RIS with nForce motherboards

[Lee]

Right, I give up. If anyone can solve this problems for me I'll be forever grateful.

I have a RIS server, if you don't know what that is, don't bother reading on.

On it I have an image created from a PC running XP Pro and nothing else. All the latest drivers and updates are on as usual.

Now the problem I have is that when I go to install this image on a new PC (they are all the same spec) it fails part way into the XP install with the error that The OS you are trying to install doesn't support the drivers I'm using etc etc.

So I've had a poke around and found this: http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/index.php?t18415.html Which is spot on and is exactly the issue I have.

I've also referred to both these knowledge base articles.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315279/EN-US/

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314479/

I have all the files listed in the above articles, but there's no real explanation as to what's what. There are various folders in the zip and no real mention as to which ones I should be using, or adding to the existing ones.

There is of course the possibility the drivers don't support the 590 chipset.

I've done everything I can now and can't get it working, so I've had enough. Anyone tried this, or got any idea how to solve the problem? If you do my boss will once again be amazed at how useful me surfing a car forum can be. lol

The motherboard in the system is an Asus M2M 32 SLI Deluxe so obviously has onboard nVidia LAN.

Thanks,

Lee

 

[Rasclart]

From what it reads you need to add the NIC drivers (Which are causing the error?) into the image in the i386 folder.

What files do you have? Can you not just extract the NIC drivers from the Nvidia PAckage from there site and Integrate that? Should be obvious which ones are NIC from there shouldnt it?

 

[SimonD]

I'm not to hot on RIS (so everything from here could be rubbish!) but at work we use Altiris which re-images via PXE. The gotcha is nearly always the network card drivers. You can have two identical PCs with what you think are identical NICs but it turns out that they need different drivers! (this seems especially true on HP ProLiants which use a mixture of Intel and Broadcom drivers). You might want to check that the same drivers do work on the both machines (IE, the one you are taking your base image off and the target machine which you want to manage via PXE) The next most common problem is to so with the TFTP of the image from the server to the target machine. I dunno how RIS uses this though. PXE is a pain to set up but fantastic when it does work.

Not much help, but a few pointers anyway!

Re-imaging is such a pain that I've stopped using Altiris and now just clone VMWare images - much easier.

 

[Lee]

From what it reads you need to add the NIC drivers (Which are causing the error?) into the image in the i386 folder.

What files do you have? Can you not just extract the NIC drivers from the Nvidia PAckage from there site and Integrate that? Should be obvious which ones are NIC from there shouldnt it?

That's what I thought.

What I have is the network card drivers which the machine is running, that's fine but they are missing the component which allows the RIS installation to see the PCI bus on which the LAN adaptor runs. Now in the RIS driver pack is a folder which obviously contains 32 bit drivers for that card, but when I try to install those it totally kills the PC. In another folder labelled NRM is what I assume is the nvidia resource manager driver, which is what I assume I'm missing.

I've gone through pretty much all of those steps detailed in the links and still had no luck.

Rasclart, just ordering a load of 8800GTS cards. I don't want to spend too much of my budget on the GTX when it's not massively better.

Simon, the PXE stuff is all okay. I can boot from the network card, get a DHCP assigned address, connect to the RIS server, type in the machine name I want and even select which image I want to use. It's the windows part of the install which has the problems.

It's nvidias fault. They should make the drivers readily available along with a small note on how to do it.

 

[Darren S]

Lee - is the XP installation 64-bit or 32-bit? That same mobo at home drags it feet royally, on XP64 - and that's on a clean installation. Never had that issue on XP32 with it. This example you mention is the sole reason why I hate using images and much, much prefer doing a clean install.

Also, I take it that you've flashed the BIOS? Iirc, the latest one addressed a few issues with the nVidia LAN controllers....

D.

 

[Lee]

It's 32bit.

I usually just install the OS as and when I need to, but I've got 15 identical machines to do this time and wanted to make life easier for myself. So far that's not the case. lol

I've left it as is for now as it's easily new enough to have a compatible PXE bootrom.

 

[1fast6]

Lee,

Use nLite to integrate the new 802.11 nvidia drivers for 590 into the drives.cab file. It will also sort out the text portion files too.

If that doesn't work then the drivers you are using do not support being used through the pxe environment. An update is needed. I had the same problem with certain realtek nic chipsets. There are occasionally specific versions for RIS use.

 

[Darren S]

It's 32bit.

I usually just install the OS as and when I need to, but I've got 15 identical machines to do this time and wanted to make life easier for myself. So far that's not the case. lol

I've left it as is for now as it's easily new enough to have a compatible PXE bootrom.

You would have thought so, wouldn't you? Here's the update list on the latest BIOS though...


M2N32-SLI Deluxe BIOS 0706
Fixed Linux compatibility issue
Update Silicon 3132 ROM to 7313
Update NV Lan PXE ROM to 2.31.0528


D.

 

[Rasclart]

From what it reads you need to add the NIC drivers (Which are causing the error?) into the image in the i386 folder.

What files do you have? Can you not just extract the NIC drivers from the Nvidia PAckage from there site and Integrate that? Should be obvious which ones are NIC from there shouldnt it?

That's what I thought.

What I have is the network card drivers which the machine is running, that's fine but they are missing the component which allows the RIS installation to see the PCI bus on which the LAN adaptor runs. Now in the RIS driver pack is a folder which obviously contains 32 bit drivers for that card, but when I try to install those it totally kills the PC. In another folder labelled NRM is what I assume is the nvidia resource manager driver, which is what I assume I'm missing.

I've gone through pretty much all of those steps detailed in the links and still had no luck.

Rasclart, just ordering a load of 8800GTS cards. I don't want to spend too much of my budget on the GTX when it's not massively better.

Simon, the PXE stuff is all okay. I can boot from the network card, get a DHCP assigned address, connect to the RIS server, type in the machine name I want and even select which image I want to use. It's the windows part of the install which has the problems.

It's nvidias fault. They should make the drivers readily available along with a small note on how to do it.

Even the GTS is pretty impressive we have had a few in work. Still waiting for my GTX.

Thats what I gather in order for the System to see the Integrated NIC, it needs to install the resorce manager before seeing the NIC on the BUS. If it is that much of a ball ache, how about some Realtek PCI LAN cards, Disable onboard LAN and intergrate the Realtek Drivers.

Thats assuming you cant find the drivers. Where are you getting them from, the NRM?

 

[Rasclart]

It's 32bit.

I usually just install the OS as and when I need to, but I've got 15 identical machines to do this time and wanted to make life easier for myself. So far that's not the case. lol

I've left it as is for now as it's easily new enough to have a compatible PXE bootrom.

You would have thought so, wouldn't you? Here's the update list on the latest BIOS though...


M2N32-SLI Deluxe BIOS 0706
Fixed Linux compatibility issue
Update Silicon 3132 ROM to 7313
Update NV Lan PXE ROM to 2.31.0528


D.

Beat me to it with the LAN rom

 

[Pete]

Lol @ Darren S, RIS is like doing a clean install.

 

[Darren S]

Lol @ Darren S, RIS is like doing a clean install.

I didn't mean RIS specifically. I was referring to Lee's comment about the issue he was having with the image. Using images full stop, is something I try to avoid....

D.

 

[Lee]

Oh well. Back to it. If I can't get it work this morning I'll stick with the good old fashioned way.

New bios time. *yawn* Plus I've now got 20 machines to do as I've bought some more. A couple of them are absolute beasts. AMD FX62s, fast 4gb Corsair DDR2, nvidia 8800GTS etc should be fairly quick.

I'd get one of my minions to build them for me, but to be honest I quiet enjoy doing it, it's easy and I don't trust them doing it. lol

 

[Rasclart]

Oh well. Back to it. If I can't get it work this morning I'll stick with the good old fashioned way.

New bios time. *yawn* Plus I've now got 20 machines to do as I've bought some more. A couple of them are absolute beasts. AMD FX62s, fast 4gb Corsair DDR2, nvidia 8800GTS etc should be fairly quick.

I'd get one of my minions to build them for me, but to be honest I quiet enjoy doing it, it's easy and I don't trust them doing it. lol

Second that, I allways get someone else to build the crappy bogo spec client machines. If we ever have some special builds I try and do it myself as I am a geek like Lee

 

[Darren S]

Oh well. Back to it. If I can't get it work this morning I'll stick with the good old fashioned way.

New bios time. *yawn* Plus I've now got 20 machines to do as I've bought some more. A couple of them are absolute beasts. AMD FX62s, fast 4gb Corsair DDR2, nvidia 8800GTS etc should be fairly quick.

I'd get one of my minions to build them for me, but to be honest I quiet enjoy doing it, it's easy and I don't trust them doing it. lol

LOL - Lee's Academy of Personnel Management......

D.

 

[Lee]

Oh well. Back to it. If I can't get it work this morning I'll stick with the good old fashioned way.

New bios time. *yawn* Plus I've now got 20 machines to do as I've bought some more. A couple of them are absolute beasts. AMD FX62s, fast 4gb Corsair DDR2, nvidia 8800GTS etc should be fairly quick.

I'd get one of my minions to build them for me, but to be honest I quiet enjoy doing it, it's easy and I don't trust them doing it. lol

Second that, I allways get someone else to build the crappy bogo spec client machines. If we ever have some special builds I try and do it myself as I am a geek like Lee

Us geeks like new toys. :evil: