Configmgr 2007 OSD : Using Lenovo Update Retriever to install all your drivers without importing them in the ConfigMgr driver catalog
Did you also think that driver management in OSD could be more simplified ? For example when you have Lenovo devices , you need to also install a lot of “bad” drivers en also in a very specific way or features such as “hotkeys”does not work .Let’s look at the process right now:
1. Search drivers from the internet manually
2. Unpack them in a correct folder structure
3. Import drivers and categorize
4. Handle duplicate drivers
Problems often seen :
1. Not all drivers work with the import ( there are drivers that simply do not work with the export method , they need to run thru setup.exe ) HP is a king in that area with the sound card & Quick launch buttons. This means that the admin need to create packages , programs and multiple steps in the TS to let it work.
2. For getting some drivers you need to install the vendor msi on your test laptop , go to the install folder and find the extracted drivers there.After that you could import.
3. HP & Lenovo needs certain additional software such as HP quick launch , HP power manager , Lenovo Hotkeys , Lenovo think vantage , etc . A lot of those packages needs to be installed in a very specific order or it just don’t work .
4. You test your deployment and damn it seems you forgot 2 drivers . Find out by HWguid , download and import again …
Lenovo Update Retriever – Thinstaller solution :
If you don’t want to spent hours on searching, downloading and importing drivers for you LENOVO computer when going to build a Win7 image , read on . I have found a better way to accomplish this with thanks to Karel Serroels.
It normally takes so much time for an admin , while with the HP / IBM solution it is a 5 minutes job per HW model :
1. Install and run the Lenovo update retriever, select your model and software /drivers you want to install , download the drivers into a pre-defined file share . Nice , quick and easy .
2. Create a package with the Lenovo Thinstaller source files , copy the Lenovo Thinstaller files to the local disk & run it thru your TS
The advantage here is that I as an admin does not need to worry about the right install sequence , prerequisites , number of needed drivers or even OS type .The Thinstaller tool will do it for you .
Prerequisites :
Get the following software’s online from the Lenovo site as you will need it
- Link thininstaller: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/TVAN-ADMIN.html#ti
- Link update retriever: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/TVAN-ADMIN.html#ur
Step 1 : Install Lenovo Update Retriever on your server and follow instructions to create a share for the repository , etc .
Step 2 : Launch the Lenovo Update Retriever and select your Model an Operating System. Download all files to the repository.
Step 3 : Modify your Task Sequence and add Run Thinstaller Trustzone. It needs to work with Dot.net 2.0 .
If you run Lenovo Thinstaller via Configuration Manager task sequence , you cannot run the installation program, because it is a .NET executable and the default policy is to disallow running it from a network share or distribution point. You must therefore change the following ipadress and sharename with the one from your environment!
Step 4 : Create the Lenovo thinstaller package in Configuration Manager.
Step 5 : Copy the Lenovo Thinstaller directory to C:\Windows\Thinstaller
Step 6 : Run Thinstalle with the following commend line . You must therefore change the following ipadress and sharename with the one from your environment!
Step 7 : Remove the Thinstaller source files . Do a nice cleanup .
There you go .. The only disadvantage from using this , is the fact that your sourcefiles need to be always to one spot . You can solve this by using Sysvol , DFS or other technologies . However , Most companies have a team that will build the initial image on site and than replicate the images across the company .
Hope it helps ,
Kenny Buntinx.