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bjrosen
Contributor
Contributor

Questions on free version of ESXi, support for desktop Core2 systems?

VMware has announced a free version of ESXi. I've been using VMware Server (both 1.0.6 and 2.0RC) on Fedora and CentOS systems. I gather ESXi differs from server in that it doesn't sit on a host OS, instead it is the host OS. I was wondering if ESXi can run on any desktop Core2 motherboards? I've read that ESXi is a stripped down Linux, if so can you install a standard Linux kernel on it? RHEL/CentOS doesn't run on modern motherboards because of the antique kernels they use, the remedy for that is to install a recent kernel (I'm using a 2.6.23.xx kernel on my CentOS5.2 box which gives me both hardware compatibilty and VMware Server 2.0RC1 compatibilty), can the same thing be done with ESXi?

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Green_N00b
Contributor
Contributor

So after a month and a half of trying to get this working, I managed to install ESXi successfully on my ASUS P5Q motherboard with SATA drives.

If you don't want to read all 4 pages of this thread, I will sum it up here:

- Download the OEM.TGZ file provided by <Kuldipsingh>. Then install Magic ISO and use it to open the ESXi ISO. From there locate the OEM.TGZ that you downloaded and overwrite the one in the ISO. Then save the change, burn the ISO and use it to install ESXi locally onto your SATA drive. This will create the Hypervisor partition.

- Now copy that downloaded OEM.TGZ file to a empty USB Flash Drive and plug it into your server. Then use a Linux Live CD to mount the Hypervisor partition and replace the local OEM.TGZ file. Follow these steps provided by <Errik> where he uses Gentoo as the Live CD:

  • Boot from a LiveCD into the command line, and mount the SATA drive - "sda5". Your mount point may be different, but you will use a command similar to "mount /dev/sda5 /mnt/gentoo". If you do an "ls /mnt/gentoo" you should see an OEM.TGZ.

  • Mount your USB stick in a similar fashion. First run this command "mkdir /mnt/usb" and then "mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb".

  • You can use the "mount" command by itself to make sure that both drives have been mounted. They will both appear at the bottom of the list if mounted properly.

  • Once you have mounted both the correct VMWare partition and your USB stick then, you will want to copy the OEM.TGZ from the USB stick to the VMWare partition with "cp /mnt/usb/oem.tgz /mnt/gentoo". It should ask you if you want to overwrite it, say yes.

  • Now you need to "umount /mnt/gentoo /mnt/usb" and "shutdown now -h" then you should be able to boot your VMWare partition.

From there, you may see an error message stating "LVMDriver failed" and you may have a problem configuring your built in network card on your motherboard. ESXi has a hard time detecting the NIC on the P5Q board. I took the advice from <crazyx> and purchased an "Intel PWLA8391GT 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI Pro/1000 GT Desktop Adapter" network card from Newegg.

Once I plugged the card in and booted ESXi, it populated an IP address from my router automatically. I changed the IP address and now it's working perfectly!!

Then install VMWare Infrastructure Client onto your laptop or remote computer, and you're in business.

Many many thanks goes to Kuldipsingh, Errrik, and crazyx.

Ken

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Janeway
Contributor
Contributor

ultrazoom,

Can you tell me how you get ESXI run on a Asus P5Q-EM & Q9550?

I have also an Asus P5Q-EM & Q9550 but i get this 'Failed to load module 'vmfs3': Invalid argumend'

and failed to load module 'lvmdriver'

and panic: failed to find HD boot partiion

Can you help my?

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flores76
Contributor
Contributor

Hello,

Thanks a lot to Green N00b and Errik for their posts.

I manged to install ESXi 3.5.0 build 123629 on the following box:

ASUS P5Q-PRO with Intel P45 / ICH10R , BIOS v. 1613

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40Ghz

4GB CORSAIR 2x2GB DDR2 1066 MHZ

Network card Intel(R) PRO 100/M

Next I will write detailed steps about how to install ESXi without having any CDROM support (this was my case) and using only USB flash drive.

- Download the OEM.TGZ file provided by <Kuldipsingh>. Then install Magic ISO and use it to open the ESXi ISO. From there locate the OEM.TGZ that you downloaded and overwrite the one in the ISO, save changes.

- Next, follow the step provided here using modified ISO from step 1 to make a bootable USB flash disk.

- Make sure your mother board is configured to boot from USB and install ESXi locally onto your SATA drive. This will create the Hypervisor partition. Attention ! It took me more than 30 minutes to install so be patient .....!http://communities.vmware.com/images/emoticons/happy.gif!

- You have already a copy of correct OEM.TGZ file to the USB Flash Drive. I've made a new directory on my USB and I've moved there all files except the ldlinux.sys wich I still needed. Then use a Linux Live CD ISO to make a bootable Linux USB flash drive. Follow these steps provided by <Errik> where he uses Gentoo as the Live CD. Once you have the ISO, open it with Magic ISO, extract all contents to USB drive (do not erase previous content). Then move all content from ISOLINUX folder directly to the root of USB drive. Then rename isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg.

- Boot from USB flash drive into the command line. Mount the SATA drive. Your mount point may be different, but you will use a command similar to "mount /dev/sdb5 /mnt/gentoo". If you do an "ls /mnt/gentoo" you should see an OEM.TGZ.

- Your USB stick is already mounted in /mnt/cdrom/. Run "ls /mnt/cdrom/" to check the content.

-Once you have mounted both the correct VMWare partition and your USB stick then, you will want to copy the OEM.TGZ from the USB stick to the VMWare partition with "cp /mnt/cdrom/new_folder_from_step4/oem.tgz /mnt/gentoo". It should ask you if you want to overwrite it, say yes.

- Now you need to "umount /mnt/gentoo" and "shutdown now -h" then you should be able to boot your VMWare partition.

I hope this will help others!

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clydec
Contributor
Contributor

Hi KuldipSingh

I have tried the steps you outlined but it did not work. I have struggled with this for the past week without any resolution.

I have a P5Q-EM motherboard. I note also that the on-board Network interface is not supported by ESXi. Have you been able to get this functional as well?

Would it be possible for you to upload the modified ISO as a torrent file?

Many Thanks

Clyde

clydec@cisco.com

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pringles
Contributor
Contributor

hi @all. does anybody have a solution for the P5QL-EM?

i enabled AHCI in bios and the installation of esxi work fine with the modified oem.tgz. my harddisk was found and the installation was running fine. but after a reboot i get an error:

PANIC: Failed to find HD boot partition

any solutions or ideas what happend or what i can do?

i installed esxi a second time and a third, but always the same. the harddisk is not found after the reboot when installation is finished.

Peter

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

Hi Peter, welcome to the VMware Community forums. Do you have more than one HD attached to the storage controller? If so, give it a try with just one.

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pringles
Contributor
Contributor

hi dave,

no, i have only one SATA-HD with 160GB attached.

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ultrazoom
Contributor
Contributor

First of all, try updating the motherboard's BIOS to the latest 0418 if it currently isn't.

If it still doesn't bootup properly after the update, try reinstalling ESXi and see if it helps.

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ultrazoom
Contributor
Contributor

Did you modify the required files correctly which were mentioned in this thread? Also, try updating the motherboard's BIOS to the latest.

For the lvmdriver error, it is likely you don't have an NIC which ESXi can support. Note that the onboard one is not supported.

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pringles
Contributor
Contributor

i think i'm going to try a bios update in the next few days, too and give then a feedback Smiley Happy

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

You mentioned that you modified oem.tgz to get the install to work. Did you do that on the install CD? If so, another copy of oem.tgz gets installed to the HD and you would also have to modify that.

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pringles
Contributor
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Yes, i did it on the install CD. I exported ESX-ISO, modified oem.tgz and created a new ISO. Then I was burning the new ISO to CD.

Hm.. were should the other oem.tgz come from? On the CD i found only one file called oem.tgz. And this one i modified.

When I start my system with a live-linux cd and mount the partitions vmware created, i didn't find the oem.tgz as file on the HD. So I cannot change it on the HD.

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ultrazoom
Contributor
Contributor

Dave is right about another copy of oem.tgz gets copied to the HD, as it is contained in the dd image which you have to modify as well. However, that's a tricky part to modify and compile back into the ISO, which is usually not recommended.

What you must do now is to modify the oem.tgz on the Hypervisor1 partition. Follow the steps Green N00b provided at the very top of this page (Page 5), see if you could further figure it out.

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pringles
Contributor
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hm... ok, i will have a look at the weekend for the oem.tgz installed on the HD.

i'll give a feedback when done Smiley Happy

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pringles
Contributor
Contributor

ok, i tested it now again. it works fine now.

i changed the oem.tgz on the HD after installation, too and rebooted.

don't know, why i didn't saw the oem.tgz on the HD the last time... maybe i should correct my glasses Smiley Happy

thanks all for opening my eyes :smileygrin:

regards

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CoolDixon
Contributor
Contributor

Hello,

I just got my Asus P5Q3 Deluxe mother board with Q6600 Core2 Quad @ 2.4Ghz, 2x2 Gb Ram at 1333Mhz working by following the described procedure.

Updating the Hypervisor oem.tgz file by using Ubuntu 8.10 liveCD was really easy as it's no need of minimun knoledge about mounting or unmounting devices.

By the way Intel Gigabit CT Desktop Adapter EXPI9301CT NIC don't work.

Thanks to everybody, the community is plenty of usefull information and expertice professionals.

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

What's the PCI id for the NIC and does it use the e1000 or e1000e driver? http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Hardware_support.php

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SteVeVMW63
Contributor
Contributor

Hello...

My system:

Asus P5Q Pro

Intel Core 2 Quad Processor

4 GB RAM

2x 400 GB SATA HDD

I took the VMWare Image, replaced the simple.map, pci.ids and oem.tgv and surely made the Storage Config to AHCI...

My Problem after reading the VMWare ISO:

PANIC: Error while reading file: -3, install.tgz

Please help.

Thx..SteVe

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CoolDixon
Contributor
Contributor

I returned back the NIC and ordered a Intel Pro 1000 GT as I read widely across the community it was working fine and straight forward.

I received it today and what has been my surprise when it still says Static 0.0.0.0 and don't allow to change it (don't recognize the NIC)

By switching to console with Alt-F1 I can see lspci -v shows it properly as Intel® 82541PI Gigabit Controller (vnic0) with pci id 8086:107c

In the simple.map it appears this id with driver 1000e

I have absolutly no idea how to fix the problem.

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janputer
Contributor
Contributor

i give up too here. ESXi doesnt want my onboard atheros card or any RTL chipset. Smiley Sad

the oem file for the board was already a pain. vmware gets tons of free knowledge and i get hours of wasting my time for a hypervisor that does no work.

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