Integrating NI-DAQmx Components into a Windows XP Embedded Image Overview Microsoft Windows XP Embedded (XPe) includes full Win32 API support and is based on the same binary files as Windows XP Professional. You can use XPe to develop a customized operating system that runs on embedded devices. If your target machine already has an XPe image installed with the Windows Installer Service component included, you may use standard Windows installers to install the NI-DAQmx Runtime, LabVIEW Runtime, or any other software. However, the standard NI-DAQmx Runtime 5 installer may include some unnecessary components and files for XPe. Also, XPe does not support driver digital signing so some NI devices with digitally signed drivers may not work on XPe. For more information on installing NI-DAQmx to a device with XPe pre-installed, visit www.ni.com/kb. If you are building an XPe image for your device, then National Instruments provides the NI-DAQmx 8.7.1 Runtime 5 for XPe components as a solution. These components are smaller in size and support NI devices with digitally signed drivers. This document shows you how to integrate NI-DAQmx components into an XPe image. You can download NI-DAQmx 8.7.1 Runtime 5 for XPe from the National Instruments web site. Table of Contents Integrating NI-DAQmx Components into a Windows XP Embedded Image... 1 Overview... 1 1. Environment... 2 2. Creating Hardware Components... 2 3. Importing Components into the Component Database... 6 Importing the Components Manually... 6 Importing the Components by a Script... 8 4. Building a Windows XP Embedded Image... 9 5. Deploying the Image to the Target Device... 18 Using a CF card as the System Drive... 18 Using a hard disk as the System Drive... 19 6. The Enhanced Write Filter (EWF) Support... 19 Updating the NI-DAQmx871Runtime5 component... 19 Ignoring the Dependency Conflict... 21 7. Support... 22 1
1. Environment To create an XPe image with the NI-DAQmx components, you need the following software: o Microsoft Windows Embedded software with Windows XP Embedded Service Pack 2 o o Feature Pack 2007 Install Microsoft Windows Embedded Studio with Windows XP Embedded SP2 Feature Pack 2007 on your development machine. Refer to the Microsoft Developer Network for more information about Microsoft Windows Embedded Studio for Windows XP Embedded. NI-DAQmx 8.7.1 Runtime 5 for XPe Download NI-DAQmx 8.7.1 Runtime 5 for XPe to your development machine from the National Instruments web site. The NI-DAQmx 8.7.1 Runtime 5 for XPe includes NI- DAQmx components, necessary third-party components, and script files that facilitate the importing process. Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) CD Use the Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) CD to start the target machine if the target machine has a CD-ROM. 2. Creating Hardware Components To create an XPe image, you must first use the Target Analyzer tool (TAP.EXE) to acquire the information about the hardware onyour target machine. The Target Analyzer tool creates a.pmq in XML format that contains description of all hardware devices identified on the target machine. 1) Running the Target Analyzer TAP.EXE file resides in the XPE folder on disk 1 of the Microsoft Windows Embedded CDs. You can run TAP.EXE either from a mapped network drive or a flash disk. The program generates a TargetHW.PMQ file that you use to create your XPe image. Running from a Mapped Network Drive Complete the following steps to run TAP.EXE from a mapped network drive. 1. Share a folder on the development machine. For example, you can share the XPE folder on the D:\ drive. 2
2. On the development machine, insert disk 1 of the Windows Embedded software installer into the CD-ROM, and copy TAP.EXE from the CD to the shared folder. You may type the following command in a command line window: COPY E: \XPE\TAP.EXE D:\XPE where E drive is the CD drive, and XPE folder on the D:\ drive is the shared folder. 3. Start the target machine with the Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) CD. 4. On the target machine, type the following at the command line window: NET USE Z: \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\xpe where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of the development machine, and Z:\ drive is the local drive that you want to connect to the shared network drive. 5. On the target machine, change your current directory to Z:\ 6. Run the following command: TAP /O Z:\TargetHW.PMQ Running from a Flash Disk Complete the following steps to run TAP.EXE from a flash disk. 1. Copy TAP.EXE from the XPE folder on disk 1 of Microsoft Windows Embedded software to the flash disk. 2. Insert the flash disk into the target machine. 3. Start the target machine with the Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) CD. 4. Run the following command (assuming the E drive is the flash disk drive): E:\TAP /O E:\TargetHW.PMQ There are other ways to run the Target Analyzer. Refer to "Configuring a Windows XP Embedded Thin Client" on the Microsoft Developer Network for more information about the Target Analyzer. Once you have the.pmq file from Target Analyzer, you can use it to generate an XPe image. You can either use it to generate a hardware component for use in Target Designer, or you can import it directly from Target Designer. The next section will cover generating and using a hardware component, for more information on importing directly from Target Designer please see Developing an Embedded Run-Time Image from Start to Finish. 2) Using the Component Designer to Create the Hardware Component 3
Complete the following steps to create a hardware component for your target machine and add it to the Component Database. Creating the Component 1. Open Component Designer. 2. Select File»Import. 3. Select the TargetHW.PMQ file you generated from your target machine. 4. Click Start. Component Designer generates the hardware component, as shown in the following figure. 5. In the Component Designer window, expand the Components node on the left panel and select the new component: TargetHW, which was created during the importing process. 4
6. Edit the component information on the right panel, such as name, version, and description. 7. Select File»Save to save your component. A file with the.sld extension is created according to your component definition. Importing the Hardware Component into the Windows XP Embedded Database After creating the hardware component, you need to import it into the Windows XP Embedded database. Complete the following steps to import the hardware component to the Windows XP Embedded Database: 1. In Component Designer, select Tools»Component Database Manager to open the Component Database Manager. 2. Click Import. 5
3. Select the.sld file that you created in the previous section and click Import. If the import succeeds, you can find the component on the Component tab of the Component Database Manager window. Now you have created the hardware component and added it to the Component Database. You can close the Component Designer. 3. Importing Components into the Component Database Component Database Manager is part of Microsoft Windows Embedded Studio and manages component, package, and repository information. You can use the Component Database Manager to import all XPe components downloaded from the National Instruments web site into the Component Database. After importing, you can use the components to create an XPe image. Search for all the.sld files (you may search by*.sld) in the folder where you stored the downloaded NI components. You will find 42 components, including the NI-DAQmx components and the included third-party components. You can utilize the import functionality built into Component Database Manger to add the components to the database one by one manually, or you can import them all at once by using a script. Importing the Components Manually Complete the following steps to import the components manually: 1. Close both Component Designer and Target Designer and open Component Database Manager in the exclusive mode. If you do not open Component Database Manager in the exclusive mode you can only view the information in the database and cannot import.sld files. 2. On the Database tab, click Import. 6
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3. Select the.sld file you want to import and make sure that the Copy repository files to repository root checkbox is selected. 4. Click Import. If the import succeeds, you will find the component on the Package, Component, and Repository tabs of the Component Database Manager window. 5. Repeat the previous steps to import the rest of the.sld files. Importing the Components by a Script 1. Open a command line window. 2. Set the command line window as the default Windows Script Host by typing the following command: cscript.exe //H:cscript //S 3. Check whether your root database repository path is C:\Windows Embedded Data\Repositories. If it is, you can jump to step 4. If not, you need to modify the ImportDAQ.rsp script file, and replace C:\Windows Embedded Data\Repositories with your root database repository path, such as D:\Windows Embedded Data\Repositories. 4. Run the ImportDAQ_main.bat file to import all the components of NI-DAQmx 8.7.1 Runtime 5. 8
4. Building a Windows XP Embedded Image Use Target Designer to build Windows XP Embedded images. You can choose the needed components from the existing Windows application and driver components that exist in the component database. You can search components by name in the Component Browser, which is located in the left pane of the Target Designer. If you cannot see the Component Browser, select View»Component Browser to display it. Complete the following steps to create a new project. 1. Create an image configuration. Select File»New and specify the name of the project, for example DAQmxDevice. 9
2. Change the Component Visibility option in the Target Designer. Select Tools»Options to open the Options window. On the Advanced tab, change the Minimum visibility to 100. 3. Select components. In the Component Browser, double-click the components you want to add to your image configuration. The following components are mandatory: The hardware component that you created in the Creating Hardware Components section NI-DAQmx871Runtime5 You can also add the following components that you may find useful: CMD - Windows Command Processor Device Manager You also can add other XPe or third-party components according to your need. 10
4. Make sure you have enabled Auto-resolve dependencies. You can find this option by selecting Tools»Options and selecting the Dependency Check tab. 5. Check the component dependencies. Press <F5> or select Configuration»Check Dependencies to display the Dependency Check window. After the dependency check, some dependency conflicts may occur. You must resolve each of the conflicts before you can continue the building process. You can resolve 11
these conflicts according to your need. We provide some common reference solutions below. If you do not encounter these dependency conflicts, you can jump to Step 6. You can find the dependency conflicts in the bottom window of the Target Designer. Choosing an NT Loader Component The following figure displays the dependency conflict of the boot loader. The dialog box prompts you to choose EXACTLY ONE component to be added. If you want to enable the Enhance Write Filter (EWF) feature, select EWF NTLDR. Otherwise, select NT Loader. You then press the Add button. Choosing the Supported File Systems The following figure displays a dependency conflict when you do not add a type of file system support into the image configuration. The dialog box prompts you to choose AT 12
LEAST ONE file system type. You can choose any file system according to your needs. For example, you can choose both NTFS and FAT. Choosing the Language Support The following figure displays a dependency conflict when you do not add language support into the image configuration. The dialog box prompts you to choose AT LEAST ONE language support. The solution for running NI-DAQmx with XPe supports only English. Therefore, you must include English Language Support. 13
Choosing the Logon Type The following figure displays a dependency conflict when you do not add alogon type into your image configuration. The dialog box prompts you to choose EXACTLY ONE logon type. You can choose Windows Logon. Choosing a Shell 14
The following figure displays a dependency conflict when you do not add a shell into your image configuration. The dialog box prompts you to choose EXACTLY ONE shell. You can choose Explorer shell. 6. Change component settings. It is useful to change the settings for the User Interface Core component to show My Computer on the Start Menu or Run on the Start Menu. 15
7. Build the image. After the dependency check, press <F7> or select Configuration»Build Target Image to display the build window. You can specify the Build type, the Destination, and the Log file in this window. You then press the Build button to build the image. 16
If you did not check the dependencies after making some changes, a dialog box will prompt you to run a dependency check. You can choose Yes to check the dependency or No to ignore the dependency check. If your destination folder is not empty, a dialog box will warn you that all contents of the folder will be deleted for the building process. If you are sure you want to delete all the files in the destination folder, choose Yes. Otherwise, you need to specify another empty folder as the Destination. 17
Target Designer will start building the image. Wait until it finishes successfully. The image will reside in the Destination folder. In the following example, the Destination folder is the WindowsEmbeddedImages folder on the D:\ drive. 5. Deploying the Image to the Target Device After building a Windows XP Embedded image, you need to deploy it from your development machine to your target machine. The target machine may use a CF card or a hard disk as the system drive. Using a CF card as the System Drive If you use a CF card as the system drive, complete the following steps to deploy the image to the target device. 1. Access the CF card on your development machine through a card reader. 2. Format the CF card. 3. Copy the XPe image from the Destination folder (in the previous example it is the WindowsEmbeddedImages folder on the D:\ drive) on your development machine to the CF card. 4. Insert the CF card to the target device. 5. Start the target machine. The First Boot Agent (FBA) will run on the target machine, and the system will restart automatically. 18
Using a hard disk as the System Drive If you use a hard disk as the system drive, complete the following steps to deploy the image to the target device. 1. On the development machine, share the Destination folder. (In the previous example, share the WindowsEmbeddedImages folder on the D drive.) 2. Start the target machine with the WinPE CD. 3. Format the system drive of the target machine. 4. On the target machine, connect the local drive to the shared folder by typing the following command: NET USE Y: \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\windowsembeddedimages where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of your development machine, and Y:\ drive is the local drive that you want to connect to the shared network folder. 5. Copy the XPe image from the development machine to the system drive of the target machine. You may type the following command in the command line window: XCOPY /S Y:\ C:\ 6. Restart the target machine. The FBA will run on the target machine, and the system will restart automatically. 6. The Enhanced Write Filter (EWF) Support If you want to enable the EWF feature in Windows XP Embedded, you can use Target Designer to add the Enhanced Write Filter component to your XPe image. After adding the EWF component, you will need to select EWF NTLDR instead of NT Loader when solving dependency conflicts. You must use a different version of the NI-PAL component for compatibility with EWF support. You can achieve this by either updating the NI-DAQmx871Runtime5 component or ignoring the dependency conflict caused by using a non default version of NI-PAL. If you use the default NI-PAL, your target system may encounter a blue screen after FBA. Updating the NI-DAQmx871Runtime5 component Complete the following steps to update the NI-DAQmx871Runtime5 component. 1) Modifying the Component Dependency for NI-DAQmx871Runtime5 First, you need to modify the NI-DAQmx871Runtime5.sld file to change the component dependency. 1. Open NI-DAQmx871Runtime5.sld in Component Designer. 2. Select Components»NI-DAQmx871Runtime5-»Component or Group Dependency. You can see the component dependency list. 19
3. Right-click NI-PAL and select Disable from the shortcut menu. 4. If you do not plan to use any PXI devices, right-click NI-PAL (EWF) and select Enable from the shortcut menu.if you plan to use PXI devices, right-click NI-PAL (EWF for PXI) and select Enable from the shortcut menu. You can select only one option from among NI-PAL, NI-PAL (EWF), and NI-PAL (EWF for PXI). 5. Save your changes and close the Component Designer. 2) Updating the Component Database After adding the NI-DAQmx871Runtime5 component into the component database, you need to update the database. 1. Open the Component Database Manager 2. On the Package tab, select NI-DAQmx871Runtime5 and notice the revision number. 3. Click the Delete Package button. 20
4. Import the new NI-DAQmx871Runtime5.sld file. 5. Check the revision number of NI-DAQmx871Runtime5, and confirm that it is newer than the previous one. 3) Updating the Image Configuration in Target Designer This section shows you how to upgrade an old image configuration in Target Designer to support EWF. If you are building a new image, you can ignore this section. When you are using an old.slx file in the Target Designer and want to enable the EWF feature, right-click the NI-DAQmx871Runtime5 component in the component list and select Upgrade from the shortcut menu. If the NI-PAL is not in the image configuration, you only need to check the dependency, and the Target Designer will automatically pull the NI-PAL (EWF) or the NI-PAL (EWF for PXI). If the NI- PAL is already in the image configuration, you must manually delete the NI-PAL and check the dependency. You may also encounter a dependency conflict on which loader to use. In this case, disable the NT Loader and enable the EWF NTLDR. Ignoring the Dependency Conflict 1. Select Tools»Options and select the Auto-resolve dependencies checkbox on the Dependency Check tab and click OK. 21
2. Check the dependencies and let Target Designer pull necessary components including the NI-PAL. 3. Select Tools»Options and deselect the Auto-resolve dependencies checkbox on the Dependency Check tab and click OK. 4. Delete the NI-PAL and add NI-PAL (EWF) or NI-PAL (EWF for PXI) as you want. 5. Check the dependencies again. 6. Ignore the error message prompting you to add the NI-PAL and build the image. 7. Support The DAQmx 8.7.1 runtime 5 for XPe components are supported by email at support@ni.com and over the Multifunction DAQ discussion forums. While not all components are necessary to successfully deploy a DAQmx application, support will only be provided for images with the full component set. While the LabVIEW Runtime Engine is not supported, it can be installed on a pre-existing deployed XPe system if Windows installer services are included. Additionally, a beta version of the components is available: LabVIEW 8.5.1 Runtime Engine for XPe Components Follow the steps outlined above to use these components. Note: This is a beta version only and is not supported by National Instruments support. 22