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Tiny Pilot ISO Mount

By michael sandbrook @mike_sandbrook
    2023-06-15 07:58:48.205Zassigned to
    • @david

    We are experiencing a few problems with the Tiny Pilot and was hoping for your input. As background, we have a Tiny Pilot at a customer in Germany, which we are intending to use to install windows, to a connected laptop via the ISO mount feature.

    We have uploaded the Windows install ISO to the TinyPilot and mounted it. We can boot to the mounted image, but when we start the Windows installation, it prompts us to supply a driver disk for the storage driver, as shown below:

    We have tried several combinations that have suggested the problem is specific to the TinyPilot including:

    • Different ISOs – we’ve tried W11 21H1 and 22H2 ISO images
    • Different TinyPilots – we’ve replicated the issue on both our customer’s unit as well as our own test unit and get the same error
    • Different laptops – we get the same error on a Lenovo and Dell XPS laptop
    • IODD – Chris has an IODD Mini unit (http://en.iodd.kr/wiki/index.php/IoddMINI) and has mounted exactly the same ISOs, which work successfully

    Reply
    • 3 replies
    1. David @david2023-06-15 11:19:28.457Z

      Hi @mike_sandbrook, sorry that you're running into this ISO issue.

      Unfortunately, booting from most Windows images does not work on TinyPilot. This is a known issue that a few other users have run into.

      The problem is that TinyPilot is able to emulate CD-ROMs, but not DVD-ROMs. CD-ROM mode can read only the first 2.2 GB of the file, while most Windows ISOs are larger than that. The underlying issue is that the Linux kernel itself can't properly emulate DVD-ROMs. As far as I know, there are no plans for developing that functionality into the Linux kernel. The IODD Mini unit can emulate DVD-ROMs which explains why it works with those same ISO files.

      It should be possible to to create a custom Windows installation image that's smaller than 2.2GB to mount from TinyPilot in CD-ROM mode. Another user wrote a helpful article about installing Windows with virtual media and WinPE which might be a suitable workaround for this.

      Hope that helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions.

      Reply
      1. M
        In reply tomike_sandbrook⬆:
        michael sandbrook @mike_sandbrook
          2023-06-16 07:43:14.673Z

          Hi @David many thanks for your reply i appriciate your time. Not emulation a DVD-ROM is the issues here then. I will take a look into either splitting the ISO or creating a 2.2GB Image to test this out.

          Many thanks

          Mike

          Reply
          1. David @david2023-06-16 11:22:17.124Z

            No problem! I'm glad I could clarify everything.

            I'd definitely recommend checking out @TimmyIT's article for his walk-through using Windows PE too.

            Please reach out again if you have any questions.

            Reply
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