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Drivers when deploying Windows 7 to macs

I'm trying to use the windows deployment side of the K2000 to directly deploy windows 7 to apple hardware.  Right now I can use iPxe or a Kace bootable USB to get into the kbe imaging environment and deploy my windows image just like on our HPs or Dells.  Basically it wipes the computer and drops windows 7 on it as the only OS.  

The problem I'm running into is the drivers are not deploying.  I noticed when checking the WMI manufacture screen it shows the macs manufacture as "Apple Inc." - including the ".".  Since windows won't allow me to use a "." in a folder name I believe the drivers folder has a different name from the one the imaging process is looking to copy over to finish deployment.  Anyone know of a workaround or if there is another simple solution to get these things imagining properly for us?

I appreciate any thoughts or solutions!

1 Comment   [ + ] Show comment
  • If you get this working, I would like to see how it works. - jknox 9 years ago
    • I've figured out a way to reuse default script used to copy drivers, add a line to it then image happily.

      KACE has a hidden install under smb://kboxname/peinst. In there find scripts and the one for copy_drivers.vbs. Copy it to an area you have read/write permissions to that is available in the PE environment. I used \\kboxname\drivers_postinstall.

      Edit the VBS and add this line under the get manufacture section, I added it before the other manufacture names.

      If (InStr(strManufacturer ,"Apple Inc.") > 0) Then strManufacturer ="apple".

      After you save that you need to create a post installation bat script to kick off in the PE environment - I just put y:\drivers_postinstall\copy_drivers.vbs as the command to run.

      For the image I duplicated my working windows 7 image, turned off the copy driver feed option, and added the PE environment task to kick off the driver copy.

      Last step was to add the drivers to a folder called apple on the root of the drivers_postinstall folder.

      Now I am able to use a bootable iPXE usb/CD on the macs to boot up into the windows imaging environment and deploy them as if they are any other PC needing a clean install of windows. - ddevore 9 years ago
      • You should really write this up as a blog post with detailed instructions on all of the steps (including creation of the boot media). That's fabulous work. - chucksteel 9 years ago
    • I agree with chuck. - jknox 9 years ago

Answers (1)

Posted by: jknox 9 years ago
Red Belt
0
I don't believe what you are trying to do is supported in any way by either Apple or KACE.  That said, maybe something like this would help? http://macops.ca/introducing-brigadier-a-tool-for-automated-boot-camp-driver-download-and-installation/

This also might help:https://support.software.dell.com/k2000-systems-deployment-appliance/kb/121407

You should run the driver feed disc tool to get the location copy drivers is looking for.

Edited to add:  What happens if you try the DOS name for the folder?  APPLEI~1

Comments:
  • I tried the DOS short names, when I do a dir /x from windows it's reporting the short name as A3IJL3~B. I'm sure if this is the only real hurdle to make this work we can figure something out.

    Do you know if instead of imaging I can run a task to just copy drivers from the driver store on a machine? That way I can just try different names etc without waiting on an image to copy over :). - ddevore 9 years ago
    • I'm not a K2000 expert by any means, but you might be able to use the Driver Feed Builder to harvest the drivers and create a task based on that: http://www.itninja.com/blog/view/driver-feed-builder - jknox 9 years ago

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