Dell Optiplex 755 imaging problem

Nick · 11-02-2007, 10:06 AM

Looks like the 755's are starting to roll out from Dell but they aren't playing nice when it comes time to image them. In summary... No Linux driver support for some of the hardware yet so it means using WinPE until such time Linux drivers are made available.

Check out THIS Altiris Knowledge Base Article for more information.

bretthexum · 11-02-2007, 10:56 AM

Yeah... thats our problem too. Glad to know I am not the only one...

jpkishere · 11-02-2007, 03:25 PM

We are even having problems trying to find a DOS-based CD/DVD driver that will work on this machine..

bretthexum · 11-02-2007, 03:27 PM

Same here. I think its the sata controller. With the 745's you could change to legacy mode in the BIOS, but thats not an option on the 755's. Thats why we looked into linux preboot which also doesnt work...

whitehorse · 11-04-2007, 01:50 AM

Our hardware independent image was built on dell computer without sata controller. After download this image to dell 755, it gave me BSOD. Does anyone know how to make the hardware independent image to support sata contorller on Dell 755?

snapdad · 11-05-2007, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whitehorse

Our hardware independent image was built on dell computer without sata controller. After download this image to dell 755, it gave me BSOD. Does anyone know how to make the hardware independent image to support sata contorller on Dell 755?

In the Bios set the Sata Operation to “RAID Autodetect / ATA” instead of “RAID Autodetect / AHCI” or put the SATA drivers on your Image.

Rdutch · 11-08-2007, 03:38 PM

I found that the D630's have the same problem when they are shipped with Vista
changes the same Bios settings and it works.

drinking12many · 11-16-2007, 12:02 PM

Weve gotten ours to work like most of the others install the driver on our HII test machine then reconfigure the mass storage drivers it took a little bit but got it to work without changing the bios setting.

MurdoN01 · 11-27-2007, 07:24 PM

Thanks alot guys your info saved me alot of time and got it up and running the first run through.

Bill Sullivan · 11-28-2007, 12:52 PM

Got this to work by changing the SATA mode in the BIOS.
Change whatever it is from the default. (I think its Native mode)

lscott · 12-05-2007, 04:31 PM

I just got a shipment of the Dell Optiplex 755s w/ intel 82566DM-2.
I am trying to use PXE and WinPe.

PXE pulls up WinPE and it loads. In WinPE, I get an error message when the computer tries to get an IP address:
__
The specified service does not exist as a installed service.
The service name is invalid
More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 2185
___

The computer retries to connect via DHCP, but it spits out the message below, then the message above again:
__
system error 1060 has occured
__

any ideas? thanks for the help.

dfrancis · 12-05-2007, 04:37 PM

lscott: I had the issue when I recently switched from Linux to WinPE for this very reason. The KB article referenced in the first post fixed me up. Sounds like you don't have the newest Intel NIC driver loading/installing in WinPE.

leanomalie · 12-16-2007, 01:26 PM

If you guys are trying to use linux on your Dell Optiplex 755s I suggest using CentOS 5 64 bit (if you have the 64 processor). I was struggling for a long time with linux on these machines when I contacted Dell Gold Tech Support. The guy I spoke with hadn't even been to training on these machines and said they've only been rolled out for a few weeks. I tried Suse 10.2, Fedora Core 7, Gentoo, and even Backtrack 2 bootable. None of them worked. I finally tried Cent OS 5 64 bit and everything seems to be running pretty smooth. I am running a syslog server on it and plan to have Snort running too. Just though I'd share my experience.

bretthexum · 01-16-2008, 11:51 AM

Did anyone find a way to get Bootworks working on the 755's w/ the Vpro intel NIC?

I know, I know,,, time to go to WinPE

jimmy.cartrette · 01-16-2008, 12:04 PM

If you build a linux bootdisk using the latest DS version/SP, then click internet drivers, and go get the official altiris e1000.ko, ahci.ko and ata_piix.ko from the altiris site that pops up. Download these locally, then add them when prompted. I also downloaded a broadcom driver bcm from juice.altiris.com for some older dells. On the driver selection, I only selected the ahci, ata_piix and e1000 lines with the 8086(intel) driver (not sure if this is really necessary).

With this, linux boots a 755 with the full (non-compatibility) ahci sata setting and network card just fine. Also boots all of our old dells.

rjackson · 01-17-2008, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bretthexum

Did anyone find a way to get Bootworks working on the 755's w/ the Vpro intel NIC?

I know, I know,,, time to go to WinPE

We recently deployed 755's into our automated labs and are using bootworks with the DOS driver on the VPro model with the Intel nic with no problems at all. I'm working on the WINPE angle now but manually going into each bios and disabling the RAID auto-detect isn't really a option for us right now. WINPE did work fine though with the latest Intel driver. We are looking into the possibility of having Dell CFI setting that RAID config change for us but of course, that costs more money...

Keslaa · 01-30-2008, 05:48 PM

What is the final solution here for those of us still using the DOS Bootworks environment? If I modify the BIOS it works just fine, but I'd just as soon not have to do that for every 755 we have come in the door. Likewise, I don't really want to pay Dell to do it either. The options I am left with are to find a way to programmatically change the BIOS (is the Dell Client Configuration Utility able to modify the SATA Operation field?) or modify our current base image. If I need to modify the base image to include the proper SATA drivers, how do I do that? If I drop the image on a 755, I can't get it to boot without making the change.

Mike · 01-31-2008, 02:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimmy.cartrette

If you build a linux bootdisk using the latest DS version/SP, then click internet drivers, and go get the official altiris e1000.ko, ahci.ko and ata_piix.ko from the altiris site that pops up. Download these locally, then add them when prompted. I also downloaded a broadcom driver bcm from juice.altiris.com for some older dells. On the driver selection, I only selected the ahci, ata_piix and e1000 lines with the 8086(intel) driver (not sure if this is really necessary).

With this, linux boots a 755 with the full (non-compatibility) ahci sata setting and network card just fine. Also boots all of our old dells.

Thanks jimmy. I think you just saved me an afternoon's worth of work.

Having tried the updated linux drivers, I'm still getting some PCI: errors on boot, though ultimately I can communicate with the SATA controller and the NIC. Imaging seems rather slow though. What kind of results are you experiencing?

Thanks in advance,

Mike

jimmy.cartrette · 01-31-2008, 09:14 AM

We get those errors too, although it doesn't seem to impact anything. We have about a 1.5G image which is showing 944MB/min (126Mbps) at about 78% done (always seems to report higher speeds down the line). That's got a Gig card to one of the main switch which then travels 2Gig port-channel to a 2Gig team-NIC'd DS server/PXE server. The only tweaks I can think of are the PXE server settings Multicast tab "Enable Larger Packets for MTFTP/TFTP" which we have at 1456. That, and network speeds all the way up to the DS.

Hope that helps

Mike · 01-31-2008, 08:35 PM

For us it appears to be related to some sort of frame restriction on the router. On my switch the speeds are good.

Thanks again for your reply.

It appears that the PCI: resource allocation errors are due to the inability to communicate properly with the PCI Express bus; hardly a concern while using RdeployT

barbrooks · 03-20-2008, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keslaa

What is the final solution here for those of us still using the DOS Bootworks environment? If I modify the BIOS it works just fine, but I'd just as soon not have to do that for every 755 we have come in the door. Likewise, I don't really want to pay Dell to do it either. The options I am left with are to find a way to programmatically change the BIOS (is the Dell Client Configuration Utility able to modify the SATA Operation field?) or modify our current base image. If I need to modify the base image to include the proper SATA drivers, how do I do that? If I drop the image on a 755, I can't get it to boot without making the change.

I, too, would like to know what the final resolution is to this problem. My hardware independent image is successful on all platforms except gx755's. When i change from AHCI to ATA, the image successfully deploys. However, the AHCI mode results in the image deploying and then, when XP loads, it BSOD's. I did not build the base image from a gx755 nor did i inject the sata controller driver into the initial os install. Will the image deploy successfully to all platforms (including gx755, gx520, gx280s, etc) if i build the image from the gx755 and inject the sata controller drivers during the os install?

scarneol · 05-07-2008, 12:18 PM

Why is the SATA Operation BIOS setting missing from the Altiris Client Manager Profile builder when importing the settings from a Dell Optiplex 755?

I have been using the DCCU and Altiris Client Manager tools to build Standalone packages to either upgrade or configure Bios settings on all of our Dell workstations. I use these standalone packages as part of our operating system deployments (OSD) methods using SMS, SCCM and MDT. I either upgrade or change the BIOS settings during the Preinstall phase (WinPE) or after laying down the install.wim (Native OS) during the Postinstall phase. In either case, I've always had the ability to control all of the BIOS settings using a command line package until now.

Am I missing something? Perhaps an upgrade is available?

Please don't ask why I want to change the SATA Operation BIOS setting between AHCI, ATA or Legacy mode. The issue is why is the BIOS setting missing from the tools?

barbrooks · 05-07-2008, 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by barbrooks

I, too, would like to know what the final resolution is to this problem. My hardware independent image is successful on all platforms except gx755's. When i change from AHCI to ATA, the image successfully deploys. However, the AHCI mode results in the image deploying and then, when XP loads, it BSOD's. I did not build the base image from a gx755 nor did i inject the sata controller driver into the initial os install. Will the image deploy successfully to all platforms (including gx755, gx520, gx280s, etc) if i build the image from the gx755 and inject the sata controller drivers during the os install?

I fixed the problem! If you create the HII on the GX755 and deploy it backwards it works perfectly! Hope this helps everyone.

scarneol · 05-07-2008, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by barbrooks

I fixed the problem! If you create the HII on the GX755 and deploy it backwards it works perfectly! Hope this helps everyone.

I'm confused? What does HII have to do with upgrading and changing BIOS settings? Once again, I'm not trying to solve the problem of creating an image that can be deployed no matter what the SATA Operation setting is. I'm just trying to understand why the setting doesn't exist in the DCCU or Altiris Client Manager in first place.

Keslaa · 05-07-2008, 11:50 PM

From what I've been able to gather, the DCCU is a general purpose tool. You'll notice that the items available for viewing/editing are the same across almost all models. This is a tool that was created some time ago. The SATA drives are fairly new and are therefore not available across all of the older models.

I talked to some people at Dell and got my issue escalated to the point that they provided me a tool to be used specifically for the 755's. It is a command line tool that will only work in DOS mode. I was able to successfully implement it into our DS imaging procedure so I didn't need to create a new image.