Ghost Solution Suite

Hi all,

Well I think I have tried everything I have read about this problem on the forums but still no luck.

I have upgraded to the latest version of GSS (2.5) - Ghost Console version is 11.5.1.2266.

I have checked LiveUpdate - everything is up to date.

I have downloaded the latest Intel drivers for the 82577LM network card for Windows Vista 32bit direct from Intel.

I have extracted the files and added the drivers located in the \PRO1000\Win32\NDIS61 directory into a copy of WinPE.

I have then created a WinPE Ghost Boot USB key with the Ghost Boot Wizard.

(I did try WinPE512 which appeared to have the correct drivers buit didn't work. I also tried adding the drivers from \PRO1000\Win32\NDIS62 also after reading some info from MS, but still didn't work)

Each time the same result - if I try to boot my Dell Latitude E6410 from the USB Key it boots up and loads the Ghost client with no problem at all but attempting to join a GhostCast session gets an IP of 127.0.0.1 so it obviously is still not loading the drivers.

So I think I am out of options.

I called Symantec tech support and it took over 20 minutes just to get my details recorded and a case logged. I could hardly understand the lady I was talking to. So now I wait for a call back. Fingers crossed.

In the meantime if anyone has any suggestions please go for it!

I guess there might be a patch that will help with this but the thread that refers to that now says I need to call tech support to get patches. Joy.

Cheers,

LJ

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/dell-latitude-e6510-intel-82577lm-nic-not-working

A solution was found which may help you with the 6410 also

Thanks for the response EdT,

That thread didn't help unfortunately. I am already using WinPE with the correct Vista NIC drivers. This thread mentions editing out the Mouse command but I think that is only for using DOS based boot disks. The Mouse command is not there to remove when creating my WinPE boot disk. One of Randalls posts mentions installing the correct SATA drivers. I did not think that was the problem as my boot disk only seems to fail with getting an IP address from DHCP. I made sure I installed the latest drivers anyway but it made no difference. I think these drivers are only needed for AHCI. I have reverted these laptops to IDE mode so I don't think I should need any additional storage drivers - can anyone confirm this? BTW - can anyone confirm whether GSS 2.5/Ghost Console 11.5.1.2266 supports AHCI? I read that it does not but there seems to be conflicting info on this floating about.

Cheers,

LJ

Well i had my phone call from Symantec Tech support this morning and in spite of having great difficulty understanding her due to the very strong accent we did solve the problem - of course it was a driver issue. We are not sure if it was an incorrect driver or a conflict with other drivers in the WinPE build. I had tried the newest Vista driver from Dell & Intel but neither worked. We created a new copy of WinPE and included a driver that the tech support lady provided whcih ultimately worked. Interestingly this driver appears to be older than the one I has been using. I guess sometimes newer/newest isn't always best.

She has also provided me with an AHCI driver set which she is confident would get Ghost working with the laptops SATA controllers running in AHCI mode. I haven't tested that yet though.

Cheers,

LJ

The issue of SATA support relates to the operating system rather than Ghost. With the correct SATA drivers present in your WinPE build you should be able to use the hard disk in its native format rather than having to switch to IDE mode.

Realistically there is no issue with SATA (AHCI) support! Using the correct drivers for the OS and the correct (Vista) drivers for WinPE = no problem! The real issue is with misinformation. As I mentioned earlier, when I tried to ghost a laptop using AHCI and it failed to boot into the VP (Virtual Partition) I looked online for answers and read somewhere that GSS 2.5 and earlier does not support AHCI. Can't remember where I read this but I don't think it was on this site. I will not be looking anywhere else for ghost help in the future! Why was I looking elsewhere in the first place? *shrugs*

Thanks again for your interest & help.

As mentioned above, the driver was suppplied by the Tech Support rep from Symantec. She placed a folder on my desktop during our call - it is labelled "Latest Intel Network Driver(15.2)". Inside is a "Win32" folder containing 3 more folders; "NDIS5x", "NDIS61" & "NDIS62". We used the drivers in the "NDIS61" folder. Checking in the inf files contained within this directory I found the device ID for my NIC (which was 10EA) listed in the "e1k6032.inf" file dated 12 April 2010 - version listed inside the file is "DriverVer   = 04/12/2010,11.6.92.0"

Interestingly I had previously used the Vista drivers downloaded from the Dell support website which I have checked into as above - I used the contents of the "NDIS61" folder also as per a Symantec article about adding drivers to WinPE. Checking in the inf files contained within this directory I found the device ID for my NIC listed in the "e1k6032.inf" file (same as above) dated 4 May 2011 - version listed inside the file is "DriverVer   = 05/04/2011,11.12.36.0".

This newer driver did not work for me. The Tech Support lady said something about a possible conflict with other drivers in my WinPE build (or something like that) but I doubt this very much. I based my build on WinPE (not WinPE512) and I deselected all other drivers that could be deselected. The build we created in the support call was based on WinPE but we didn't even deselect any of the other drivers.Hence my comment above: "I guess sometimes newer/newest isn't always best" ...who knows?

Be aware that when you add the drivers in to WinPE you dont need to single out the particular driver file - we added the entire "NDIS61" directory. You should check the inf files however to ensure that one of them contains the devide ID of your NIC. They are just text files so open them and do a search. To get your NIC device ID open "System" from your "Control Panel" (or right click "My Computer" on your desktop & select "Properties") - select the "Hardware" tab and click the "Device Manager" button. Expand the "Network adapters" section and right click your LAN card. Mine said "Intel(R) 82577LM Gigabit Network Connection". Select "Properties" and then select the "Details" tab. On this tab select "Hardware Ids" from the dropdown box. In the window below should be several lines of info. They should all start with the Vendor & device IDs of your NIC. My first line says:

"PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_10EA&SUBSYS_040A1028&REV_05"

"VEN_8086" mean the vendor is Intel, "DEV_10EA" means the device ID is 10EA, hence why I searched for 10EA in the driver inf files. NOTE: The procedure above is for Win XP, it may vary for other/newer operating systems.

Once again - VERY IMPORTANT - you MUST use VISTA drivers for WinPE - even if your OS is Win XP!!!

I've just noticed a "File attachments" link near the bottom of this page... I will attach the (Vista) "NDIS61" folder with the driver that worked for me. Hopefully this will not violate any rules!?!? Hope this thread/post helps others having the same troubles.

Cheers,

LJ

Attachment(s)

NDIS61.zip   1.12 MB 1 version

Symantec laid off the development team a while back after a long interval of reduced development funds, so the work on GSS 3.0 came to a standstill. As far as I am aware, there is no current development activity, just some bug fixing on the current version.