Not sure which forum was the best for this but this one seems to sound good, just install WDS and got it working sorta, anyone else test and installed this yet? i am confused on how to create a PE that will work with WDS. have gotten the pwe booting working correctly and can boot into a PE but at that point i am lost.


thanks in advance

where did you get WDS from?

WAIK toolkit downloaded from connect

Well...

I also installed WDS on top of a RIS box, got to the boot menu, and could launch for example WinPE 2.0 from it succesfully.. however, when trying to add a .wim file (that I have created by manually from XP) to the section: Install Images - WDS returns a error msg, stating: "not a syspreped image". The thing is, it is syspreped.. Oki, so what if upload the install.wim file from the vista or longhorn builds then? Then WDS returns a msg stating: "Not a valid install image".

Anyway, I dunno how it really works and I have not been able to spend time on it either but if I dont recall false, the install.wim files from the vista and longhorn srv media are syspreped (dunno if it checks the versions and so on). I really hope that the WDS product will support native .wim deployment for both pre vista operating systems (worried that they are going to sepearate it as it has a "mixed" mode) but it doesnt really tells you if the mixed mode is there because of, the option to run both RIS (flat) and WDS(wim) or because it cant handle pre vista os .wim files. I dont wanna end up with 2 ways of deploying OS's, just the new .wim format. Also, as you can succesfully create .wim files from a syspreped xp box and the deploy it again using the ximage.exe I dont see why it should not support both.

Anyone else that has been able to elaborate with the WDS beta yet? or could give us a hint on how to use it or why it is complaining?

Best Regards
Tha Sausage Eater

I have loaded a wim of XP sp2 and it loads fine, the issue i am finding trying to get from the PE boot to the actual image install, the WDS instructions refer to a WDS client that is suppose to run with the PE, but i have found no evidence of the client, i would expect it is added at the time you add your boot pe to the WDS server.

Any special cfg for the XP SP2 .wim file or just wrapped from ximage? or did u convert a riprep to .wim?
Any clues on that one would be nice... also, havent seen that WDS client either...

OK,

figured out the PXE boot, if you apply the vista 5308 boot wim to a folder, you can see the structure needed to make a bart PE pxe bootable


in the folder that you created you will see 5 folders



copying the contents of the pxe boot folder you can use this to boot you win pe's to the WDS server

got an error trying to run my install image though, will be working on it to see what happend

also side note, those files in the PXE boot foler on the vista boot wim are located on the reminst directory that you created for the WDS
under \reminst\boot\x86\
all the files you need are there.

as for the XP image, is just a XP sp2 image that had been syspreped, that is all, i think i need to look more in RIS to get this working right,

ok, got wds client running in the PE now, but getting errors with the setup.exe. this is all running on a virtual server (3 actaully) but i think it is just a memory issue, any thoughts?

Error
-----------
the expection unknown software exception (0xe0000100)
occured in the application at location (0x77e4028b)
-----------

problem fixed, virtual pc required about 300 mb to runn correctly, wonder if it just cause i have 3 machines running at once... anyway working swettly now

That WDS client software, where did u find it? or at what stage does it become available? and is it included with the CTP release for WDS as well? been reading the MS docs but I cant figure out where to install from or at what stage it becomes avail...

My problem with the sysprepped XP image was that I had used a previous version of the ximage.exe for creating the .wim file. Hopefully...

the client software is actually built into the setup.exe for vista, which is why you need to use a vista PE boot.wim, the files are also created for you in your WDS installation look in the REMINST\boot\<osversion>\
there will be the pxe files that are created there, those will need to be copied to your own custom PE if you wanted to use another other then a vista boot PE, the files would go in the Windows\boot\pxe folder on the PE,

here are the files that are needed,
abortpxe.com
bootmgr.exe
hdscom1.com
hdscom1.n12
hdscom2.com
hdscom2.n12
pxeboot.com
pxeboot.n12
wdsnbp.com

those should be found on the WDS\REMINST\boot\<osversion>\should be in there

Got it! Thanks man...

Has anyone successfully booted a WinPE 2005 (Server 2003 SP1) WIM via WDS? I'm getting an error that i386\system32\winload.exe is missing. I know that's a Vista file, but when I add it to the PE 2005 WIM, it still errors out saying the registry is corrupt. Is the WDS version pxeboot.com only for booting WinPE 2.0 (VistaPE)? Is there another NBP that I need to PXE boot PE 2005?

Thanks!

Chuckn, PE 2.0 is the only version of PE that will work with WDS, older versions won't work

Thanks for the info, fizban!

no problem

there are 3 modes to WDS: RIS, RIS + WDS and pure WDS, if you are already using RIS for your images, you can move to the second level and life cycle out your older images for Pe 2.0 ones as it becomes feasible

Okay--time for another issue. In WinPE 2.0, has anyone tried to run an HTA with <script> sections? Are the scripts working? My HTA loads, but none of the VBScript runs. Is there some security setting I need to change? Is MSHTA broken in WinPE 2.0 from the February CTP? I've used peimg to install HTA and Scripting components; is there something else I need to install?

Thanks!

Heh guys

I get stuck at this part

Create an image file (.iso) by using the Oscdimg tool. To do this, type:
Cd Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\
Oscdimg -n –bc:\winpe_x86\etfsboot.com c:\winpe_x86\ISO c:\winpe_x86\winpe_x86.iso
6. Burn the image (Winpe.iso) onto the blank CD-ROM. You now have a Windows PE CD with ImageX.


Well i use this command :
Oscdimg -n –bc:\winpe_x86\etfsboot.com c:\winpe_x86\ISO c:\winpe_x86\winpe_x86.iso

I get an error message saying Error : Could not delete existing file c:\winpe_x86\iso
Access is denied

Why do i get this tried it on 3 macjines and same thing

well never mind my previous post i got it to work...Darn and double darn it was a syntax error

I am having a bit of a deal with WDS (pure mode)(longhorn 5384.4). I am having a problem with the *.xml files created with SIM. I am able deploy images with an unattend-xml file with the WDS client based on architechture, but when I associate an *.xml with any install image in WDS, nothing happens, no unattend install, just the usual install GUI. Does anyone know how the *.xml thing works with WDS i pure mode. I would like to have an generel unattend file for architecture, and a unattend fil for each deploy image...Does anyone how that works in WDS????....

Been trying to do this for almost 2 weeks now :/....

Cheers,

Cyprids

Hello. i am need a help. I installing on win2003 Sp1 RIS and upgrading to WDS. I installing BDD Vista and WAIK. Creating Image from Windows XP and importing him to the server.When I try connect to the server over pxe network card I recive error message >>> PXE BOOT Image not found. I can't find on my server file pxeboot.com.

Did you import the WIM image into WDS? it sounds like the WDS server doesn't know where your images are. Double check to make sure when you open WDS you can see your images

yes. I have in console wds image. But when i try configure boot in table server properties boot, Boot menu ask to me about default boot program not a valid boot program file. where i fing valid boot file, i meen pxeboot.com

Hi, guys. Somebody can help me. when i connect to server wiht pxe method i can;t see available operating system images. I see only image what was created over installing WDS. I meen when i install RIS server. My second image was created with ximage.exe and i addet him to menu "INtall Image" in WDSMgmt console.

so you only see your new image or you only see the image from the RIS server?

I have the same problem as borisg. Working RIS server, installed R2, configured WDS, installed WAIK, but pxeboot.* can nowhere be found on my system.
As a result TFTP download of boot\x64\pxeboot.com fails. (which means clients connects to server and wants to boot as supposed to)
Installed a new DC, same problem.
Added Vista images from WAIK DVD, no go.

I did RTFM, WDSOOBRDME.DOC, and it says:
After transitioning from a legacy mode to mixed mode operation by configuring the server using the Windows Deployment Services management console or by running WDSUTIL.exe /initialize-server, you must also add a Windows Vista WinPE boot image. Failing to do so will cause network boot attempts, made by client computers, to fail with an error similar to “TFTP Error - File Not found.”
So I'll see if I can find me one of those....

The "normal" Vista WinPE boot image it's refering to is the boot.wim on the vista DVD, once it has been added to the boot images section of WDS if it doesn't recognize that the client supports X64 run "wdsutil /set-server /architecturediscovery:yes".