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bschwartz

1 Rookie

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13 Posts

41754

September 28th, 2014 19:00

PXE boot Dell PE

Hello IA forum and Tyler M.

I'm new to Image Assist and am actually ready to send my newly created custom Image to Dell for our next ~40 laptop order. I really like the Dell PE and image creation/restore process especially in the ESX environment for creation/testing, and easily installing the CAB files to different models of Dell laptops.

I have a question about PXE booting. I currently have Win Deployment Services on a Windows Server 2008r2 hacked so Syslinux boots first. From here I'm able to continue onto WDS or boot into Linux based tools from ISOs like Clonezilla, DBAN, memtest, etc. I would love to be able to have a PXE bootable Dell PE environment on my WDS/Syslinux server. I am actually able to PXE boot the Dell PE DVD_ISO created within my VM environment but when it gets to the Dell splash screen it throws the below error. I'm wondering if you know of any way around it to PXE boot the Dell PE (I know this wouldn't be an officially supported method, just wondering). Thanks!

Dell PE PXE boot error:

Initializing Dell PE, this may take a minute…

Waiting for USB drive to be ready…

Unable to locate USB drive

1 person also has this problem

DELL-Tyler M

Moderator

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342 Posts

October 1st, 2014 07:00

Hi bschwartz -

Currently your statement re: "officially supported method" is accurate. The only supported restore functionality the tool provides is via the USB key, which does allow for network share mappings.  If you wouldn't mind providing feedback using the Image Assist Survey - this will end up with the development team to review suggested enhancements.

Tyler

bschwartz

1 Rookie

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13 Posts

October 1st, 2014 09:00

Thanks Tyler,

I've submitted the suggestion in the survey to your development team with my contact info. Hopefully they can follow up with me with a response and info about this feature.

-Ben

tasaif

2 Posts

March 17th, 2021 20:00

  1. Create ImageAssist bootable USB (or ISO)
  2. Copy boot.wim from sources folder
  3. Mount wim
  4. Copy DellTools folder to root of wim from USB/ISO root
  5. Unmount and save wim
  6. Import boot.wim to WDS under Boot
  7. PXE boot

Note the uncompressed size of the WIM is 4.5GB so you may need that much RAM at a minimum

I did verify that I was able to boot into ImageAssist and had options for Capture, Restore, and Browse.

I did not verify any other functionality.

brego0123

1 Message

July 21st, 2021 13:00

What would be the ideal way to structure DIA over PXE so when you go to restore an image it auto detects the WIM and potential driver packs as it does when using USB?

tasaif

2 Posts

December 9th, 2021 15:00

I have never used that feature, but if I did I would try to map a network share to the x:\ drive by doing the following:

  1. Mount boot.wim
  2. Modify C:\offline\Windows\System32\startnet.cmd (this script is executed when WinPE boots up)
    1. Add the following code to mount your networked shared drivers
      1. net use \\\server\share\Dell_Driver_Packs_Local
mklink /d "X:\Dell_Driver_Packs_Local" \\\server\share\Dell_Driver_Packs_Local
  3. Unmount and save boot.wim

I did not test any of the above so good luck. I would imagine you could also pack the drivers you want into the root of boot.wim but if you have more than you can store in RAM, that could be an issue.

Resources

  1. https://superuser.com/questions/244562/how-do-i-mount-a-network-drive-to-a-folder
  2. https://www.dell.com/community/Image-Assist/Driver-Packs-Folder/td-p/5152419

Joyfreeman

1 Rookie

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21 Posts

December 14th, 2021 06:00

The US OS Imaging Service Desk can be contacted Email US_OSImaging@dell.com Phone 866-340-0541 Monday through Friday 7amCST-6pm CST

MG_TFB

1 Message

March 24th, 2022 06:00

Hello. Did you ever figured this out? I would like DIA to provide me with the WIM and driver automatically over PXE.

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