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62 Posts
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839738
New XPS 13 PXE boot?
Hi, can anyone tell me with certainty if this product:
http://accessories.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=443-BBBD
(If the link does not work, which it appears to not work for me, the Dell part number is 443-BBBD)
will allow me to PXE boot the new XPS 13 (early 2015)? The product page says it is compatible with the "Venue" but doesn't mention any other systems. I can't find drivers for it to preload in my WinPE image - will the device be recognized by the BIOS and newer WinPE versions? I just need an easy way to deploy our internal Windows image to the XPS that has no NIC. Any other product will do... if it will work!
drivesmeupawall
62 Posts
2
March 13th, 2015 15:00
I went ahead and bought that USB-Ethernet PXE boot dongle I mentioned above, and it did indeed work! It has to be plugged in before you power on the computer or it doesn't show up in the BIOS on the boot menu.
I can also confirm that Acronis SnapDeploy 5 will PXE boot to this and the SnapDeploy agent does recognize this network adapter. I didn't actually deploy over it as I had already built the system, but I don't see any reason it wouldn't work.
Looks like this dongle will solve the wireless-only system deployment problem for those of us using PXE boot!
mmaestro
39 Posts
0
March 13th, 2015 14:00
Were you ever able to find a solution to PXE boot the XPS 13? I've been coming up empty trying to find the right adapter, although I haven't purchased the Dell one you mention here (yet). The UEFI definitely has an option to enable the UEFI network stack, so it must be possible to PXE boot the system, but the 3 adapters we had in the office didn't work.
Anyone else? We can't be the only ones who need to image these things.
mmaestro
39 Posts
0
March 13th, 2015 22:00
Thanks so much. There's a good chance we'll have to image hundreds of these things, so knowing there's a working solution out there is very reassuring.
OffColour
31 Posts
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March 22nd, 2015 11:00
Hi, I don't suppose you've tried this with a new XPS 15 or Precision M3800 have you? The one I use for the XPS 12 doesn't work.
drivesmeupawall
62 Posts
0
March 23rd, 2015 08:00
Sorry, I don't have either of those systems here. Based on my experience with the XPS 13 I don't see why it wouldn't work. If you try it please let us know here if it worked for those machines. Do you have the part I linked above or are you using a different adapter? I went with this one because it specifically listed PXE boot support.
OffColour
31 Posts
0
March 23rd, 2015 10:00
Thanks anyway. I'll do some shopping for the official Dell one and find out.
No, I'm using the Startech one. It's recognised in the BIOS, but won't actually UEFI boot (see http://www.johnwillis.com/2014/03/pxe-booting-using-usb-to-ethernet-dongle.html for someone else's fun and games with this)