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Get strange characters when typing image name in copy-to-image operations in Ghost 8

  • 1.  Get strange characters when typing image name in copy-to-image operations in Ghost 8

    Posted May 01, 2007 03:39 PM
    Using a network boot disk
    system boots.
    nic drivers load fine.
    application launches into gui fine
    mouse works fine
    I cannot enter an image name because each key I  type enters two subscript o's  kind of like this:  o'o'
    I am booting using the diskette drive in a blade center because I need to ghost an IBM blade.
     
    Help please!


  • 2.  RE: Get strange characters when typing image name in copy-to-image operations in Ghost 8

    Posted May 01, 2007 07:03 PM
    These characters will appear in Ghost.exe text fields where the control key (ctrl) and a page navigation key (up, down, left, right, insert, home, delete, end, page up, page down) are used at the same time.

    If this is not the source of the problem, I suggest trying the following:

    1. A different keyboard
    2. A different brand of keyboard
    3. If using a USB keyboard, try a PS2 (or the other way around - you may need to enable a bios setting to allow this)
    4. An MSDOS boot environment instead of PC-DOS (or the other way around)

    If none of that has any result for you, please let us know the model number of the IBM blade so we can investigate further here. That might be good in either case. If the problem is the keyboard, and the keyboard is good, the keyboard model number might also be useful. Guessing still further, this might turn out to be a weird property of a particular KVM switch arrangement.

    Let us know what the outcome is.

    Thanks,
    Xan

    Message Edited by Xan Todd on 05-02-200712:45 PM



  • 3.  RE: Get strange characters when typing image name in copy-to-image operations in Ghost 8

    Posted May 01, 2007 09:03 PM
    On the off chance there is some bizzare usb struggle between Ghost and the server, you could also try using the -nousb switch in the ghost commandline for your boot disk.




  • 4.  RE: Get strange characters when typing image name in copy-to-image operations in Ghost 8

    Posted May 09, 2007 03:26 PM
    Have you gotton a response to your problem at all? I have an IBM Server class machine and I also get the invalid characters when trying to name the image. I get the ^^ over and over again. I have tried loading the USB drivers in with the bootable floppy and also have added the -nousb in the ghost.exe area of the autoexec.bat. Any clue?


  • 5.  RE: Get strange characters when typing image name in copy-to-image operations in Ghost 8

    Posted May 10, 2007 02:12 AM
    Hi,
     
    In the first post it could be a compatibility issue with the built-in KVM of the blade server. Do you have a built-in KVM? Is there any possibility to connect a keyboard directly to the blade?
     
    Hi Elliott,
    What model of IBM do you use? With some of my IBM x206s with external KVMs (They are low end servers), I had to press system request key (sysrq) to get keyboard to work correctly when they are in pre-OS stage. This is a long shot, but could you try it?
     
    Krish


  • 6.  RE: Get strange characters when typing image name in copy-to-image operations in Ghost 8

    Posted May 10, 2007 08:03 AM
    It is an IBM x3650 with USB only ports. No PS2 ports on the mahine. We have the machine out and the keyboard is directly hooked into the IBM server. There is no KVM switch. We thought that was the problem before and unhooked the KVM and hooked the keybord up locally. Still get the same problem with the ^^. I tried the -nousb string and that seemed to slow the keyboard down significantly, where I had to press down about 10 times before it would move down to the multicast option. We have tried loading USB drivers in the config.sys file on the bootable USB drive. The server sees a usb drive to boot from. We tried a floppy drive to boot from (the server didn't even see that as an option in the boot menu) and IBM told us that we needed to use an IBM usb floppy drive in order for the device to be recognized. Do we need to purchase a usb IBM keyboard to see if that works, or is there another work around that we can try? Thanks.


  • 7.  RE: Get strange characters when typing image name in copy-to-image operations in Ghost 8

    Posted May 11, 2007 03:30 AM
    Hi Elliott,
     
    I don't think this could be solved with USB drivers, but keyboard drivers may help.
     
    If you don't run Ghost but just go to DOS prompt, does the keyboard work correctly?
     
    In that case, could you use a command line instead of using the Ghost GUI?
     
    Krish
     
     


  • 8.  RE: Get strange characters when typing image name in copy-to-image operations in Ghost 8

    Posted May 11, 2007 03:02 PM
    The keyboard does work before it gets to the Ghost GUI. the problem is that I have never used the command line to do a multi-cast ghost, or any ghost for that matter. I have always used the GUI. Is there some technical document that can wlak me through the steps to do so? Can you multicast through a command line? Thanks.


  • 9.  RE: Get strange characters when typing image name in copy-to-image operations in Ghost 8

    Posted May 13, 2007 03:03 AM
    Hi Elliott,
     
    Yes, Ghost has a rich command line interface, and you can do everything from command line. Have a look at the 'Command line switches' section in the manual, where you will find explanations and examples.
     
    There are two different ways you can run this from command line; using @mc or -ja. The difference is, with -ja you can set all the parameters in GhostCast server and just connect to it. If you us @mc, you can provide those details from the client.
     
    Since you are more familiar with the GUI, it may be easier to use the -ja switch. Select all the parameters (disk, partition etc) in the server, and add the -batch to the end of the command line box in the server. The command would look like(assuming you create an image of the first disk),
     
    -clone, mode=create, src=1, dst=@mc<session name>  -fx -batch
     
    The -batch switch will eliminate any request for user input from Ghost.exe, and -fx will exit to DOS once the operation is completed. You may replace -fx with -rb, witch will reboot the mcahine instead of exiting to DOS.
    Then in the client, run
     
    Ghost.exe -ja=<session name>
     
    Having said that, I just realized that I have a IBM3650 here, but never had this problem. It is not a blade but a standalone server. But most of the time I use Ghost32/WinPE to clone that machine since I can get much better performance with Ghost32 when cloning the SAS drives in that system.
     
    This is another option you can try, most probably there won't be a keyboard problem with Ghost32.
     
    Krish
     


  • 10.  RE: Get strange characters when typing image name in copy-to-image operations in Ghost 8

    Posted Sep 21, 2007 12:14 AM
    Hi

    I also encountered this problem with x3650 (standalone & blade). Tried to use Ghost32/WinPE, manage to solve the keyboard problem but now unable to grab any IP addresses from DHCP server. Tested on all other servers with no issue at all.

    Would appreciate it if someone who faces the same problem can share with me.

    Thanks in advance.


  • 11.  RE: Get strange characters when typing image name in copy-to-image operations in Ghost 8

    Posted Sep 21, 2007 02:42 AM
    Hi,

    In WinPE environment, Ghost32 does not get an IP address directly (under DOS packet drivers it does) but use the one in WinPE.

    If you don't get an IP address, probably the network driver for the machine is not included in you WinPE build. If you type ipconfig in WinPE, does it show an IP address?

    Krish