Deployment Solution

The target computer succeeds in PXE and gets its image. But it errors with the following text output.


Starting the network...
Could not redirect output to file ''.
Could not redirect output to file ''.
Syntax Error
Could not redirect output to file ''.
Could not redirect output to file ''.

it then repeats the "Could not" and "Syntax Error" for a bit. At the bottom it says

Invalid Drive F:
Unable to map network drive
unable to start network.

and then it Reboots

Any Ideas?

So after it finishes imaging you get this error?

No, what I meant is that it PXE boots and gets its boot image. "The target computer succeeds in PXE and gets its image." It does not receive the production image as it is unable to map the network drive and is unable to start the network.

Is there anywhere that you can replace "F" in the deployment configuration with the server name path?

I have this same error with our Dell E5400's . we are using a dos boot image on D.S 6.9. All of our other Notebooks & Desktops boot into the production image or RDeploy job no problem - except for the Dell's. I updated the dos driver for the specific nic in the Dell's but it made no difference.

You may want to try building a network boot disk with that configuration and see if it has network problems. I have never seen those results, but it seems like you may need to reinstall PXE or, at least, rebuild the image(s).

quote:

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Originally posted by: darmitage
You may want to try building a network boot disk with that configuration and see if it has network problems. I have never seen those results, but it seems like you may need to reinstall PXE or, at least, rebuild the image(s).

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I will try the network boot disk idea tomorrow but I'm not sure what this will show me. If I skip past PXE & boot into the OS that is already installed, it connects to the network no problem. The Dells came with vista already installed & I did a manual install of XP on another Notebook to create a Dell specific XP image & had no network issues at that point. I found this problem when I wanted to Image the XP machine as we are not using vista. I then checked the vista machines ability to boot to PXE in case there was something wrong with the XP install or machine.

What do you mean "reinstall PXE"?

As for "rebuild the image" I assume you are talking about the OS image. If so, after trying to create a dell specific image, I tried to install the SOE image which is sysprep'd and has the deployment server (to which I have added the dell drivers) push the motherboard specific drivers out to the PC after the image is installed and before the machine starts the OS. Since my last post I have found that the first time one of the Dell Notebook boots into PXE, it will load the broadcom drivers, find the "F" drive and sit at "The deployment server has instructed this machine to wait" until I start the Image job. At this point the Notebook restarts, Boots into PXE, loads the broadcom drivers then goes through the error cycle.

By "reinstall PXE" I mean to go to the DS install, select install component, then select pxe. By "rebuild image' I mean the PXE image(s). Go to the PXE configuration; click on the particular PXE (DOS, Linux, or WinPE) and click the little box at the lower right that says "regenerate image", OR, if you have an older version, go through the steps to configure an image all the way through and tell it to generate PXE file(s). You talk of a "Vista" machine. there is nothing inherent in the OS that allows or disallows PXE. It is a BIOS function. Some machines, particularly laptops, have PXE enable under the "security" settings. Usually this must be set to "allow", then the boot sequence can be set with PXE above the HD. That's about as far as I can go as we are a "Novell" network with a corporate license and don't use sysprep, nor do we push drivers. You can, and I would suggest, making a boot disk via the "boot disk creator". Network boot disks are handy for testing the networking on a computer without using the installed XP or Vista OS. Thus you can make sure the hardware is working before delving into the OS.

Thanks for the clarification & quick response darmitage. I have re-installed the PXE component as well as rebuilt the PXE image when I first hit this problem. I downloaded the latest dos version of the broadcom driver then rebuilt the PXE image & regenerated it through the PXE configuration utility. I am about to try making a boot disk. I will post my results.

OK. I have tried the network boot disk which errors out. The errors are:

can not set environment variable 'net'.
environment full ?
can not set environment variable 'temp'.
environment full ?
can not set environment variable 'wattcp.cfg'.
environment full ?
can not set environment variable 'agentdir'.
environment full ?
can not set environment variable 'agentdir'.
environment full ?
can not set environment variable 'path'.
environment full ?

followed by the original set of errors listed by ant2ne.
I created this boot disk with freedos. I am going to try msdos next then winPE.

Edit: WinPE boots fine & installs image but imaging fails when dell reboots into scripts which use dos. Bugger. Not sure how to get scripts working Under WinPE.

Did you ever fix the environment full error problem?  I'm also getting it.  I have a brand new Dell Precision M6400.  I've tried building a new PXE image with the specific broadcom drivers.  Not sure what the problem is.  It doesn't look to be net card related.  As soon as it starts freedos it says booting drive A then starts throwing errors that it "can not set environment variable"

Not sure of the underlying cause for the problem, but the issue was related to the BIOS SATA mode.  The laptop was currently set to RAID for the SATA mode.  I changed it to ATA and the PXE worked perfectly.  In RAID mode it thru the errors for "unable to set environment variable" and "environment full?".  After I image the machine I can set it back to RAID and re-install the SATA mass storage drivers.

Glad you figured it out. Most likely to get it to work set to RAID you will have to add the RAID drivers to your PXE boot disk.

Hi

Came across your thread and thought I would see if anyone cane help me with an issue I am having trying to create an image for a Dell Precision M6400.

I have WinPE set up and running fine for all other models so I assumed it would be a simple case of adding the correct Broadcom drivers for the NIC on the laptop.  I did this and it picked up the WinPE Vista bootloader file fine...but after it picks up the image it loses connection ...even although it picks up an IP correctly to start with ....can't ping the client from the server or ping the server from the client....it completely drops off.

Not sure if this is something anyone has coma across with this particular model before ......after Ghost loads and you try to set the session up it returns the 10030 error (unable to establish contact etc etc....)....but only with this model ...ruling out the server, hub etc etc.

If anyone has seen or heard of this can they please shed some light on it for me as I have installed the Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabyte drivers from both Broadcom and Dell into the WinPE iso.......every new model seems to be an issue trying to get WinPE working ....surely in this day and age it shouldnt be so hard.

Any thoughts please let me know.

Cheers

G

Hi
Has anyone come across a solution to the original issue outlined at the beginning of this thread?

==========================
Starting the network...

Could not redirect output to file ''.

Could not redirect output to file ''.

Syntax Error

Could not redirect output to file ''.

Could not redirect output to file ''.

it then repeats the "Could not" and "Syntax Error" for a bit. At the bottom it says

Invalid Drive F:

Unable to map network drive

unable to start network.

==========================

I'm have the exact same issue and am confident it's not a problem at the server end. There are three different models of Dell Laptop and four models of Dell and HP computers in the office.
All currently work with my Dos or Freedos boot images.

The problem arose when we got a batch of DEll Latitude E6500 laptops.
I have tried various solutions outlined throughout this thread, including building another boot disk to incorporate the specific network drivers etc.
I have eliminated the possibility of a 10/100  gigabit compatibility issue as I had to resolve that during the initial server build.

Any new info would be appreciated.
Thanks

I ended up just switching to use linux for our pre-boot environment.  It is much more reliable than DOS and I've also noticed a 2 to 3 times speed increase with imaging using linux.

Meme probleme avec un dell latitude e5500 avec preboot PXE FreeDOS
Test ok avec Preboot Linux
solution --> créer un preboot MS-DOS sur le serveur altiris --> test ok

It seems that this problem has returned.

I'm trying to image a Dell Laptop E5500. I've changed AHCI to ATA (and had to reinstall the client OS). I've tried various 'boot images' including UNDI DOS, linux and WinPE automation. I've tried reinstalling PXE, which broke PXE completely, (so I had to reinstall the DS).  It simply will not start the network.

I have Tested other model of computers using the same DOS UNDI 'boot image', and they are able to PXE start the network and continue imaging.

If other computers can use PXE the problem is probably just with that machine.  I'd verify that you have a network cable with a working connection.  In the Dell BIOS make sure that the Integrated NIC is set to Enabled w/PXE and that the onboard NIC is enabled and priority in the boot sequence.  Other than that it should work. 

You may also want to try flashing the BIOS of the computer if it is not running the newest BIOS.

I have some of the same laptops and WinPE worked for me through PXE.
Where exactly does it stop? What error are you getting? Did you make sure correct NIC driver is in your boot disk? 

We have E6500s arriving this week unable to boot PXE - in our environment it appears to be related to the latest bios rev. from Dell for these machines.  Bios A18 boots to Altiris PXE just fine, Bios A19 does not.  We have had to revert to A18 on our E6500s to PXE boot.  Trying to determine if this is some kind of an Altiris PXE issue or an actual problem with the Bios rev.

@striskle -At what stage is the PXE boot failing?

It its at the early stages i.e. you can't even get the menu up on these A19 Dells, take a look at how  many options you have in your PXE boot menu. If these options have long names (or you simply have many options) you may be on the cusp on the character limitation in the PXE menu string. This might give you situations where some PXE clients, depending on the particular PXE implementation in their BIOS code, will differ in whether they are able to present the PXE menu or not.

If the PXE menu's are presented on both cases, and the image PXE image downloads then  PXE protocol has done its work.

After this point it gets a bit more complex to troubleshoot without further info. GIve us a few more details and collectively we can all bash away until the problem has been resolved i'm sure. It would not be the first time though i've used downreve'd BIOSes to get deployments working. :-(

Practically speaking, even if we do isolate it as a BIOS bug, Dell will not be able to fix it in the short term. You'll still likely have to down rev in this scenario whilst they escalate this internally....

Hi,

After updating a Dell E4200 to BIOS version A13, we were unable to successfully load a FreeDOS boot image.

Error message was "Can not set variable..." and "Environment full?"

Applying an older BIOS version fixed the issue.

Cheers,
Adrian

Hi Tony,

This thread has meandered a little from your initial posting.
Have you been able to resolve your problem, or do you still require help?

@Adrian: Good to see the BIOS downrev worked. Remember to follow up with Dell otherwise this issue might persist through future releases! 

We actually have a ticket open with Dell on this and it has been escallated to their engineers.  It appears all the new machines with BIOS updates as of Feb 2010 are affected by this.  At the suggestion of Dell we did look at the names in our PXE list, but most of them are 3 or 4 characters long so the "long PXE name" does not affect them.

We have 12 options in our PXE menu - that includes the Altiris "Next Device (BIOS/EFI), DOS Managed and WinPE Managed which are created by Altiris by default.  The other 9 are specific to our regional deployment servers.

We are not getting a PXE menu at all - just the "Bad or missing PXE"

Downgrading is an option on our older workstations but we are expecting Dell 980s this summer and there is only a bios rev. A01 for it so there is no "downgrade" option.

 Experience to date says to keep on pestering Dell. If you don't, they'll 'forget' about it!