How to use FOG to supply machine specific drivers for Windows 7 Sysprepped machines
-
The Drivers function is a fantastic addition to FOG but i struggle with drivers for each dell model. What do you guys do for drivers? because the driverpacks are quite outdated or bloated with unneccessary drivers, the .cab files on the dell website aren’t as up to date as the individual drivers listed and downloading each driver is tedious and time consuming and also only want to have whats required (.inf and files) to keep it as unbloated as possible. what do you recommend?
Cheers
-
I actually use the cab files on the Dell site, plus a few extra (my company often orders different network cards, and those aren’t in the cab files by default). A lot of the files may not be 100% up to date, but they sure are close.
If you absolutely must have the newest drivers, you could look into using Microsoft’s Deployment Toolkit (MDT). You can use the deployment workbench to strip drivers down to the minimum using the Import Drivers function for the “Out-of-Box” drivers. You can use it to pull drivers off of a 100% functioning computer too (but be careful: it’ll often pull in a bunch of drivers that are unnecessary, depending on what’s all been installed on the computer).
That being said, it’s a little bit tedious as well. You could always try Dell’s automatic update client, allow it to download drivers, then use MDT to convert them to a deployable form. I’ve never had much luck with their update client, though.
-
Thanks for the info, it’s not so much having the newest but the minimal without having an in-complete drivers set. will start with the .cabs and see how it goes
thanks again dvlsg -
No problem. And if you need to fill the holes, you can always use the MDT to grab the extra stuff. My only experience is with the D and E series laptops, but the only extra driver I had to add in with MDT was an Intel Centrino wireless driver, and I believe that’s only because they aren’t standard parts for Dell machines.
-
Hi all,
i’m getting “can’t stat no such file or directory” when trying to copy the drivers… example directory is /images/Drivers/WinXP/Optiplex 755 on imaging node and relevant code is:
ln -s “/images/Drivers/WinXP/${machine}/” /root/mydrivers;
cp -r /root/mydrivers/* /ntfs/WINDOWS/TestDrivers; # folder already exists on the imagei must be doing something silly because when i run the code directly on the server through ssh it works! (change destination directory obviously)… i’ve checked all paths and been conscious of case sensitive. what am i doing wrong? :-S oh and $machine is working it (correct name without trailing space etc… got that code above this section. i’m also not adding it as a function, i want to include it directly into fog code itself (bin/fog)
-
This post is deleted! -
This worked:
machine=dmidecode -s system-product-name;
machine=“${machine%”${machine##[![:space:]]}“}”; # Remove trailing whitespace
echo -n " * Downloading $machine Drivers…";
cp -r /images/Drivers/WinXP/“Optiplex 755”/ /ntfs/WINDOWS/TestDrivers; #Hardcoded Model/$machinehowever changing:
[I]cp -r /images/Drivers/WinXP/“Optiplex 755”/* /ntfs/WINDOWS/TestDrivers; [/I]#Hardcoded Model/$machine
to
[I]cp -r /images/Drivers/WinXP/“[B]$machine[/B]”/* /ntfs/WINDOWS/TestDrivers;[/I]
or
cp -r /images/Drivers/WinXP/“[B]{$machine}[/B]”/* /ntfs/WINDOWS/TestDrivers;fails.
i’m pulling my hair out now! lol -
This worked:
machine=“Optiplex 755”
[I]cp -r /images/Drivers/WinXP/“[B]$machine[/B]”/* /ntfs/WINDOWS/TestDrivers;[/I][I]so somethings going wrong with the following two lines but i can’t see what because if you print the variable within an echo it displays as it should (no space before or after but one space in between i.e Optiplex 755)[/I]
[B]machine=dmidecode -s system-product-name;[/B]
[B]machine=“${machine%”${machine##*[![:space:]]}“}”; # Remove trailing whitespace[/B] -
i can’t get the script to work even if i follow the instructions step by on the first page and have the same directories etc… i’m close to giving up
-
Hmm… the difference that stands out to me is the fact that you currently have the folder in place on the image, but the other scripts are creating it. Maybe a permissions issue? But then the fact that you can do it by “hand”… I guess i’m not sure.
If using just “$machine” is working for you, is there a reason you cant just use that?
-
If it makes you feel better, I uploaded a new image over the weekend and now I’m having errors too, haha.
Something about not having enough white space for the CP. Reuploading right now to see the error again…
-
Ah. Yeah, it doesn’t actually perform the clean up, and as a result doesn’t perform the ntfs extend.
The only real difference I can see here is that one image is single partition resizable, and one image is multi-disk single partition non-resizable.
I’m guessing that it’s not running an ntfs extend by design for the multi-disk single partition image. Maybe. Is anyone else who is using this function using an image type other than single partition?
-
using “$machine” only works if i manually hardcode the variable (machine =“Optiplex 755”).
that’s strange about the new image! -
Ahhh okay.
Tell you what, since I’m going to go dig around in the FOG init anyways to see about that ntfs resize, maybe I’ll add a dummy function that involves using $machine and see what I can find. I’m hardly a linux expert though (never even touched it before FOG), so hopefully someone else can give you some advice too.
-
cheers dvlsg! you’re a star
-
Just to rule it out, i got the script to create a new folder and also changed the permission on the drivers folder on the server/node but still no go
-
anyone who has this working in their funcs.sh/fog could i get a copy just so i can see what’s different to mine?
-
I’m running another upload - just got my init changed (work’s been busy). I’ll let you know if I can get it working for me.
I do have a question for you though (for my own problem): are you by chance using a single partition image, or a multi partition non-resizable?
-
Ah. I think I have it figured out – one more check quick, just to verify (I’ll get back to you as soon as I get a chance).
[I]Edit:[/I] Sort of good to go on my end… It actually ends up creating a file named “machinetest” instead of a folder. Maybe I didn’t have my file structure quite right on the server. Maybe someone else has more insight. But it seems to be finding $machine, since it’s not erroring out and saying the “Latitude E6510” folder doesn’t exist. Here’s all the relevant code:
Note: I don’t know much about links, but I believe the bolded part of the code below is important: my suggestion would be try to copy it that way if you haven’t already.
Other notes: Testing with a Latitude E6510, relevant folder on the FOG server is /images/Latitude E6510. Permissions are 777 and root:root. c:\machinetest does [I]not[/I] exist on the test computer, but is created through this script. /root/mydrivers also does [I]not[/I] exist pre-function, but is a
[FONT=Calibri] machine=
dmidecode -s system-product-name;[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri] machine=“${machine%”${machine##[![:space:]]}“}” #Remove trailing spaces[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri] echo " “;[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri] echo " * FOG Scripts Copy for $machine”;[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri] echo " ";[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri] mkdir /ntfs &>/dev/null[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri] if [ “$osid” = “5” ][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri] then[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri] ntfs-3g -o force,rw $win7sys /ntfs[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri] elif [ “$osid” = “1” ][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri] then[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri] ntfs-3g -o force,rw $part /ntfs[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri] fi[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri] [B]ln -s “/images/${machine}/” /root/mydrivers[/B][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri] cp -r /root/mydrivers/ /ntfs/machinetest[/FONT][I]Edit #2: [/I]Ah. The only file I had in /images/Latitude E6510 was a file called test.txt that only said “TEST”. I opened c:\machinetest with a text editor and it said “TEST”. FOG must’ve copied the test.txt over and converted it to machinetest. I’m guessing if I had a legitimate folder structure/set of files in my drivers location it would’ve worked fine.
-
t’s worked! it’s worked!!! i hadn’t upload the change fog but thankyou! it was the way i was mounting ntfs by the looks of things because where i was putting the code ntfs was already mounted but i had it mounted as: [B]mount.ntfs-3g $part /ntfs [/B]but should of been: [B]ntfs-3g -o force,rw $part /ntfs[/B]
