RIS Boot Disk Problem

[sbaker899]

We have a Remote Installation Services server, that is able to work correctly with clients that are booting directly from their LAN adapter, but will not work when using the RIS boot disk. I have had to create the disk with the Windows 2003 Server version of RBFG.exe, as the adapter being used is not supported in the 2000 version (adapter is RTL8139). Though do I do not think this is the problem, since when creating disk's for other adapters that are supported in the 2000 version the same will happen.

What happens is that an IP address is obtained, but then the following error is given: TFTP Error - Cannot find file. Yet when booting straight from an NIC the file is found Ok.

Thanks for any help.

 

[ReddLefty]

Well, according to Windows 2000, the service supports only 3Com and Intel Pro cards. I've never been able to make anything else work, despite my efforts with software emulation like Etherboot. (

http://www.etherboot.org).

I will definitly flag this post to see if anyone has came up with better.



"In space, nobody can hear you click..."

 

[sbaker899]

This works fine when doing a direct PXE boot from the LAN card, but what I was saying is that when using an RBFG.exe (Windows 2000 version) created boot disk for any card (including 3Com cards that are on the support list), it will not work.

The RTL8139 is on the support list of the Windows 2003 version of RBFG.exe, so I have been attempting to use a disk created with that.

Thanks for your response, hope this makes it a bit clearer?

 

[scanjam]

Do you have the FTP and DHCP server located on the same box? We only ever had issues with the boot disk when we split DHCP and RIS/FTP server.


James

 

[sbaker899]

No, the RIS/FTP server is on a different box to the DHCP/DNS/Active Directory - basically all the Windows components RIS needs to work are on a separate server.

Did you never manage to get the boot disk to work with this setup? Its just it isn't really possible for us to run RIS from the same server as any of this.

Thanks for your help.

 

[scanjam]

That was the same situation as us. We had to split RIS because it was practically murdering our domain controller.
Unfortunately we have never got the boot disk working, but this was never an issue because most of our PC's have 3COM PXE Bootable Nic's.

If i get a chance ill revisit the boot disk scenario and try again.

Cheers
James

 

[sbaker899]

Ok, well any help you can give is appreciated.

It has not yet been an issue for us either, since all PC's that we've setup with RIS so far have used PXE bootable onboard LAN. The problem will come when we go to setup one that doesn't have onboard LAN, and use one of our Realtek RTL8139 cards.

At least I know its not just us having this problem now, as I've been unable to find any mention of it either on the Microsoft website or any other sites.

Thanks

 

[ReddLefty]

Depending on your budget, you can simply replace the cards that are not PXE with 3Com 3C905x cards. You can then create a RIS boot diskette and they work with 3Com's and Intel Pro cards. It's the same as booting PXE but it's with a floppy. You use the MAC address as the GUID (Computer ID) instead, so you create the computer account and add the MAC address at the end but put zeros to fill in the suffix.

Example of a GUID (PXE)Installation:

4C4C4545-0043-4210-8068-B9C0AF543332

Example of a GUID using MAC address:
00000000-0000-0000-0000-005004B2E9AB <-MAC Address



&quot;In space, nobody can hear you click...&quot;