Force installing incompatible .inf driver in Windows Server 2019 Core [closed]

Question

I'm trying to install Server 2019 Core on my 6th generation NUC. Although the install goes fine, I'm reminded of the 'good old days' when it boots without any network connection.

Now I have the correct driver (I219-V, dated October 2018 for Win10x64 containing the right VEN-DEV combination) that will work fine if I force the install using the GUI. But Windows considers it an incompatible driver and as such it won't install if I just supply the driver.

Is there any way, through the CLI or PoSh to force the driver to install on a specific device?

UPDATE:

I also tried simply adding two lines into the inf file (since it already contains all the necessary instructions, they just disabled them), but the it becomes unsigned, so now I need to find a way to install unsigned drivers.

Julian

Answer 1

The fast way of installing the driver for the i219-V NIC is quite simple.

1. Fetch the latest greatest PROSetx64.exe from Intel with Server 2019 drivers for the i219-V adapter.

2. Unzip the .exe file and find the folder with the actual driver files named PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS68

3. Do a manual install of the drivers:

   • (Rightclick Update Driver in Device Manager
   • "Browse my computer for computer software”, “Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer”
   • Select “Network Adapter”

   • Select “Have Disk…” and point to the folder mentioned above.

   • Now select i219-LM (the i219-V is not shown)

This way you don't even have to break the driver signing on your server.

Vassalize

Answer 2

I have sucessfully installed an unsupported NIC driver on Windows Server Core 2019.

First you should use the free devmanview tool from NirSoft to check that you have the correct PnP vendor string. I know that you already have the string, but just to make sure that there is no mistake. Then you need to ensure that you have NDIS68 drivers, previous versions will not work. Then you need to patch the corresponding inf to move the lines with your vendor string from the Windows 10 section to the Windows Server section, it seems that this part is also ok in your case.

Then you need to disable signature checks with Bcdedit.exe -set TESTSIGNING ON (UEFI secure boot needs to be disabled in the BIOS) and reboot as this function can only enabled/disabled by rebooting.

Then change to the driver directory and and install the drivers with pnputil /a [nameofpatchedinf].inf /i

You can check with devmanview if the driver shows up with your NICs. Then you can set testsigning to off again and re-enable secure boot (if applicable). I also installed the PROSet Adapter Configuration Utility from Intel to check the adapter settings and verify the hardware and cabling. If you have multiple NICs beware that the numbering on the device is not the same as in the drivers. The number 1 adapter was the physical port 2 in my case. If you plug your cable to another port Windows will complain that there is no active network adapter.

Also be aware that Server 2019 Core is not fully mature as of now. I spend hours to enable Remote Desktop only to learn that there is an unresolved bug that prevents RDP connections even if the firewall settings and the service policy settings are ok.

Olfe

I have followed this guide blog.workinghardinit.work/2017/06/19/… for doing the same on Server 2016. It's a matter of replacing NDIS65 with NDIS68 for Server 2019 – Pessimist

Answer 3

I actually managed to make it work. Although it doesn't truly answer the question on how to force a driver installation from the CLI, it does solve my problem (and similar ones).

First, I edited the .inf file and added the correct devices under the Server 2016 heading. In my case, Intel already had the install information in the file, so it was just copying 2 lines.

This resulted in an error about an incorrect hash. So back to the .inf file to comment out the CatalogFile = line by placing a semi-colon in front of it.

This resulted in an error about it being an unsigned driver package. Without a start button, I couldn't select the Advanced Startup, so I found another way to do it:

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu yes
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} timeout 10

This enabled the F8 menu that allowed me to disable driver signature verification. After that, I was able to install the modded driver. So far it has survived reboots.

Maybe I could install the original driver package using device manager remotely now, should I want a signed driver.

Julian

Answer 4

When trying to get a NUC7I3BNH installed with Windows Server 2019 not long ago I had some apparent success without having to fiddle around with editing and signing.

NOTE: I have not tried this in the Core edition. A workaround might be to get a USB Ethernet Adapter to manage the drivers remotely with MMC or Windows Admin Center (or use the WiFi interface).

In the Device Manager, update the drivers for the Ethernet Connection and 'Browse my computer for driver software'. Choose 'Let me pick from a list of available drivers', then selecting the PRO1000/Winx64/NDIS68 folder and selecting any of the .inf files in there. One of the following devices should show up, use one of these:

Intel(R) I200 Gigabit Network Connection
Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection

I had downloaded the specific ProSetx64 drivers for Windows Server 2019, but after than I downloaded the latest Complete Driver Pack and used the I210 driver.

You will be warned about possible problems with the driver, but with some limited use I have not had any issues.

I was then able to install the ProSet tools and use the Adaptor Configuration Utility.

Hopefully this helps as well.

Nath

Unfortunately, Device Manager is a GUI-only feature. Even in the best case scenario where you can open it remotely, it'll still be read-only. But yes, using device manager, it's possible to just force the installation of a similar card's driver. It's plain Intel silliness that they actually have all the installation instructions for 2019 in the INF file, they just deliberately deactivated them. Which is why a one-line edit will allow the correct driver to install and function just fine, provided you disable driver signing. Thanks for the answer though! – Julian