Network Support for WinPE 2?

[GTOOOOOH]

I know it's supposed to be there... I just can't seem to make it work. I've been looking for guides/tutorials/anything to help... when my winpe loads it just does wpeinit and that's it... nothing else. Is there a noobie guide to getting things working, or what?

To let you know, I've successfully altered my build somewhat to include a diskpart.ini, and then do an unattended XP install from the DVD that it's booting from, however, I'd like network support BEFORE I install from the DVD to also get some stuff from my network...

I tried running netcfg -winpe, it loaded tcpip6, msclient, and netbiod, I then started the Workstation service... but I don't know what's next, if I do an IPCONFIG it's empty... help?

[bj-kaiser]

wpeutil /?

there should be something about enabling networking.

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...st&p=605490

and btw: empty ipconfig can also be missing network drivers.

Edited July 17, 2007 by bj-kaiser

[zorphnog]

Most likely a driver issue. What NIC are you using?

[GTOOOOOH]

This is for a bare metal install of XPSP2 slipstreamed on multiple hardware platforms using nLite, I can do the install great, it's super quick and XP works on several different laptop/desktops, but I'm unsure of how

to do the driver integration within WinPE... all the white papers and documentation I've come across is somewhat cryptic and assumes a level of knowledge regarding PE I don't quite have yet but am working on.

Thanks for the headsup on WPEUTIL, I ran wpeutil initializenetwork, but it failed with STATUS 0x800704b8.

Edited July 17, 2007 by GTOOOOOH

[tap52384]

Definitely sounds like a driver issue; I tried to connect on a compaq presario 2100 with an AMD processor and it could not; it also couldn't display the colors correctly for lack of drivers (showed in 16 colors). Here is an excerpt of a website that shows how to add a driver to WinPE 2.0:

Dealing with Drivers

With Windows PE, we've always paid attention to mass storage and networking device support. Yet there were still occasions when Windows PE lacked support for certain devices on new systems. Windows PE 1.5 included some improved support for adding device drivers, but Windows PE 2.0 further streamlines this ability. All types of devices are now supported and they just work on boot—no factory.exe or drvinst.exe magic is necessary. To add a new device driver to Windows PE 2.0, simply run the new peimg.exe tool and it will add the drivers. The syntax, shown here, is simple:

peimg.exe /inf drivername.inf builddirectory\Windows

Just replace drivername with the name of the .inf (wildcards, like net*.inf, are acceptable) and replace builddirectory with the name of the directory where your Windows PE image is being built.

It's an excerpt from:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetma.../11/WindowsPE3/

Don't expect to find much else there though.

[GTOOOOOH]

Definitely sounds like a driver issue; I tried to connect on a compaq presario 2100 with an AMD processor and it could not; it also couldn't display the colors correctly for lack of drivers (showed in 16 colors). Here is an excerpt of a website that shows how to add a driver to WinPE 2.0:

Dealing with Drivers

With Windows PE, we've always paid attention to mass storage and networking device support. Yet there were still occasions when Windows PE lacked support for certain devices on new systems. Windows PE 1.5 included some improved support for adding device drivers, but Windows PE 2.0 further streamlines this ability. All types of devices are now supported and they just work on boot—no factory.exe or drvinst.exe magic is necessary. To add a new device driver to Windows PE 2.0, simply run the new peimg.exe tool and it will add the drivers. The syntax, shown here, is simple:

peimg.exe /inf drivername.inf builddirectory\Windows

Just replace drivername with the name of the .inf (wildcards, like net*.inf, are acceptable) and replace builddirectory with the name of the directory where your Windows PE image is being built.

It's an excerpt from:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetma.../11/WindowsPE3/

Don't expect to find much else there though.

Thanks for the info TAP, I was also reading about DRVLOAD while inside of a PE session, that seems like a valid option as well.

[mlabiche]

I know it's supposed to be there... I just can't seem to make it work. I've been looking for guides/tutorials/anything to help... when my winpe loads it just does wpeinit and that's it... nothing else. Is there a noobie guide to getting things working, or what?

To let you know, I've successfully altered my build somewhat to include a diskpart.ini, and then do an unattended XP install from the DVD that it's booting from, however, I'd like network support BEFORE I install from the DVD to also get some stuff from my network...

I tried running netcfg -winpe, it loaded tcpip6, msclient, and netbiod, I then started the Workstation service... but I don't know what's next, if I do an IPCONFIG it's empty... help?

I have exactly the same problem ! The image goes up like a charm, then runs wpeinit... (without any reference to an inattended file) but No network card is found.

For your information the base image is the winpe.win of the waik and made several changes like imput locales, and network drivers. I also tried the plain Vista cd winpe.wim with same results.

We have a WinPe 1.5 Image and is working very well including of course Network on the very same hardware

Starnet.cmd just contain a single line : wpeinit

Launch it using PXE on dell 1950 (broadcom land card : BCM5708S NetXtreme II ) and AMD32 lan card in a XP virtual machine on a VMware Wks 6.0

I've install using peimg all drivers related to those lan card with no success..

I've tried to load with drvload : It returns "sucessfull" but did nothing actualy

I 've tried many time wprutil -initializenetwork without any error message ... but guess what : nothing appears in ipconfig

All service are up !! event workstation and tcpip

Of course i've disable the firewall

I can even ping the loopback but nothing else

So I am starting to wonder if I have not missed a step somewhere to

I desespair to make this think working

Any idea ? and you what are you doing to make the network working with WinPe 2.0 ? Is there a extra step I missed in the Blldy MS documentation ?

Please advice

Edited August 1, 2007 by mlabiche

[p4ntb0y]

Well your network card could well be a BCM5708S NetXtreme II, But does it show up as a multi function device when you have windows Installed?

I would first boot your box with winpe 2005 and do a devcon output.

Then boot it into winpe 2.0 and again do a devcon output I bet you they will report back different.

The winpe 2.0 wim file is based on 2008 Server so the drivers for Servers are a bit limited at the moment until the release in November.

I have had the same problem with some HP Kit.

If your using the dell I would go to the broadcom site and download the monliath Driver for RIS this will hopefully help you.

@GTOOOOOH

What Hardware do you have?

[GTOOOOOH]

I got all my stuff working, but thanks.

[mlabiche]

Well your network card could well be a , But does it show up as a multi function device when you have windows Installed?

I would first boot your box with winpe 2005 and do a devcon output.

Then boot it into winpe 2.0 and again do a devcon output I bet you they will report back different.

The winpe 2.0 wim file is based on 2008 Server so the drivers for Servers are a bit limited at the moment until the release in November.

I have had the same problem with some HP Kit.

If your using the dell I would go to the broadcom site and download the monliath Driver for RIS this will hopefully help you.

@GTOOOOOH

What Hardware do you have?

Thank you for your answer and suggestions. I'll do that. To make the storie worst the Winpe MUST be x64 since we want to instal W2k3 x64

To answer your question, no the network card just shows up as etwork card, nothing else either in x86 or x64 version

What's really annoy me is that we have the same behaviour on a vmware virtual machine with AMD lan card which shouldn't be a problem. Tomorrow we'll try to do the same on Virtual Servers Just in case. To be franc I really have the feeling gthat I am missing to do something but I am not able to find what !! I am just wondering if we need a unattended file for the wpinit. Do you use one ?

We the hardware we use is a Dell 1950 with sas raid HBA, Qlogic Card for the san et Broadcom card BCM5708S NetXtreme II. No problem at all with all these devices, except the lan

The virtual machine is a VM from VMware WKS 6.0 configured as a WinXp station (meaning using amd Lan Card)

I'll keep you informed of any progress

[p4ntb0y]

And your solution was?....

So that the people following the thread or searching the internet don't get "Oh I have a problem But I fixed it thanks!"

Theres nothing more anoying

[mlabiche]

And your solution was?....

So that the people following the thread or searching the internet don't get "Oh I have a problem But I fixed it thanks!"

Theres nothing more anoying

Well I didn't fixed the problem yet ... neither did anything 'coz I Still sleep @ Night

But believe me ... I 'll update with consistent updates if I have made any progress

Thanks you for your concern

[GTOOOOOH]

My solution was adding drivers via:

peimg.exe /inf drivername.inf builddirectory\Windows

[Ruis]

For those who are still trying to get this working you need the "NetXtreme II monolithic "RIS" driver" for Windows Server 2003 - RIS from Broadcom available from here http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/netxtremeii.php it's close to the bottom of the page in the "Windows Remote Installation Service (RIS) Drivers" Section. Then just follow this KB article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923834.

[stuffman]

Another way to tackle this one is to use a NIC that's more ubiquitous than the latest Realtek that came with your dell. If you can find one, put an old Intel Pro 100/M in the PC and use that. This is just for the purpose of converting a disk image to a .wim file if I'm not mistaken, (at least that's what I came here to figure out) and you'll only need to have the old NIC in the machine as long as it takes to get your image to a remote server.