Your recipe is OK but it has bits of misleading info like “run Serva as Admin” (that’s totally unnecessary), or suggesting that network installs are difficult (Serva has made things very easy on this field even for you).
I’m very happy with Serva; Today it is the fastest (and easy) way for getting an OS installed. Also I’d recommend reading the official documents before following tutorials like yours.
The Serva setup is difficult. It’s documentation is incomplete and way too technical and convoluted. In order to get it to work on one of our test systems, it took us hours of tweaking and troubleshooting.
That’s why we included some instructions you might consider unnecessary – so that we cover more exceptions than its official documentation does.
With all due respect I think Serva documentation is the best documentation about PXE I’ve ever seen. It “teaches” you PXE. Of course is technical; because it is not a recipe. What you definitely cannot say is that it’s “incomplete or convoluted”; that is not true.
Posts like yours are good as “quick reference” but you cannot really get anything done without reading the official documents.
I think both of us should say a big “thank you Serva” before mentioning some of the things you write here.
Well, our views are different here. Serva’s documentation might be better than what you find in other places but it still needs a lot of work until it can be considered great.
Anyway, we did not write about Serva because it sucks. On the contrary: we found it to be the simplest tool for performing Windows installations in a network.
Andy
11 years ago
I’m with Victor here; I think Serva and its documentation are both very good and easy to follow.
BTW your concepts at point 4) are wrong: Serva does not “supports” networks cards; Serva net boots the Boot.wim included within your distribution; it is your distribution Boot.wim the one that includes or not native support for your specific card. Just after you find your Boot.wim does not include the driver you need you add it but never before you really know the driver is missing !
Thank you very much for this useful tutorial. I was having trouble re-installing Windows after messing up with dual boots. It didn’t let me boot up from CD/DVD anymore.
This wonderful article helped me a great deal. Have a nice day. 🙂
Nikola Malešević
10 years ago
I already thanked you on SuperUser, but here it is again. Very helpful and easy to follow! Thanks!
P.S. You guys should really upvote this: http://superuser.com/a/565923/58145
Thank you for the upvote and for the kind words. I’m happy this guide helped you. We worked a lot on it.
Shaun
10 years ago
Great article! I have run into a problem though.. At the ServaPENet driver install, when asked for login details, nothing works..
Not even after sharing with Everyone on source computer! Help
Vijaygeorge
10 years ago
Thanks man You rock working awesome….:-)
Arthur
10 years ago
I don’t understand why step (5) is necessary. It creates a SMB file share but AFAIK network booting uses TFTP, so what’s the point of it?
Don’t follow that step and see if it works for you. I only tried to create the “safest/least error-prone” guide I could.
neetah
10 years ago
Hi
Great Article. I’m currently trying to install windows 7 using Serva but I cant seem to get the ServaPENET login credentials? I thought it would be the username and password of the computer that I am currently using! Kindly advise.
M-$illy has an odd quirk, when connecting to a M$illy network where a username is expected, even if usernames/passwords are disabled, you’ll still need one, the best thing to do is create a password on your host machine for your logon, you can delete password once your finished with it.
eg:
Username: My UserName
Password: None
change to:
Username: My UserName
Password: My Password
obviously you can have whatever you desire the password to be for your account. Once you create a password on your account on the host machine, you can logon via network
victor
10 years ago
If you do not create the SMB share there’s not way to install a WDS Windows distribution as its Install.wim must be reached using that share. Only the first stage of the install (Bootmanager and ServaBoot.wim) uses TFTP. That’s how WDS works; and that’s exactly what Serva does.
Rusen, I strongly recommend you to “read” Serva’s site.
david
10 years ago
error cannot find network name…any help?
victor
10 years ago
it happens sometimes on back-to-back situations;
just turn on Serva’s PC WINS service on
Hey, how can I actually turn that on? I’ve looking everywhere for last day, nothing like that in settings or even serva documentation
xino
10 years ago
Hi, Thanks for helping us with this great article in advance, my question is: in DHCP tab there is a field to fill bootfile, in your screenshot seems like it is filled automatic, but in mine, i have to fill it and i dont have any boot file, where to find one ? My pxe boot is stucked in a msg: the system could not find pxeserva.0
share the directory WIA_WDS “as” WIA_WDS_SHARE. the first one is the name of the directory and the second one is the name of the share; simple stuff.
trk204
10 years ago
Follow the guide precisely guys, it works. If you’re missing directories, I’d bet you’re not running as admin. The closing and re-starting is important as well, thats when serva is creating said directories.
Coming from linux and I needed a one off solution to setup a win7 machine (unfortunately only had a win7 machine to do this, the cruel irony).
Followed the guide and was off and running in no time.
One note, the anonymous share didn’t connect for me. I set it to everyone:read, but wouldn’t work. Tried my local username/password and it worked.
Annoyed User
9 years ago
This is the worst software in the whole Universe. Cannot recommend it to anyone, it is a plain piece of crap which works only when it decides to do so… Crossover, so now crappy router configuration… Even if I hd Bill Gates’ money, I wouldn’t pay for this joke…
slicedtoad
9 years ago
Great guide. The only thing I had to do differently was NOT `bind […] to this address`. When I had it bound, the pxe boot searched for a while and eventually quit saying it couldn’t find anything (something about “no file”.
Maybe you could add that to the troubleshooting section?
Tadeu
9 years ago
Hello everyone, mine does work, but when it appears the screen for the menu of systems, it shows that “Initial menu has no label entries!”. Can anyone help me please??. Thanks
tom
9 years ago
@Annoyed User; You are just senselessly bashing a software that works very well.
@slicedtoad; You were probably binding the IP of a NIC that was not connected to the booting client network.
@Tadeu, You see that if the Windows ISO that you are using is a heavily customized OEM version. Just use a Windows Retail, MSDN, etc ISO and you will not get that issue.
Purnendu Nath
9 years ago
I have some problem please solve it Iam using this method on VMWARE,
[10/29 01:49:08.281] PDHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPDISCOVER from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC ?/00:0C:29:6B:F1:67
[10/29 01:49:08.281] PDHCP Inf: Sending DHCPOFFER
[10/29 01:49:08.281] PDHCP Inf: Broadcasting through local interface [192.168.58.1]
[10/29 01:49:08.281] PDHCP Inf: Broadcasting through local interface [192.168.107.1]
[10/29 01:49:10.340] PDHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPREQUEST from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC ?/00:0C:29:6B:F1:67
[10/29 01:49:10.394] PDHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPREQUEST from IP 192.168.107.128, MAC ?/00:0C:29:6B:F1:67
[10/29 01:49:10.394] PDHCP Inf: Sending DHCPACK, TFTP [192.168.107.1] bootfile [pxeserva.0]
[10/29 01:49:10.395] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[10/29 01:49:10.447] TFTP Err: Peer returns ERROR -> aborting transfer
[10/29 01:49:10.448] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[10/29 01:49:10.569] TFTP Inf: : sent blks=12 blkSz=1456, Total 16798 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0
[10/29 01:49:10.616] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[10/29 01:49:10.671] TFTP Inf: : sent blks=1 blkSz=1408, Total 1173 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0
[10/29 01:49:10.676] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[10/29 01:49:10.839] TFTP Inf: : sent blks=116 blkSz=1408, Total 162508 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0
[10/29 01:49:10.844] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[10/29 01:49:10.941] TFTP Inf: : sent blks=1 blkSz=1408, Total 1173 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0
[10/29 01:49:13.858] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[10/29 01:49:13.909] TFTP Inf: : sent blks=1 blkSz=1408, Total 1301 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0
[10/29 01:49:13.965] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[10/29 01:49:14.067] TFTP Inf: : sent blks=18 blkSz=1456, Total 25772 bytes in 1s, err recovery=0
[10/29 01:49:14.102] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[10/29 01:49:14.534] TFTP Inf: : sent blks=360 blkSz=1456, Total 523328 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0
[10/29 01:49:14.710] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[10/29 01:49:14.713] TFTP Err: File : error 3 in CreateFile; The system cannot find the path specified.
[10/29 01:49:14.721] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[10/29 01:49:14.773] TFTP Err: Peer returns ERROR -> aborting transfer
[10/29 01:49:14.773] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[10/29 01:49:14.829] TFTP Inf: : sent blks=9 blkSz=1420, Total 12288 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0
[10/29 01:49:14.838] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[10/29 01:49:14.839] TFTP Err: File : error 3 in CreateFile; The system cannot find the path specified.
[10/29 01:49:14.853] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[10/29 01:49:14.854] TFTP Err: File : error 2 in CreateFile; The system cannot find the file specified.
[10/29 01:49:14.869] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[10/29 01:49:14.981] TFTP Err: Peer returns ERROR -> aborting transfer
[10/29 01:49:14.981] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[10/29 01:49:15.083] TFTP Err: Peer returns ERROR -> aborting transfer
[10/29 01:49:15.084] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[10/29 01:49:15.468] TFTP Inf: : sent blks=2233 blkSz=1420, Total 3170304 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0
[10/29 01:49:15.468] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[10/29 01:49:24.936] TFTP Inf: : sent blks=104117 blkSz=1420, Total 147845056 bytes in 9s, err recovery=0
[10/29 01:49:26.126] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[10/29 01:49:26.129] TFTP Err: File : error 3 in CreateFile; The system cannot find the path specified.
Chris
9 years ago
I’m stuck at Trying to load” pxeserva.cfg/menu.def
It stays there until says “Boot failed: press a key to retry, or wait for reset…”
eng. mohammed.alshereif
9 years ago
What is the Domain/user and password in dialog
servaPENet?
“DomainUser” refers to your computer name and the user account. For example your computer name is “Dell” and your user account is “John” than the the “DomainUser” will be “DellJohn”.
The password will be the password you use to login to the account “John”. If you do not have a password you must create one otherwise the program will not have the credentials to boot the operating system via the network.
tom
9 years ago
@Purnendu Nath: Your Log looks OK; what problem do you have?
@Chris: What are you trying to install; Look at Serva’s Log for clues; Do you see TFTP transfer errors? is your firewall open?
@eng. mohammed.a….: ServaPENet connects to the Serva’s PC hosted share WIA_WDS_SHARE, you should provide a username (or a “Domain/username” only if your Serva’s PC is under a domain schema) of any user with minimally reading rights over that share
hazim
9 years ago
hello
i cant find the inf file for network card i try to install on dell vostro 3300 !!
all exe ,
thanks
You need to find out the make and model of the network adapter and than download it from the manufacturer website. It is likely to be a Realtek or Intel network controller chip on the Dell.
ADDIE08
9 years ago
I also have the same problem w/ Purnendu Nath, (error 3 in CreateFile; The system cannot find the path specified.) then my screen stays at a blank screen.
yossi rachevsky
9 years ago
all worked good until during windows installation I get an error from the installer saying that no device drivers were found… and no hard disks appear in the dialog where to install ! what can I do? thanks you
Slava
9 years ago
Very good step-by-step manual , everything worked from first time without any errors, just don’t miss anything by stepping, choose correct network adapter drivers, clean OS image, and everything will work like charm. Also I recommend setting BIOS defaults on computer into which want install OS..
Thanks for tips Ciprian Adrian Rusen
tom
9 years ago
@ADDIE08; follow Serva’s Application Note to the latter, If you copy your asset files from a DVD be sure the copied file Boot.wim is not read only.
@yossi rachevsky; you have to add the missing drivers as explained here or at Serva’s webpage (troubleshooting section)
jason
9 years ago
I had this working once last year, can’t figure out my problem. When I get my OS choices on the target boot machine and select an OS to install, the menu simply reloads to the OS choices
Jason
9 years ago
from the log:
[01/26 19:49:27.838] TFTP Inf: : sent blks=116 blkSz=1408, Total 162508 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0
[01/26 19:49:27.841] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
[01/26 19:49:27.926] TFTP Warn: received duplicated request from 192.168.1.100:57097
[01/26 19:49:27.953] TFTP Inf: : sent blks=2 blkSz=1408, Total 1416 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0
[01/26 19:49:28.176] TFTP Inf: Read file . Mode octet
Jason
9 years ago
From the TFTP (.1.100 is neither the source or target)
192.168.1.100:57094
Jason
9 years ago
192.168.1.100:57094
Lauro Abreu
9 years ago
OMG thank you! You saved my life!
I though that install over network was hard but is indeed very easy! Your tutorial is really easy to understand and to follow! I just installed Windows 10 in my machine with serva. I had to do one thing that isn’t in your tutorial to make it work, i had to put a password in my user so i could login to make the windows installation (you really should put this in the tutorial).
Anyway, thanks again!
I agree. This is by far the easiest way I have come across to network install an operating system. I also have to setup a login password for my user account that I used to PXE boot.
I was prompted with “DomainUser” and the “Password” dialog box during installation of Windows 7 which was quickly resolved by setting up a login password on my machine.
tom
9 years ago
@Jason; please be sure your asset directory does not include either spaces or non-ASCII characters as explained in Serva’s Application Note.
bryar
9 years ago
how to install windows backup for network bye serva ?
Ray
9 years ago
I get this:
[02/12 13:15:32.138] TFTP Err: connect returns 10051: A socket operation was attempted to an unreachable network.
I wanna install a customized window from network,
I mean install some apps and office on the OS then make an image, after that use this image to install on another PC from the network, rather than using a fresh OS. anyone can help me please how to make this image?
@miran Installing a customized windows from network is easy; Get a “fresh” windows install ISO and after copying its content under Serva control just customize the file Install.wim with the MS ADK tool DISM.exe. Dism will allow you to “slipstream” updates, drivers, applications, etc to the original “Seattle made” Install.wim. After your customization is finished just use Serva for net delivering your customized version of Windows.
Rich
9 years ago
So I’ve tried this like 50 times already. Everything connects, serva sends the info to the target computer, and in the end, the target computer just hangs on the windows screen. Patrick has been excellent at responding, but ineffective at providing a solution. He mentions the share is not setup properly….. Sharing is not rocket science! Then he goes on about Null Session Shares. This tool looks so damn promising, but really, a fricking share is stopping the install? Any ideas?
Hamza
9 years ago
It tried hard working on it but i keep getting this error on log file
DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC QuantaCo/C4:54:44:F4:88:D1 : Ignoring request
tom
9 years ago
@Rich: Sure you are installing a RIS OS (e.g. XP) then you need to create a “Null Session Share” called WIA_RIS_SHARE pointing to C:SERVA_ROOT. This is not rocket science like you said but it is a bit tricky; a very common mistake is making that share pointing to C:SERVA_ROOTWIA_RIS instead; that’s wrong. I encourage you to read Serva’s application notes and follow the instructions from http://vercot.com/~serva/advanced/NullSessionShares.html. If you are still in trouble please run a traffic capture with Wireshark and see the errors when XP tries to connect to WIA_RIS_SHARE. If the capture results cryptic to you please provide a link here or ask for help at Serva’s website.
@Hamza: you can see that log when Serva’s PC connects back-to-back to the client and Serva’s PC NIC does not have an static IP. Then when the client boots up Serva’s PC NIC powers up and tries to find an IP by DHCP; Serva refuses to provide IPs by DHCP to its own NICs. You can solve your issue if you assign a fixed IP to that NIC. Of course the assigned IP and the ones in Serva’s DHCP pool should belong to the same network. e.g. if your pool is 192.168.20.5 to 192.168.20.10 you could assign to the NIC 192.168.20.1
Reprovo
9 years ago
Thanks for the quick reference! Installation went surprisingly smooth
Ben
9 years ago
This is probably a dumb question but by “Windows Installation Files” in step 2 do I just copy the ISO I have (It’s just a Windows 8.1 unmodified ISO) from MSDN into that folder or do I extract the contents of it first and place those files in the folder I create?
Extract the files first.That’s what I did. I’m not sure If the program can detect the ISO and extract It automatically If you place It directly.
tom
9 years ago
you must extract the ISO content.
vishal
9 years ago
[03/21 07:14:44.884] BINL Inf: Preparation/Maintenance procedures “Start” **
[03/21 07:14:44.922] BINL Inf: Preparation/Maintenance procedures “End” **
[03/21 07:15:01.656] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:15:05.464] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:15:14.877] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:15:20.321] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:15:24.399] DHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPREQUEST from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC Dell/D4:BE:D9:66:CF:24
[03/21 07:15:24.450] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:15:28.146] DHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPREQUEST from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC Dell/D4:BE:D9:66:CF:24
[03/21 07:15:31.255] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:15:36.385] DHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPREQUEST from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC Dell/D4:BE:D9:66:CF:24
[03/21 07:15:47.796] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:15:52.777] DHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPREQUEST from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC Dell/D4:BE:D9:66:CF:24
[03/21 07:15:55.777] DHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPREQUEST from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC Dell/D4:BE:D9:66:CF:24
[03/21 07:16:01.873] DHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPINFORM from IP 192.168.1.2, MAC Dell/D4:BE:D9:66:CF:24
[03/21 07:16:12.428] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:16:16.464] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:16:20.231] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:16:21.619] DHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPDISCOVER from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC Dell/D4:BE:D9:66:CF:24
[03/21 07:16:21.619] DHCP Inf: Address 0.0.0.0 has been REQUESTED
[03/21 07:16:21.620] DHCP Inf: Address 192.168.1.2 is being OFFERED
[03/21 07:16:24.465] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:16:25.683] DHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPREQUEST from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC Dell/D4:BE:D9:66:CF:24
[03/21 07:16:25.683] DHCP Inf: Address 192.168.1.2 is being ACKED
[03/21 07:16:33.755] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:16:48.879] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:17:11.332] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:17:15.465] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:17:16.803] DHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPREQUEST from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC Dell/D4:BE:D9:66:CF:24
[03/21 07:17:16.803] DHCP Inf: Address 192.168.1.2 is being ACKED
[03/21 07:17:23.255] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
tom
9 years ago
“DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request”
That message tells you that one of the NICs on Serva’s PC is performing a DHCP request; Serva DHCP does not provide IPs to its own interfaces.
This happens i.e. when dealing with point-to-point connections; when the client boots-up the Ethernet link gets active and at the other end Serva’s NIC also powers up; in this case Serva’s NIC must have a user defined “fixed” IP and avoid trying to get its own IP by DHCP.
Daniel Watson
9 years ago
Thanks for the article, had to figure out by reading from the Serva website that your user account MUST have a password if you want to connect properly. (I recieved 0x52F/ 0x520 errors otherwise)
Stockton
9 years ago
Thank you for this great description! It worked for me absolutely, only one small extension: The two “Bind TFTP/DHCP to this address” option had to be disabled for me. If I changed them for enabled, the target laptop can’t boot from the network.
Thank you!
anon
8 years ago
How to turn on WINS service?
kaalia
8 years ago
I get to the point of the install where it asks for the login and keep getting “error: 0x43 the network name cannot be found”. I’m entering the right username and password, but I can’t seem to get past this.
I have shared the WIA_WDS_SHARE folder correctly to only one user that has a password on the machine that Serva is running. Do I need to share the folder to ‘Everyone’ as well? I read in one of the comments that the PC WINS service needs to be turned on. If so, how do I turn it on? Any help would be appreciated.
Your recipe is OK but it has bits of misleading info like “run Serva as Admin” (that’s totally unnecessary), or suggesting that network installs are difficult (Serva has made things very easy on this field even for you).
I’m very happy with Serva; Today it is the fastest (and easy) way for getting an OS installed. Also I’d recommend reading the official documents before following tutorials like yours.
The Serva setup is difficult. It’s documentation is incomplete and way too technical and convoluted. In order to get it to work on one of our test systems, it took us hours of tweaking and troubleshooting.
That’s why we included some instructions you might consider unnecessary – so that we cover more exceptions than its official documentation does.
With all due respect I think Serva documentation is the best documentation about PXE I’ve ever seen. It “teaches” you PXE. Of course is technical; because it is not a recipe. What you definitely cannot say is that it’s “incomplete or convoluted”; that is not true.
Posts like yours are good as “quick reference” but you cannot really get anything done without reading the official documents.
I think both of us should say a big “thank you Serva” before mentioning some of the things you write here.
Well, our views are different here. Serva’s documentation might be better than what you find in other places but it still needs a lot of work until it can be considered great.
Anyway, we did not write about Serva because it sucks. On the contrary: we found it to be the simplest tool for performing Windows installations in a network.
I’m with Victor here; I think Serva and its documentation are both very good and easy to follow.
BTW your concepts at point 4) are wrong: Serva does not “supports” networks cards; Serva net boots the Boot.wim included within your distribution; it is your distribution Boot.wim the one that includes or not native support for your specific card. Just after you find your Boot.wim does not include the driver you need you add it but never before you really know the driver is missing !
I updated the article. Thanks for the feedback.
Found this article from your post on superuser.com
Saved me a lot of time, thanks a lot! 🙂
I’m glad it helped. Thanks for visiting. 😉
Thank you very much for this useful tutorial. I was having trouble re-installing Windows after messing up with dual boots. It didn’t let me boot up from CD/DVD anymore.
This wonderful article helped me a great deal. Have a nice day. 🙂
I already thanked you on SuperUser, but here it is again. Very helpful and easy to follow! Thanks!
P.S. You guys should really upvote this:
http://superuser.com/a/565923/58145
Thank you for the upvote and for the kind words. I’m happy this guide helped you. We worked a lot on it.
Great article! I have run into a problem though.. At the ServaPENet driver install, when asked for login details, nothing works..
Not even after sharing with Everyone on source computer! Help
Thanks man You rock working awesome….:-)
I don’t understand why step (5) is necessary. It creates a SMB file share but AFAIK network booting uses TFTP, so what’s the point of it?
Don’t follow that step and see if it works for you. I only tried to create the “safest/least error-prone” guide I could.
Hi
Great Article. I’m currently trying to install windows 7 using Serva but I cant seem to get the ServaPENET login credentials? I thought it would be the username and password of the computer that I am currently using! Kindly advise.
M-$illy has an odd quirk, when connecting to a M$illy network where a username is expected, even if usernames/passwords are disabled, you’ll still need one, the best thing to do is create a password on your host machine for your logon, you can delete password once your finished with it.
eg:
Username: My UserName
Password: None
change to:
Username: My UserName
Password: My Password
obviously you can have whatever you desire the password to be for your account. Once you create a password on your account on the host machine, you can logon via network
If you do not create the SMB share there’s not way to install a WDS Windows distribution as its Install.wim must be reached using that share. Only the first stage of the install (Bootmanager and ServaBoot.wim) uses TFTP. That’s how WDS works; and that’s exactly what Serva does.
Rusen, I strongly recommend you to “read” Serva’s site.
error cannot find network name…any help?
it happens sometimes on back-to-back situations;
just turn on Serva’s PC WINS service on
Hey, how can I actually turn that on? I’ve looking everywhere for last day, nothing like that in settings or even serva documentation
Hi, Thanks for helping us with this great article in advance, my question is: in DHCP tab there is a field to fill bootfile, in your screenshot seems like it is filled automatic, but in mine, i have to fill it and i dont have any boot file, where to find one ? My pxe boot is stucked in a msg: the system could not find pxeserva.0
Select (check) the BINL option.
Hi, at step 5 i don’t understand, we share WIA_WDS or we share WIA_WDS_SHARE because i don’t have this folder? Thank You.
share the directory WIA_WDS “as” WIA_WDS_SHARE. the first one is the name of the directory and the second one is the name of the share; simple stuff.
Follow the guide precisely guys, it works. If you’re missing directories, I’d bet you’re not running as admin. The closing and re-starting is important as well, thats when serva is creating said directories.
Coming from linux and I needed a one off solution to setup a win7 machine (unfortunately only had a win7 machine to do this, the cruel irony).
Followed the guide and was off and running in no time.
One note, the anonymous share didn’t connect for me. I set it to everyone:read, but wouldn’t work. Tried my local username/password and it worked.
This is the worst software in the whole Universe. Cannot recommend it to anyone, it is a plain piece of crap which works only when it decides to do so… Crossover, so now crappy router configuration… Even if I hd Bill Gates’ money, I wouldn’t pay for this joke…
Great guide. The only thing I had to do differently was NOT `bind […] to this address`. When I had it bound, the pxe boot searched for a while and eventually quit saying it couldn’t find anything (something about “no file”.
Maybe you could add that to the troubleshooting section?
Hello everyone, mine does work, but when it appears the screen for the menu of systems, it shows that “Initial menu has no label entries!”. Can anyone help me please??. Thanks
@Annoyed User; You are just senselessly bashing a software that works very well.
@slicedtoad; You were probably binding the IP of a NIC that was not connected to the booting client network.
@Tadeu, You see that if the Windows ISO that you are using is a heavily customized OEM version. Just use a Windows Retail, MSDN, etc ISO and you will not get that issue.
I have some problem please solve it Iam using this method on VMWARE,
[10/29 01:49:08.281] PDHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPDISCOVER from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC ?/00:0C:29:6B:F1:67. Mode octet -> aborting transfer. Mode octet: sent blks=12 blkSz=1456, Total 16798 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0. Mode octet: sent blks=1 blkSz=1408, Total 1173 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0. Mode octet: sent blks=116 blkSz=1408, Total 162508 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0. Mode octet: sent blks=1 blkSz=1408, Total 1173 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0. Mode octet: sent blks=1 blkSz=1408, Total 1301 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0. Mode octet: sent blks=18 blkSz=1456, Total 25772 bytes in 1s, err recovery=0. Mode octet: sent blks=360 blkSz=1456, Total 523328 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0. Mode octet : error 3 in CreateFile; The system cannot find the path specified.. Mode octet -> aborting transfer. Mode octet : sent blks=9 blkSz=1420, Total 12288 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0. Mode octet : error 3 in CreateFile; The system cannot find the path specified.. Mode octet : error 2 in CreateFile; The system cannot find the file specified.. Mode octet -> aborting transfer. Mode octet -> aborting transfer. Mode octet: sent blks=2233 blkSz=1420, Total 3170304 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0. Mode octet: sent blks=104117 blkSz=1420, Total 147845056 bytes in 9s, err recovery=0. Mode octet : error 3 in CreateFile; The system cannot find the path specified.
[10/29 01:49:08.281] PDHCP Inf: Sending DHCPOFFER
[10/29 01:49:08.281] PDHCP Inf: Broadcasting through local interface [192.168.58.1]
[10/29 01:49:08.281] PDHCP Inf: Broadcasting through local interface [192.168.107.1]
[10/29 01:49:10.340] PDHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPREQUEST from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC ?/00:0C:29:6B:F1:67
[10/29 01:49:10.394] PDHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPREQUEST from IP 192.168.107.128, MAC ?/00:0C:29:6B:F1:67
[10/29 01:49:10.394] PDHCP Inf: Sending DHCPACK, TFTP [192.168.107.1] bootfile [pxeserva.0]
[10/29 01:49:10.395] TFTP Inf: Read file
[10/29 01:49:10.447] TFTP Err: Peer returns ERROR
[10/29 01:49:10.448] TFTP Inf: Read file
[10/29 01:49:10.569] TFTP Inf:
[10/29 01:49:10.616] TFTP Inf: Read file
[10/29 01:49:10.671] TFTP Inf:
[10/29 01:49:10.676] TFTP Inf: Read file
[10/29 01:49:10.839] TFTP Inf:
[10/29 01:49:10.844] TFTP Inf: Read file
[10/29 01:49:10.941] TFTP Inf:
[10/29 01:49:13.858] TFTP Inf: Read file
[10/29 01:49:13.909] TFTP Inf:
[10/29 01:49:13.965] TFTP Inf: Read file
[10/29 01:49:14.067] TFTP Inf:
[10/29 01:49:14.102] TFTP Inf: Read file
[10/29 01:49:14.534] TFTP Inf:
[10/29 01:49:14.710] TFTP Inf: Read file
[10/29 01:49:14.713] TFTP Err: File
[10/29 01:49:14.721] TFTP Inf: Read file
[10/29 01:49:14.773] TFTP Err: Peer returns ERROR
[10/29 01:49:14.773] TFTP Inf: Read file
[10/29 01:49:14.829] TFTP Inf:
[10/29 01:49:14.838] TFTP Inf: Read file
[10/29 01:49:14.839] TFTP Err: File
[10/29 01:49:14.853] TFTP Inf: Read file
[10/29 01:49:14.854] TFTP Err: File
[10/29 01:49:14.869] TFTP Inf: Read file
[10/29 01:49:14.981] TFTP Err: Peer returns ERROR
[10/29 01:49:14.981] TFTP Inf: Read file
[10/29 01:49:15.083] TFTP Err: Peer returns ERROR
[10/29 01:49:15.084] TFTP Inf: Read file
[10/29 01:49:15.468] TFTP Inf:
[10/29 01:49:15.468] TFTP Inf: Read file
[10/29 01:49:24.936] TFTP Inf:
[10/29 01:49:26.126] TFTP Inf: Read file
[10/29 01:49:26.129] TFTP Err: File
I’m stuck at Trying to load” pxeserva.cfg/menu.def
It stays there until says “Boot failed: press a key to retry, or wait for reset…”
What is the Domain/user and password in dialog
servaPENet?
please relpy on [email protected]
“DomainUser” refers to your computer name and the user account. For example your computer name is “Dell” and your user account is “John” than the the “DomainUser” will be “DellJohn”.
The password will be the password you use to login to the account “John”. If you do not have a password you must create one otherwise the program will not have the credentials to boot the operating system via the network.
@Purnendu Nath: Your Log looks OK; what problem do you have?
@Chris: What are you trying to install; Look at Serva’s Log for clues; Do you see TFTP transfer errors? is your firewall open?
@eng. mohammed.a….: ServaPENet connects to the Serva’s PC hosted share WIA_WDS_SHARE, you should provide a username (or a “Domain/username” only if your Serva’s PC is under a domain schema) of any user with minimally reading rights over that share
hello
i cant find the inf file for network card i try to install on dell vostro 3300 !!
all exe ,
thanks
You need to find out the make and model of the network adapter and than download it from the manufacturer website. It is likely to be a Realtek or Intel network controller chip on the Dell.
I also have the same problem w/ Purnendu Nath, (error 3 in CreateFile; The system cannot find the path specified.) then my screen stays at a blank screen.
all worked good until during windows installation I get an error from the installer saying that no device drivers were found… and no hard disks appear in the dialog where to install ! what can I do? thanks you
Very good step-by-step manual , everything worked from first time without any errors, just don’t miss anything by stepping, choose correct network adapter drivers, clean OS image, and everything will work like charm. Also I recommend setting BIOS defaults on computer into which want install OS..
Thanks for tips Ciprian Adrian Rusen
@ADDIE08; follow Serva’s Application Note to the latter, If you copy your asset files from a DVD be sure the copied file Boot.wim is not read only.
@yossi rachevsky; you have to add the missing drivers as explained here or at Serva’s webpage (troubleshooting section)
I had this working once last year, can’t figure out my problem. When I get my OS choices on the target boot machine and select an OS to install, the menu simply reloads to the OS choices
from the log:
[01/26 19:49:27.838] TFTP Inf:: sent blks=116 blkSz=1408, Total 162508 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0. Mode octet: sent blks=2 blkSz=1408, Total 1416 bytes in 0s, err recovery=0. Mode octet
[01/26 19:49:27.841] TFTP Inf: Read file
[01/26 19:49:27.926] TFTP Warn: received duplicated request from 192.168.1.100:57097
[01/26 19:49:27.953] TFTP Inf:
[01/26 19:49:28.176] TFTP Inf: Read file
From the TFTP (.1.100 is neither the source or target)
192.168.1.100:57094
192.168.1.100:57094
OMG thank you! You saved my life!
I though that install over network was hard but is indeed very easy! Your tutorial is really easy to understand and to follow! I just installed Windows 10 in my machine with serva. I had to do one thing that isn’t in your tutorial to make it work, i had to put a password in my user so i could login to make the windows installation (you really should put this in the tutorial).
Anyway, thanks again!
I agree. This is by far the easiest way I have come across to network install an operating system. I also have to setup a login password for my user account that I used to PXE boot.
I was prompted with “DomainUser” and the “Password” dialog box during installation of Windows 7 which was quickly resolved by setting up a login password on my machine.
@Jason; please be sure your asset directory does not include either spaces or non-ASCII characters as explained in Serva’s Application Note.
how to install windows backup for network bye serva ?
I get this:
[02/12 13:15:32.138] TFTP Err: connect returns 10051: A socket operation was attempted to an unreachable network.
This was a dumb mistake which was fixed. Now I get:
[02/12 13:32:21.056] TFTP Inf: Read file pxeserva.0. Mode octet
that is amazing work
I wanna install a customized window from network,
I mean install some apps and office on the OS then make an image, after that use this image to install on another PC from the network, rather than using a fresh OS. anyone can help me please how to make this image?
You can make an ISO with any IMAGE creating software from your original Windows CD. There are options to include some drivers in the image for example with command prompt or other ways. There are a lot tutorials in the internet, where you can take a look in.
For Windows 10 you can use this: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install/how-to-create-windows-10-installation-dvdusb-flash/8210aa78-9f06-4e60-af0f-bbced92adbb1
@miran Installing a customized windows from network is easy; Get a “fresh” windows install ISO and after copying its content under Serva control just customize the file Install.wim with the MS ADK tool DISM.exe. Dism will allow you to “slipstream” updates, drivers, applications, etc to the original “Seattle made” Install.wim. After your customization is finished just use Serva for net delivering your customized version of Windows.
So I’ve tried this like 50 times already. Everything connects, serva sends the info to the target computer, and in the end, the target computer just hangs on the windows screen. Patrick has been excellent at responding, but ineffective at providing a solution. He mentions the share is not setup properly….. Sharing is not rocket science! Then he goes on about Null Session Shares. This tool looks so damn promising, but really, a fricking share is stopping the install? Any ideas?
It tried hard working on it but i keep getting this error on log file
DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC QuantaCo/C4:54:44:F4:88:D1 : Ignoring request
@Rich: Sure you are installing a RIS OS (e.g. XP) then you need to create a “Null Session Share” called WIA_RIS_SHARE pointing to C:SERVA_ROOT. This is not rocket science like you said but it is a bit tricky; a very common mistake is making that share pointing to C:SERVA_ROOTWIA_RIS instead; that’s wrong. I encourage you to read Serva’s application notes and follow the instructions from http://vercot.com/~serva/advanced/NullSessionShares.html. If you are still in trouble please run a traffic capture with Wireshark and see the errors when XP tries to connect to WIA_RIS_SHARE. If the capture results cryptic to you please provide a link here or ask for help at Serva’s website.
@Hamza: you can see that log when Serva’s PC connects back-to-back to the client and Serva’s PC NIC does not have an static IP. Then when the client boots up Serva’s PC NIC powers up and tries to find an IP by DHCP; Serva refuses to provide IPs by DHCP to its own NICs. You can solve your issue if you assign a fixed IP to that NIC. Of course the assigned IP and the ones in Serva’s DHCP pool should belong to the same network. e.g. if your pool is 192.168.20.5 to 192.168.20.10 you could assign to the NIC 192.168.20.1
Thanks for the quick reference! Installation went surprisingly smooth
This is probably a dumb question but by “Windows Installation Files” in step 2 do I just copy the ISO I have (It’s just a Windows 8.1 unmodified ISO) from MSDN into that folder or do I extract the contents of it first and place those files in the folder I create?
Extract the files first.That’s what I did. I’m not sure If the program can detect the ISO and extract It automatically If you place It directly.
you must extract the ISO content.
[03/21 07:14:44.884] BINL Inf: Preparation/Maintenance procedures “Start” **
[03/21 07:14:44.922] BINL Inf: Preparation/Maintenance procedures “End” **
[03/21 07:15:01.656] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:15:05.464] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:15:14.877] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:15:20.321] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:15:24.399] DHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPREQUEST from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC Dell/D4:BE:D9:66:CF:24
[03/21 07:15:24.450] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:15:28.146] DHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPREQUEST from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC Dell/D4:BE:D9:66:CF:24
[03/21 07:15:31.255] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:15:36.385] DHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPREQUEST from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC Dell/D4:BE:D9:66:CF:24
[03/21 07:15:47.796] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:15:52.777] DHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPREQUEST from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC Dell/D4:BE:D9:66:CF:24
[03/21 07:15:55.777] DHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPREQUEST from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC Dell/D4:BE:D9:66:CF:24
[03/21 07:16:01.873] DHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPINFORM from IP 192.168.1.2, MAC Dell/D4:BE:D9:66:CF:24
[03/21 07:16:12.428] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:16:16.464] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:16:20.231] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:16:21.619] DHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPDISCOVER from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC Dell/D4:BE:D9:66:CF:24
[03/21 07:16:21.619] DHCP Inf: Address 0.0.0.0 has been REQUESTED
[03/21 07:16:21.620] DHCP Inf: Address 192.168.1.2 is being OFFERED
[03/21 07:16:24.465] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:16:25.683] DHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPREQUEST from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC Dell/D4:BE:D9:66:CF:24
[03/21 07:16:25.683] DHCP Inf: Address 192.168.1.2 is being ACKED
[03/21 07:16:33.755] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:16:48.879] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:17:11.332] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:17:15.465] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
[03/21 07:17:16.803] DHCP Inf: Rcvd DHCPREQUEST from IP 0.0.0.0, MAC Dell/D4:BE:D9:66:CF:24
[03/21 07:17:16.803] DHCP Inf: Address 192.168.1.2 is being ACKED
[03/21 07:17:23.255] DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request
“DHCP Inf: Serva’s own interface MAC AsustekC/30:85:A9:EA:A6:75 : ignoring request”
That message tells you that one of the NICs on Serva’s PC is performing a DHCP request; Serva DHCP does not provide IPs to its own interfaces.
This happens i.e. when dealing with point-to-point connections; when the client boots-up the Ethernet link gets active and at the other end Serva’s NIC also powers up; in this case Serva’s NIC must have a user defined “fixed” IP and avoid trying to get its own IP by DHCP.
Thanks for the article, had to figure out by reading from the Serva website that your user account MUST have a password if you want to connect properly. (I recieved 0x52F/ 0x520 errors otherwise)
Thank you for this great description! It worked for me absolutely, only one small extension: The two “Bind TFTP/DHCP to this address” option had to be disabled for me. If I changed them for enabled, the target laptop can’t boot from the network.
Thank you!
How to turn on WINS service?
I get to the point of the install where it asks for the login and keep getting “error: 0x43 the network name cannot be found”. I’m entering the right username and password, but I can’t seem to get past this.
I have shared the WIA_WDS_SHARE folder correctly to only one user that has a password on the machine that Serva is running. Do I need to share the folder to ‘Everyone’ as well? I read in one of the comments that the PC WINS service needs to be turned on. If so, how do I turn it on? Any help would be appreciated.