Installing the WolfPrep Image

How to get the CD-ROM

The WolfPrep CD-ROM is distributed as a standard ISO image, which can be "burned" onto a physical CD under a variety of operating systems. If you do not have CD-R/RW hardware and need to burn a CD, you can use one of the ITD student labs which use the "Nero" CD authoring software.

The WolfPrep ISO is kept on ITD's Site License Volume, under the "ITD" folder. It is named "WolfPrep" followed by the date that the CD was last updated (eg WolfPrep20040329.ISO would be the filename for the WolfPrep CD made on March 29, 2004

What's on the CD

The WolfPrep CD can boot either a DOS parition containing diagnostics and utilities that can assist in installing and troubleshooting installations, or boot a linux partition that contains the Novell Zenworks imaging environment.

The CD Boot Menu

When you boot the CD-ROM, you will be presented with a simple menu of choices:screen shot of pre-boot menu

Warning! The default action "wolfprep" will overwrite any information on the hard drive automatically after a delay of 3 minutes (180 seconds). If you're evaluating WolfPrep but don't intend to install it, you need to make a selection, or reboot to prevent it from automatically starting! Just viewing the options is NOT a selection.

The CD-ROM can boot to several different options. You can type the command tags (the words listed in bold type) to select which option you wish. If you do not start typing within the 20 second timeout, then option wolfprep will be selected, with no options.

The "tools" selection will boot MS-DOS and allow you to run a series of diagnostics and utilities, including an option to gather Plug and Play (PnP) information needed to determine if your hardware is supported by WolfPrep.

The "memtest86" selection will boot a linux based memory tester that can exercise all available memory (DOS based memory checkers often cannot) This can be useful in troubleshooting hardware difficulties.

The "manual" selection will boot linux and provide a bash prompt. This is used to start a multicast session to deliver the same image to many workstations efficiently.

The "install" selection will install or update the Zenworks imaging partition (it does NOT install the Windows partition, but may destroy it if Windows is installed on the first partition). If you've used earlier versions of WolfPrep, based on the Zen 3.2 linux kernel, then you will need to run this to upgrade to the Zen 4 kernel if you want to use local backups and restores.

The "backup" selection will make a backup of a Windows partition to the hidden linux restore partition. You can have multiple backups if your linux partition is large enough. At bootup, a choice to restore from backup is presented.

The "wolfprep" selection is the default choice, which will be selected automatically after a delay of 3 minutes, or when the [enter] key is pressed alone.

For more information about the other options, refer to the Zenworks documentation from Novell.

Installing the WolfPrep image on one Computer

Boot the WolfPrep CD-ROM and either allow it to time out, or press [return] to start the wolfprep imaging option. The "default" image (whatever ITD is shipping that semester) along with any Plug and Play drivers that can be detected will be downloaded.

You can also override which image to use.

Windows drivers must be specially packaged to be detected and downloaded with WolfPrep. Be sure to test compatibility with your hardware in plenty of time to identify and aquire any needed drivers!

Installing the WolfPrep image on many computers at once

If you are installing many computers at once, it is most efficient to install one computer (the master) with the image that you want, and then use that computer to multicast to the other machines.

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