[Fencer128]

Hi,

Since Intel moved to their 10.x drivers I've not had any issues with getting their hardware RIS compliant.

However, we're just in the process of migrating from Intel 915GUX PRO/100 VE based motherboards to 945GTP PRO/1000 PM motherboards as our stable platform.

The relevant HWID for the 945GTP is:

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_108C&SUBSYS_30998086&REV_03\4&6C79FC5&0&00E0: Intel(R) PRO/1000 PM Network Connection

I've not been able to get this RIS booting at all. RIS complains it does not have a driver. I've checked both the e1e5132.inf and e1000325.inf RIS-variant files but do not find a reference to the exact hardware above. There is a catch all in e1e5132.inf (I believe) for:

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_108C

but this is obviously not working. I tried adding a line for the specific hardware above, but that made no difference either.

I find it extremely annoying that Intel's SIPP (stable image platform) motherboard will not RIS boot and imagine that someone has found a way around this...

Any ideas anyone?

Cheers,

Andy

This post has been edited by Fencer128: 19 April 2006 - 07:05 AM

[RogueSpear]

Does Intel have a set of drivers specifically for that adapter available for download? If Windows XP detects and installs the NIC with an Intel driver from a CD based install, then that should be an indication that the hwid is contained in the driver.

EDIT: I noticed that the main driver download from Intel that supports what has to be most of their NICs, does not list support for your NIC.

This download is also valid for the products listed below. Use the links below for additional product downloads: 
  
 
 Intel® 82540EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82540EP Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82541EI Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82541GI Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82541PI Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82543GC Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82544 Gigabit Ethernet Controllers 
 Intel® 82544EI Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82544GC Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82545GM Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82546EB Dual Port Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82546GB Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82547EI Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82547GI Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 8254x Ethernet Controllers 
 Intel® 82550 Fast Ethernet Multifunction Controller 
 Intel® 82558 32-bit PCI Bus LAN Controller 
 Intel® 82559 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82562 Fast Ethernet Controllers 
 Intel® 82562ET Fast Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82562EX Fast Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82562EZ Fast Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82571EB Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82572EI Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82573E Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82573L Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® 82573V Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
 Intel® PRO/100 M Desktop Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/100 S Desktop Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/100 S Dual Port Server Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/100 S Management Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/100 S Server Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/100 VE Desktop Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/100+ Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/100+ Management Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/100+ Server Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/1000 GT Desktop Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/1000 MF Dual Port Server Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/1000 MF Server Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/1000 MF Server Adapter (LX) 
 Intel® PRO/1000 MT Desktop Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/1000 MT Dual Port Server Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/1000 MT Quad Port Server Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/1000 MT Server Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/1000 PF Server Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/1000 PT Desktop Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/1000 PT Dual Port Server Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/1000 PT Server Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/1000 XF Server Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/1000 XT Low Profile Server Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/1000 XT Server Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/100B Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/10GbE LR Server Adapter 
 Intel® PRO/10GbE SR Server Adapter

This post has been edited by RogueSpear: 20 February 2006 - 08:45 AM

[Fencer128]

Hi,

The driver download for the 945GTP motherboard just points to the normal 10.2 PROSet drivers. The actual conroller is listed above:

Intel® 82573E Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
Intel® 82573L Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
Intel® 82573V Gigabit Ethernet Controller

In a windows environment the e5132.inf file is fine for doing an install, the device gets recognised correctly. So, we can assume that the generic HWID I posted above is all that is needed.

It still won't boot under RIS though...!

*scratching head*



Cheers,

Andy

PS - Just spotted a RIS problem we're having - probably not related but I'll check first and get back to you!

This post has been edited by Fencer128: 20 February 2006 - 09:37 AM

[Fencer128]

Hi,

Fixed our RIS problem that might have been the cause of this - but RIS still refuses to acknowledge a driver exists for the NIC.

Just noticed that the Intel data sheet for the ethernet controller (82573V) lists a PCIe interface bus. All the on-board NICs we've used before were PCI 32/64. Anyone think that might make a difference?

Cheers,

Andy

This post has been edited by Fencer128: 20 February 2006 - 09:35 AM

[RogueSpear]

I don't know if this NIC is incredibly new or what, but I went through Intel's web site pretty thoroughly and indeed there is NO specific download for the Pro/1000 PM. I highlight PM, because it's just not mentioned anywhere. Perhaps there will be a V10.3 of the drivers out soon? Maybe that will add native support for your NICs.

[Fencer128]

Hi,

The NIC appears in Device Manager as PRO/1000 PM

I have not seen it referenced anywhere else as such. It is an on-board NIC and so Intel usually refer to them by the ethernet controller part. That is, 82573V. If you look that part up you see that it is in the supported list for the PROSet 10.2 drivers (hence I guess why it works under windows).

If you look up 82573V NIC specifically it points to the PROSet drivers for download. They just don't work in RIS.

Cheers,

Andy

This post has been edited by Fencer128: 20 February 2006 - 09:57 AM

[RogueSpear]

If I had such hardware I'd mess with it myself, but you certainly know as much about RIS as I do. Just wondering though, is there some kind of MBA configuration utility? You where you hit a keyboard sequence just after the BIOS. I think it's usually CTRL-SHIFT-B or something like that. On some of my boards I've had to go in there in order to enable PXE, though I've never heard of having to do this with an Intel part.

[Fencer128]

Hi,

PXE is already enabled - I just can't get RIS to admit that it has a suitable text-mode driver.

I suspect that the old workarounds for RIS and Intel parts have either:

i) not been implemented correctly yet for this particular NIC or
ii) don't work when a PCIe bus is used (as opposed to PCI)

I guess we'll have to hold off on the platform and wait for 10.3 drivers, which will *hopefully* fix this.

Cheers ,

Andy

This post has been edited by Fencer128: 20 February 2006 - 10:38 AM

[RogueSpear]

Last idea, and this is a real long shot, but would a RBFG generated floppy work?

[Fencer128]

Hi,

I'll give it a go tomorrow - though as you say, it's a bit of a long shot as the boot floppy generator from 2003 doesn't support any Intel 1000 NICs.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Cheers,

Andy

[Fencer128]

Hi,

I tried using the PXE boot disk - but still no joy. I wasn't particularly hopeful anyhow as the machine PXE boots ok, it's just the start of GUI mode setup that's the problem.

I've contacted our system vendor to get their support, as they should check these things as part of our QA procedure.

From other tests I've carried it out I'm pretty sure the problem is with either e1e5132.inf and/or e1e5132.sys.

The drivers just don't work correctly with this part in RIS.

I'll post any follow ups.

Cheers,

Andy

This post has been edited by Fencer128: 24 February 2006 - 04:26 AM

[BSRdr]

Fencer128, on Feb 23 2006, 10:31 AM, said:

Hi,

I tried using the PXE boot disk - but still no joy. I wasn't particularly hopeful anyhow as the machine PXE boots ok, it's just the start of GUI mode setup that's the problem.

I've contacted our system vendor to get their support, as they should check these things as part of our QA procedure.

From other tests I've carried it out I'm pretty sure the problem is with either e1e5132.inf and/or e1e5132.sys.

The drivers just don't work correctly with this part in RIS.

I'll post any follow ups.

Cheers,

Andy

You may want to test this on one or two more of your machines, especially if your install is going down just prior to hard drive partitioning. I've seen this commonly on the Intel 945 boards. You can use 10.2 drivers and it should work fine. What I've noted is somewhere between 5-15% of these boards will not RIS boot, I believe it to be a fault with the onboard nic timings, I'm still fleshing it out before forwarding it to my inside rep at Intel.

However I'd guess if you just try a few more of your boards you will find it works fine with 10.2....

[RogueSpear]

@BSRdr, you bring up a good point about trying more than one machine, but recalling that the NICs in question are not PCI, but rather PCIe, I have to wonder if PnP enumeration is performed the same.

Fencer had brought this up earlier and I would tend to agree that something smells fishy with the drivers. Like perhaps they don't have perfect PCIe support built in.

[BSRdr]

RogueSpear, on Feb 28 2006, 09:29 PM, said:

@BSRdr, you bring up a good point about trying more than one machine, but recalling that the NICs in question are not PCI, but rather PCIe, I have to wonder if PnP enumeration is performed the same.

Fencer had brought this up earlier and I would tend to agree that something smells fishy with the drivers. Like perhaps they don't have perfect PCIe support built in.

Sorry I guess I wasn't specific enough, I have done this load sucessfully on this board (BOXD945GTP - all 3 flavors) using 10.2 via RIS preload from a 2003 RIS server. However 5-15% of the boards that are otherwise identically configured WILL NOT load from the server.

However I have a stack of PCIe 1000 PT Nics I can do further testing with tomorrow if you would like...

This post has been edited by BSRdr: 28 February 2006 - 09:35 PM

[RogueSpear]

So I'm curious, would a board that won't properly RIS boot be considered defective enough for an exchange? You mentioned the timings being bad. Technically speaking the NIC works, just not for our purposes of performing a RIS install. Also, would the timings be configurable somehow? Back in the day when the 3Com 3C905 series was the gold standard, on some models you could program some of the options in the ROM to stick.

[BSRdr]

RogueSpear, on Feb 28 2006, 09:40 PM, said:

So I'm curious, would a board that won't properly RIS boot be considered defective enough for an exchange? You mentioned the timings being bad. Technically speaking the NIC works, just not for our purposes of performing a RIS install. Also, would the timings be configurable somehow? Back in the day when the 3Com 3C905 series was the gold standard, on some models you could program some of the options in the ROM to stick.

I don't need to have a reason to RMA an Intel product, they are very good about that with partners. However this issue seems to only effect RIS preloads; as such machines that fail the RIS load can still be imaged via PE for example.

The timing issue, if indeed that's what it is, is what I am trying to flesh out more before reporting it back to my intel tech sales rep inside. Failing that I can work with quadsupport to flesh it out further, but it takes time, and I am a bit short of that these days.

This isn't dramatically different then say BOXD845GVSRL which had a somewhat similar issue with RIS however in that case just under 5% of the last batch revision would refuse to get DHCP during RIS. Again an issue only during RIS preloads, no where else was it a factor. Very strange none the less....

That is a very good question on editing those timings, I will have to dig into the ROM options to see. However bottom line when identically configured hardware exists, they should behave identically... These do not, hence a design of manufacturing flaw exists in the 945G series.

This post has been edited by BSRdr: 28 February 2006 - 09:50 PM

[RogueSpear]

One of my suppliers accidentally sent me a batch of units with SiS mobos I decided to give one a shot in the event that it would be satisfactory, figuring it would save me the hassle of returning all of them. Well I couldn't get it to DHCP for RIS at all even though the motherboard box had a flashy thing on it that proclaimed "PXE 2.0 Compliant!" Now it makes me wonder if that was a similar issue. I'll never know since I sent them all back for Intel based systems.

I have to be honest, I never knew these things could be so tempermental.

[BSRdr]

RogueSpear, on Feb 28 2006, 09:56 PM, said:

One of my suppliers accidentally sent me a batch of units with SiS mobos I decided to give one a shot in the event that it would be satisfactory, figuring it would save me the hassle of returning all of them. Well I couldn't get it to DHCP for RIS at all even though the motherboard box had a flashy thing on it that proclaimed "PXE 2.0 Compliant!" Now it makes me wonder if that was a similar issue. I'll never know since I sent them all back for Intel based systems.

I have to be honest, I never knew these things could be so tempermental.

I didn't realize it either till I started bumping into it. As a very long time intel partner, I have to say the QA in the last year has gone downhill by 50%. I've actually had to resort to serious browbeating including conference calls with Tech Reps and even the heads of platforms to get them to release a TA on the SR1425 server platform as an example that they had held for months regarding the actual server not booting when a particular group of circumstances take place. They claimed sub 1%, honestly I say it was closer to 10%....

[Fencer128]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies. I'm still talking with our supplier - as they are now able to recreate our problem in their own test facility. I've so far tried 2 boards, both with negative results. I should say that this is not the same issue as mentioned above (I think - could you be more specific?)

I can PXE boot, but just when text-mode setup starts and you get the "Please Wait" - the "Can't find drivers for your NIC" follows shortly afterwards. I don't get to the part where partitioning occurs (yet )

I'll keep you posted.

Cheers,

Andy

This post has been edited by Fencer128: 01 March 2006 - 02:54 AM

[BSRdr]

Fencer128, on Mar 1 2006, 02:51 AM, said:

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies. I'm still talking with our supplier - as they are now able to recreate our problem in their own test facility. I've so far tried 2 boards, both with negative results. I should say that this is not the same issue as mentioned above (I think - could you be more specific?)

I can PXE boot, but just when text-mode setup starts and you get the "Please Wait" - the "Can't find drivers for your NIC" follows shortly afterwards. I don't get to the part where partitioning occurs (yet )

I'll keep you posted.

Cheers,

Andy

On a side note, got a sucessful RIS preload today on a D975XBX board that uses a Pro 1000 PL chipset. I've got to do some digging and come up with a Pro 1000M batch to check your issues more thoroughly.

This post has been edited by BSRdr: 01 March 2006 - 05:21 PM