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I strongly recommend that you upgrade to CMS since it includes a PXE on Disk Generator that should support on the network adapters you have.  Plus CMS includes a Boot Image Creation wizard that will help to build a boot image file.  These boot image file by default uses the universal NDIS2 driver.

As you may know, the 3Com Boot Services application is a discontinued product and is not support by either Symantec or 3Com.  Argon  Technology is committed to maintaining and enhancing CMS. We do provide paid support for 3Com Boot Services. However, depending on the problem, this cost would be quite significant, since it would be billed at a rate of $200US/hour.

3Com Boot Services was the first release of our PXE Server. Since then, we have added many updates and feature enhancements to this product. The most current version of this software is now called Client Management Services (CMS). CMS was developed specifically to replace the 3Com Boot Services back in 2001.  In October 2001, during another round of downsizing, 3Com axed the software division responsible for CMS development. This action delayed the release of CMS. Luckily, many of the former 3Com CMS team members went on to start Argon Technology. In 2002, 3Com gave Argon Technology their blessing to release CMS.

You can download for free a fully functional trial version from our website to review the differences between the old and the current product: http://www.argontechnology.com/products.aspx?id=43. I have also attached a PDF file below that elaborates on how to use CMS with Ghost 8.0. CMS has never been tested over VLAN segments but there should not be any problem. The only concern could be speed as it would be determined by the slowest link in your network.

CMS was designed to be more user-friendly and intuitive than 3Com Boot Services.  Many of the bugs found in Boot Services have been subsequently fixed in CMS.  Unlike Boot Services, CMS has a few wizards to  guide you through the process of creating your boot image files.   Below is a list of new features included in CMS but not present in 3Com Boot Services:

Client Boot Manager (CBM) application - a centralized command center console to perform most of your CMS tasks.
OS Deployment Wizard - now you can easily automate your Windows OS deployment.
Boot Image Creation Wizard
Remote Wake-up ( Wake-On-LAN)  module - you can schedule your OS deployment or drive imaging tasks for after-hours when network traffic is low.
PXE on Disk Creator -  Use this function build bootable PXE client floppies for computers that are not equipped with a PXE Boot Agent or MBA.
Support for USB, PC Card and Gigabit network adapters.
Client Progress Monitor - monitor your all OS deployment status without leaving your office or cubicle.
A universal NDIS2 driver - supports any network adapter within the PXE network boot space.
Support for routed networks - Only one CMS server is needed to serve clients on multiple subnets
Enhanced security - Incase you have more than one PXE servers, you can hardcode the IP address of the CMS server that you want your clients to connect to.
Fully compatible with VMware and Connectix applications.






>Hello mate dont worry about the last post i have fixed it. i was doing the image wrong.
>
>Anyway what i really need to know is there away of having multi NIC support for 3com boot Services. We use a mixture of Intel, 3com, Broadcom for your laptops \ desktop
>
>Do you know a way of doing it?
>
>Thanks for your help
>
>
>>Hi guys,
>>
>>I have got 3com boot services working with PXE and all is great. I however need to map a drive to a network share so i can upload and download my ghost images. How can i get the dos client to work from a PXE boot?
>>
>>I am using 3com boot services with PXE and ghost V8 i am how ever not using multicast server
>>
>>Can anyone help?
>>
>>Many thanks
>

so, we found out that argon is not working together with 3rd party
dhcp-servers installed on the same machine. ;-(

Not all PXE boot Agents can be disabled. After contacting both Boot Manage and WYSE about it, both told me the same thing. The version of boot manage on the TC isn't able to be configured. i will delete the wildcard entry and see what happens.
Thanks Conrad and i love the new look.
Lucas

>CMS can be configured to respond only to known clients by removing wildcard entry from the client database.  The wildcard record is the default record with 12 question marks (?) in the MAC Address field.   If you remove this entry then CMS will  respond only to clients with a record in the CBM client database.
>
>Without the wildcard entry, you must manually add a client record for every client PC that you want CMS to service.  This task can be quite tedious depending on the number of records  you must add.  A simpler solution might be to disable the PXE Boot Agent on your Wyse terminal. Most computers allow you to disable the onboard PXE Boot Agent. Check your User manual for instructions.
>
>
>>I have a WYSE thinclient that has PXE BootManage installed and always hangs attempting to get an image from my CMS server. The ThinClient is a kiosk and runs from our Terminal Server and doesnt rely on CMS for an image at all. Is there anyway to deny attempts made to pull images from CMS by blocking a MAC address? Is that feature even available?
>>
>>Thanks.
>

Everything looks Ok. Is client computer booting from a PXE Boot Agent?  If so, what is the version of the PXE code?

Try using the CMS PXE on Disk floppy to PXE boot the client computer and see what happens.


>Here's the bootptab contents (I deleted all the comments):
>
>
>ipaq:ha=009027EC3C25:bf=boot.ldr|Install2K.img:
>#Default entry used by all hosts.
>default:hn:to=3600:ha=????????????:bf=boot.ldr|Install2K.img:
>
>Also, here are the contents of the Windows2000 folder I made:
>
>[I386] - (The Win2K setup files are in here)
>boot.ldr
>bootptab
>default.ldr
>Install2k.img
>Install2k.mnu
>
>Thanks
>
>
>
>
>>OK.  Let's see if anyone can help with this:
>>
>>PC running Win2K with CBM, DHCP, and TFTP servers.  Wanting to do a network boot for another PC and install Win2K.  Created boot image successfully.  Started DHCP server and it finds the PC (using MAC address) but the TFTP server states that it aborted the Read process of the boot.ldr file.  Here are the log files for both the DHCP and TFTP servers (ipaq is the name of the requesting PC; 192.168.2.11 is the IP address of the ipaq PC)
>>
>>DHCP:
>>6/30/2004 8:45 PM - Program started
>>6/30/2004 8:45 PM - Data file: C:\Windows2000\bootptab (6/30/2004 11:26 AM)
>>6/30/2004 8:45 PM - Data read: 2 hosts, 0 templates
>>6/30/2004 8:45 PM - Server started, PXE, Proxy
>>6/30/2004 8:46 PM - 009027EC3C25: Proxy (ipaq)
>>6/30/2004 8:46 PM - 009027EC3C25: Proxy (ipaq)
>>6/30/2004 8:46 PM - 009027EC3C25: Proxy (ipaq)
>>6/30/2004 8:46 PM - 009027EC3C25: PXE   (ipaq)
>>
>>
>>TFTP:
>>
>>6/30/04 7:42 PM - Program started
>>6/30/04 7:42 PM - Server started
>>6/30/04 7:43 PM - TFTP Read C:\Windows2000\boot.ldr from 192.168.2.11
>>6/30/04 7:43 PM - TFTP Read C:\Windows2000\boot.ldr from 192.168.2.11
>>6/30/04 7:43 PM - TFTP Read C:\Windows2000\boot.ldr from 192.168.2.11 Abort
>>6/30/04 7:43 PM - TFTP Read C:\Windows2000\boot.ldr from 192.168.2.11 TimeOut
>>
>>
>>Any suggestions?
>>
>>Thanks
>

Unfortunately, it's a discless PC, so no floppy, no CD-ROM.  Something tells me that the boot.ldr might be causing the problems.  One potential issue is that I created this image via "Create a deployment image..." in the New Image menu, and since I am using a work laptop to do this install on a home computer, I entered in the MS network settings that I use to log into the domain, but I do not have administrative privilages.  I guess my question would be how to create a Win2K boot image using "Create a boot image with the wizard"?


Also, if I turn off Secure Transmit, the client PC says this:

TFTP
PXE-T01:    File Not Found
PXE-E3B:    TFTP Error- File Not Found

...and the TFTP server says "File Not Found"


Here's what the client PC displays (I'm getting PXE error - PXE-E32):

The client PC and environment information:

Intel UNDI, PXE-2.0 (build 071)
Client IP: 192.168.2.11
DHCP IP: 192.168.2.1
Gateway IP: 192.168.2.1

I'm using a Belkin router and it has DHCP Service enabled.  I tried turning it off (disable), but the client PC wasn't able to see the boot server.

Here are the contents of the batch files in the image:

AUTO1.BAT:
start.bat

AUTO2.BAT:
smartdrv.exe
del \autoexec.bat
lock < y.txt
cd i386
winnt /s:c:\i386 /x /u:unattend.txt

EXEC.BAT
path=a:\;a:\net
@echo off
bppatch process.bat
if errorlevel 1 goto stop
process

:stop


I appreciate your help.




>Everything looks Ok. Is client computer booting from a PXE Boot Agent?  If so, what is the version of the PXE code?
>
>Try using the CMS PXE on Disk floppy to PXE boot the client computer and see what happens.
>
>
>>Here's the bootptab contents (I deleted all the comments):
>>
>>
>>ipaq:ha=009027EC3C25:bf=boot.ldr|Install2K.img:
>>#Default entry used by all hosts.
>>default:hn:to=3600:ha=????????????:bf=boot.ldr|Install2K.img:
>>
>>Also, here are the contents of the Windows2000 folder I made:
>>
>>[I386] - (The Win2K setup files are in here)
>>boot.ldr
>>bootptab
>>default.ldr
>>Install2k.img
>>Install2k.mnu
>>
>>Thanks
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>OK.  Let's see if anyone can help with this:
>>>
>>>PC running Win2K with CBM, DHCP, and TFTP servers.  Wanting to do a network boot for another PC and install Win2K.  Created boot image successfully.  Started DHCP server and it finds the PC (using MAC address) but the TFTP server states that it aborted the Read process of the boot.ldr file.  Here are the log files for both the DHCP and TFTP servers (ipaq is the name of the requesting PC; 192.168.2.11 is the IP address of the ipaq PC)
>>>
>>>DHCP:
>>>6/30/2004 8:45 PM - Program started
>>>6/30/2004 8:45 PM - Data file: C:\Windows2000\bootptab (6/30/2004 11:26 AM)
>>>6/30/2004 8:45 PM - Data read: 2 hosts, 0 templates
>>>6/30/2004 8:45 PM - Server started, PXE, Proxy
>>>6/30/2004 8:46 PM - 009027EC3C25: Proxy (ipaq)
>>>6/30/2004 8:46 PM - 009027EC3C25: Proxy (ipaq)
>>>6/30/2004 8:46 PM - 009027EC3C25: Proxy (ipaq)
>>>6/30/2004 8:46 PM - 009027EC3C25: PXE   (ipaq)
>>>
>>>
>>>TFTP:
>>>
>>>6/30/04 7:42 PM - Program started
>>>6/30/04 7:42 PM - Server started
>>>6/30/04 7:43 PM - TFTP Read C:\Windows2000\boot.ldr from 192.168.2.11
>>>6/30/04 7:43 PM - TFTP Read C:\Windows2000\boot.ldr from 192.168.2.11
>>>6/30/04 7:43 PM - TFTP Read C:\Windows2000\boot.ldr from 192.168.2.11 Abort
>>>6/30/04 7:43 PM - TFTP Read C:\Windows2000\boot.ldr from 192.168.2.11 TimeOut
>>>
>>>
>>>Any suggestions?
>>>
>>>Thanks
>>
>

The way I have got round this problem is to replace format.com in the image with oformat.com from a 98SE preinstall disk.

Also edit the process.bat so that oformat replaces format as detailed below.

oformat c: /s /q /v:windows < y.txt

This works a charm and formatting takes only a few seconds.

Hey ... thx a lot!

Conrad,

We have the same problem with the Argon RISME images.
When i want to install A RISME image to a Dell latitude D600, it only works if the computers is NOT in a port replicator or dockingstation. The image works fine without the dockinstation.
When i want to install the image to a Dell latitude D400, same networkcard as D600, is doesn't work at all. (with or without the dockingstation)

The problem is that the image won't be transfered
black screen with the message "transferring the image file.."
cursor flickering
(CTRL, ALT, DEL isn't working anymore)

Your Questions our Anwers
- Which network adapter is you client using?
  Broadcom 570x Gigabit Integrated Controller

- Are you booting from the RBFG Boot Floppy or onboard PXE Boot Agent?
  We are using the PXE Boot Agent.

- Is the RIS server on the same subnet as the client PC?
  YES

- Do you encounter this problem with any client?
  On the Dell Latitude D series, so far.

- Does this problem occur with every RIS image that you create or just this one image?
  RIPREP images (not RISME) i created before ar no problem.

I hope we can find a sollution for this,

Regards,
Andr

Nope, both options are not enabled.  As a side note I should mention that I have had Red Hat Linux PXE server running on the box and there was no problem PXE booting across segments.  Of course now I have removed that and using CMS.   TFTP is definitely working as I have tested it separately and am able to download the boot menu and image files.

Andre,

Unfortunately, we do not have a Dell Latitude D600 in our possession to reproduce this problem.  If you are willing to send us your laptop for testing, I'd be happy to investigate this matter further.

Contact Dell to determine if there are any known PXE issue with this model.

The last line in the log file indicates that Boot Server is running PXE mode instead of Proxy-DHCP mode.  When CMS is installed on computer separate from your DHCP server then the CMS Boot Server must be configured to run in Proxy-DHCP mode.

I'm not sure what is going on but I would advise you to uninstall CMS, delete the tftpboot directory, then reinstall again.

Not only did I not need the 067 option, I don't need the 043 option for Vendor specific information either( 01 04 00 00 00 00 ff ). ) Evidently, you guys do that already. You're so smart!

Anyway, thanks for the help. My little project is going along great now. I guess that th eproblem was a case of information overload from the internet ( bppatch website ).

John S. Price