WinPE over RIS and nVidia nics

[Guest]

Just recently I switched to WinPe over RIS instead of using cd's. It works
great, but I'm not able to add driver support in the RIS stage for every nic
we use in our
company. The ones that don't work are the nVidia (nForce4) onboard nics.

I was able to get my hands on special RIS drivers and documentation from
nVidia and those drivers helped me to get past the point of where you usually
get an error
stating that the network card is not supported. However, when all the
drivers are loaded in that stage I receive a BSOD (0xBB / Initialization
failure occurred while
attempting to boot from the network) at the end of the stage where WinPe
should switch screens in order to run "winpe -factory".

This error only occurs with nVidia nics. Other nics work just fine. Perhaps
it's because 2 drivers need to be loaded in order to make it work? I can't
seem to figure it out though.

Is there someone who could help me out?

 

[WM]

Did you add the NIC drivers to WinPE in that image as well? For WinPE booted
from RIS you basically have to add the NIC twice. Once for RIS to PXE boot,
one for WinPE.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I did. As a matter of fact that works just great, but only if I boot
directy from cd. And that I don't want.

It's really just the RIS part I need to get working.

I received a reply from Microsoft today saying that they had the same issues
with the nVidia nics and that the issue is now in nVidia's hands. I was told
it would probably be a PXE BIOS related problem.

So I think we would just have to wait. I'm glad I got confirmation on the
issue though. It's amazing that there's so little information on this issue.
I was beginning to think I was the only one who had this issue. I spent hours
searching on the Net.

 

[WM]

Alas, the documentation on RIS was always sorely lacking. Information on
WinPE is even worse. Combine the two and you're in for a world of hurt. ;-)

One thing you might want to try... If you have the latest version of WinPE
(WinPE 2005/1.6), and all of your client systems have at least 256 MB of
RAM, you could use the new RAMDisk boot method to PXE boot your systems...
If you can get a CD working as you've said, then this should work for you as
well.

 

[Guest]

Ok, you've got my attention WM.

What do you mean exactly? I've got the latest WinPE right here. But how
would this new Ramdisk method help me to PXE boot my systems? I first need to
boot from PXE and then run WinPE with the Ramdisk method, not the other way
around. Or am I missing something here?

I must be thinking too complex.

 

[WM]

Grab your WinPE build tools, and open up winpe.chm. Search for RAMDisk. Use
the help there to build it, combining in the way you know how to add your
driver to an ISO.

You're not thinking too complex, this functionality has only existed for a
few months.

It works like this - the loader gets downloaded to your systems using the
normal TFTP avenue - for which you don't need drivers - since the standard
stack build into the EPROM on your NIC does the work. It pulls down the ISO
image (just like a WinPE CD you would burn) and puts it into RAM. Once
loaded in RAM, it behaves exactly like a "virtual CD", running from drive X:
(even on systems with no CD-drive. So if you have those drivers loaded and
working from a WinPE CD, it should work from the RAMDisk loaded virtual CD -
and you don't have to futz with adding drivers to RIS (and you can use
another PXE server besides RIS).

HTH.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your help, WM.

Unfortunately, it appears that I don't have WinPE 2005 after all, so this
has to wait a bit until I get my hands on it. Could be soon though. We
receive shipments regularly.

What I do know about the nVidia issue is that there's a PXE Boot ROM version
available (213.0494) which should work. NVidia only needs to distribute it to
the motherboard manufacturers in order for them to create a new BIOS update.

Fortunately, I got some contacts here and there and I told them to look into
the issue. Hopefully I'll hear from them soon. If I do, I'll update this
thread.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Guest]

Just a quick follow-up:

It was a PXE problem. Both Asus and MSI provided me with a BIOS update which
solved my problems. They're currently working on the final versions. The PXE
ROM version in those BIOS updates is 215.0503.

Kind regards,
Jos

 

[Guest]

Jos,

Do you mean that you managed to boot your nForce4 MoBo on RIS ???
I am badly interested in this ! I've been looking for a way to boot on RIS
with an ASUS K8N (nForce3), and I am really desperate about it !

Subsidiary question : which drivers did you se ?



"Jos van Rijn" a écrit :

 

[Guest]

Hi Bingo,

Yes I did. They nForce4 mobo's are running fine as we speak.

Most of your problems come from the PXE ROM version of the onboard nForce
NIC. In your case, the K8N, uses an outdated PXE ROM version (2.01.xxx). I've
also got problems on that board. The drivers aren't a problem, but at the end
of my WinPE text setup I'll get a blinking cursor and the system hangs.

This problem is the same as I had with the nForce4 mobo's. I will contact
Asus about the issue and they probably will release an final BIOS update in
about 2 weeks.

About the drivers: You'll need the special RIS drivers in case you don't
have them yet. You can find them by a search on the Net. The important thing
is to use these drivers for RIS in the I386 directory and in case you have a
WinPE set you want to load from RIS, copy the normal nvenet.sys (not the RIS
one) to the system32\drivers dir of your image. Run a net stop binlsvc and
then a net start binlsvc and it should detect your NIC properly. However, you
will still not be able to do much with it until there's an updated PXE Rom
version for your NIC.

I'll keep you informed when I'll get news from Asus.

Kind regards,
Jos

 

[Guest]

Jos, thanks a lot for your reply !
I had lost any hope about this RIS stuff !

About the drivers: You'll need the special RIS drivers in case you don't
have them yet. You can find them by a search on the Net. The important thing
is to use these drivers for RIS in the I386 directory and in case you have a
WinPE set you want to load from RIS, copy the normal nvenet.sys (not the RIS
one) to the system32\drivers dir of your image. Run a net stop binlsvc and
then a net start binlsvc and it should detect your NIC properly. However, you
will still not be able to do much with it until there's an updated PXE Rom
version for your NIC.

OK, I have read about those special RIS drivers, but I was not able to find
them anywhere !
The searches I have made just point me to some forum articles mentionning
the drivers, but I never got my hands on them !
Do you have a download link in your bookmarks ?

About the PXE ROM : I flashed my BIOS, and in the changes log they mention a
"fixed : problem detecting 10/100 NIC adaptaters". Do you think the PXE ROM
could have been updated ?

"Jos van Rijn" a écrit :

 

[Guest]

Hi Bingo,

The drivers are officially under NDA. But of course one might open a Dutch
Google search page, look for "nvidia ris drivers" and perhaps find what he's
looking for under the very first hit. But of course this would just be plain
luck.

We also use the latest BIOS'es for our boards and as far as I can see Asus
hasn't updated the PXE ROM yet. The version is still 2.01.xxx. For example:
the working version on nForce4 motherboards is 2.15.3xx.

You can find information on your PXE Rom version when booting from your NIC.
Press "pause" on receiving a DHCP address and you'll have time to look it up.

I just sent an e-mail to Asus about the problem. They fixed it for me before
on the nForce4 motherboards, so I'm sure they will fix it now.

Good luck on the drivers!

Kind regards,
Jos

 

[Guest]

Just a little follow up:

I just got confirmation from Asus that they are going to update the PXE ROM
version for the K8M series. Last time they did such an update it took
approximately 3 to 4 weeks before the final version was available for public.
But you can always look out for beta versions...

Hope this helps...

Kind regards,
Jos

 

[Guest]

Hope this helps...

Jos, it does help a lot !

About the RIS-drivers : I have been very lucky while surfing at random on
the web, but the drivers I found where for nForce4 Mobos...
I do not desesperate though !

I'll keep an eye on ASUS beta releases from time to time !

Thanks a lot for your help !

Best regards

 

[Guest]

The nForce4 drivers should also work for nForce3 controllers. It is working
here and as far as I can see I haven't installed any other nForce driver.

And the BIOS update I requested is, of course for the K8N series, not the
K8M...

Good luck!

 

[Bingo]

The nForce4 drivers should also work for nForce3 controllers. It is working
here and as far as I can see I haven't installed any other nForce driver.

Ok, sorry I downloaded a 7.13 version, but the ONLY version that I
found with thoses famous RIS drivers is the 7.03 (the famous one,
from the famous "lucky" browsing ).

And the BIOS update I requested is, of course for the K8N series, not the
K8M...

Of course.
Thanks again for your help Jos, you really saved me on this one !

 

[Guest]

BIOS 1009 was released on 2005/09/20, but no PXE ROM update. Still 201.0440.
I hope they won't forget us ! :-/

 

[Guest]

Don't worry, it'll come. I was't expecting it so soon anyway.

I know they're very busy. If it takes too long, I'll contact them again. In
the meantime we'll have to be patient.

 

[Guest]

A little update from Asus:

"I’m really sorry for the pending.

Since the south bridge of nForce3 is different from nForce4, our RD
requested the new specific PXE option ROM from NVIDIA.

Till now they haven’t got it.

I’ll push again to make the new Bios ready and update you as soon as
possible."

 

[Bingo]

I’ll push again to make the new Bios ready and update you as soon as
possible."

They're working on it, and that's good news !
Thanks for the update Jos !