminer.bat is your BTC equivalent of Akbash.exe. This has been disabled from autostarting, rename cgminer.bat.bak to cgminer.bat if you want it to autostart.

Configuring PENetwork:

- Just like the OP's build, there's a PENetwork.ini in C:\Mining. Configure your settings in PENetwork, then manually copy the .ini file from x:\PortableApps\Pennetwork to c:\mining. On boot they'll copy back automatically.

Configure TightVNC:

- Download TightVNC Viewer to your PC. Fire it up, and hit the Listening Mode button.

- In C:\, edit 2 files: tvnserver.bat and TightVNC_Passfile. In tnvnserver.bat, replace the ip address with the one you want your rig to connect to. In TightVNC_Passfile put a password.

- When your rig starts up, it should automatically create a connection with the PC running TightVNC viewer. Use this time time to change TightVNC's settings on your rig, like adding your IP address etc. That way you'll be able to reconnect to it anytime you want. Your settings will be in there until your rig restarts for some reason, but in which case a restart will automatically start up and give you that initial one-time connection again.

I think that's all there is to it. Don't worry about AmmyyAdmin, I never got it working right.

[macsga]

Great job captchunk! I'll test it later

[captchunk]

If anybody's got requests for wifi drivers to add send me the links. Preferably 3 files: a .cat, a .sys, and an .inf., as opposed to an .exe installer.

[uranian]

This looks very cool, I've just been wondering about creating diskless miners via USB sticks, and had been reading about Win2Go. Should have just searched this forum first, lol. Thanks to the OP and captchunk for making it available, I'll be having a go with this soon.

[captchunk]

Has anybody else managed to do anything with this yet? I thought I had the latest AMD drivers installed, but apparently not. (Like I said I don't actually know what I'm doing)

It's really a shame everyone focuses on Linux, because the advantages for operating GPUs in a Windows environment are so numerous. The only problem with WinPE is that it's a pain in the ass to modify.

[macsga]

Yep. I've managed to make a USB stick off it. I have started with the original wim file and finally added several stuff (BitcoinQT, TotalCommander, Portable Office to name a few). What I'm considering now is how to make it smaller (removing several obsolete stuff) and make it more secure (Torrify it and such) in order for someone to be able to make a "cold wallet" off it on the 1st boot.

My life is more than busy this time of year though, and I haven't been able to mess with it the last 10 days or so... Sorry for the delay; I'm willing to share when its ready (if it'll ever be that is...) 

[Drogean]

Has anybody else managed to do anything with this yet? I thought I had the latest AMD drivers installed, but apparently not. (Like I said I don't actually know what I'm doing)

It's really a shame everyone focuses on Linux, because the advantages for operating GPUs in a Windows environment are so numerous. The only problem with WinPE is that it's a pain in the ass to modify.

Hey capn i'll be testing this out , just built a new rig i wanted to use Windows on via usb

[Drogean]

ok ive been unsuccessful in getting either version to detect a single 270x. it loads default vga windows drivers but in both cases it never installs the AMD drivers

[captchunk]

ok ive been unsuccessful in getting either version to detect a single 270x. it loads default vga windows drivers but in both cases it never installs the AMD drivers

Yeah I never tested it with 270-290 cards, just 6xxx and 7xxx. I gotta figure out how to get those damn drivers in there, really it's not lacking too much else besides a driver update.

[crazyates]

Hey all. I would love to update this, but I just don't have the time. I started a complete rebuild, with such features as being 64bit, newer drivers for the 280x/290/290x, SGMiner 4.0.0, and newer utilities for undervolting.

Unfortunately, I didn't get very far, due to the previously mentioned lack of time. That, and I don't personally have any GPUs of my own to work with right now. Any GPUs we've been hashing with are the companies, and they won't let me bring some home to play with. Greedy bastards.

I do have a 280x and a 290 being delivered hopefully soon, so I may catch the bug again, and make myself make time.

I will include a few links that I found very helpful when editing and packaging the boot.wim file.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh824972.aspx
http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/index.php?/topic/2349-guide-adding-drivers-to-a-custom-winpe-30/

After the drivers were injected, you still have to do a hwpnp scan for PCI devices, and it installs the driver then. CraPE 0.3 does this on boot up. You can look through the startup scripts to find more info.

Not sure, but I don't think this method installs the OCL runtime like the old ones did, so even if you got the drivers recognized, any newer R9 hardware won't mine. Still have to look into a solution for this.

[captchunk]

Hey all. I would love to update this, but I just don't have the time. I started a complete rebuild, with such features as being 64bit, newer drivers for the 280x/290/290x, SGMiner 4.0.0, and newer utilities for undervolting.

Unfortunately, I didn't get very far, due to the previously mentioned lack of time. That, and I don't personally have any GPUs of my own to work with right now. Any GPUs we've been hashing with are the companies, and they won't let me bring some home to play with. Greedy bastards.

I do have a 280x and a 290 being delivered hopefully soon, so I may catch the bug again, and make myself make time.

I will include a few links that I found very helpful when editing and packaging the boot.wim file.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh824972.aspx
http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/index.php?/topic/2349-guide-adding-drivers-to-a-custom-winpe-30/

After the drivers were injected, you still have to do a hwpnp scan for PCI devices, and it installs the driver then. CraPE 0.3 does this on boot up. You can look through the startup scripts to find more info.

Not sure, but I don't think this method installs the OCL runtime like the old ones did, so even if you got the drivers recognized, any newer R9 hardware won't mine. Still have to look into a solution for this.

No worries, you contributed what you could. Thanks for the links. I did add the driver files but I didn't add this to the startup script:

Code:

drvload inf_path [,inf_path [...]] [/?]

If the files are all there, think that would get us updated?

It was pretty annoying, after working on this thing for like a week cgminer started reading my cards in the wrong slots. And since none of the --gpu-map options worked, all the info I found on this problem said that the only fix was to update your drivers, lol.

[Injust]

Yeah, I'm realizing that I took the CraPE image and am now using it in a way completely unlike you guys, who are probably using it for mining, so are getting the driver kinks out.
What I did was just install PortableApps Chrome, throw in bfgminer and the necessary Block Erupter driver (my only mining device is a Block Erupter, and I rarely encounter a decent GPU on the devices I use).
With this setup, I just use it as my normal-everyday OS when I'm using foreign devices.

But please do keep in note, for people out there downloading WAIK and using it to make their own OS's, it is a violation of Microsoft's license to use Win PE as a general-purpose OS.

[captchunk]

Well I got the 13.12 Catalyst drivers on there. Still getting issues with the GPU mapping though.

[ajax3592]

Ok tell me in plain english, will this work with R9 280x cards ? I so desperately need a stripped version of Win7/8 right now that can be run through usb for mining.  

To OP, Im sure miners will tip you like mad if you can give this just a day every month and get a new release. Cross post to litecointalk, will help get it across.


Edit: something wrong with the current link too, download resulted in error after 80%