Adding Network Drivers to RIS image

[psycroptic]

Hey folks.

So I've got a Windows 2003 server setup to do remote installations via WDS/RIS. I installed & configured it in legacy mode so that I could do WinXP installs from it. I'm running into some trouble trying to add network drivers to the XP image so that the installer can use the network adapter on one of our machines (it's an Asus M2N-MX SE Plus motherboard with an Nvidia networking controller.)

I grabbed the drivers from the mobo CD for the ethernet adapter. I copied the driver files to the $OEM$\$1\Drivers\Nic folder of the image, and copied them as well to the i386 folder of the image. I specified the "OemPreinstall = Yes", "DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore", and "OemPnPDriversPath=Drivers\Nic" options in the ristndrd.sif file (located in <Image>\templates) I've done everything I can think of to get this to work, but when I try to remote boot the machine, I still get the message that

"the operating system image you selected does not contain the necessary drivers for your network adapter."

I'm not sure why; the driver is most definitely there, and I don't know of anything else that's required for RIS to see the driver other than the things I specified above that I did (I followed directions as per the MS website

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315...

I've of course restarted the WDS service/server itself multiple times.

I've been tearing my hair out trying to ge tthis working; I just don't understand why it's not. PLEASE someone help if you can.

 

[PScottC]

Some network cards just don't play well with RIS. Check NVidia's site for RIS specific drivers. Try older versions if you can get your hands on them. Look at other manufacturers that use the same network controller and see if they have a RIS specific driver.

PSC

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