SCCM PXE Boot - Lenovo ThinkPad Helix Gen 2

[shawn.pederson]

Evaluating the new Helix 2nd Gen, banging my head against the wall trying to get the newer "ThinkPad Tablet Setup" UEFI BIOS to BOOT to anything but the hard drive (i.e. Lenovo USB 3.0 NIC, CD, USB).

The BIOS clearly sees these bootable devices when I have them connected but it appears to just boot me right back to the main BIOS screen.

I have read some posts on these devices being unable to boot into another OS (i.e. WinPE for SCCM deployments).

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-Tablet-and-Helix/Helix-2-Model-20CH-No-Legacy-Boot-Option-in-B...

Has anyone out there had luck deploying these with SCCM? We have other UEFI BIOS' that boot into alternate OS' just fine (i.e. Surface Pro, Dell Latitude E7250).

I have to be missing something.

[fancypants75]

We have tried without success to deploy these using PXE. We have the correct WinPE drivers downloaded from Lenovo and added to the boot image, the machine tries to PXE using IPv4 but times out. We are using the Lenovo USB 3.0 dongle supplied with the device. We have spoken to Lenovo who say it should work, but after about a week of trying we are currently deploying them via USB key. We created boot media with the drivers that confirm network connectivity when using WinPE but still no success deploying via PXE.

[anyweb]

imaging them here just fine, make sure you are using the 64 bit boot image and that the usb 3 lenovo drivers are added to your boot wim

[fancypants75]

We are using the 64 bit boot image, but downloaded the Lenovo WinPE 5.0 driver pack, although, as you have pointed out this does not contain the Lenovo USB 3.0 drivers, although I "Think" I have tried them previously. Will double check that! Thanks for your help

[fancypants75]

Still no joy, have imported the USB 3.0 Lenovo driver (Realtek USB GBE Family Controller), but when we try to PXE this is what we get:

 

Station IP address is: x.x.x.x

 

Server IP address is: x.x.x.x

NMP filename is smsboot\x64\wdsmgfw.efi
NBP size is xxxxxxxxx

 

Downloading NBP file

 

It then times out and tries over IPv6

 

Just to confirm this is the Lenovo Helix 20CH model.

 

Any ideas much appreciated

[fancypants75]

Checking the SMSPXE.log the device is in the database and picking up the correct MAC, UUID & Advert ID, then just sits on:

"Looking for bootImage A0500005 SMSPXE 19/05/2015 17:35:54 3296 (0x0CE0)"

[Peter van der Woude]

Are other devices able to do a PXE boot? Also, is the boot image available for PXE (checkbox on the Data Source tab)?

[fancypants75]

All other devices we have tried PXE no problem (Yoga, X240, X250, L440, Tecra, Elitebooks), and I have confirmed the boot image is available for PXE. Looking like a USB deployment, which is not ideal as we might have about 200

[shawn.pederson]

Oh no FancyPants75, that's what I was afraid of with them. I am sorry to hear that.

 

Luckily we just brought them in as a demo, along with some other devices. I just gave up and shipped it back as we didn't own the device. They received a "No go" on my list of potential devices. It would continue to boot back into the main BIOS screen regardless if I was trying to PXE, USB or CD/DVD boot them. I always assumed I was missing some obscure BIOS setting that allowed this. Every other similar tablet device (i.e. Helix Gen 1, Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 2, ThinkPad Yogo 2) worked perfectly fine with the correct USB NIC.

[fancypants75]

Workaround, although not an ideal scenario:

 

Create Task Sequence Boot media, boot from USB and then using Universal USB Ethernet Adapter, deploy the TS. Same method with Lenovo USB 3.0 adapter still does not work! Spoke to Lenovo Technical who suggested everything under the sun, all of which we had already tried eg: Firmware upgrade, various driver versions, checking connectivity when in WinPE booting via USB all of which say it should work, but sadly the man from delmonte say "NO"

[kirkus]

Found a workaround - connect two USB Ethernet adapters... 1x USB 2.0 and 1x USB 3.0.

 

PXE will use the USB 3.0, then the WDS boot image will use the USB 2.0 adapter.

 

Ridiculous I know, but seems to work.