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Drivers: Manufacturer Driver Update Utilities vs Out-Of-Box Drivers

Unanswered Drivers: Manufacturer Driver Update Utilities vs Out-Of-Box Drivers

  • Monday, March 05, 2012 9:04 PM
     
     
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    Greetings,

    I'm using MDT alone without SCCM.

    Does anyone have any working knowledge of utilizing HP's system software manager, Lenovo ThinInstaller, and Dell's Client System Update utilities to apply drivers as a command line in the Postinstall step of the Sequence.

    Each of these have their own Driver Repository that can be hosted and managed internally.  I.E.

    HP SoftPaq Download Manager, Lenovo ThinkVantage Update Retriver, Dell Client Repository Manager

    I'm looking at the pros and cons of this vs the time consuming task of creating a elaborate folder structure and importing drivers for each of our 15+ machines, trying to find which ones are universal across a few models, etc.

    This is a bit more applicable to Windows XP as Windows 7 Does a lot of this already.

    I'm just curious on opinions and experience on this subject.

     

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  • Tuesday, June 12, 2012 2:14 PM
     
     
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    I only use Out-of-Box Drivers for ethernet drivers for the computers we have as company standards. I have experience with Lenovo ThinInstaller and do have it running during the deployment and am very happy with the way it works. Can you tell me which version of MDT you have so that I know which set of instructions to provide. I set it up for MDT 2010 and 2012. I'm using a powershell script with MDT 2012 since it is nicely intergrated.

    • Proposed As Answer by Long Bo Saturday, March 09, 2013 12:44 PM
    • Unproposed As Answer by Long Bo Saturday, March 09, 2013 12:44 PM
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  • Monday, November 12, 2012 6:30 PM
     
     
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    Can you provide the instructions for MDT 2012?
     
  • Monday, November 12, 2012 7:11 PM
     
     
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    Here is how I recommend you go about it for Lenovo models. I will make it short because of how complex this may be and also because I am assuming you know how to navigate through MDT. Please let me know if I should expand a little more.

    • Download and install Lenovo Update Retriever from a computer that you will manage the Lenovo drivers from http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/thinkvantage_en/updateretriever43-2012-6-27.exe
    • Create your Lenovo Update Retriever Repo (Local folder)
    • Share the folder you created over the network...let's say \\Server\Repo
    • Download drivers available for your Lenovo drivers using Lenovo Update Retriever
    • I recommend you add Thin Installer to your image. Download and install Thin Installer 1.1...can be on your computer. Copy this directory to your image using imagex to open and drag and drop. You can put it in C:\Corp or wherever you like to
    • Create a shortcut for Thin Installer and name it something like ThinInstaller.lnk pointing to the network share you created in place of \\server\repo and copy it to the image too. You can use the example below for your shortcut
      C:\Corp\ThinInstaller\ThinInstaller.exe /CM -search A -action INSTALL -repository \\Server\Repo -includerebootpackages 1,3,4 -showprogress -noreboot
    • Create a powershell with the line below and copy it to your deployment Scripts folder...Name the file something like ThinInstaller.ps1
      Start-Process -wait "C:\Corp\ThinInstaller\ThinInstaller.lnk"
    • Create a Run Powershell Script under your deployment sequence and use below for the PowerShell Script field
      %SCRIPTROOT%\ThinInstaller.PS1
    • Additionally you can make it so that this sequence only runs for Lenovo computers by clicking on the options tab of the Thin Installer sequence you created and click Add -> Query WMI and enter the following below
      SELECT * from Win32_ComputerSystem WHERE Manufacturer LIKE "%LENOVO%"

      Test it out


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  • Wednesday, January 09, 2013 4:51 PM
     
     
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    I actually ran into Lenovo documentation by mistake which has step-by-step instructions although their configuration is slightly different. Might be helpful though.

    http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=update_retriever_thin_installer_mdt&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CD0QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.lenovo.com%2Fibmdl%2Fpub%2Fpc%2Fpccbbs%2Fthinkvantage_en%2Fupdate_retriever_thin_installer_mdt.doc&ei=Rp_tUKrzGuqx0AGs0YD4Cg&usg=AFQjCNGTijaZo-X7HKsWgW2Zy3BTH_qgXA&bvm=bv.1357316858,d.dmQ

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  • Wednesday, January 09, 2013 5:56 PM
     
     
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    For HP SSM, take a look a this:

    http://adminnexus.blogspot.com/2012/10/installing-hp-driver-packages-and.html#!/2012/10/installing-hp-driver-packages-and.html

    I find that SSM is a good compliment, but not a replacement for the out of box driver store.

    I have documented our method of driver injection at http://adminnexus.blogspot.com/2012/08/yet-another-approach-to-driver.html#!/2012/08/yet-another-approach-to-driver.html

    It is time consuming to set up, but it very easy to maintain.

     
  • Thursday, January 10, 2013 1:49 AM
     
     
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    Hans, that documentation is interesting.  I've never seen it published and it's dated October 2010.  I'm not sure why it tells you to export the downloaded drivers,  import them in to MDT, and THEN use Thininstaller.  Why would I need to export drivers to MDT if I'm going to use Thininstaller?  Thininstaller should be able to handle it all.  Only thing you would need would be mass storage and network drivers so you can lay down the OS.
    • Edited by Brian Klish Thursday, January 10, 2013 2:12 AM
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  • Thursday, January 10, 2013 2:36 AM
     
     
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    I take that back.  I just found where it was published.  Here's the final version of that document in PDF format that was published in 2012.  They added information about the SCCM driver packs they started releasing in July 2012 for Thinkpad classic models (T, X, W, and L).  The SCCM packs are for the raw driver files (INFs) and don't include fully functional applications that go with them.

    With that in mind I could see using the raw INFs for basic functionality and then using Thininstaller/Update Retriever just to fill in specific functionality that you may want.  The documentation doesn't really explain it that way though.  They kind of make it sound like you import the drivers in to MDT and then use Thininstaller to  retrieve the exact same ones you already imported.  Doesn't make sense to me.

    http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/dml_ur_ti_mdt_2.0.pdf

    links to the SCCM packs:

    http://download.lenovo.com/express/sccm.html


    • Edited by Brian Klish Thursday, January 10, 2013 2:37 AM
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  • Friday, March 08, 2013 9:07 PM
     
     
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    That document (http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/dml_ur_ti_mdt_2.0.pdf) describes the export process to cover systems that do not have SCCM driver packs and for cases where a driver has been updated since the SCCM driver pack was released.  It also points out that ThinInstaller can be used to get around the limitations of INF-only installs.  Also keep in mind that ThinInstaller will not install a driver that is already installed. So even if you export drivers so you can import them into MDT or SCCM to be injected, you can still run ThinInstaller later in the task sequence and it will only install content from your local repository that is missing or downl-level on the target machine.



    • Edited by parkerjnc Friday, March 08, 2013 9:46 PM
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