Radified Community Forums - ghost.exe (DOS) - Any way to export or view bound license attrib's?

pishposh

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ghost.exe (DOS) - Any way to export or view bound license attrib's?
Feb 9^th, 2010 at 3:29pm

Is there any way to make GHOST.EXE export its bound license+switches data back to a GHOST.ENV file? (Or to at least make it show you the switch settings that were in the GHOST.ENV file that it was originally bound with?)

Or, to know for certain what's going on inside any given copy of GHOST.EXE switches-wise, must you have your "main" (from your GSS machine) GHOST.ENV on-hand, modify it as necessary, and then bind anew?

PS - Someone ought to update the description of this section of the forum (on the forum's front page). It currently refers to versions as high as GSS 2.0 = classic Ghost 11, but doesn't mention GSS 2.5 = classic Ghost 11.5.0 or GSS 2.5.1 = classic Ghost 11.5.1.

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Re: ghost.exe (DOS) - Any way to export or view bound license attrib's?
Reply #1 - Feb 11^th, 2010 at 12:05pm

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Quote:

Is there any way to make GHOST.EXE export its bound license+switches data back to a GHOST.ENV file? (Or to at least make it show you the switch settings that were in the GHOST.ENV file that it was originally bound with?)

Does this help:

How to customize Ghost for individual users

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Re: ghost.exe (DOS) - Any way to export or view bound license attrib's?
Reply #2 - Feb 11^th, 2010 at 4:57pm

Yeah, saw that already. (Thanks though.)

What I was curious about was if there were just some kind of ghost.exe -exportExistingLicense=output.env switch.

So that if I'm far from our GSS machine (which has our GHOST.ENV) -- say on client machine X that only has a copy of GHOST.EXE on it -- I can just export that GHOST.EXE's existing license, change switches as needed, and re-bind with -e#=output.env

No big deal if there isn't, though.

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Re: ghost.exe (DOS) - Any way to export or view bound license attrib's?
Reply #3 - Feb 12^th, 2010 at 10:15am

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So that if I'm far from our GSS machine (which has our GHOST.ENV) -- say on client machine X that only has a copy of GHOST.EXE on it -- I can just export that GHOST.EXE's existing license, change switches as needed, and re-bind with -e#=output.env

Not entirely sure what you are saying here!? I've not attempted to use that function for personal use of Ghost.

I'm curious--if your Ghost program is *bound* to a *ghost.env* file--does that file have to be present on the client machine or boot disk or disc in order for Ghost to load? Or, do those settings get incorporated internally to the *ghost.exe* program?

At least for the retail Ghost 2003, the *ghost.env* file is not even *required*--so if you go to a client's location and their Ghost program is not already bound to a *ghost.env* file--then there will be no restrictions placed on their Ghost program--the modifications to the Ghost program's functionality is outlined in the above link as to what can be placed in the *ghost.env* file.

I would think that if the client's Ghost program is bound to a *ghost.env* file, then they should have that file present and you can simply look at it with NotePad.

And, I would think you would not want to somehow bind your company's *ghost.env* to someone else's license of Ghost!!!!

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Re: ghost.exe (DOS) - Any way to export or view bound license attrib's?
Reply #4 - Feb 12^th, 2010 at 11:03am

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pishposh

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PS - Someone ought to update the description of this section of the forum (on the forum's front page). It currently refers to versions as high as GSS 2.0 = classic Ghost 11, but doesn't mention GSS 2.5 = classic Ghost 11.5.0 or GSS 2.5.1 = classic Ghost 11.5.1.

Better?!

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Re: ghost.exe (DOS) - Any way to export or view bound license attrib's?
Reply #5 - Feb 13^th, 2010 at 12:47am

NightOwl wrote on Feb 12^th, 2010 at 10:15am:

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pishposh

Quote:

So that if I'm far from our GSS machine (which has our GHOST.ENV) -- say on client machine X that only has a copy of GHOST.EXE on it -- I can just export that GHOST.EXE's existing license, change switches as needed, and re-bind with -e#=output.env

Not entirely sure what you are saying here!? I've not attempted to use that function for personal use of Ghost.

It's been a while since my days using the non-corporate version, so I can't say for sure whether the "consumer" versions required it. Maybe they didn't, or, maybe the installation process silently bound licensing information to GHOST.EXE for users automatically, so they never needed to think about it, let alone know about it.

If you want to find out one way or another for sure, ask someone who has exactly the same version of Ghost 2003 you have (down to the same build number) to send you their copy of DOS GHOST.EXE file, and then do an fc.exe /b style comparison between their copy and yours. If the consumer versions contain bound licensing information, you will see it when then comparison process reaches the final 2K or so of the EXE's and suddenly spits out tons of difference information.

As far as the corporate versions:

Quote:

I'm curious--if your Ghost program is *bound* to a *ghost.env* file--does that file have to be present on the client machine or boot disk or disc in order for Ghost to load? Or, do those settings get incorporated internally to the *ghost.exe* program?

GHOST.ENV does not need to be present for GHOST.EXE to work. "C:\>ghost.exe -#e=filename.env" causes GHOST.EXE to read filename.env's contents and append them in encrypted form to the end of itself. (A virgin copy of corporate DOS GHOST.EXE won't work until you have done this binding.)

Anyway, since Ghost is known for having undocumented switches, that is why I was asking if anyone knew a way to get license/switch information out of a GHOST.EXE file that had aleady been bound with an .env file -- so I not only can do on-the-fly, on-location auditing of the switch settings in any given copy of GHOST.EXE, but so I can also change them on the spot (export bound data back to test.env, modify test.env file's switches, -#e=test.env, delete test.env).

Quote:

And, I would think you would not want to somehow bind your company's *ghost.env* to someone else's license of Ghost!!!!

Heh, I didn't mean clientele style clients. I was referring to clients as in client/workstation PCs as opposed to the main machine we run GSS from.

Also, re: "Better?!", yes, much.

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Re: ghost.exe (DOS) - Any way to export or view bound license attrib's?
Reply #6 - Feb 13^th, 2010 at 7:27pm

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GHOST.ENV does not need to be present for GHOST.EXE to work. "C:\>ghost.exe -#e=filename.env" causes GHOST.EXE to read filename.env's contents and append them in encrypted form to the end of itself. (A virgin copy of corporate DOS GHOST.EXE won't work until you have done this binding.)

Actually, the problem appears to be more specific than that! Looking at your reference link: Error 20077: "Please register Ghost before attempting this operation"

Quote:

Error 20077: "Please register Ghost before attempting this operation"

Situation: When using Ghost, you see "Error 20077: Please register Ghost before attempting this operation."

Solution: To solve this problem, make sure that all copies of Ghost.exe are registered, and that all versions are identical.

To redeploy the Ghost.exe to a client
If you see this error message when running a task using the Ghost Console

Looks like Corporate DOS Ghost will not work from within *Ghost Console*--I'm betting it works just fine as a stand-alone DOS program!

The reason I say that is because the Ghost 2003 installation CD, which is bootable, and you can run Ghost from it--and there is no *ghost.env* present there. I can copy that *ghost.exe* file to boot media, and it works fine. Also, I have a Ghost 10 installation CD. It is bootable to the Ghost Recovery Environment (a customized WinPE for Ghost 10). It has a copy of *ghost32.exe* on it--Ghost32 v8.2 (its file name on the CD is *RESTOREGHOST.EXE*--it's there so folks who have used DOS Ghost previously can access previous *.gho* files for possible restoring. It also allows for creating image files as well. Again, works fine without the presence of a *ghost.env* file, and no binding of the license ever occurs!

I looked at my retail Ghost 2003 installation directory and the *ghost.env* is present--and I opened it with NotePad and found this (specific registration data has been changed!):

Quote:

Keynum : 1234
License : abcdefgh
MaxPCs : 10
Name : NightOwl
Address1:
Address2:
Keycode : 1234abcdABCD

I have multi-booted WinXP and Win98se in the past, and have a separate *Program Files* for the Win98se on a separate partition from my WinXP *Program Files*--and I have installed Ghost under Win98se in the past. Looked at that Ghost sub-directory and it has a *ghost.env* file also--and the contents have different unique values from what's listed above!

Did a *fc.exe* (file compare) of the two different Ghost installations *ghost.exe* files, but *fc* reported NO file differences! But, looking back at that FAQ about customizing Ghost: How to customize Ghost for individual users , one has to run Ghost in DOS with both *ghost.exe* and the *ghost.env* files in the same directory--and that doesn't happen commonly when using the retail Ghost--so my suspicion is that there has never been a *binding* of those two files!

I will have to experiment to see what happens if I do run those program files in the same directory!

Also, I was very surprised to see that the *ghost.env* has a 10 MaxPCs available! The Ghost EULA says Ghost can be used on 1 system per license!!! Not 10!!!! Interesting.......

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Re: ghost.exe (DOS) - Any way to export or view bound license attrib's?
Reply #7 - Feb 15^th, 2010 at 1:21am

"Virgin copy" not working at all meant, as in if you pulled GHOST.EXE right out of the GSS installation material. The copy on your GSS machine (where Ghost Console is installed) is bound with your license during the installation process as far as I know and is ready to work from the getgo. So yes as you said, "Please register" error only applies in Ghost Console if one of the client machines has a GHOST.EXE that doesn't match your GSS machine's copy's license.

Re: Ghost 2003, no clue why "GHOST.ENV" is present in your installation directory, yet not on the install CD *and* GHOST.EXE on the installation CD still runs. *shrug*

Re: running GHOST.EXE in the same directory as a GHOST.ENV file, look more closely at the FAQ - it says that may not work and you may have to use -#e=<filename.env>. (I'm assuming this has to do with different versions of Ghost behaving differently.) Anyway, if you have different GHOST.ENV files, bind each with -#e= to a separate copy of GHOST.EXE, and then compare with fc.exe.

Re: MaxPCs = 10 in a consumer version, interesting -- and yet again, no clue why. I don't think this parameter can be enforced anyway when GHOST.EXE is running on its own, so maybe it's only enforced when the console is involved. And in that case it wouldn't matter what MaxPCs said in a consumer version because I don't think consumer versions came with the console stuff. (That said, assuming "10" didn't matter in the consumer versions, maybe it was 10 in them because 10 could be the lower limit for what that field can be in any version, i.e. as if Ghost were programmed that way in its source code. Just a guess.)

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Re: ghost.exe (DOS) - Any way to export or view bound license attrib's?
Reply #8 - Feb 16^th, 2010 at 10:40am

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Re: MaxPCs = 10 in a consumer version, interesting -- and yet again, no clue why.

I understand--there's often no way to figure out what's going on differently between the retail version and the Corporate versions--except trial and error!

I've never been confronted with issues regarding the Ghost licensing *environment* (ghost.env) file--as you point out--there is no Ghost Console to deal with in the retail version--so this is all new to me!

Quote:

The copy on your GSS machine (where Ghost Console is installed) is bound with your license during the installation process as far as I know and is ready to work from the getgo.

I can see where the installation process could do the *binding* as part of the installation, but at least comparing my two different installations of Ghost 2003, because the file compare shows no difference, I have to assume that didn't happen for the retail version Ghost 2003--interesting!

Quote:

(That said, assuming "10" didn't matter in the consumer versions, maybe it was 10 in them because 10 could be the lower limit for what that field can be in any version, i.e. as if Ghost were programmed that way in its source code. Just a guess.)

Not a bad *guess*--but, at least on the purchasing side--there is a *5* license minimum if someone wants to purchase Ghost Solution Suite--so I suspect that may not be a usable explanation! So, still an interesting *inconsistency* in the programming!

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