How to add NIC and/or Mass Storage Device drivers to PXE automation configurations
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How to add NIC and/or Mass Storage Device drivers to PXE automation configurations

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Article ID: 181830

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Question
How do you add NIC and/or Mass Storage device drivers to PXE automation configurations?

Answer
NOTE: Symantec/Altiris can not provide hardware device drivers for the myriad of devices available for use. We suggest that device drivers be downloaded either from the computer manufacturer (Dell, IBM, HP, etc.) or directly from the device manufacturer (Intel, Broadcom, 3COM, etc.).

Downloading the correct NIC drivers (as well as Mass Storage Device drivers) depends upon the operating system being used in your PXE Configuration.

- If you are using a WinPE 2.1 PXE configuration (used by Deployment Server 6.9 SP5 and earlier 6.9 versions), you will need to download the drivers for Windows Vista, since WinPE 2.1 is based on Vista code. Windows 7 NIC drivers should also work. (NOTE: Earlier versions of Deployment Server utilized WinPE 1.6 which was based on Windows XP code, so it was necessary to download the Windows XP drivers for this version of WinPE.)

- If you are using a WinPE 4.0 PXE configuration (used by Deployment Server 6.9 SP6 and later versions) you must use Windows 8 drivers.

- If you are using a Linux PXE configuration, you will need to download or compile a .ko file (see Altiris KnowledgeBase article #36079 titled "How to compile drivers for Linux Automation in Deployment Server" for more information).

- If you are using a DOS PXE configuration you will need to download and un-zip DOS drivers. At this point you may find that the driver file is located in a "MSLANMAN.DOS" subdirectory (NOTE: NIC manufacturers may not provide DOS drivers for the latest hardware, as DOS becomes less relevant in the industry. Also note that DOS drivers for Mass Storage device drivers are not available since DOS cannot access these types of devices).

Steps required to add drivers:

Once you have located, download, and un-zipped (if necessary) the correct NIC driver or the Mass Storage Device drivers.
1. Open the PXE Configuration utility from the Deployment Server console by choosing "PXE Configuration" from the Tools pull-down menu.
2. Select the PXE configuration you would like to add the driver to and click on the Edit button on the right.
3.Click on the "Edit Boot Image" to enter the wizard which will start you at something like "Step 9 of 12".
4. To add drivers you need to be on step 2 or 3, so click on the Edit button at the bottom to start at the beginning of the wizard.
5. On step 2 or 3 you will have access to the NIC driver list.
6. By clicking on the "Have Disk" button at the bottom of the driver list you will be able to download the new drivers for either NICs or Mass Storage Devices (both types of drivers are handled identically in the wizard and both types will load as necessary during the PXE boot process).
7. Once the drivers have been added, it is important to continue step by step through the wizard until the PXE configuration boot files are reconstructed using the new drivers.
8. Once you are returned to the PXE Configuration Utility main window, it is also important that the Save button be selected so that this new PXE configuration file will be saved to the PXE server.

 

Additional Notes:

- Sometimes it can be difficult to determine if the correct NIC driver is included or has been added. If you have a "Managed" computer of the same model that shows in the Deployment Server console under New Computers or All Computers you can right-click on this computer and choose Properties. From the Computer Properties window, click on the TCP/IP icon on the left column. The Network Adapter information will be displayed at the top and at the bottom of this window, and the Device ID and Vendor ID is displayed. If you take note of the Device ID and Vendor ID information and return to the PXE Configuration utility, select a PXE configuration, click on the Edit button, and then on the Edit Boot Image button, you can navigate to Step 2 or 3 for the NIC device driver list and look specifically for the Device ID in the list (Hint: With the "Auto-detect all device drivers" option disabled, you can click on the Device column header to sort by that column to make searching easier - just remember to enable this option again before continuing through the wizard).  If the Device ID does not exist in the list, you have probably not loaded the correct driver file yet.

- Drivers that have been added using the "Have Disk" option in the PXE Configuration wizard can be found in a directory at \\127.0.0.1\eXpress\Deployment Server\Bootwiz\platforms\.  Look for a subdirectory within each OS titled "Custom\Drivers." Sometimes corrupted driver files will cause problems and need to be removed from this location. If you check this location and find there are missing driver files in a driver directory, simply copy the necessary driver files to the correct directory and rebuild your PXE configuration to have these driver files included.

- Default drivers that are included for use in the PXE Configuration wizard can be found in a directory at \\127.0.0.1\eXpress\Deployment Server\Bootwiz\platforms\.  Look for a subdirectory within each OS titled "std\Divers." Sometimes the default drivers may not represent the most current version available from the manufacturer and will need to be manually updated by copying new driver directories (with exactly the same name) into this Drivers directory. [Note: Always keep a copy of the original driver file in cause it needs to be restored.] Remember to rebuild your PXE configuration to have these updated driver files included in your boot configurations.

- Each driver directory should have at least an .inf file, a .sys file and a .cat file. If a driver directory does not include these files, then the driver is incomplete and will not work.

NIC driver Vendor ID and Device ID information for select computer systems:

Computer                                                                      Vendor                   Device

Dell Optiplex 760 - Intel 82567LM                                 8086                       10DE

Dell Optiplex 360                                                            14E4                       1698

Dell Optiplex GX260                                                       8086                       100E

Dell Latitude E4300                                                         8086                       10F5

Dell Latitude E5500                                                         14E4                       1674

Dell Precision M63300/M6400 laptop                             14E4                       1674

Dell Optiplex 755                                                             8086                       10BD

Dell E6400 laptop                                                            8086                       10F5

IBM MTM 9__71                                                           14E4                       1693

IBM X3650 - Broadcom BCM5708C                            14E4                        164C

HP Elitebook 2740                                                          8086                       10EA

HP Netbook 5102                                                          14E4                        4353

HP Elite 8100                                                                  8086                       10EF

HP DC7900 - Intel 82567LM-3                                      8086                       10DE

HP DC5850 - Broadcom NetXtreme                               14E4                       167A

HP Elitebook 6930p - Intel 82567LM                              8086                       10F5

HP DC7600                                                                     14E4                       1600

HP 6720s                                                                         14E4                       164C

HP D530                                                                          14E4                       1696

HP 7800                                                                           8086                       10BD

Lenovo T500                                                                    8086                       10BF

Panasonic CF28                                                                8086                       1229

Toshiba M750                                                                   8086                       10F5

Toshiba Protege R600 - Intel 82567LM                            8086                       10F5