Adding drivers to WDS boot images
angelo | February 18, 2008I wanted to install Windows Server 2008 on some of our servers (Dell PowerEdge 2850′s and 2950′s), but I soon ran into some problems. The DRAC4 in the 2850′s is enormously s-l-o-w, and on the 2950′s, the Windows Server 2008 setup does not recognize the virtual DVD drive that comes with the DRAC5. Joy. I only want to do installations over the network or DRAC’s, because the servers I’m testing on are in our datacenter, 150km away. And I just want to play around for a hobby, not being in a car half the evening to sit in a loud server room flipping cd’s 
Finally, I installed Windows Server 2008 inside a ESX Server virtual machine (works like a breeze, very fast installation), and I installed WDS (Windows Deployment Services), to enable network installations of Windows Server 2008. It really looks nice, and hell of a lot easier than when I last played with RIS, about 4-5 years ago!
I installed the 2850 quite fast over the network (boot from PXE enabled network card, press F12, and off you go), but the 2950 gave me some headaches. It would boot of PXE, but then the installer whould stop, showing only an error: WdsClient: An error occurred while starting networking: a matching network card driver was not found in this image. Please have your Administrator add the network driver for this machine to the Windows PE image on the Windows Deployment Services server.
After googling, I found out I could do shift+F10 to get a console window, and the ipconfig command showed me that the setup was only recognizing the add-in Intel NIC’s, not the onboard Broadcom NIC’s (which are the only ones connected right now).
So I googled and tried for a few hours, and finally, I got to integrate the Broadcom drivers into the boot.wim boot image. (User ‘ozymandeus’ gave the answer in this topic.)
I download the RIS drivers for the Broadcom Netxtreme II from their site. Watch it, the RIS drivers are under a seperate header on the download page. In the following example, I extracted the two files to c:\bc.
On the WDS server, I downloaded and installed the Windows AIK (1GB download, mount with daemon-tools). In the WDS console, I exported the boot image (I only have a x64 boot image) to c:\boot.wim.
I mounted the image to an empty directory, c:\ff.
> imagex /mountrw c:\boot.wim 1 c:\ff
Add the drivers to the image:
> peimg /inf=c:\bc\b06nd.inf c:\ff
Unmount and commit the changes:
> imagex /unmount /commit c:\
Then, I did the same for image 2 in the boot.wim file:
I mounted the image to an empty directory, c:\ff.
> imagex /mountrw c:\boot.wim 2 c:\ff
Add the drivers to the image:
> peimg /inf=c:\bc\b06nd.inf c:\ff
Unmount and commit the changes:
> imagex /unmount /commit c:\
Then, I replaced the boot.wim file in the WDS console, I booted my 2950, and tadaaaa! Installing!
Thanks for posting this Angelo saved me bucket loads of
Thanks for posting this Angelo saved me bucket loads of time, cheers ;0)
This is the greatest post... That just works..
This is the greatest post… That just works..
Hmm...looks pretty straightforward but for some reason it doesn't work
Hmm…looks pretty straightforward but for some reason it doesn’t work for me on my IBM x3650 with a 64 bit RTM boot.wim….
I’ve downloaded the RIS netxtreme II drivers as suggested but no dice…any ideas?
Try another driver?!?
Try another driver?!?
Everything worked fine until I did the unmount commit command.
Everything worked fine until I did the unmount commit command. It stated there were no mounted images on c drive. Is that command supposed to be imagex \unmount \commit c:\ff ??????
Also, the error im getting is the driver could
Also, the error im getting is the driver could not be found on the winpe image. Am i misuderstanding how this works. i thought the PE image was only for creating the image of a PC to upload. Or is it used to download the crated image to the destination PC.
Thank you so much for this post! Saved me
Thank you so much for this post! Saved me a lot of time and frustration.
I would like to thank you for this post as
I would like to thank you for this post as well. It helped a great deal and I’m now able to image Poweredges like there’s no tomorrow. Thank you!
Use this version of AIK http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=94bb6e34-d890-4932-81a5-5b50c657de08&DisplayLang=en It works, thanks
Use this version of AIK
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=94bb6e34-d890-4932-81a5-5b50c657de08&DisplayLang=en
It works, thanks
Thanks alot. I add Dell E64000 laptop driver to wds
Thanks alot. I add Dell E64000 laptop driver to wds boot image. Taddaaa it worked!
What is the difference between the "1" and "2" when
What is the difference between the “1″ and “2″ when you mount the two different images
imagex /mountrw c:\boot.wim 1 c:\ff
imagex /mountrw c:\boot.wim 2 c:\ff
it’s just that one of my WIM’s I can mount with the “2″ and the other I can’t????
strange thing is I have done this before and it worked… this time round trying to add drivers for a HP2140 mini notebook its not working :0s
[...] There are a load of guides on Google for
WDS upload issues | July 14, 2009[...] There are a load of guides on Google for how to do it. Most explain the exact same way. This was the first hit -Link [...]
Duncan, sorry, it's been 1,5 years ago since I wrote
Duncan, sorry, it’s been 1,5 years ago since I wrote this, don’t know what the 1 and 2 are for anymore.. It looks like there can me multiple boot images inside a boot.wim.
"Then, I replaced the boot.wim file in the WDS console,
“Then, I replaced the boot.wim file in the WDS console, I booted my 2950, and tadaaaa! Installing!”
What is the path of the WDS console? I can’t seem to locat it.
Please help
Thank you
Must the nic driver be of a certain RIS type
Must the nic driver be of a certain RIS type or does for example a server 2008 nic driver do the job?
Thanks,
Anders, I think the driver should be the RIS type..
Anders, I think the driver should be the RIS type.. Don’t know much about it, but I know broadcom has the RIS driver on their site. I would not know how to do it with other drivers that are not RIS specific.
Follow Up - with WDS on 2008 R2 you can
Follow Up – with WDS on 2008 R2 you can use this procedure http://www.petenetlive.com/KB/Article/0000314.htm
Nice Pete!
Nice Pete!
Hi folks, Thanks to both of you for your valuable and
Hi folks,
Thanks to both of you for your valuable and clear instructions! Works a charm!
Cheers
In the latest version of WAIK, PEimg has been removed.
In the latest version of WAIK, PEimg has been removed. Instead you can use DISM with this command
Dism /image: /Add-Driver /Driver:c:\winpe_x86\mount\Windows\driver.infSo, for your example, replace the peimg line with
Dism /image:c:\ff /Add-Driver /Driver:c:\bc\b06nd.infHI, When i try to
HI,
When i try to add driver to boot image using Peing is not working i chaked that path is valid
help me to solve this issue
[...] some problems with wds/mdt by voytas on 13 Wrzesie? 2010
some problems with wds/mdt « IT Info | August 4, 2011[...] some problems with wds/mdt by voytas on 13 Wrzesie? 2010 1. ‘unable to find SETUP …’ when mdt deploy? check this out: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/mdt/thread/82dc8e5e-5d0f-43d6-b1de-4afa708df086 2. reserved system partition has letter in OS? probably you deployed from WDS? check this out: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-GB/winservergen/thread/ad9928f1-c51b-4f22-ab5e-2210497d57e0 3. need some drivers in boot.wim? check this out: http://blog.hongens.nl/2008/02/18/adding-drivers-to-wds-boot-images/ [...]
Adding drivers can be done easily using Windows Deployment Services
Adding drivers can be done easily using Windows Deployment Services role in 2008 R2 server. Just add this role in Server Manager, run WDS server setup wizard in WDS MMC snap-in (keep your installation DVD nearby!), finally you’ll have WDS server with boot and install images up and running.
Prepare driver packages (.inf+.cat+.sys + …), right click on Drivers node of your WDS in WDS MMC, select “Add driver package”, browse for location of prepared package. Finally you’ll have drivers installed to WDS server.
Next locate your boot image in WDS MMC, right-click it, select “Add driver packages to image”, “Next”, “Search for packages”. Check recently added packages, “Next” – and Bingo! – you can PXE boot with the drivers you’ve added.