HP Stream 11 - Which USB Adapter? - Need to PXE boot

[microchipmatt]

Which USB 3.0 Network Adapter from HP Supports PXE boot right from the HP Stream BIOS Natively?  It's important that I can PXE boot and image these.  Right now, I'm having to used a boot usb to boot to my imageing server.  

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

I cannot say for sure. But I think you would need a direct LAN card for this to work. The USB adaptors I am familiar with are rather basic and have minimal drivers. Can't help you any further because I am not that familiar with your situation.  You may try a Network spacific forum which might have better insight.

[microchipmatt]

This is Incorrect.  What it depends on, is if the BIOS Supports the USB Ethernet Adapter chipset and has the embeeded drivers for it, as explained in great detail here:

http://www.johnwillis.com/2014/03/pxe-booting-using-usb-to-ethernet-dongle.html

So what is needed here, is for HP to know their product, and or for an EXCELLENT engineer/technical or systems Analyst to see this post, and to let me know what Drivers are embedded in the HP Streams chosen BIOS, which is the InsydeH20 Bios Version F.08 Serial Number 5CD50744F3.  

If anyone in this forum, or at HP knows this, can they please let me know.  Thanks in Adavnce.

And yes, that is a Dell in that Article, but the premise of if the BIOS supports the chipset drivers still stands.  Thanks in advance. 

[microchipmatt]

BUMP.  Anytime Hp Engineers.  Help me buy a ton of these for my enterprise, and make you lots of money in education.  But to do that, we need to PXE boot these from USB.  So let's talk about what Chipset drivers are embedded in the InsydeH20 Bios.  Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

I doubt your going to find the level of information on a home user community forum.  I would suggest contacting HP support directly and see if you can talk to a tier 2 or higher level of tech services that may have the information you need. 

Also, maybe contacting the Bios maker Insyde to see if they might have any info.  Since you really have had no responses other then myself. I would guess most who have even read your post, do not have a clue what the heck you even want to do.  I do know from some experience that most Bios these days is pretty basic and locked down especially on cheap hardware. Best of luck. 

[microchipmatt]

Insyde has already been contacted.   My expectations of HP from a consumer perpective are low, so it was worth a try.  As for this being a home user forum, I didn't see that label anywhere, but yes the responses seem to dictate this.  Hopefully Insyde will respond.    

[Peter_VanDorp]

Hey Everyone,

It is possible to network boot (pxe boot) these devices.

Two things need to be taken into consideration when you do so.

1. You need an HP usb ethernet adapter that is compatible with the tablet. I have found that the XZ613AA#ABA adapter works well with the HP Stream 7 5709's that we have. In order to use this adapter, you will also require a micro usb to usb adapter. I found the startech micro usb to usb adapter worked well in this situation.

2. You will need to pxe boot from a 32bit source. These tablets do NOT support 64bit installs of windows. So if you're using windows deployment services, just make sure to create a boot image from a 32bit version of windows 8.1 and you'll be fine.

Steps to boot from the network:

1. Power off the tablet

2. Plug in the usb network adapter

3. Power on the table holding down the power button and the volume down button

4. Select F12 to network boot

That's about it. Hopefully this helps everyone!