I installed VMWare ESXi 3.5 Update 2 on a Tyan i7501 S2723 Dual Xeon server, and for some reason, when I boot either from the install CD or the hard drive, the boot loader stop at VMKernel loaded successfully.
Even if I press any key on the keyboard, or let it run for hours, it won't go further. But if I hit the power button on the case (without holding it), the boot process continue and everything start up correctly. After that, I can work with ESXi without any further problem. But next time I'll reboot, the same thing will happen.
I tried reinstalling the hypervisor, changed hard drive, removed the CD-ROM, to no avail.
This is my config:
-Tyan i7501 S2723 Intel E7501 + ICH3 mPGA604 motherboard
-2x Intel Xeon 2.8Ghz Hyper-Threading
-1Gb ECC DDR2100
-1x Seagate 36Gb SCSI
-1x Seagate 73Gb SCSI
-Adaptec 29320 U320 SCSI (non-RAID)
-1 IDE CD-ROM
I tried updating to Update 3, same thing happens.
Any ideas?
I'm getting the same thing on a couple of Tyan 2723 boxes I have lying around in my lab.
Did you find a work around? I can't get past the Vmkernel loaded screen at all.
Edit: I managed to get it installed by pressing the power button like you said above. Has the same behaviour running off the HDD as well. Must be a work around? What is it intercepting when the power button is pressed?
Well I think I finally figured it out!
I had trouble making both my Adaptec 29320 SCSI and 2420 SATA cards together, so I updated the BIOS to the latest V2.02
http://www.tyan.com/support_download_bios.aspx?model=S.S2723
I reinstalled ESXi and now it doesn't freeze on boot anymore.
Maybe give it a try, the BIOS I had before was dated from 2003.