Connecting non RM laptops to a CC3 network

[pbed77789]

Hi guys

 

i've not done this before but have been asked the question of how/and issues. someone has bought some cheaper non RM laptops. what do i need to know?

 

thanks

[webman]

Are you planning on building them on to make them regular CC3 clients, or just physically connect to the network?

[pbed77789]

Are you planning on building them on to make them regular CC3 clients, or just physically connect to the network?

 

either, whatever is easiest but mainly just so they can access domain resources.

[webman]

As long as drivers are available on the server build area when you build them on (especially DOS drivers for the network card - build disk with proper drives is required) you should be OK. You can add driver files to the build area and build disks by using the RM Workstation Build Manager (under System Management folder on start menu).

 

Or you could SmartClient them on to the network if they already have a working install of Windows (instructions here).

[rickypike]

Hi there I am trying to do a similiar thing. I have an Acer 6930G which will not install on to the network although I appear to have the correct drivers on the RM Rebuild Disk (dos, ini and inf files which I downloaded from the manufacturers website). Is it still possible without loading it on to the CC3 network to access the shared drives??

Thanks

Ricky

[webman]

Yes, this is possible - the shared "drives" are just standard Windows shares on a server. So just browse to the UNC path of the shared area and provide credentials when prompted. E.g.

 

Start > Run: \\rmc-svr-001\rmshared documents or \\rmc-svr-001\rmstaff (substituting in your own server names.)

 

You might need to supply the username in the format of DOMAIN\username.

 

But remember that Windows will probably try and remember the logon details, so this is no good if the laptop is shared amongst users.

[CommodoreS]

Hi there I am trying to do a similiar thing. I have an Acer 6930G which will not install on to the network although I appear to have the correct drivers on the RM Rebuild Disk (dos, ini and inf files which I downloaded from the manufacturers website). Is it still possible without loading it on to the CC3 network to access the shared drives??

Thanks

Ricky

 

What is the error and at what point is it falling over?

 

Also what is the Network Card on the laptop?

 

Another thing to note with new laptops, is that the majority have SATA hard drives, and the version of Windows XP on CC3 servers only has a handful of SATA controllers integrated into it. There is normally an option in the BIOS of most laptops to change the mode to IDE to get around this.

 

As a last resort you could Smartclient the laptop onto the network which should always work. This means installing a clean Windows XP withh drivers, but no other apps and then connecting to the CC3 server and entering some details where it will then join the CC3 system and start downloading packages. Document TEC406091 on the RM Support website tells you in full detail how to do this. The main problem with this method is there is no RM Restore partition, which means you need to do the full Smartclient process again (Install XP manually, then smartclient) if you need to rebuild the laptop.

[rickypike]

Hi thanks for the reply.

 

It seems to recognise the card which is an Atheros 8121/8113/8114 PCI-E ethernet but I then get the following error NET109: TCP 1.0 not loaded. Cannot connect to the DHCP Sever, please check cabling and reboot.

[Edu-IT]

Hi thanks for the reply.

 

It seems to recognise the card which is an Atheros 8121/8113/8114 PCI-E ethernet but I then get the following error NET109: TCP 1.0 not loaded. Cannot connect to the DHCP Sever, please check cabling and reboot.

To me that suggests like the laptop isn't getting an IP address from your DHCP server. I'd check the network cable/socket.

[CommodoreS]

To me that suggests like the laptop isn't getting an IP address from your DHCP server. I'd check the network cable/socket.

 

Actually it normally means it does not like the DOS network card driver or a network cable is unplugged, although it is quite a generic message and can mean other things. Unless all other machines are also displaying this error it is unlikely to be a DHCP problem, and more likely it does not like the DOS network card driver.

 

I would try adding DOS drivers to the station build manager from this download:

Atheros Communications

 

Create a custom build disk with just that one driver and no other Network Card Drivers.

 

and if that does not work try this:

Atheros Communications

 

I have noticed sometimes older versions of a DOS Network Card driver will work, while newer versions for the same card will not work - possibly due to different revisions of the network cards.

[CommodoreS]

You might also find this useful for other Windows XP drivers:

 

Acer Aspire 6930 - 6930G Windows XP and Vista Drivers

[rickypike]

Thanks for the info

I have already downloaded the above drivers from the atheros site, these are the one's I have created the build disk with but they just don't seem to work. I've had problems before building non RM machines but this one is proving to be the biggest! Are there any other drivers I can try for this Atheros card, I have also e-mailed Acer regarding this to see if they can help (awaiting a reply). I will try creating a build disk with just the one dos driver on and see what happens, but think I have already done this. Can I edit any of the files that are required on the build disk eg. the inf or ini file?

Thanks Ricky

[rickypike]

Have tried it with just that one dos driver on the build disk but still just get the same error. Driving me mad, never had this problem with any other network card apart from this Atheros one! Any other ideas please!

Cheers

Ricky

[graywoodford]

Have you tried putting the sata drive in compatability mode in the bios of the laptop? Never really done laptops myself until now but apparently this can cause issues.

[shafeek]

I had a experience when I got non RM server had same problem to build without dos drive, unfortunately RM is not writing 3rt party dos drive anymore, please make sure with RM, this is, I heard. What I did, extra I just installed one of the available network card to server already it has dos drive here. Still our server’s optical network card is not useful.

[mdrabble]

I have a couple of laptops which I cant get to build directly on CC3 so I have an external HDD to which I image the laptops using PING as a plain XP laptop and then smartclient them.

 

If the laptops need rebuilding, I reload the image and then smartclient again.

 

Not ideal but works for me.

[GAMe]

Hi All,

 

we have just purchased a whole bunch of Acer Netbooks and Notebooks which both have the Atheros LAN driver onboard. After a fair while of reading other peoples experiences regarding which NDIS drivers will work for an RM rebuild I managed to find a version that would work (Partially), basically what is happening is that the install begins and fully installs windows but upon atempting to complete the rest of the RM build ie Join the domain and install packages it then fails. Upon manual investigation it was apparent that it was not picking up the windows based LAN driver which it requires to complete the build. Currently I am still investigating this and so far it has been a real time consuming practice. Has anyone else out there had any experience with getting to this stage, or have any ideas for a solution. If i install the same driver which is installed on the server from a memory stick once the RM build fails it will install fine so I cannot see that it is necasarily a driver issue.

 

To be honest I will be glad to see the day when we move away from legacy USB/Floppy builds and implement PXE installs with such methods as WDS or SCCM.

 

Any insights would be great. Thanks all :-)

[graywoodford]

Hi GAMe

 

I have managed to get our laptops on CC3 without too much hassle, surprisingly...I take it you are trying to build to a CC3 network? Have you tried adding the LAN driver into the rm build area and then rebuild the usb/floppy disk with those drivers in there? (or have you done this and the falling over as you said above)?

 

Can you let me know the model numbers you have and I'll have a look see if i can find anything for you.

[GAMe]

Hi GAMe

 

I have managed to get our laptops on CC3 without too much hassle, surprisingly...I take it you are trying to build to a CC3 network? Have you tried adding the LAN driver into the rm build area and then rebuild the usb/floppy disk with those drivers in there? (or have you done this and the falling over as you said above)?

 

Can you let me know the model numbers you have and I'll have a look see if i can find anything for you.

 

Hi Graywwoodford,

 

thanks for your speedy responce. Yes we are trying to build to a CC3 network and I have tried multiple versions of DOS and Windows drivers. I dont have any problem getting it to build from the floppy/USB and start installing windows but just after it completes the windows installer and goes for its first logon I am left with a command prompt window telling me error 1231 has occured. This is due to the fact that the windows drivers for this LAN card are not being copied accross during the initial DOS build part. I have tried a whole number of versions of win drivers for this card all of which install fine If I do them manually on the station after it fails but for some reason are not being detected at the DOS phase. The model of card is a Atheros AR8132 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller.

 

Any help would be good

 

Thanks in advance

[chilbs]

Hi Graywwoodford,

 

thanks for your speedy responce. Yes we are trying to build to a CC3 network and I have tried multiple versions of DOS and Windows drivers. I dont have any problem getting it to build from the floppy/USB and start installing windows but just after it completes the windows installer and goes for its first logon I am left with a command prompt window telling me error 1231 has occured. This is due to the fact that the windows drivers for this LAN card are not being copied accross during the initial DOS build part. I have tried a whole number of versions of win drivers for this card all of which install fine If I do them manually on the station after it fails but for some reason are not being detected at the DOS phase. The model of card is a Atheros AR8132 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller.

 

Any help would be good

 

Thanks in advance

 

Sounds like you have managed to add the DOS drivers to the build disk but you need to add the windows drivers to the build area.

 

 

chilbs

Edited June 11, 2010 by chilbs

[graywoodford]

Here is a link to the latest drivers 1.0.0.41 not sure if you have used these.

Atheros AR8131/AR8132 - WikiDrivers - Wiki-style resource and guide for device drivers

 

Have you checked when it is building from the usb stick/floppy at first that it has picked up the correct driver? have you removed all other drivers from the build disk?

You can manually add in drivers to the build area so if it is not in a hardware support pack it will pick these drivers on build so should correct the issue you are having, have you tried adding them in to the build area? There is a document on th RM site that helps with this TEC140677 have a look, i had to do it for some laptops we had in.

[GAMe]

Here is a link to the latest drivers 1.0.0.41 not sure if you have used these.

Atheros AR8131/AR8132 - WikiDrivers - Wiki-style resource and guide for device drivers

 

Have you checked when it is building from the usb stick/floppy at first that it has picked up the correct driver? have you removed all other drivers from the build disk?

You can manually add in drivers to the build area so if it is not in a hardware support pack it will pick these drivers on build so should correct the issue you are having, have you tried adding them in to the build area? There is a document on th RM site that helps with this TEC140677 have a look, i had to do it for some laptops we had in.

 

Hi again,

 

yes it is the windows drivers not the DOS ones and yes they have been added to the custom windows drivers in build manager . I have added custom drivers for a long time to the RM build area so I know what im doing when it comes to that but for some reason during the initial DOS portion of the build it does not copy down the ATHEROS windows LAN driver. I have tried the latest version and alos tried creating a custom build type with just the atheros drivers on the disk and still no luck

 

currently I am looking into another solution to inject it myself.

 

Thanks again

[graywoodford]

cool...just a quick check have you set the laptop/netbook hard drive to compatibility mode in the bios? I was having loads of issues until i changed this.

[GAMe]

cool...just a quick check have you set the laptop/netbook hard drive to compatibility mode in the bios? I was having loads of issues until i changed this.

 

Hi again,

 

yeah that isnt an issue which would effect the LAN drivers that setting basically switches the disk mode to IDE from AHCI (Which is not supported by the windows xp installer). Normally if that is not set to IDE or compatability mode the installer will blue screen out about a 3rd of the way into the installer.

 

but thanks again for all your help, if i find the cure I will share it to the world

[graywoodford]

cool cheers dude sorry couldnt much more help