faronics-deepfreeze | Thomas' Work Space

Deepfreeze rebooting the lab computers again during use

2014/01/14 plagwitz Leave a comment

I have been told that Deepfreeze will reboot lab computers (hourly?) only when they are idle (on login screen).
However, I have observed the unsolicited reboot also when trying to work with these computers.
Today, I had both lab computers that I was working on with the Sanako , reboot in the middle of my testing, with the 1 minute warning dialogue.
Will pressing “cancel” prevent this, especially during high-stakes writing and speaking assessments with the Sanako? What if the users misses it (we sometimes deliberately have the screens blocked/blacked out during parts of classes).

Categories: audience-is-IT-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, e-infrastructure, Glitches&Errors Tags: faronics-deepfreeze, image2014spring, rebooting, sanako-study-1200, security

More unsolicited Deepfreeze system reboots in the middle of working?

2013/07/05 plagwitz Leave a comment

What gives?

Categories: audience-is-IT-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, Glitches&Errors Tags: faronics-deepfreeze

Deepfreeze still rebooting computers in scheduled maintenance

2013/03/12 plagwitz Leave a comment

PC47.

Categories: Glitches&Errors Tags: faronics-deepfreeze

How to check for “lost trust” issues on LRC PCs before classes

2013/01/31 plagwitz Leave a comment

We experience computers that fail allowing students to log in, thus disrupting face-to-face classes in the LRC.

We have found no diagnostic tool working, other than attempting to log into the machine.
Current workaround is manually removing and adding them back to the domain, when students experience login issues – which is time consuming, certainly too time-consuming during classes.

Suggested workaround Checklist, to be run before any class in the LRC (check calendar):
1. Student staff
  1. logs in on each individual computer and notes failures (
  2. this could be accelerated by using mstsc, especially with remote desktop connection manager and lrc.rdg) on the reception desk computers
  3. do we have automated (scriptable) login options?
2. Coordinator
  1. from Deepfreeze-console, unfreezes computers in question
  2. from Symantec Ghost Console
    1. puts computers in question into domain-issues folder
    2. runs tasks against this folder
      1. “remove from domain”
      2. “add to Domain&AD”
  3. from Deepfreeze-console, freezes computers in question

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, e-infrastructure Tags: domain, faronics-deepfreeze, symantec-ghost, trust-relationshiip

Delete the Flash Global Settings if the iMacs webcam displays black frame only

2012/10/11 plagwitz Leave a comment

Problem: Safari and (not recommended after last testing round) Firefox both hung on iMAC6 when a student tried to do a Moodle Kaltura Webcam assignment and got to the built-in ISight camera display page.
Cause: maybe a Flash security problem accessing the web cam? maybe security dialogue was not answered by the student correctly earlier, and the “preference”stored in her account?

Solution (presumably): System started working again after I deleted the Flash Global settings, by right-clicking on the webcam video preview window like so:

Ceterum censeo that we need a computer management infrastructure if we want to use MACs for language learning technology. Faronics-Deepfreeze would have prevented this problem, provided we have a software imaging system (CASPER coming up apparently) that can let us start with a usable image, and the staff time to learn and configure 2 usable OS images and dual usable computer management infrastructures. TCO now > TCO dual OS infrastructure > TCO web cams for 45 PCs.

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, Glitches&Errors, iMacs, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, lms, multimedia-recording Tags: FAQs, faronics-deepfreeze, kaltura, moodle, webcam

Deepfreeze console select clients oddities

2012/09/21 plagwitz Leave a comment

Problem: You lose most context menu options if you select a series of clients in deepfreeze console with shift-click, then exclude from selection non-working client:
Cause: Bug in Faronics-Deepfreeze (ver 7.21 etc. here)?
Workaround: If you select your longest list of working clients with shift-click, skip the non—working client, and add to the list with control-click, you still get the full context menu:

Categories: e-infrastructure, Glitches&Errors Tags: faronics-deepfreeze

More ways of making minor changes to a domain-joined, deepfrozen computer lab image

2012/09/21 plagwitz Leave a comment

Re-imaging a domain-joined, deep-frozen Windows XP language lab using Symantec Ghost and Deepfreeze can be a drawn-out process.
Minor fixes can be achieved by unfreezing and using a Symantec-Ghost file task and a script that loads the default user registry hive – here is how:

sTempHive = """HKEY_USERS\Test"""

'//vista and up: sDefaultUserHive = """%USERPROFILE%\..\Default\NTUSER.DAT"""

sDefaultUserHive = """%USERPROFILE%\..\Default User\NTUSER.DAT"""

sSName = oUtility.ScriptName

set oShell = WScript.CreateObject ("Wscript.Shell")

and alters it before freezing the lab again. Here are some examples of such fixes:

change the default keyboard (after users logs in):

oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Setting US-International as Default Keyboard Layout",LogTypeInfo

RegPath = "HKEY_USERS\Test\Keyboard Layout\Substitutes\"

oshell.RegWrite Regpath & "00000409", "00020409", "REG_SZ"

If Err<>0 Then 

  oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Failed to update Default Keyboard Layout setting",LogTypeError

  ZTIProcess=60

  Exit Function

End If

change visibility of the developer tab in the ribbon of MS-Word:

oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Setting MS-Word Developer Toolbar to show",LogTypeInfo

RegPath = "HKEY_USERS\Test\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Word\Options\"

oshell.RegWrite Regpath & "DeveloperTools", "1", "REG_SZ"

If Err<>0 Then 

  oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Failed to update S-word developer tools settings",LogTypeError

  ZTIProcess=40

  Exit Function

End If

change the SDL-Trados licensing server IP:

oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Setting Default User Trados license server",LogTypeInfo

RegPath = "HKEY_USERS\Test\Software\Trados\Shared\Licence"

oshell.RegWrite Regpath & "Licence_file", "27000@10.18.189.231", "REG_SZ"

If Err<>0 Then 

  oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Failed to update Default User Trados license server setting",LogTypeError

  ZTIProcess=35

  Exit Function

End If


oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Setting Default User Screensaver timeout settings",LogTypeInfo

RegPath = "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\FLEXlm License Manager"

oshell.RegWrite Regpath & "Trados_License_File", "27000@10.18.189.231;27000@xlcs4sbynj1www", "REG_SZ"

If Err<>0 Then 

  oLogging.CreateEntry sSName & ": Failed to update Screensaver to timeout settings",LogTypeError

  ZTIProcess=30

  Exit Function

End If

On Ghost:

We create a Ghost file task that points to the wsf file with the current changes we want to implement:

To apply other changes, just change the filename of your script , e.g.:

to apply to other computers, just change the target in the ghost task.

Output:

These scripts use the ZTIUtility.vbs from the MDT.

You may have to update the location: <script language="VBScript" src="ZTIUtility.vbs"/>.
For a while, the logging success made me believe I I had accessed the ntuser.dat and had run into registry permission settings loading it. In fact, I just did not resolve to the XP path of the ntuser.dat. Take advantage of the the logging facilities that come with MDT: Here are your logs on the client: .
Read the logs with TRACE32, part of the SMS 2003 Toolkit 2.

Result: Provided the client has been cleanly frozen, and the domain user has no profile created before on this machine, and his profile is based on the altered default user profile, his HKCU will inherit the changes: