WinPE2 Authenticating connection . . .

Brandon · 12-24-2008, 11:46 AM

Has anyone seen this where the first time you try to boot a machine into WinPE2 automation it takes a long time on the step 'Authenticating connection ...' then doesn't map to F:\ ? If I restart the machine before it gets a chance to report back that it can find a file the job is calling for on F:, it will continue to hang each time I try to boot to automation. I have to let it error out in the console one time then the next time it always works. Any ideas?

Thanks.

TRYDL · 12-26-2008, 12:48 PM

Yes, when the NIC drivers were wrong or completely unsupported in WinPE 2.1. Silly questions of course.

NIC drivers correct? The NIC getting an IP lease?

Brandon · 12-26-2008, 12:53 PM

Well I battled NIC drivers for Yukon in Linux and it never did work. The Support Engineer with Symantec said to use Vista drivers for WinPE2 which I am now. I can see the yukon drivers loading each time when PE loads. I will have to double check it is getting the IP everytime. I believe that is working fine though.

Brandon · 12-29-2008, 06:49 PM

It looks like the HP oem partitions may be using up f:\. I fixed the Distribute Disk Image task so it uses -nooem and -nobw but it is still giving me fits. I may try a run script task with -nooem -nobw on the command to see if that makes a difference.

Brandon · 12-30-2008, 05:56 PM

I changed my express share to map to Y: in the WinPE bootdisks then changed all the hardcodings in my job from F:\ to %ALTIRIS_SHARE% This has resolved the issue.

More info: https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=23899&p=1

Code:

REM Deploy XP SP3 Image and Drivers
REM ReplaceTokens .\Images\XPACPI3.txt .\temp\%ID%-sp3.inf
 
%ALTIRIS_SHARE%\RDeploy\Windows\rdeployt.exe -noprompt -md -f%ALTIRIS_SHARE%\images\XPSP3.IMG -sz1:100p -nobw -nooem
 
%ALTIRIS_SHARE%\RDeploy\Windows\Firm.exe Copy %ALTIRIS_SHARE%\temp\%ID%-sp3.inf PROD:\Sysprep\Sysprep.inf
DEL %ALTIRIS_SHARE%\temp\%ID%-sp3.inf
 
REM get rid of the old aclient.cfg file
%ALTIRIS_SHARE%\RDeploy\Windows\firm.exe delete prod:aclient.cfg
 
REM inject the aclient source and inp
%ALTIRIS_SHARE%\RDeploy\Windows\firm.exe copy .\Aclient.exe PROD:\drivers\_post\aclient\Aclient.exe
%ALTIRIS_SHARE%\RDeploy\Windows\firm.exe copy .\Aclient.inp PROD:\sysprep\Aclient.inp
 
echo Hardware Model number is %#!computer@model_num%
set model=%#*"SELECT REPLACE(model_num,' ','_') FROM computer WHERE computer_id=%ID%"%
 
:SP3
%ALTIRIS_SHARE%\RDeploy\Windows\firm.exe -recurse copy .\Images\Drivers\XPPROSP3\%model% PROD:\drivers
if exist %ALTIRIS_SHARE%\Images\Drivers\XPPROSP3\%model%\hal.dll goto InjectHAL
goto Exit
 
:InjectHAL
%ALTIRIS_SHARE%\RDeploy\Windows\firm.exe Copy PROD:\drivers\hal.dll PROD:\windows\system32\hal.dll
goto Exit
 
:Exit
exit

Brandon · 12-31-2008, 12:29 PM

Now it's broken again, without making any changes. I am seeing this error desribed here while trying to map to the express share (1223 invalid password):
https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=33131&p=1

I have re-entered the credentials for WinPE and rebuilt the PXE image numerous times with no luck. Checked the NTFS permissions for the account. I checked the DS and it is using NTLM authentication. Everything 10th time it will actually work. Why it isn't working the rest of the time I do not understand.

Brandon · 01-05-2009, 04:22 PM

Here is the log from the server when it fails. Any ideas?

Code:

Event Type: Failure Audit
Event Source: Security
Event Category: Logon/Logoff 
Event ID: 529
Date:  1/5/2009
Time:  2:14:19 PM
User:  NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer: SERVER
Description:
Logon Failure:
  Reason:  Unknown user name or bad password
  User Name: altiris
  Domain:  domain
  Logon Type: 3
  Logon Process: NtLmSsp 
  Authentication Package: NTLM
  Workstation Name: MINWINPC
  Caller User Name: -
  Caller Domain: -
  Caller Logon ID: -
  Caller Process ID: -
  Transited Services: -
  Source Network Address: 1.2.3.4
  Source Port: 0
 
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Brandon · 01-06-2009, 06:07 PM

Re-building the bootdisk with domain accounts always resulted in inconsistent authentication.

I read that somenone used a local account for their WinPE authentication to resolve their issue on the Altiris forums. I have tried this and everything is now working as expected. I gave the local account full access to the express share and rebuilt the WinPE bootdisk and I am back in business.

andykn · 01-28-2009, 05:58 AM

Lack of Name Resolution will also cause this error, the DAgent will subsequently connect but there is no F: (or Y: ) drive mapped.

In step 6 of the PXE config, select the "Create an entry in the LMHOSTS..." option.

Brandon · 01-28-2009, 11:01 AM

I had that entry from the beginning with no luck. I believe this is maybe a bug with authentication in loginw.exe and possibly NT domain. NET USE always worked via name or ip when loginw.exe would fail to authenticate.