We are mostly a Dell shop here. But we do have a number of HP netbooks that we also implement in our environment with SCCM. We are now testing the new HP slate 500. These don't come with a built in NIC. But you can buy a dongle to connect to the network. When we try to boot to this device via PXE, we get the following after leasing an IP address: TFTP. PXE-T04: Illegal operation error PXE-e36: Error received from TFTP server PXE-MOF: Exiting Intel PXE ROM. Again, this is only specific to this device. I'm still trying to get other devices to try and boot to this external Nic. But currently, the internal nic seems to be taking precedence. Any thoughts on this?

What DHCP scope options you're using? Are IP helpers configured on the switches? When connect by "dongle to connect to the network" is the subnet/VLAN different then booting from other devices (NIC integrated)? Btw: To route the PXE request across VLANS a PXE helper has to be added to the switch!My ConfigMgr blog: http://henkhoogendoorn.blogspot.com Follow me on Twitter: @henkhoogendoorn

have you tried adding the intel network driver to your boot.wim files for this nic ? if sccm 2007 sp2 use windows 7 network drivers, update the boot wims to your dps after adding the nic drivers. My step by step SCCM Guides I'm on Twitter > ncbrady

Could that really be the issue? I have seen where the NIC driver needed to be uploaded before. But the symptoms were that you would boot to your boot.wim, and then try to start your Task Sequence, but it would fail due to the lack of an IP address. But I have never seen a machine fail to PXE. I didn't even think the drivers for the boot.wim were looked at until the boot.wim was loading. This issue is before boot.wim even begins to load. Am I wrong in thinking this? Thanks for any further details...

are you using unknown computer support ? if not have you imported the blade above into sccm using Computer Association ? My step by step SCCM Guides I'm on Twitter > ncbrady

Yes, we are using unknown computer support. We have also tried importing the computer into SCCM. But unfortunately, it never gets past the initial PXE to see if there is work to do.

Yes, IP helpers are working fine. we have imaged 14000 machines in our environment, all on about 14 different models. So it has to be a model/nic specific issue. I'm just wondering if this is something I should be taking to HP since they are the ones who supplied the Network Dongle for this slate.

Would it be possible that this link has any key to the problem? I have checked our PXE servers, and the registry key of netbootAnswerRequests doesn't even exist on our servers.

Please check DHCP options 66 and 67.Option 66 should be set to the SCCM PXE server, and option 67 should be set to smsboot\x86\wdsnbp.com. Hope it helps.Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Option 66 & 67 are entered correctly. If they weren't, none of the machines would be PXE booting. But everything PXE boots fine in our environment except this one mode.

From the device attached to the network via the dongle, can you successfully run this from a cmd window? tftp -i SERVER_IP GET /boot/x86/pxeboot.com Is the dongle going in to a local switch, or directly into a port? I have seen switches screw with PXE.....

ON a Windows XP box, I get a transfer successfull message. On a Win 7, I get: Timeout occurred. Connect request failed. But the win7 error happens on multiple win7 boxes that have imaged just fine. The dongle is plugged into a switch, but again, the exact same cable has imaged nearly all our devices without a hitch.

ON a Windows XP box, I get a transfer successfull message. On a Win 7, I get: Timeout occurred. Connect request failed. But the win7 error happens on multiple win7 boxes that have imaged just fine. The dongle is plugged into a switch, but again, the exact same cable has imaged nearly all our devices without a hitch. What does the smsPXE log show? (\SMS_CCM\Logs dir)

I really don't see anything that catches my eye on that log file. I also went to the component status SMS_PXE_Service_Point log, and didn't find any record of the Slate attempting to boot there either. Normally I will see either: The SMS PXE service Point intructed device to boot normally.... or The sms PXE service Point instructed the device to boot to the boot image ... But again, I show nothing for that dongle's mac address.

Weird. According to this thread over on the HP forum, the Slate's are not PXE enabled: http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-HP-ProBook-Compaq-Slate/HP-Slate-500-PXE-Network-Boot/td-p/2362935

I think that is due to the fact that, out of the box, there is no NIC. There is just wi-fi. So we are trying do the same thing mentioned on that forum of PXE booting with the USB dongle NIC.

Hmmm...I read it as it meant that the BIOS in the device does not support PXE booting. Is there an option to enable PXE in the bios on your device?

No, there isn't any PXE settings in the BIOS. But when the USB dongle is plugged in, you can select the boot devices to boot to. The USB dongle is recognized, and begins the PXE boot, and then fails. I have talked to our HP rep, and they say that they have been able to replicate this issue, but after the first failed attempt, if they reboot, it pxe boots normally..????

On a follow-up... I took the HP slate to another location that is it's own PXE service point. The machine PXE booted perfectly! The only glaring difference I see between locations is that the failing location has DHCP on one server, and the PXE service point on another. At the successful site, DHCP and PXE are on the same box. But I still don't understand why it is failing on this dongle, but every other Network device PXE boots just fine at this site where the Dongle fails. Does this turn on a light bulb for anyone else?

Hi, when DHCP and PXE/SCCM are on the same server, option 60 is needed for get it to work. When having DHCP and PXE/SCCM on different servers, option 60 is not needed. Option 60 is PXEClient Option 66 will contain the ip or FQDN of your WDS server (PXE Service Point role in SCCM) Option 67 will contain the name of your bootfile (SMSBoot\x86\wdsnbp.com) My ConfigMgr blog: http://henkhoogendoorn.blogspot.com Follow me on Twitter: @henkhoogendoorn

thanks, but if it was a dhpc options issue, none of our devices would be able to PXE. I ended up doing a packet trace on a number of machines including the slate with the dongle. Long story short, the path to the bootfile is empty on the slate, but on all other devices, the path is filled out. So I don't know if the dongle is unable to recieve or understand a path that points to a different location than where it leases it's DHCP info. I'm going to build another PXE service point with dhcp on the same box at my location, and see if that replicates the other location I tested today. It may be a while until I report back on that testing. Thanks for all of your input. If you have any other ideas, I'll continue to monitor this thread and I'll post an update on if the new DHCP server works as well.

Hi there, I am facing the same issue here with third party PXE server, the HP slate 500 using USB network dongle (HP item number:XZ613AA) and it fails because the request to PXE server has empty bootfile path to pxeboot.com. Did you get a workaround to this issue?

I have actually integrated one of these slates before.. it isnt the easiest task. What i have noticed is that most of these usb network adaptors suck and dont actually work with pxe boot properly. What i had to do to get around this was to put the drivers needed for the usb nic into the boot image and put that onto a bootable USB drive. after booting from the USB drive it should be able to connect and grab the TS advertised otherwise you could just create the image, put that on a usb and make sure you do it properly and boot from that.. as i remember i had to apply the mass storage drivers otherwise it would bluescreen after first reboot

I think your issue is different from what Spidey and myself have expereinced, we havent even got to the stage of loading drivers etc... my issue is at the very start of the PXE boot process when TFTP is tranfering the PXEBoot.com (bootstrapper) file, the first attempts fails and on the second attempt the request is made without the filename to PXEBoot.com file. Here is the bad part:- 7/1/2011 09:16:04: Received 22 byte(s) from 10.179.79.109:2079 0000 00 01 00 6F 63 74 65 74 00 62 6C 6B 73 69 7A 65 ...octet.blksize 0010 00 31 34 35 36 00 .1456. 7/1/2011 09:16:04: Read Request (RRQ) FindSession(10.179.79.109:2079) returns NULL. 7/1/2011 09:16:04: TFTP Session starting. Server IP = 10.179.79.179 (10.179.79.0), Client IP = 10.179.79.109 7/1/2011 09:16:04: TftpSession[10.179.79.109:2079]::BeginSession filename = mode = octet szFilePath = C:\PXE\TftpRoot option_name = blksize option_value = 1456

Spidey, do you have some time for this post and can you share your finding or solution?