Probably a really tricky problem, not sure if anybody has encountered this before, but let's try
In GSS 2.5, when restoring an image from a server using the ghost console, the configuration task (hostname, ip, domain ...) seems to use a program in the Ghost Partition (DOS) on the client called ghconfig.exe, which is run after ghost.exe has finished writing the image to disk.
Now, I have a lab with about 70 machines where ghost.exe hangs on startup with a grey screen when I try to create or restore an image. Seems to be a problem with some devices on the mainboard and/or a buggy bios. Playing with the few available bios-settings gained nothing, but then I found out that using
ghost.exe -noide
solves the problem.
Creating an image works.
I was happy, but too early ...
When restoring an image, ghost.exe also works perfectly but afterwards, ghconfig.exe is run for configuration. I also put the configuration in a separate task, but this does not chance anything.
Of course, ghconfig.exe also hangs, probably for the same reasons as ghost.exe.
I found out that ghconfig.exe also understands the (undocumented) switch -noide, and
ghconfig -noide ...
from the command line works as it should.
Now, my big question is, how, if possible at all, can I tell the ghost console to use ghconfig -noide in a configuration task?
I will not configure 70 clients manually
In the ghost console on the server the clone-tab in task-properties has an advanced settings option, where i can specify command line switches for ghost.exe, but in the configuration-tab there is no such thing for ghconfig - understandably, ghconfig has no documented useful optional switches...
I am starting to think about somehow hacking the Dos-Partition, putting a .bat between ghconfig and its caller, probably ngctdos.exe but the content of ngctdos.exe is scrambled, with a small code segment in front to unpack/decrypt it at runtime and this is going a bit far now ...
Just in case: why don't I use WinPE?
I tried, but in my case, this also does not seem to work out of the box. WinPE boots to a desktop-background with a cmd-window with a blinking command prompt and no ghost processes running. ngctw32.exe seems to have an unhealthy tendency to crash with the well-known C000005-Error.. Which means, I will probably have to (and I will do this) talk to tech support to get the latest build.
Dietmar