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Nick_C1
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Where is Sata_nv.xml?

Hi all from a VMWare noobie,

I am attempting to install ESXi on an Asus M2N-SLi deluxe and get what appears to be the much vaunted error:

'Unable to find a supported device to write the VMWare ESX Server 3i 3.5.0 image to'.

Over on vm-help.com this mobo is listed as working but requires change to /etc/vmware/pciid/sata_nv.xml. Question is where do I find this file and how do I modify it, I cannot seem to find it on the install CD anywhere?

Using Alt-F1 and lspci I have established that there are four Mass Storage Controllers:

nVidea Corporation MCP55 IDE Controller

The first has deviceID: 036e, the other three are deviceID: 037f.

Any help to solve this would be appreciated.

Nick

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aliv
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Hi Nick_C.

I have same motherboard (M2N-SLI Deluxe). Follow the next steps to install ESXi:

1. Press ALT+F1 and login as root with empty password

2. Change directory to the /usr/lib/vmware/installer/Core/ folder

cd /usr/lib/vmware/installer/Core/

3. Use the vi editor to modify the TargetFilter.py file

4. In the IDEFilter() function, change the return line so that it matches what is shown below:

Original line: return interface.GetInterfaceType() == ScsiInterface.SCSI_IFACE_TYPE_IDE

Modified line: return interface.GetInterfaceType() == ScsiInterface.SCSI_IFACE_TYPE_ISCSI

5. Save the file and run the installer again by typing in the command prompt

install

Make sure to proceed with this copy of install you just executed (actually press ALT+F1 after) and it will see your disk.

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Dave_Mishchenko
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Welcome to the VMware Community forums. ESX and ESXi handle PCI data in different ways. Take a look at the customizing oem.tgz article on vm-help.com to see how you would need to do this for ESXi.

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Nick_C1
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Thanks for the pointer Dave. I have found the link to ICH8_oem.tgz which downloads as ICH8_oem.tar which contains a file ICH8_oem[1] and various directories etc/mod/usr. Problem is none of these seem to contain a Sata_nv.xml. Also the file ICH8_oem[1] states:

*

  1. This file is automatically generated by esxcfg-pciid*

    1. Any changes you make manually will be lost at the next build.*

    2. Please edit <driver>.xml for permanent changes.

*

So where do I change this Sata_nv.xml file or am I misunderstanding the issue?

Just a thought but if ESXi can be modified to take account of all these standard hardware controllers why don't VMWare simply include them in a new ISO image?

Nick

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Dave_Mishchenko
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ESXi only uses simple.map and pci.ids. There are no xml files to change (the text in the file you looked at is a bit misleading).

As new updates come out, the PCI database is updated but ESX(i) leans to being a more stable platform rather than "supporting" all the latest revisions of hardware. Hence for the ICH family a number of entries are missing and the driver source used is not the latest.

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Nick_C1
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Dave,

Thanks for info but I still seem unable to make any progress on this.

I have downloaded ISOCommander and WinRAR. I have the original iso and a new drivers file called ICH8_oem.tar. Do I somehow replace the oem.txt in OEM.tgz with a renamed one fromICH8_oem.tar?

Thanks,

Nick

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Dave_Mishchenko
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You'll likely find this easier if you install ESXi to a USB drive and then boot with that. You can then enable SSH, copy the new oem.tgz to the host and replace it.

If you want to edit the install CD, then you need to

1) replace oem.tgz in the root of the install CD with the one you downloaded

2) if it works to install ESXi, then you would reboot after the install, but boot with a Linux live CD instead of ESXi.

3) after you've booted Linux, you would mount the Hypervisor1 partition and then replace oem.tgz again.

The oem.tgz in the root of the CD is only used for the install process. There is another copy in a DD image which is buried in install.tgz.

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Nick_C1
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Dave,

I have an iso which contains 'OEM.TGZ'. I have a downloaded file called ICH_oem.tar. Do I simply rename ICH_oem.tar to OEM.TGZ and insert that into the iso?

Thx,

Nick

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Nick_C1
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I am now attempting to replace the oem.tgz only. Problem is I still can't even seem to get that working I use ISOCommander but then get a boot time error:

ISOLINUX 3.63 2008-04-10 isolinux: Image checksum error, sorry...

Any suggestions or is it just not possible to alter the install iso?

Is there any chance that VMWare might publish an iso with all these hardware IDs built in and much wider compatibility, even if it is an unsupported version.

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Dave_Mishchenko
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Have you tried booting your host with ESXi on a USB flash drive?

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Nick_C1
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Thanks Dave but I gave up with trying to boot from USB stick, couldn't get it to work. Have just tried again, all that happens is that WinImage finishes but does not write anything to the USB drive. It is just blank. Any ideas?

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Dave_Mishchenko
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You might try an alternate problem. Just in case you're running Vista, I would also run winimage an adminstrator.

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Nick_C1
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Does anyone know of a Windows tool to convert this 'dd' to an ISO or write it to CD?

Thanks,

Nick

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Nick_C1
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Still not been able to make any progress with this, any other ideas?

Situation so far:

Motherboard: Asus M2N-SLi deluxe - needs replacement oem.tgz to enable SATA controller

Have extracted VMware-VMvisor-big-3.5.0_Update_3-123629.i386.dd but WinImage does not seem to write it to USB stick, just finishes and does nothing.

However this is a little academic because this motherboard doesn't seem to have any way to boot from USB stick.

Don't suppose anyone out there with with the appropriate knowledge could produce an ICH8 or ICH10 version .iso?

Failing that I now have Fedora installed on another machine, could anyone explain to me how I could use that to edit the .iso in the required places.

Cheers,

Nick

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aliv
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Hi Nick_C.

I have same motherboard (M2N-SLI Deluxe). Follow the next steps to install ESXi:

1. Press ALT+F1 and login as root with empty password

2. Change directory to the /usr/lib/vmware/installer/Core/ folder

cd /usr/lib/vmware/installer/Core/

3. Use the vi editor to modify the TargetFilter.py file

4. In the IDEFilter() function, change the return line so that it matches what is shown below:

Original line: return interface.GetInterfaceType() == ScsiInterface.SCSI_IFACE_TYPE_IDE

Modified line: return interface.GetInterfaceType() == ScsiInterface.SCSI_IFACE_TYPE_ISCSI

5. Save the file and run the installer again by typing in the command prompt

install

Make sure to proceed with this copy of install you just executed (actually press ALT+F1 after) and it will see your disk.

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Dave_Mishchenko
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What model of storage controller do you have and what's the PCI id - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/find_PCI_ID.php?

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aliv
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Machine has already been moved to the server room. And seems no way to chech this remotelly...

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Nick_C1
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Aliv: Thanks for the suggestion I tried that file edit but still get same error.

Dave: Storage controller is:

nVidea Corporation MCP55 SATA Controller - 1043:8239

What can I do with this information.

Thanks,

Nick

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Nick_C1
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Aliv,

I have tried again and it now works, suspect I was doing the last Alt-F1 at the wrong time.

Thanks for the instructions,

Nick

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aliv
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Nick, yes pressing ALT+F1 was important trick, which was not described in any other sources. Glad you have resolve it. Happy ESXing!

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