7
21 February 2008
11 July 2009

nFront Client and Symantec Ghost

Problem

nFront Password Filter (Passfilt PRO) will not install and says "Another non-Microsoft GINA exists on this system. Installation cannot continue." This occurs on systems with Symantec Ghost console installed.

Details

The Symantec Ghost Client Console installs a GINA dll named ginastub.dll. The file is usually located in C:\Windows\Program Files\Symantec\Ghost\ginastub.dll. The registry key for GinaDLL used by Windows allows only a single entry, implying that only a single 3rd party Gina can be used. The GinaDLL key is located in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon.

The Symantec Ghost Console ginastub does support Gina chaining (i.e. process where one gina DLL calls another until eventually the real MSGINA.DLL is called). The Symantec Ghost Console uses a registry value of GinaChainDLL to specify the next Gina to load.

Solution

Option 1: Install nFront Password Filter Client first, then install Symantec Ghost
If you install the nFront Password Filter Client first, the Symantec Ghost Console client installation will read the GinaDLL regsitry setting and create a GinaChainDll registry setting which lists altusgina.dll

Option 2: Manually add nFront Password Filter client to the system
The nFront Password Filter Client client simply requires one file:altusgina.dll. Since the file is encapsulated within the MSI package we maintain a zipped copy of all files used in the nFront Password Filter packages.

  1. Download the individual files here in a zip format
  2. Copy altusgina.dll to c:\windows\system32 on each workstation.
  3. Add the following registry key to each workstation: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\GinaChainDLL, REG_SZ, altusgina.dll
  4. Reboot each client.  Upon the next boot the Symantec ginastub.dll will call altusgina.dll for any function that it does not directly handle.

Affected Products

nFront Password Filter Client (all) Symantec Ghost Console