Smartstart doesnt detect keyboard/mouse with RIB

[Ayman Altounji]

We have just installed two new DL360's and added RIB. At the smart start setup screen on one only, we get the error : windows mouse support - windows did not detect a mouse attached to the system...etc etc

The boards are connected up the same way.

[Ayman Altounji]

We are having a similair problem that is specific the DL360. First... ensure that you have the 16 Pin (white) connector installed on the RIB to the system board (internal). This will pass your mouse to the O/S. The problem we are having is that when we run sysprep (we are deploying headless) the server POST shows no keyboard, and sysprep hangs on startup. If we do nothing the remote console in, the sysprep runs fine. This happened on all 15 DL360's that we have. We have another 30 DL580's (that use the external "Y" cable. They are also headless. Other then setting the "remote keyboard to disable" (which was done on all servers)... we had no problems with sysprep running on the DL580. Why doesn't the 16 pin cable pass the keyboard signal so that sysprep see's it?

[Ayman Altounji]

Exactly...The systems that we have are both set up according to the instructions (trust me - I've been over them with a fine tooth comb) - I hope that doesnt come back to haunt me......
Anyway - we cheated and started the installs with keyboards, mice and monitors attached.... :-( dont envy you having 15 .... I though the whole point was to be able to deploy headless ??????

[Ayman Altounji]

We didn't have any problems with Smartstart running, it was only with sysprep (and only on the DL360's). The whole process ran fine on 30 DL580's (automated smartstart, Ghost, and then sysprep).
DOES ANYONE FROM COMPAQ READ THESE?

[Ayman Altounji]

All,
I work with Chris Fisher who's been posting in this thread. Here's a bizarre update on our situation. (HOPEFULLY SOMEONE FROM COMPAQ IS READING).
I've been working with Microsoft to try and resolve these issues, thinking it was a Sysprep issue. That has not been proven/disproven yet. The only way for us to get Sysprep to run on the DL360's without a keyboard phsically plugged into the server is through either of below scenarios.
1. RIB into the machine so that a signal is sent from the RIB to the System. (Unacceptable when building 15 machines at once. Even worse when we start doing even more simultaneously).
2. Force a cold reboot of the server by disconnecting the power from the server. Sysprep disables the power button so we can't just hit the switch. And before anyone asks, Yes, we have tried using the "/cold" switch with the reboot utility in the Smart Start Scripting Toolkit. It doesn't work.

So the question is this. What exactly is the 16 pin cable doing, and why does a true cold reboot fix the problem? I can get Sysprep to run on a DL580 without a Y-cable both warm and cold booted, so that eliminates the question of whether or not Sysprep requires a keyboard to be attached.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, since this is getting frustrating.

-Joe