NetExtreme II Driver for WinPE

Products

• Deployment Solution

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to use WinPE to boot computers using WinPE with Broadcom NetXtreme II netowrk controller or chipset, the preboot begins looping at Restarting DHCP Services and never actually connects to the network.

Hardware manfacturer OEM drivers have been loaded to the PXE boot menu option, yet the computer will not successfully connect in WinPE.

Cause

Enhanced features of the NetXtreme II NIC require monolithic drivers from Broadcom direct in order to function properly in a WinPE environment.

Resolution

1. Download Brodacom NetXtreme II monolithic drivers from http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/netxtremeii.php.
2. Extract drivers to a location local to the Deployment Server.
3. Access the PXE Configuration Utility via the Deployment Solution console using Tools > PXE Configuration.
4. In the PXE Configuration Utility, select the WinPE boot menu option you wish to modify and select Edit on the right side of the window. 
   
    
   
   
5. On the Edit Shared Menu Option window, click Edit Boot Image on the right.
   
   
   
   
6. When the Altiris Boot Disk Creator wizard appears, click Edit at the bottom of the window. 
   
   
   
   
7. When presented with Step 1 of 12 in the wizard, click Next.
8. On Step 2 of 12 in the wizard, click have disk. Navigate to the location of the extracted files from step 2 of these instructions and drill down into the directory structure created to the inf file. Select the .inf file and click Open.
9. The Add WinPE NIC Drivers window should now be populated with information pertaining to the drivers being added; click OK.
10. When Step 2 of 12 regains focus, deselect Auto-detect all network adapters and then click the All button in the upper right.  Once all have been selected, click Next. 
    
    
    
    
11. On Step 3 of 13: Multiple Network Adapters Load Order, scroll down to the Broadcom BCM5706 NetXtreme II Monolithic driver; select the driver and then click First in the lower left of the UI. Repeat this for all Broadcom … Monolithic drivers in the list. Once all Monolithic drivers are at the top of the load order, click Next.
    
     
    
    
12. If editing and existing boot image accept the defaults for the remainder of the prompts in the wizard. If this is a new boot image being created, follow standard configuration options for the remaining prompts in the wizard.
13. Once the new PXE image is created and the Edit Shared Menu Options window regains focus, click OK.
14. When the Edit Shared Menu Options window closes and the PXE configuration Utility window regains focus, click OK.

The Monolithic drivers have now been added to the edited image. If there are multiple WinPE Boot Menu options, this process will need to be completed for each menu option.

Applies To

Deployment Solution WinPE pre-boot on hardware having Broadcom NetXtreme II network controller or chipset.