S
Sam Sena
Date Created: 9/24/2003
Date Posted: 9/24/2003
Authors:
Sam Sena, MCT MCSE MCDBA PMP CCNP
Fawad Khan, MCSE CCNP
We are posting this information for those who have tried to figure out
how to create a Ghost Multicast Bootable Floppy Disk for Network Cards
which are not included as Basic Templates in Symantec's Ghost Boot
Manager or Multicast Boot Assist.
We have found a simple method to create a multicast floppy and it
worked for our deployments in all cases. This may not necessarily be
the exact solution you are looking for, but it might present a new
solution to your problems.
Basic:
There are 2 kinds of Drivers which can be used. Packet Drivers and
NDIS Drivers. Packet drivers are written for specific models of NICs
and are available from your NIC manufacturer. Some NICs do not use
packet drivers, and must use the NDIS drivers instead. Although packet
drivers are written for specific NICs, they often need to be
configured. Packet Drivers have .exe extensions. NDIS drivers end with
the .dos extension and generally take more configuration to be able to
work. NDIS drivers consist of a NIC driver (.dos)that is specific to
the NIC, and the Microsoft NDIS support files.
The best thing to do is to
go to your NIC manufacturer's website and download the drivers.
This is what you need
1. Existing NDIS2 drivers for your computer's NIC
2. The protocol.ini file that comes with a regular Ghost template file
3. The mcassist.cfg file that comes preconfigured by Symantec
Now, if you're wondering how to obtain some of this information, we'll
show you why you need these 3 files.
Symantec Ghost uses 3 files to create a template which can then be
used to create your multicast boot diskette. These files are stored in
a hidden directory on your computer called **\Symantec\Ghost\template
..
**-For Windows 95/98/Me: Windows\All Users\Application Data or
Windows\Application Data
**-For Windows NT/2000/XP: Documents and Settings\All
Users\Application
Data
Once you go to this location, you will find a variety of subfolders
containing the various templates Symantec created for you.
In each folder you will find 3 files. The NIC driver file (.dos for
NDIS); the protocol.ini file and lastly the mcassist.cfg file.
You can perform the following steps to create your own template.
Steps:
1. Create a new subfolder in the **\Symantec\Ghost\template folder and
give it a name (i.e. mycompany)
2. Copy the NDIS driver or Packet driver you got from your
manufacturer's website into this folder.
3. Create a protocol.ini file. Make sure it includes the follwing,
which is used by Ghost.
[protman]
drivername=PROTMAN$
[pktdrv]
drivername=PKTDRV$
bindings=nic
intvec=0x60
chainvec=0x66
[nic]
drivername = mynicdriver$
*Replace mynicdriver$ with the name of your NIC and don't forget to
include a '$' after it!
4. Create another file called 'mcassist.cfg' which includes the
following lines.
# This file is used by the Ghost Boot Wizard.
# You should not attempt to edit this file yourself
DRIVER-TYPE = NDIS
DRIVER-NAME = mydrivername.dos
NDIS-NAME = mydrivername$
RECEIVE-MODE = 0
**Okay, the truth here is that the protocol.ini and mcassist.cfg files
might include MORE information than what we included here. If you
don't believe me, please look at some of the other template files in
the **\Symantec\Ghost\template to verify this. In most cases, most of
the additional information is optional and refers to 'duplex modes'
for instance.
***Our advice is to try setting up the protocol.ini and mcasssit.cfg
files with the bare minimum included here and if it doesn't work, then
try adding settings.
6. Now you have the 3 files in your requisite folder, we are ready to
create the multicast disk.
6. Get into Symantec Boot Manager and select the option to configure a
Network Boot Disk.
7. Scroll through the set of available templates and you should find
the template for the NIC you setup previously.
8. Insert a floppy and create the floppy.
9. Test!
Tips: If you are lucky, this will work the first time for you. Chances
are, you will have to try several times before you can be successful.
A great idea it to look at other templates and try.
Another hint is to go to symantec's website and do some research. We
found a veritable trove of information here.
Let me know if this helped you. The only reason why we put this up is
because we found very little available information on the web for
this. If you have links, please post as a reply to this doc.
Thanks and Good Luck!
Sam Sena
*****For those of you GungHo types who want to try manually creating
your own NDIS diskettes, please go through these steps
1.Go to the FTP site at: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/clients.
2.Read the text files at that location. These are likely to include
the files License.txt, Readme.now, and Update.txt.
3.Double-click the MSClient folder.
4.Download all the files in that folder. Make a note of where you save
them onto the hard drive.
Date Posted: 9/24/2003
Authors:
Sam Sena, MCT MCSE MCDBA PMP CCNP
Fawad Khan, MCSE CCNP
We are posting this information for those who have tried to figure out
how to create a Ghost Multicast Bootable Floppy Disk for Network Cards
which are not included as Basic Templates in Symantec's Ghost Boot
Manager or Multicast Boot Assist.
We have found a simple method to create a multicast floppy and it
worked for our deployments in all cases. This may not necessarily be
the exact solution you are looking for, but it might present a new
solution to your problems.
Basic:
There are 2 kinds of Drivers which can be used. Packet Drivers and
NDIS Drivers. Packet drivers are written for specific models of NICs
and are available from your NIC manufacturer. Some NICs do not use
packet drivers, and must use the NDIS drivers instead. Although packet
drivers are written for specific NICs, they often need to be
configured. Packet Drivers have .exe extensions. NDIS drivers end with
the .dos extension and generally take more configuration to be able to
work. NDIS drivers consist of a NIC driver (.dos)that is specific to
the NIC, and the Microsoft NDIS support files.
The best thing to do is to
go to your NIC manufacturer's website and download the drivers.
This is what you need
1. Existing NDIS2 drivers for your computer's NIC
2. The protocol.ini file that comes with a regular Ghost template file
3. The mcassist.cfg file that comes preconfigured by Symantec
Now, if you're wondering how to obtain some of this information, we'll
show you why you need these 3 files.
Symantec Ghost uses 3 files to create a template which can then be
used to create your multicast boot diskette. These files are stored in
a hidden directory on your computer called **\Symantec\Ghost\template
..
**-For Windows 95/98/Me: Windows\All Users\Application Data or
Windows\Application Data
**-For Windows NT/2000/XP: Documents and Settings\All
Users\Application
Data
Once you go to this location, you will find a variety of subfolders
containing the various templates Symantec created for you.
In each folder you will find 3 files. The NIC driver file (.dos for
NDIS); the protocol.ini file and lastly the mcassist.cfg file.
You can perform the following steps to create your own template.
Steps:
1. Create a new subfolder in the **\Symantec\Ghost\template folder and
give it a name (i.e. mycompany)
2. Copy the NDIS driver or Packet driver you got from your
manufacturer's website into this folder.
3. Create a protocol.ini file. Make sure it includes the follwing,
which is used by Ghost.
[protman]
drivername=PROTMAN$
[pktdrv]
drivername=PKTDRV$
bindings=nic
intvec=0x60
chainvec=0x66
[nic]
drivername = mynicdriver$
*Replace mynicdriver$ with the name of your NIC and don't forget to
include a '$' after it!
4. Create another file called 'mcassist.cfg' which includes the
following lines.
# This file is used by the Ghost Boot Wizard.
# You should not attempt to edit this file yourself
DRIVER-TYPE = NDIS
DRIVER-NAME = mydrivername.dos
NDIS-NAME = mydrivername$
RECEIVE-MODE = 0
**Okay, the truth here is that the protocol.ini and mcassist.cfg files
might include MORE information than what we included here. If you
don't believe me, please look at some of the other template files in
the **\Symantec\Ghost\template to verify this. In most cases, most of
the additional information is optional and refers to 'duplex modes'
for instance.
***Our advice is to try setting up the protocol.ini and mcasssit.cfg
files with the bare minimum included here and if it doesn't work, then
try adding settings.
6. Now you have the 3 files in your requisite folder, we are ready to
create the multicast disk.
6. Get into Symantec Boot Manager and select the option to configure a
Network Boot Disk.
7. Scroll through the set of available templates and you should find
the template for the NIC you setup previously.
8. Insert a floppy and create the floppy.
9. Test!
Tips: If you are lucky, this will work the first time for you. Chances
are, you will have to try several times before you can be successful.
A great idea it to look at other templates and try.
Another hint is to go to symantec's website and do some research. We
found a veritable trove of information here.
Let me know if this helped you. The only reason why we put this up is
because we found very little available information on the web for
this. If you have links, please post as a reply to this doc.
Thanks and Good Luck!
Sam Sena
*****For those of you GungHo types who want to try manually creating
your own NDIS diskettes, please go through these steps
1.Go to the FTP site at: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/clients.
2.Read the text files at that location. These are likely to include
the files License.txt, Readme.now, and Update.txt.
3.Double-click the MSClient folder.
4.Download all the files in that folder. Make a note of where you save
them onto the hard drive.
