PXE support in Latitude 3180/3189

Yes RUSSELL, PXE support available in Latitude 3180 model, Hope the part number mentioned above will work without any issue. Apparently i tried USB Dongle (Model#DBJBCBC064) in 3180 systems which work without any trouble.

Thanks

Pramod R

Using the DBJBCBC064 on either the 3180 or the 3189 with the latest BIOS 1.1.1 configured for PXE boot, UEFI mode, either Secure Boot or not, did not work for me.  If I try to PXE boot while BIOS is set to UEFI mode, it acts like it it going to work, but then the computer flips to Hardware Diagnostics on its own, no trouble is found, and I'm stuck with my only option to reboot.  I can only successfully PXE boot and image the laptop via SCCM when BIOS is set to Legacy mode.

SCCM itself has been updated with the latest Windows 10 driver pack.

When set to Legacy mode. the machine images, but then I get two bangs in Windows 10's Device Manager, both of which are labeled under Other Devices thusly, "PCI Simple Communications Controller".  The hardware IDs are:

First PCI Simple Communications Controller-

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_5A9C&SUBSYS_07B31028&REV_0B

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_5A9C&SUBSYS_07B31028

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_5A9C&CC_078000

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_5A9C&CC_0780

..and the other one:

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_5A9E&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_0B

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_5A9E&SUBSYS_00000000

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_5A9E&&REV_0B

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_5A9E

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_5A9E&CC_078000

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_5A9E&CC_0780

Any ideas?  I've tried manually downloading and installing all available drivers under my 3189's tag number, and I still can't get rid of the bangs.  I also have a 3180 laptop, identically configured, and it exhibits the same problem.

I also have a Dell Legacy LD17 adapter (overkill) that supports MAC address pass through just fine while using its USB3.0-Ethernet functionality, and that seems to be giving me the best chance for success, but this is where I'm stuck right now.

A Dell engineer told me a simple USB3.0-Ethernet dongle, also with MAC pass through support, is scheduled to be released in mid-July, and I hope that dongle will fix things, but right now I have an "unproven" system.

Have you found any update to this?  We are having the same issue with UEFI boot and the Dell adapters on this model.

Thanks,

Jalene

I have purchased 20 new dell latitude 3189 laptops.  I want to PXE boot them to image them from SCCM, but in the bios the only boot option is to boot to windows boot manager.

I did buy a Ethernet to USB adapter at best buy and do see the network link light on the switch. 

any help is appreciated.

I had some startech USB Ethernet adapters that we used to PXE boot older dell laptops, mostly XPS13's for us, and they did not work. I bought the Dell USB 3.0 to ethernet PXE Boot adapter and it worked properly.  There was a check box in the bios for enable UEFI network stack that I also had to check.http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-adapter-usb-3-0-to-ethernet-pxe-boot/apd/443-bbbd/display-solutions 

That little bit about PXE boot looking like it's going to work and then the system flipping to Hardware Diagnostics is exactly what I'm experiencing.  We have SCCM 2012 (1702) and I'm using the Dell USB Ethernet dongle (FM76N Model # DBJBCBC064 Rev A02).  This part works to PXE boot the Dell Latitude 3180, but only if the PXE service is on a flat LAN (e.g server on 192.168.1.1 and client on 192.168.1.101).  If PXE has to traverse a LAN stack or VLAN (e.g. server on 10.7.255.1 and client on 10.7.30.51), the 3180 exhibits the behaviour noted above.  This does not happen with any other Latitude product such as the 5285 (using the same Ethernet dongle noted here) nor does it happen with any other Latitude line product I have tested such as the E6500, E6510, E6520, E6x30, E6x40, E5x40, E5x50, E5x70, 5x80, E7x40, E7x50, E7x70, 3330, 3340, 3350, 3480, XT, XT2, XT3.  There is clearly an issue with the firmware shipping on the 3180 which prevents it from successfully receiving the boot blocks from PXE when it's routed across VLANs. 

Update:  DELL2K is correct.  Upon further testing, we also discovered that the 3189 would PXE boot in UEFI mode just fine IF it is connected to the same VLAN on which the SCCM server resides.  If we move the 3189 to any other VLAN, then we see the problem again.  No other laptop, even last year's 3150 models that we successfully imaged in UEFI/Secure boot mode, exhibit this problem.

Doing a Wireshark check from the SCCM server, comparing the 3189 traffic when it is inside (successful PXE boot) vs outside (unsuccessful PXE boot) the SCCM VLAN, it appears that no ACK is being sent at a certain point, so communication halts.  Since we only see the problem when the unit is in UEFI mode, and it appears that the UEFI network stack is separate from the Legacy mode network stack, it would seem that there is a problem with the UEFI network stack.

Supposedly, this issue has been escalated to development in order to address the problem, but to my knowledge, no ETA has been issued for a fix.

Dusky6199, the PXE boot option only shows up when you have the Dell USB Ethernet adapter noted (in the previous post) connected.

Stan, in the meantime, I have gotten around the Secure Boot/PXE problem by creating SCCM Task Sequence Media on a USB stick selecting the Bootable media option to deploy using ConfigMgr infrastructure.  The side effect to this is that the loading of WinPE is lightening fast. 

Update:  I had the problem escalated at Dell technical support as far as it would go, or so I was told.  They attempted to duplicate my environment, but did not fully do so, as we are PXE -booting across three VLANs, and I believe they only tested booting across two.  Dell has also updated the 3189 firmware to 1.1.5, which we have tried, and it has been there for a while now.

At any rate, in summary, Dell could not duplicate our issue, so they do not see it as a problem with their firmware, but rather a problem with our environment, despite the fact that every other non-3189 computer we have, whether in UEFI or BIOS mode, will PXE boot just fine.

Another interesting factoid: We had received as a test machine a Lenovo Yogo 11e, and it was exhibiting the same strange inability to PXE boot across VLANs.  At that point, I abandoned it, and just tried working with the Dell 3189, even though it was exhibiting the same behavior.  It is worthwhile to note that both the Dell and Lenovo use the same Intel chipset, and my guess is it probably uses very similar PXE boot code across the two laptops, as it is such a low-level routine, probably supplied by Intel, and it wouldn't necessarily need to be highly customized by the vendor.  Also notable is that the Lenovo DOES have an integrated Ethernet port, unlike the Dell, that must use a USB-Ethernet adapter of some sort.

At any rate, after we had already committed to purchasing the 3189 laptops with the LD17 workaround, I saw that Lenovo had released a firmware update that specifically addressed an issue with PXE boot failing across multiple VLANs, so I installed it, and BOOM, the Yoga could PXE boot just fine!

So, my conclusions are:

1)  If you want the 3189, plan on buying LD17 Legacy Adapters that will supply you both a USB 3.0 connection and an Ethernet port (along with a parallel, serial, and USB 2.0 port you don't need) so you can reliably perform SCCM imaging.  Dell's FM76N Ethernet dongle tends to not perform MAC passthrough reliably, which is a huge problem with SCCM.

2)  Or, buy a Lenovo Yoga 11e; you won't need any adapters at all, and they apparently know more about networking than Dell.  Disclaimer: Haven't fully tested the Yoga, but it can sure get farther along on PXE -boot than the 3189!

As of November 2017, I was able to PXE boot a 3189 we received as a demo. Of the few I have, ironically, the only one to work is an HP branded Realtek adapter. The HP part number on the tag of the adapter is 829834-001. The device ID in device manager is:

USB\VID_0BDA&PID_8153&REV_3000

I also have two that did NOT work, so in case anyone was looking at either of these off brand adapters, the following ones do NOT work:

The StarTech USB21000S2

The Cables to Go (C2G) 39700

I will post if I find a change. My Dell rep originally insisted that any USB to Ethernet would work, but personal experience and research tell me that's not possible. Hopefully I'll turn out to be wrong and they'll release a BIOS update for this. Who knows, this Ethernet problem is going to be the difference between buying a few thousand of them or not, so we'll see what Dell can do.

Update 12/06/2017:

I spoke to a Dell BIOS engineer, thanks to my Dell rep. After they forwarded my observations via email the BIOS engineering team sent me a test BIOS via sftp link. The PXE process now works for the Dell adapter, I will test with the HP adapter as well, just in case anyone reading this needs to look for a USB adapter.

I'm told that this PXE boot fix will be added in the next released BIOS revision. The current revision is 1.2.0, so anything after that should work in theory.

 Update 12/08/2017:

Confirmed the aforementioned HP adapter can PXE boot the 3189

Update I received a few USB Type-A to RJ45 adapters from Dell during our Demo. They're supposed to work with this model, but I believe the December 4th 1.2.0 BIOS update for this model may have broken that. Dell support is looking into that for me.

I believe this Dell branded adapter uses the same Realtek chip as the aforementioned HP one, because it is now no longer functioning. 

In case anyone is curious the Dell Model number is DBJBCBC064, and it is revision A02. I will try to remember to update this post if the issue with the 1.2.0 BIOS is resolved.

As of 12/4/17, updating BIOS to 1.2.0 still does not resolve the problem with PXE booting across multiple VLANs.

Dell FINALLY fixed the PXE boot issue with the 3189 in their BIOS update version 1.3.1 and higher.  Hallelujah!