Arm-based Operating System Deployment
Operating System Deployment support for Windows 11 ARM 64 devices is now supported in the 2403 release of Configuration Manager. This guide will demonstrate how to deploy Windows 11 to the Qualcomm equipped ThinkPad X13s and T14s Gen 6.
ThinkPad X13s
ADK
At the time of initially publishing this article, I had installed the September 2023 ADK (10.1.25398.1) and the Windows PE add-on. This version is required for Windows ARM deployments. If you need to update the ADK from a previous version, do so before updating Configuration Manager. This will allow the default boot images to be automatically updated to the latest Win PE version.
Site Update
Update 2403 is an in-console update. If you're upgrading, make sure to go through the install checklist before applying the update. If everything goes smoothly, you'll now see a new boot image in the console.
PXE Configuration
During testing, the Distribution Point in my lab was configured for SCCM's PXE responder service (WDS-less). However, if you're going to deploy an ARM-based device, WDS PXE is the only way to do it (for now). Rather than messing with my existing one, I went ahead and stood up another DP in my lab and configured it for WDS PXE.
Drivers
Next will be adding the right drivers to the boot image. When I initially PXE booted the X13s using a USB-C to Ethernet adapter, I successfully got into WinPE, but there was no touchpad/trackpoint or keyboard support so that left me dead in the water. At the time of this writing, the latest SCCM pack for X13s was released on April 5. You'll want to download the Windows 11 22H2 pack and extract the contents to your driver share.
In the console, go to Software Library > Drivers and click Import Driver in the ribbon bar to start the driver import wizard.
Boot Image
We're only going to import the Boot Critical drivers. Referencing the SCCM pack ReadMe, the Build ID for these drivers is N3HQC12W and can be found under the Chipset directory. The path to this directory is what you'll specify in the wizard to import.
Wait several minutes for the drivers (52 total) to be imported to the driver catalog. Once that clears, keep the defaults checked and assign the drivers a category, optional of course. I created a X13s and WinPE category for organization purposes.
Skip to select packages to add the drivers to.
On the Select drivers to include in the boot image, tick the box beside the Boot image (arm64) and click next, which will then present you with this prompt
Click Yes and you'll be greeted with one more
Click next all the way through to complete adding the drivers to your boot image.
If you pull up the boot image properties and click on the Drivers tab, you should see all of the injected drivers
With the properties still open, enable command line support under the Customization tab and add any other Optional Components, such as PowerShell support. Update Distribution Points and your boot image is ARM ready.
Driver Package
I tested both ways for driver installation. A Driver Package and a legacy Package containing the extracted drivers. I prefer the latter, so in the console, go to Software Library > Packages and create a new Package. Give it a name, tick the box beside This package contains source files, and point it to the path on your share where you extracted the drivers. Click the radio button beside Do not create a program and finish out the wizard. Distribute the Package to your Distribution Points.
Windows 11 ARM Media
Download the Windows 11 ARM ISO and add the install.wim under Software Library > Operating System Images. This is 24H2 Enterprise
Task Sequence
Create a new Task Sequence, selecting the option to Install an existing image package. Name it and choose the Arm boot image
Choose the Windows 11 Arm image package and proceed through the Task Sequence creation wizard.
Once complete, edit the Task Sequence and disable the default step to apply drivers.
- Create a new group titled Drivers. Under that group, add a Download Package Content step and add the driver package created earlier. I'll tick the radio button to save the content to a custom path of %_SMSTSMDataPath%\Drivers
More info on TS variables can be found here https://learn.microsoft.com/mem/configmgr/osd/understand/task-sequence-variables#SMSTSMDataPath
- Add a Run Command Line step that calls Dism to recursively install the drivers.
DISM.exe /Image:%OSDTargetSystemDrive%\ /Add-Driver /Driver:%_SMSTSMDataPath%\Drivers /Recurse /LogPath:%_SMSTSLogPath%\DISM.log
Now deploy the Task Sequence to the Unknown Computers device collection.
Experience
Firing up the X13s and F12'ing to the boot menu to PXE
Boot image incoming!
Unfortunately, we have a resolution problem which I can't seem to get sorted. I've even tried dumping the entire driver pack in the boot image but that didn't fix it. On the bright side, you can kick off your Task Sequence.
Successful deployment with a clean Device Manager!
ThinkPad T14s Gen 6
ADK
At the time of updating this article, my ConfigMgr environment is at version 2403 with ADK 10.1.26100 (May 2024) installed.
Boot Image
Looking at the ARM64 boot image properties, the version is 10.0.26100.
Switching to the Drivers tab, you can see no additional drivers have been injected.
PXE Boot
On my T14s Gen 6, I'll activate System Deployment Boot Mode at the boot menu and proceed to PXE booting
Here, I can see the ARM64 boot image downloading (package ID matches)
Task Sequence
We've now entered PE and can continue to choose a task sequence. Remember, no drivers were added to the boot image so the fact that we can see the wizard confirms inbox driver support for this model.
End Results
Once OSD completes, I can see a clean device manager.
