Trying to deploy over PXE UEFI x86 with WDS 2012

[goudviske]

Hi,

 

I've been reading a lot on these forums the last couple of weeks, mostly regarding SCCM etc, but at the moment I've got an issue I haven't been able to wrap my head around.

We're using a standard win 2k8 r2 domain environment. This environment used to contain a server with MDT 2010 and WDS 2008 (server 2008 r2), used for deploying win7 etc, the environment used to work pretty well.

 

Then somebody thought it was a good idea to buy some tablet computers, to be specific the HP Elitepad 900. Specs for this tablet computer indicate it is able to do PXE boot (there is an ethernet port on the docking), but due to limitations this only works using UEFI (BIOS not supported). After a lot of reading I found that wds 2008 does not support x86 uefi, so the server was upgraded (no fresh install) to windows server 2012 (with wds 2012) and mdt 2012 update 1.

 

Legacy computers are still able to PXE boot correctly (and complete installation), but UEFI machines, or machines starting in UEFI mode can't do this at the moment.

 

What happens is:

- boot the computer over network (or tablet), we mainly want the elitepad to get working (x86 uefi), but I've also tried booting another machine using x64 UEFI with the same result

- the following is shown:

 

>>Start PXE over IPv4, Press [ESC] to exit...

Station IP address is x.x.x.x

Server IP address is x.x.x.x

NBP filename is boot\x86\wdsmgfw.efi

NBP filesize is xxxxx bytes

Downloading NBP File

 

Succeed to download NBP file.

 

[EDIT] Not sure if it's NEP or NBP file, not very clear on the screen

 

 

Then the screen changes and I see:

 

Windows Depoyment Services (server IP: x.x.x.x)

Contacting Server (x.x.x.x): - (this is like turning / - \ - / - \ ...)

ESC= Exit

 

After a while (timeout)the computer shows:

 

Windows Deployment Services encountered an error:

Error Code: 0x102

ENTER=Reboot

 

 

What I've tried/changed so far:

Changed the NBP filename in DHCP options, it used to be boot\x86\wdsnbp.com (when not using UEFI), before changing this I simply got network error when trying to network boot.

Added NIC (and other) drivers in WDS 2012, regenerated the boot image afterwards etc.

Tried reinstalling WDS on a newly installed windows server 2012 (without mdt) in standalone mode.

Other stuff I can't think of at the moment :-)

PXE booting of our SCCM 2012 update 1 (only used for updates & endpoint protection at the moment), but with the same result

 

Any thoughts/ideas? I have a feeling I'm overlooking something stupid, but then again it may not be stupid.

 

Thank you

 

[EDIT]

Sorry I should have posted this in

http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/index.php?/forum/43-windows-deployment-services-wds/

[/EDIT]

Edited November 12, 2013 by anyweb
replacing NEP with NBP

[anyweb]

does the HP Elitepad 900 support UEFI network boot in it's bios ?

[goudviske]

Hi, thank you for the very very fast reply,

I believe it does.

 

Also there's information regarding PXE booting from HP itself in this document

http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c03698024/c03698024.pdf

 

So I think it's safe to assume it does support network boot, also the option has been enabled

[anyweb]

i don't think that document says anywhere that you can do UEFI network boot, please contact HP and ask them does it support it (or not)

[goudviske]

Hi,

 

Specifications state that it does support PXE boot, and it only has a UEFI firmware (32 bit, the Atom chip is x86) (no legacy mode), so yes I believe it does.

Btw, I have got the same issue when trying to boot another laptop when legacy bios is disabled, or when trying to boot a vm with UEFI enabled

[tsafx86]

Hello,

I have same problem with HP Elitepad 900 and Asus UX32A.

[Rocket Man]

PXE booting of our SCCM 2012 update 1 (only used for updates & endpoint protection at the moment), but with the same result

 

 

 

Is this SCCM 2012 SP1 CU1?

 

The HP elite Pad 900 is a strange device. After posting this guide I found another problem.

We got another HP elite pad shipped out to us, apparently exact same device, same insides etc... but when I try to PXE boot it, it successfully downloaded the NBP file etc..etc.. but after this it errored out saying no Network Found, the exact same error before applying CU1.

 

For testing I PXE'd the the first set of HP elitepads that was initially PXEing fine after the upgrade and they still booted no problem

What I had to do with the Elitepad that would not boot was at the stage it started to download the NBP file succesfully was to press the ENTER key(a few times).... once this was done it continued to boot and download the boot.wim and continued on to image successfully. Not sure as to why pressing ENTER key repeatedly or as to why I even tried it but it worked.

 

Getting 3 more HP elitepad 900's within the next couple of weeks, wonder will they be same? Time will tell...

[tsafx86]

There are eight ElitePad and couple Asus UX32A and I'm using SCCM 2012 SP1 CU1. All devices have the common problem. I think that problem in SCCM. I'm going to use WDS without SCCM. I've spoken MS and HP support, they don't have a quick answer.

[Rocket Man]

Your PXE DP is sitting on server 2012 and you have injected the winPE4.0 HP drivers and HP management pack drivers into a newly created wim image (not the default out of box wim image)?

[Rocket Man]

and it only has a UEFI firmware (32 bit, the Atom chip is x86) (no legacy mode),

 

 

Just to be aware that I have imaged these devices in UEFI and standard BIOS by disabling the UEFI formating and partitioning task in the standard windows8 Task sequence and just using the default BIOS partition & Format task....... either way worked?? (I never checked the partitioning configuration in disk management after OSD with standard BIOS)

 

By disabling the UEFI task and leaving the standard BIOS partition&Format task would mean that this device gets a standard BIOS as opposed to UEFI?

 

Will check this out again if no-one can verify this?

Its just that it takes approx 1.5hrs - 2hrs to image this device with some standard software (office 2013, Adobex3, java etc..) and will have to wait until the next batch comes in.

[tsafx86]

Yes, my SCCM is sitting on Windows 2012 + Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (contains WinPE 4.0). WinPE has WinPE4.0 HP drivers and WIM without HP drivers, but task sequence has Apply Drivers step wich contains HP drivers. What WIM contains HP drivers or not is not important, because WinPE doesn't start. In my opinion need to focused on WinPE booting.