We have the same problem and I've found a post refering to a bug in the LSI emulation in VMWare 5 which is suposedly fixed in VMware 6.

Here's the patch, but it didn't work for us. We still can't reboot a box after upgrading the kernel from 2.6.18.3 to 2.6.21.3.

diff -uNr linux-2.6.21.3/drivers/message/fusion/mptbase.c linux-2.6.21.3-patched/drivers/message/fusion/mptbase.c
--- linux-2.6.21.3/drivers/message/fusion/mptbase.c 2007-05-24 18:22:47.000000000 -0300
+++ linux-2.6.21.3-patched/drivers/message/fusion/mptbase.c 2007-05-30 15:46:49.000000000 -0300
@@ -2564,6 +2564,16 @@
pfacts->IOCStatus = le16_to_cpu(pfacts->IOCStatus);
pfacts->IOCLogInfo = le32_to_cpu(pfacts->IOCLogInfo);
pfacts->MaxDevices = le16_to_cpu(pfacts->MaxDevices);
+ /*
+ * VMware emulation is broken, its PortFact's MaxDevices reports value
+ * programmed by IOC Init, so if you program IOC Init to 256 (which is 0,
+ * as that field is only 8 bit), it reports back 0 in port facts, instead
+ * of 256... And unfortunately using 256 triggers another bug in the
+ * code (parallel SCSI can have only 16 devices).
+ */
+ if (pfacts->MaxDevices == 0) {
+ pfacts->MaxDevices = 16;
+ }
pfacts->PortSCSIID = le16_to_cpu(pfacts->PortSCSIID);
pfacts->ProtocolFlags = le16_to_cpu(pfacts->ProtocolFlags);
pfacts->MaxPostedCmdBuffers = le16_to_cpu(pfacts->MaxPostedCmdBuffers);

Hi,

today I tested the patch mentioned above.
And it works!

Silke

Switch to buslogic in VMware, instead??

Yes, of course, I can switch... it's a pain though because I have to add BusLogic to the initrd image, shutdown the box, edit the vmx file and power it back up.

Besides, I'm not sure that all is good since VMWare pops up a warning about changing the disk information and that it might not be supported properly.

We have about 20 machines on which I'll have to do that. We also can't stay with the old kernel because our application needs the new kernel and vmware is our test and build environment and it needs to match.

I hand-edited-in the patch contents to the 2.6.20-gentoo-r8 kernel with success. It seems the gentoo kernels have the same issue running in VMWare-Workstation6. Thank you!

The SCSI driver can be a module if it's in the initial ram drive. There is a bug in the LSI driver/VMware emulation in kernel 2.6.21 & 2.6.22. You can use the BusLogic driver, but you need to update the OS to load the kernel module.

VMware Linux guest kernel panics on boot with LSI Logic HBA and kernel 2.6.21-2.6.22
http://theether.net/kb/100038

Cheers.

There is a Workstation 5.5.5, but not sure if this fix made it into the build. You may want to give it a try.

I believe it did make it into VMware Server 1.0.4