WTOS – INI File Handling

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Overview:
This is a simple guide outlining the handling of the different .ini files that could be used by
WTOS. It covers the setup of the global wnos.ini as well as username.ini and machine based
*.ini.

Prerequisites:
- Knowledge on how to configure WTOS to read in a wnos.ini
- Fileserver to put the .ini files on
- Configuration Generator (http://www.technicalhelp.de)

General:
1. The general setup of the FTP (or HTTP/HTTPS) folder structure and the configuration on
the WTOS device can be found in the document “First Steps” on technicalhelp.de –
Products – WTOS
2. Now that you have working environment, we can start looking at the different options.
With one global wnos.ini you would have one configuration for all clients. But with the
usage of a username.ini or a mac.ini you can define user-based or machine-based
settings. To do this, you have to create two new subfolders beneath ftproot/wnos
These folders are named /inc and /ini.
Your structure should look like this now:

3. The machine-based *.ini files are stored in the /inc folder. Whereas the user-based
username.ini files are saved in the /ini folder.
4. The only thing we are missing now, is how to reference these new .ini files. To
understand this, I will try to explain the different handling now.
a. Username.ini files are used to store user-based settings. To be able to use these,
a user has to login to the WTOS device first. Therefore you need SignOn=yes in
your wnos.ini and a backend server (eg. NTLM, Citrix, View) to authenticate
against. The username that has been entered in the SignOn dialog is then used
to validate the correct username.ini file.
b. Mac.ini files are stored in the folder /inc and include the machine-based settings.
To use mac.ini file nothing special has to be enabled.

Username.ini
A. If you are using a username.ini, the filename has to exact the same as the user’s login
name.
For example, if you are logging in with a username of Thomas than you would have to
create a file called Thomas.ini
B. When the client boots up now, it will read in the wnos.ini file, the user has to login and
then WTOS looks in the folder /ini if there is a corresponding .ini file. If there is one, it
 will read the file and finishes the whole process.

Machine based *.ini

1. A machine based *.ini has to be in a format like 008064123456.ini or terminalname.ini or
IPaddress.ini and is stored in the /inc folder
2. When the client boots up now, it will read in the wnos.ini file until it reaches the
parameter
Include=$mac.ini,
Include=$TN.ini,
Include=$IP.ini,
This parameter indicates that WTOS should stop reading in the wnos.ini, but jumps over
to the /inc folder and look for a file which has the same name as the mac address, the
terminal name or the IP address of the unit. It will then read in that *.ini file and
afterwards jumps back to the wnos.ini and finishes reading it after the Include
parameter.

IMPORTANT: If you have the same parameters in the wnos.ini and the machine based
*.ini but with different values, you should take a close look at the order of the
parameters.

For example, you have a wnos.ini with the following parameters:

Privilege=None
Resolution=DDC
Language=de
Include=$mac.ini

and a mac.ini file with

Privilege=high
Resolution=1280x1024
Language=us

This would result in a loop of reboots. Why? The answer is quite simple.
The device starts to read the wnos.ini and applies the Privilege parameter first, followed
by the resolution parameter. As Resolution=DDC is the default, nothing happens here.
Then the keyboard language is set to german.
Now the Include parameter lets the device look for its corresponding mac.ini file.
Privilege is set to high and the resolution is changing. This is the culprit. As a change of
the resolution results in a reboot, the wnos.ini is read in again. Now the Resolution=DDC
is applied and this needs reboot now, as the resolution was set to 1280x1024. So, now
again a reboot and so on and so on.
This example should show, that you either have to decide very precise where to put in
the Include=$mac.ini parameter or you should always end your mac.ini file with the
parameter Exit=all.
Exit=all means that all .ini file processing is stopped. This results in no jump back to the
wnos.ini and therefore no loop, if you adjust your .ini files like this:

Privilege=None
Include=$mac.ini
Resolution=DDC
Language=de
 and a mac.ini file with

Privilege=high
Resolution=1280x1024
Language=us
Exit=all

Default INI
One specialty is the default .ini file. This is used if you want to assign special settings to some
users, but global settings to only the other users. As Exit=all is not working here or an
Include=$UN.ini (UN for username) is not working, Wyse has created a new way.
To enable this you have to use the parameter
SignOn=Yes DefaultINI=my_default_settings.ini
Now you can create a file called my_default_settings.ini in the /ini folder (btw. You can name the
file like you want. Even the extension is not fixed).
When a user logs in now, WTOS looks for the username.ini. If there is no username.ini it will
read in the my_default_settings.ini file and applies the settings.

AD Group INI

Starting with ThinOS version 8.0_411 Dell has integrated a new option for INI file handling.
Now you can assign INI files based on AD group membership.
To do this you have to create a new folder beneath the /wnos/ini folder. It is called “adgroup”.
In this folder you can put INI files which are named like AD groups. Each AD group has to start
with a predefined prefix.
In your global wnos.ini file you have to define this prefix first. Beside that you have to use
SignOn=NTLM.
The full string could look like this:

SignOn=NTLM AdGroupPrefix="ThinOS-"

Now create new groups in your AD which all start with “ThinOS-“ or whatever you have defined
in your wnos.ini. Put the appropriate users in these groups and create the already mentioned INI
files like this:

Group nesting is not supported nor the membership in more than one group. The first matching
group will be used.