Adding device drivers to Windows installations

This topic explains the process for adding device drivers to a Windows installation task.

To add a device driver to an existing driver set, follow these steps:

  1. Ensure that either the platform ID or machine type, but not both, of the system supported by the driver is present in the Supported Systems field of the DrvSet.ini file in the root directory of the driver set to which you are adding it.
  2. Create a new subdirectory with no spaces or special characters in the root directory of the driver set.
  3. Copy your driver files into the new directory.
    Do not create any subdirectories under this new directory. Here the term "driver files" refers to raw data files (typically *.inf, *.sys, *.dll, and *.cat).
  4. Optional: If the device driver that you have is an executable program, install it to a system, and then fetch the raw data file from the installation directory.
  5. Create a new DrvInfo.ini file in the new directory.
    The easiest way to do this is to make a copy of a DrvInfo.ini file from one of the other driver folders already present in the driver set.
  6. Update the following fields in the DrvInfo.ini file as follows:
    Installation Mode
    Set to: PnP for all drivers for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2012.
    Supported Systems
    The 2-digit platform ID or 4-digit machine type (but not both) of the system to which you are installing.
    Path
    If the Installation Mode parameter is set to Textmode, this parameter must point to the txtsetup.oem file. Your driver directory must contain this file.
The following example shows the required DrvInfo.ini fields for a network driver installation on a LenovoBladeCenter HS22 with platform ID P9, machine type 7978:
Installation Mode = PnP
Supported Systems = P9
Path = 
The following example shows the required DrvInfo.ini fields for a Windows Server 2008 storage driver installation using the machine type for a System x3850 M2, machine type 7141, platform ID A3:
Installation Mode = Textmode
Supported Systems = 7141
Path = txtsetup.oem