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Kurt1978
Contributor
Contributor

Intel Mainboard DG45ID - Intel NIC 82567LF-2

I'm trying to set-up a home test esxi environment but I'm having some issues with getting my nic to work.

I start ESX from a USB stick but my nic doesn't get detected.

I followed following steps to add the driver for the Intel NIC 82567 and the storage controller but after adding the drivers ESX still does not recognize my NIC. (I got following steps from www.vm-help.com)

---I started ESXi on a fully supported machine and enabled ssh access

---Opened ssh using putty

1) cd /tmp/

2) mkdir -p oem/etc/vmware

3) mkdir -p oem/usr/share/hwdata

---mkdir -p oem/mod

4) cd oem/etc/vmware

5) cp /etc/vmware/simple.map simple.map

6) vi simple.map

---add the necessary PCI data for your devices

7) close vi - press ESC and enter :wq

😎 cd /tmp/oem/usr/share/hwdata

9) cp /usr/share/hwdata/pci.ids pci.ids

10) vi pci.ids

--- add the necessary description for your devices (this will be displayed in the console and VI Client)

11) close vi - press ESC and enter :wq

--- copy the driver files e1000e.o using winscp to tmp/oem/mod

12) cd /tmp/oem

13) chown -R 201:201 ./etc

14) chown -R 201:201 ./usr

--- chown -R 201:201 ./mod

15) chmod -R 755 ./etc

16) chmod -R 755 ./usr

---c hmod -R 755 ./mod

17) chmod 644 ./etc/vmware/simple.map

18) chmod 644 ./usr/share/hwdata/pci.ids

19---) tar -cvzf oem.tgz etc usr mod

20) cp oem.tgz /bootbank/oem.tgz

21) cd /bootbank/

22) chmod 755 oem.tgz

---halt

---Boot esxi on my other machine and the nic still doesn't get detected.

Do I need more recent e1000e drivers for this card? I checked the intel site but I don't know which drivers to use.

()

Can anyone help me with this issue or point out any flaws in the steps I followed?

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15 Replies
Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

The drivers that ESXi uses have to be specifically modified and compiled for ESX so you can't add just any driver. If you run lspci -p at the console, is the module loaded for the NIC?

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Kurt1978
Contributor
Contributor

When running lspi and lspci -p

I noticed that the nic is loaded in the way I modified the pci and simple.map but I get an error.

"Line 7 improperly formatted -> parsing problem

Vendors 0 vendor 1679 devices 0 ndevid 3720

Failed to build PCI tables"

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Kurt1978
Contributor
Contributor

After restoring pci.id and simple map to the original and modifying them to add the NIC I don't get any errors anymore when running lspci -p and the NIC is loaded.

But when I use alt-F2 to go the network management I still don't see my nic, any idea why it doesn't show up here?

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

So if you run lspci -p it shows both the module loaded and a vmnicX for the NIC?

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N2Network
Contributor
Contributor

I have a question related to this issue as well. When I do an lspci -v i can see 00:25.00 8086:10cc 8086:0000 10/ 10/0x81 A V vmnic0

Is this what I'm supposed to be seeing? Does this mean my driver loaded successfully?

When I go into the ALT+F2 menu i still only see 0.0.0.0 and if i try to configure it the only option I get is to restore the network factory settings but nowhere do I get the options to configure the IP.






Jeremy Whittaker

MCSE MCSA CCNA CCA

Senior Consultant

N2 Network Solutions

3116 South Mill Ave Suite 106

Tempe, Arizona 85282

Phone: (602) 445-9816 ext 537

Toll Free: (800) 784-4155

Fax: (602) 297-6838

Jeremy Whittaker
MCSE MCSA CCNA CCA
Senior Consultant
N2 Network Solutions
3116 South Mill Ave Suite 106
Tempe, Arizona 85282
Phone: (602) 445-9816 ext 537
Toll Free: (800) 784-4155
Fax: (602) 297-6838
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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

It means the driver did not load properly and I believe the 8086:10cc device actually requires the e1000e driver. There is a oem.tgz with an e1000e driver on the customizing oem.tgz page on vm-help.com, but you may still need to modify simple.map/pci.ids in that download to match and it may still not work with this NIC as the driver compiled by VMware is a bit old and doesn't seem to work with some of the latest e1000e NICs.

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N2Network
Contributor
Contributor

is there any way I can format the unallocated 14gb of my thumb drive so that I can copy the modified oem.tgz files to get them installed? How do you propose i get those custom files onto my thumb drive? Because within Windows i'm unable to access any partition except for the one that is like 5mb

UPDATE:

Nevermind this post I was able to copy the 1.04 version of your file from vm-help.com it was only 700kb I'm going to work on extracting it and trying to manually add the files from within the Alt+f1 console.






Jeremy Whittaker

MCSE MCSA CCNA CCA

Senior Consultant

N2 Network Solutions

3116 South Mill Ave Suite 106

Tempe, Arizona 85282

Phone: (602) 445-9816 ext 537

Toll Free: (800) 784-4155

Fax: (602) 297-6838

Jeremy Whittaker
MCSE MCSA CCNA CCA
Senior Consultant
N2 Network Solutions
3116 South Mill Ave Suite 106
Tempe, Arizona 85282
Phone: (602) 445-9816 ext 537
Toll Free: (800) 784-4155
Fax: (602) 297-6838
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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

You can enable SSH - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/ESXi_enable_SSH.php and then use something like WinSCP to copy the file from your PC to ESXi. It might be possible to create another partition with the extra space and then mount it, but I haven't tried it myself.

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N2Network
Contributor
Contributor

I cannot enable SSH because I don't have the network drivers installed so there is no way for me to access it even if SSH was enabled. The question I have now is I've extracted the files to the 5mb partition on the USB thumb drive. How do I mount that partition in linux so that I can now access that file and copy over the drivers? What is the syntax for that?






Jeremy Whittaker

MCSE MCSA CCNA CCA

Senior Consultant

N2 Network Solutions

3116 South Mill Ave Suite 106

Tempe, Arizona 85282

Phone: (602) 445-9816 ext 537

Toll Free: (800) 784-4155

Fax: (602) 297-6838

Jeremy Whittaker
MCSE MCSA CCNA CCA
Senior Consultant
N2 Network Solutions
3116 South Mill Ave Suite 106
Tempe, Arizona 85282
Phone: (602) 445-9816 ext 537
Toll Free: (800) 784-4155
Fax: (602) 297-6838
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N2Network
Contributor
Contributor

Or what if I burn the file to a disk then could I transfer it over easier by mounting the Cd-rom? Is that an easier process?






Jeremy Whittaker

MCSE MCSA CCNA CCA

Senior Consultant

N2 Network Solutions

3116 South Mill Ave Suite 106

Tempe, Arizona 85282

Phone: (602) 445-9816 ext 537

Toll Free: (800) 784-4155

Fax: (602) 297-6838

Jeremy Whittaker
MCSE MCSA CCNA CCA
Senior Consultant
N2 Network Solutions
3116 South Mill Ave Suite 106
Tempe, Arizona 85282
Phone: (602) 445-9816 ext 537
Toll Free: (800) 784-4155
Fax: (602) 297-6838
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N2Network
Contributor
Contributor

Can anyone help me out with this? Because I don't have the network drivers installed I cannot enable SSH to transfer the files. And I really don't have enough Linux knowledge to mount a USB drive, hard drive, or Cd-rom. Can someone give me a way to do this in dumbed down terms? Any help would be much appreciated.






Jeremy Whittaker

MCSE MCSA CCNA CCA

Senior Consultant

N2 Network Solutions

3116 South Mill Ave Suite 106

Tempe, Arizona 85282

Phone: (602) 445-9816 ext 537

Toll Free: (800) 784-4155

Fax: (602) 297-6838

Jeremy Whittaker
MCSE MCSA CCNA CCA
Senior Consultant
N2 Network Solutions
3116 South Mill Ave Suite 106
Tempe, Arizona 85282
Phone: (602) 445-9816 ext 537
Toll Free: (800) 784-4155
Fax: (602) 297-6838
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N2Network
Contributor
Contributor

Hey Dave I changed it to e1000e and I still get the same output in my lspci command. Can you tell me what it will look like when I successfully load the driver?

Also for my hard drive controllers they say the following:

00:31.02 8086:3a20 8086:4f53 11/ 11/0x91 A V vmhba0

00:31.03 8086:3a26 8086:4f53 10/ 10/0x99 B V vmhba1

Does this mean they loaded successfully or do I still need to do some tweaking on the drivers?






Jeremy Whittaker

MCSE MCSA CCNA CCA

Senior Consultant

N2 Network Solutions

3116 South Mill Ave Suite 106

Tempe, Arizona 85282

Phone: (602) 445-9816 ext 537

Toll Free: (800) 784-4155

Fax: (602) 297-6838

Jeremy Whittaker
MCSE MCSA CCNA CCA
Senior Consultant
N2 Network Solutions
3116 South Mill Ave Suite 106
Tempe, Arizona 85282
Phone: (602) 445-9816 ext 537
Toll Free: (800) 784-4155
Fax: (602) 297-6838
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Kurt1978
Contributor
Contributor

The NIC shows up when running lspci but not in the configuration mode, but I also think that the e1000e drivers are a bit outdated in oem.tgz for this NIC.

The linux drivers can be downloaded from intel site, how can I add the more recent e1000e drivers to esxi?

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N2Network
Contributor
Contributor

Kurt,

I'm under the impression you cannot simply download the drivers from Intel's website. Vmware "re-programs" the drivers to fit their specifications. So you are forced to use the outdated drivers that they've programmed, this is my understanding anyways.

I'm having the same problems as you as I have an Intel Pro/1000 integrated on my motherboard and I have not been able to get it to work either. I ended up purchasing another PRO/1000 pci express x1 for $30. I'm hoping this will resolve my problem.






Jeremy Whittaker

MCSE MCSA CCNA CCA

Senior Consultant

N2 Network Solutions

3116 South Mill Ave Suite 106

Tempe, Arizona 85282

Phone: (602) 445-9816 ext 537

Toll Free: (800) 784-4155

Fax: (602) 297-6838

Jeremy Whittaker
MCSE MCSA CCNA CCA
Senior Consultant
N2 Network Solutions
3116 South Mill Ave Suite 106
Tempe, Arizona 85282
Phone: (602) 445-9816 ext 537
Toll Free: (800) 784-4155
Fax: (602) 297-6838
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mic106
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

I have just managed to start ESXi 3.5 update 4 on Intel Mainboard DG45ID - Intel NIC 82567LF.

Initially, the problems described above observed.

What I did:

1) made ESXi bootable from USB Flash as described here;

Under Ubuntu:

2) mounted this usb flash drive;

3) downloaded oem_8086_10f5.tgz.tar for Intel 82567LM Ethernet adapter (8086:10f5) from here;

4) unpacked it;

6) and replaced entries for 8086:10f5 to 8086:10cd (82567LF) in simple.map and pci.id;

5) followed instructions from here to pack all modified stuff and replaced original oem.tgz by new one on Hypervisor1 partition of USB Flash drirve;

=====================

6) Booted ESXi from prepared USB flash drive on DG45ID - Intel NIC 82567LF machine without any problems. Got access to ESXi server from Infrastructure client via network.

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