JP2009157697A - Portable storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To produce a portable storage medium for using even an OS configured so as not to be started from the portable storage medium, by means of a plurality of terminals differing in hardware configuration. <P>SOLUTION: A DB update function provided for the portable storage medium includes: a first means for automatically extracting hardware information such as a device driver and a setting file unique to information terminals to be used; and a second means for enumerating device drivers which needs boot drivers provided for the portable storage medium and dynamically installs those drivers during starting. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for making an OS or application stored in a portable storage medium available to various information terminals having different hardware configurations.

Conventionally, it has realized high security on the lending side and borrower side of information terminals used by an unspecified number of users, such as Internet cafe terminals and station kiosk terminals, and it has become possible to provide the environment that borrowers need As a method, for example, a method using a portable information terminal composed of a portable storage medium as described in Patent Document 1 below is known.
The device described in Patent Document 1 below employs a configuration in which the OS and software are not stored in the public terminal, and instead the OS and software are read from a portable storage medium distributed to the user. In addition, a portable storage medium is used as a storage area in which the user can write.

JP 2003-303104 A

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the prior art, and as a publicly available public terminal 1, it usually has a CPU 10, a volatile memory 11, a display device 12, an input / output device 13, a storage device 14, and an external interface 15. A personal computer is generally used. At this time, there is a possibility that the environment of the public terminal 1 may suffer some damage on the lending side of the public terminal 1. There is also the inconvenience that the necessary tools are not provided to the borrower, and there is also the possibility of the damage of information leakage due to malware built on the terminal by a third party. Under these circumstances, a portable storage medium that can be activated from the public terminal 1 is distributed to the user as means for ensuring high security for both the lending side and the borrower side and providing an environment required by the borrower side.
For example, the user-specific OS 160 and the application 161 are stored and used in the storage medium 16 distributed to the user 1 and the storage medium 17 distributed to the user n. These storage media 16 and 17 can be used by the public terminal 1, but cannot be used by the public terminal 1 having a different hardware configuration because the necessary device driver may not be provided.

As described above, the technique described in Patent Document 1 can realize a user-specific environment only when a public terminal with uniform hardware is used, but cannot be used with another terminal having a different hardware configuration. There's a problem.
In addition, there is a problem that an OS configured so that it cannot be started from a portable storage medium (for example, Microsoft Windows) cannot be used.
The present invention can be used even in a plurality of information terminals having different hardware configurations when an information processing environment required by users in an information terminal used by an unspecified number of users is realized by a portable storage medium. It is another object of the present invention to provide a portable storage medium that can be used even by an information terminal in which an OS that is configured so as not to be activated from a portable storage medium is installed.

In order to achieve the above object, the portable storage medium according to the present invention extracts hardware information such as a device driver and a setting file specific to the information terminal when connected to the information terminal to be used. And device drivers necessary for starting the information terminal on the basis of the extracted hardware information, reading those device drivers from a database registered in advance in a portable storage medium, and storing them in the portable storage medium And an installation means for installing the OS and applications so that they can be used.
Further, the installation means includes means for changing the setting of the OS so as not to read the device driver from a storage means other than the portable storage medium.

According to the present invention, a user can realize a use environment required by himself / herself on any information terminal having a different hardware configuration, such as an in-house terminal, a home terminal, or a network cafe terminal, and can perform information processing. it can.
In addition, an OS (for example, Microsoft Windows) configured so that it cannot be started from a portable storage medium can be used.

Hereinafter, an embodiment for carrying out the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.
The present invention solves the problems in the prior art and has various hardware configurations such as an in-house terminal (in-house PC) 20, a home terminal (home PC) 21, or a net cafe terminal (net cafe PC) 22. A portable storage medium (medium 23 for user 1 and medium 24 for user n) that can be reliably used in the information terminal is created and distributed to each of users 1 to n.
In the following, the in-house terminal (in-house PC) 20, the home terminal (home PC) 21, the net cafe terminal (net cafe PC) 22, and the like are collectively referred to as an information terminal.
Each of the portable storage media 23 and 24 stores an OS 160 and an application 161 as in the related art, and is provided with a data storage area 162 for storing a processing result by the application 161 and the like. In addition to this, a boot driver 230 for enabling booting of an OS (for example, Microsoft Windows) configured so as not to be bootable from a portable storage medium, and information for booting on any information terminal. DB update function (hardware information extraction means) 231 for automatically extracting necessary device drivers in the terminal 2, a hardware configuration DB 232 storing the configuration information, and data storage for storing processing results by the application 161, etc. The area 162 is configured.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a procedure for creating the portable storage media 23 and 24 according to the present invention.
In the present invention, it is assumed that the portable storage media 23 and 24 are created by the system administrator and the kitting contractor who installs and sets the necessary application at the kitting terminal 30. However, anyone who can access the image tool 300 and the disk image 301 can create the medium (procedure (1)).
The created portable storage media (the medium 23 distributed to the user 1 and the medium 24 distributed to the user n) are distributed to each user (procedure (2)). At this time, for example, if the user 1 inserts (connects) the portable storage medium 23 into the information terminal 1 and tries to start it, the start fails (procedure (3)). This is because the storage medium 23 does not have a device driver necessary for starting up the information terminal 1.
After the activation fails in step (3), or when the user 1 is activated by inserting the portable storage medium 23 into the information terminal n22, the OS environment of the information terminal 120 (information terminal n22) is automatically activated. To do. At this time, the DB update function 231 stored in the portable storage medium 23 is automatically executed to extract the hardware information of the information terminal 120 (information terminal n22) (procedure (4)). Thereafter, the system is automatically restarted, and the information terminal 120 (information terminal n22) can be started from the portable storage medium 23.
Usually, since it can be assumed that the OS environment has already been set up for the information terminal n22, it is stored in the information terminal n22 by inserting the portable storage medium 23 after starting the information terminal n22 and executing the DB update function 231. Driver files can be extracted. However, if the OS environment is not set up on the information terminal n22, the information terminal n22 cannot be activated. In this case, for example, the procedure (4) is executed after setting up the OS environment in the information terminal n22, or the administrator obtains the installation medium of the information terminal n22 and the DB update function on the kitting terminal 30 It is also possible to configure the portable storage medium 23 by a method such as executing 231 and extracting a driver file from the installation CD of the information terminal 22.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a startup procedure from the portable storage medium 23 of the present invention.
When the information terminal n22 is used by the user 1 using the portable storage medium 23 distributed to the user 1, the OS 160 kernel and the boot driver 230 are first read from the portable storage medium 23 into the memory of the information terminal n22. In the reading process, an instruction that does not depend on the information terminal n22 called a hardware interrupt is used, so that the reading process is successful regardless of the information terminal.
Further, it is assumed that the information terminal n22 is already set at the BIOS level so as to be started from an external interface, not a local storage device.
The boot driver 230 changes the setting of the OS 160 so that the drive is not mounted from a storage device other than the portable storage medium 23 at the time of execution (procedure (1)).
Next, device drivers (device driver 140, device driver 241 and device driver n42) necessary for starting the information terminal n22 are listed from the hardware configuration DB 232 (procedure (2)) and installed (procedure (3)). .
Thereafter, the OS 160 sequentially loads necessary device drivers (procedure (4)).

During loading of the device driver, the OS 160 starts enumerating accessible storage devices when loading of the device driver for disk access is completed.
An OS such as Microsoft Windows is configured to read the local storage device 43 first. This reading fails due to the setting of the procedure (1) (procedure (5)). However, only the portable storage medium 23 distributed to the user 1 is recognized as the system drive (procedure (6)).
By setting the drive not to be mounted from a storage device other than the portable storage medium 23 in this way, there is no risk of any damage on both the lending side and the borrower side of the information terminal 2 and high safety. Can be secured.

Hereinafter, the flow of processing when the present invention is implemented will be specifically described with reference to flowcharts.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing processing of the image tool 300 in the kitting terminal 30.
When creating a portable storage medium 23 that can be started by another system by a system administrator or a kitting contractor, the portable storage medium 23 is inserted into the terminal 30 for kitting (step 401). Then, the image tool 300 is executed (step 402), and the disk image 301 storing the user's usage environment is copied to the portable storage medium 23 (step 403).
Thereafter, the process is repeated from step 401 in order to create portable storage media for the necessary number of persons.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing of the DB update function of the portable storage medium 23.
When the user inserts and starts the portable storage medium 23 distributed from the administrator into the information terminal n22, the OS environment of the information terminal n22 is automatically started. At this time, the DB update function 231 stored in the portable storage medium 23 is configured to be automatically executed by the CPU of the information terminal n22, like the BIOS and boot loader programs of the information terminal n22. Assuming The DB update function 231 checks whether the hardware information (device driver list, etc.) of the information terminal n22 has been extracted (step 501), and if not extracted, collects the hardware information of the information terminal n22 (step 502). ) Reboots the OS 160 (step 503).

  After processing step 503, or when hardware information has already been extracted in step 501, the OS environment of the portable storage medium 23 by the OS 160 is activated (step 504).

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the processing of the boot driver 230 stored in the portable storage medium 23.
The user turns on the information terminal n22 after inserting the portable storage medium 23 into the information terminal n22 (step 601). Thereafter, the BIOS and boot loader of the information terminal n22 are executed by the CPU of the information terminal n22, and the kernel of the OS 160 and the boot driver 230 are read from the portable storage medium 23 (steps 602 to 603).
The loaded kernel of OS 160 and boot driver 230 are executed by the CPU of information terminal n22. At the time of execution, the boot driver 230 changes the setting of the OS 160 so that the drive is not mounted from a storage device other than the portable storage medium 23 (step 604).

Next, the device driver list of the hardware configuration DB 232 is listed (step 605). Then, it is checked whether or not the listed device drivers 40 to 42 have been installed (step 606). If they are not installed, the device drivers 40 to 42 are installed (step 607). Thereafter, the processing is repeated from step 606.
After the installation of all the device drivers 40 to 42 is completed, the OS 160 device driver loading process is executed (step 608).

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing subsequent processing of the boot driver 230.
After step 608 in FIG. 6, the OS 160 starts the drive mounting process.
The boot driver 230 checks whether or not all the drives have been mounted (step 609), and if it still remains, continues the drive mounting process (step 610). At this time, the result changes depending on whether the mount target drive is the portable storage medium 23 distributed to the user (step 611). In the case of the portable storage medium 23 distributed to the user, the mounting is successful (step 613), and in the other cases, the mounting fails (step 612). If all the drives have been mounted in step 609, the process ends.

It is a block diagram which shows embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the preparation procedure of the portable storage medium of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the starting procedure of the information terminal from the portable storage medium of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process of the image tool which lyses the portable storage medium of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process of DB update function in the portable storage medium of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process of the boot driver in the portable storage medium of this invention. FIG. 7 is a flowchart continued from FIG. 6. It is a system block diagram of a prior art.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Public terminal, 10 ... CPU, 11 ... Volatile memory, 12 ... Display device, 13 ... I / O device, 14 ... Storage device, 15 ... External interface, 16 ... Portable medium distributed to user 1, 17 ... User Portable media distributed to n, 160 ... OS, 161 ... application, 40-42 ... device driver, 232 ... hardware configuration DB, 230 ... boot driver.

Claims (2)

A portable storage medium that stores an OS and an application read and executed by an information terminal to be used,
Hardware information extraction means for extracting hardware information such as a device driver and a setting file specific to the information terminal when connected to the information terminal to be used;
Based on the extracted hardware information, device drivers necessary for starting the information terminal are listed, and these device drivers are read from a database registered in advance in the portable storage medium so that the OS and applications can be used. A portable storage medium comprising: installation means for installing on the portable storage medium.   The portable storage medium according to claim 1, wherein the installation unit includes a unit that changes the setting of the OS so that a device driver is not read from a storage unit other than the portable storage medium.

Images