Win PE @ Ramdisk = no NF4 pnp driver?

[Vagabond8]

I have a frustrating problem.

I finally got the NF4 NIC drivers to install to Win PE. It just took the /PnP for source cration.

Though it brought me to the next problem.

The PnP only finds the necessary NF4 Network Bus (needed for the nic's driver) if booting from a burned CD.

When i use the very same image from Ramdisk over Linux PXE it doesn't detect the NIC.

The only thing, that is different from the original PE image, is the ramdisk.sys i have to overwrite it (with the one in server 2003) in the i386/drivers to make it boot from ramdisk. Could it really mess things up so much???

All othe NIC's i have work well and no problems.

I use OPK from and with XP SP2 OEM pack and the bootfiles (startom, ntldr and ntdetect) from Server 2003 SP1.

Please help

Edited February 2, 2006 by Vagabond8

[gadget]

Booting from pxe is kinda different. Do you get the pe environment or does it halt with error message during startup.

If its the latter then the text mode setup drivers and modified .inf file need putting into an $oem$ directory on your image. Plenty of 'Network Driver' issues on the forum, just do qa quick search and all will be revealed.

[Vagabond8]

I have searched not only the forum, but most of the internet known to mankind:) (though might have missed the right article - if you know any good one i'm all ears)

The PE boots all fine. Dhcp points the client to TFTP, from there the image is loaded and booted. And the shell comes up fine.. and then, when i try to map my network drive, there is no network card present.

I have switched to PE 2005 with server 2003 sp1. All pure and with only the newest nvidia drivers.

The funny thing is... if i:

1) make a ramdisk image

2) put it to a cd with the i386 dir and the needed files (described by MS)

3) Everythings boots and works 100%. Network comes up and all is fine!!!

When i use the same image, the same bootfiles (Again like MS itself has suggested) - everything boots up but NO NETWORK CONTROLLER INSTALLED!

It is soooo frustrating and i'm pretty hopeless.

It might be an issue of the nvidia boot agent... well i have tried like 6 different NF4 MoBos and no go. All exactly the same. Its like the network driver the nvidia bootagent uses, stays in the memory and doesn't release the NIC..

OH.. i hope someone can just give a pointer...

[gadget]

It looks as though the drivers and inf file in the $oem$ directory do not match the flies under i386 etc. I had the same sort of thing with the intel pro 1000 nic and found an older version of a sys or inf (can't remember which) file laying in x:\i386 which was screwing it up. From cd the $oem$ drivers are not read so it uses the drivers from i386.

As the system is booting from pxe I would delete all sys, inf etc files under i386 and copy the files from the $oem$.

Edited February 7, 2006 by gadget

[Vagabond8]

I don't understand:(

I'm using a Windows PE Image (a 150 mb .iso image). I load it into memory (ramdisk)first and then boot from it. All the same iso on CD and TFTP server. And the result is different... so... I'm still confused.

[gadget]

The problem with PE is the inf files are not read correctly. Though they work ok from CD the parser in RIS screws up. It sounds as if you have the modified inf file in the $oem$\$1\[yourdriver] or it would not load the gui. What you need to do is replace the inf file under i386\inf and any other location it might be.

After replacing files yo need to do:

Search the i386 tree for all *.pnf files and delete them. It wont work if you dont do this..

Important also is to restart the binlsvc service running on the ris server - net stop binlsvc and net start binlsvc

TFTP server.

Is this Windows/RIS or another method?

Edited February 9, 2006 by gadget

[Vagabond8]

I have a .Iso image of my custom Windows PE CD. Built with the /PnP switch to enable the PnP detection in Win PE.

Now the .Iso image is read "as is" into the clients memory, mounted into ramdrive and then the Win Pe boots as usual (like from CD) The only diference is, that the source ( .iso) is not on a physical cd but in a virtual (ram)drive in the clients memory.

It doesn't matter where i PXE-boot from, because, when the image (the .iso) gets loaded into the clients memory, it's on its own and i can unplug the net cable. It boots as if it was a CD-Rom.

The Binl server does not get involved and is not needed. I boot from a linux TFTP server. Though, as the same .iso works with NF4 if booted from a CD and also with every other configuration i have, the problem is directly linked to the NF4 netbus not being accessible for Windows ONLY right after it has loaded the Iso from tftp with the generic drivers.

So my guess is, that the generic driver stays half-loaded into the memory and therefore blocks the PnP from installing the right driver.

Does anyone know how to clear the Win PE loaded driverinfo and then run the PnP detection again? Or some other trick i might try? If not, i give up.

Edited February 9, 2006 by Vagabond8

[gadget]

Ah, is the tftp that is screwing up the windows networking. I know nothing about this cept that it stops the card functioning correctly. There is a workaround but I dont know it atm. summing about keeping the undi or summing commited to memory.

If i find it I will let you know.

Edited February 9, 2006 by gadget