Dell Latitude E5510 Network Boot

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Recently I’d been set the task of imaging some recently-wiped and donated laptops for one of our clients. Because I was imaging a Linux distro (or more specifically Edubuntu 14.04), I decided to set up a DRBL server (also known as Clonezilla Live), which allows you to use a computer’s network card to distribute images. The laptops were imaging fine, at least until I came upon a Dell Latitude E5510 laptop.

I went into the BIOS and enabled Onboard NIC (Network Interface Card), but no matter how many times I tried the laptop would not let me PXE boot. While trying out something else I happened to stumble upon a (rather annoying) workaround. Keep in mind though that this particular path only works if the hard disk is blank.

  • Start the laptop and press F12 to bring up the one-time boot menu
  • The menu will present you with a number of BIOS-enabled options, but unfortunately Onboard NIC isn’t one of them.
  • Choose to boot from Hard Disk. The boot should fail and present you with a screen that tells you that no bootable medium was found. You should also be presented with a list of options, one of which is to go back to one time boot. Choose this.
  • Whaddaya know! You’re right back at the one-time boot menu with one important difference. The Onboard NIC option has now been magically added to the boot menu. Choose this option and proceed as you normally would when PXE booting a computer.

For those people who attempt this and still end up having trouble, another option would be to try Plop Boot Manager, an excellent CD and USB-bootable non-BIOS alternative. This provides you with a number of additional booting options that you may not have otherwise had with your stock BIOS, such as bypassing memory restrictions.