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jvanzeir
Contributor
Contributor

How to install windows 8 on esxi 4.1 ?

Hi

I would like to install windows 8 on my current esxi 4.1 environment, of course without success. I receive the error about that

HAL_Initialization_Failed

I've found serveral forums that only workstation 8 and new esxi5 with patch2 is able to install Windows 8.

Is there any solution regarding windows 8 on esxi 4.1 ?

It would be great, because I must not upgrade to esxi 5

Thanks in advance

Regards

Juergen

55 Replies
Ra2707
Contributor
Contributor

no change  😞

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Que2
Contributor
Contributor

Ra2707,

I really have not seen much discussion about the things that you have tried or much about how you set up the VM.

Or if you receive this error before or after OS install.

There is plenty on Google about this error poping up after OS install dealing with memory/driver problems

I am using Virtual Machine Version: 7

Both Memory/CPU Hotplug is disabled

Video RAM is set to 128MB (This setting would not matter but I like to give more than the standard video memory)

LSI Logic SAS SCSI Controller

E1000 Network

General Options -> OS type set to 2008R2 64Bit (I am running Server 2012 the server version of Windows 😎

I know you are using build 8000380 but are you using ESX or ESXi, from the log file it shows "VMware ESX"?

I would re-create your vm with hotplug disabled with a similar config as above, ignoring the video ram stuff that I did.

Please post results.

If problems detail what you have tried.

thx

Que2

BTW: I also have the BIOS file I use in the VM directory so I do not have to set special paths.

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Ra2707
Contributor
Contributor

Que2,

after some tests these are my results with my ESXi 4.1 U3 installation:

The problem was the hardware:

     Asus P8P67 Pro (P67 Express Chipset)  with a intel i5-3570K or i5-3470S cpu didn't work with Win8, but with all other systems.

     A BIOS update and playing with all the BIOS settings didn't solve my problem.

With my Asus Maximus V Gene (Intel® Z77 Express Chipset) the EXSi could not find the vmfs volumes, but this is a other problem.

What worked with Windows 8 Pro was a old Asus P7P55D-E motherboard ...

thx for your help.

br

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moonshine560
Contributor
Contributor

Yes. This solution also worked for me, but can't seem to get VMTools installed on it. Any suggestions?

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VDBG
Contributor
Contributor

jmattson,

This works perfectly for Windows Server 2012!

Do you know if there would be a problem installing the ESX 4.1 VMware Tools on the Windows Server 2012 virtual machine running on ESXi 4.1 with your configuration?

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

I do not believe that ESXi 4.1 has VMware Tools for Windows 8/Windows Server 2012.  You are welcome to experiment with VMware Tools for an earlier version of Windows, but please note that this configuration is not supported by VMware, with or without Tools.

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moonshine560
Contributor
Contributor

For getting Windows 8 to boot and operate in ESX 4.1,

I used jmattson's bios.rom file and updated my .vmx file. That worked fine for me.

Then For Installing VMTools on my Windows 8 VMs, I used this kb article for the VGA black screen issues.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=101170...

Just on setup, I chose Custom rather than Typical setup, and was able to disable the VMTools VGA driver.

Presto! Windows 8 now works in ESX 4.1 with VMTools.

Joy!

mfedermanv
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Is there any information around what the changes were in the ROM?

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Michael F wrote:

Is there any information around what the changes were in the ROM?

It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure this was the ROM from Workstation 9.  There are instructions for extracting the BIOS ROM file in this thread: , for those who are uncomfortable installing a BIOS ROM image of unknown provenance.

Note that this configuration is entirely unsupported, no matter where you get your ROM image.

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moonshine560
Contributor
Contributor

Does anyone know if this same file, bios.440.rom, will work for Windows Server 2012 in ESX 4.1? I tried it a few times today with no luck. I was just curious if a whole new bios file had to be written for this OS too... or if the Windows 8 file should work.

I get the same HAL error too by the way. As the Windows 8 machines give.

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moonshine560
Contributor
Contributor

I answered my own question. It can use the same file. I just had a typo in the .vmx file. All good now. Server 2012 now also boots up in ESX 4.1.

Thanks a ton Jmattson!!! You rock

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BitRain
Contributor
Contributor

Great solution but I'm having issues  with the CTRL-ALT-INS key combination. This counts only for the VM's that are starting with the bios.440.rom

Any workaround for this problem Smiley Wink

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Sorry; I can't even imagine what the connection might be.

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grasshopper
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

BitRain wrote:

Great solution but I'm having issues  with the CTRL-ALT-INS key combination. This counts only for the VM's that are starting with the bios.440.rom

Any workaround for this problem Smiley Wink

Open a console to the VM and navigate to "VM > Guest > Send CTRL+Alt+Delete".  If you RDP to another server to run the vSphere Client from there, then ensure that you are in full screen mode (i.e. maximize the RDP session).

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Hanoon
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Glad your issue is resolved...

www.247rack.com VMware cloud hosting
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BitRain
Contributor
Contributor

Sorry but your solution isn't working for me. To be more specific, I need to be able to send a CTRL-ALT-DEL during the startup so I can force a PXE boot. I'm not able to send the normal CTRL-ALT-INS. A CTRL-T freezes the VM and VMWare console. I had this issue also before using the normal rom (but less because I was able to reset the VM via the CTRL-ALT-INS).

Anyone recognizing this issue?

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Thunderbuck
Contributor
Contributor

You so totally ROCK.  That solves it nicely.

We're replacing aging file servers and didn't really want to delay this until after our ESXi 5 implementation (coming "soon" Smiley Wink ).  Getting to do this on our existing vSphere infrastructure is very helpful.  THANK YOU!

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huddie
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

To jmattson, Que2, moonshine560, etc., a big thanks. With your solutions I got Win2012 working on ESX4.1. If only all forum threads were this good.

moonshine560
Contributor
Contributor

That's great huddie. Glad to hear this. I also wanted to let you and jmattson know, that we just slapped the Windows 8.1 Preview build (that recently came out) and it worked the same way

as the regular Windows 8 or Server 2012 VM's did. Smiley Happy Link below in case you're interested.

Download Windows 8.1 Preview - Microsoft Windows

xjbrewer
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you jmattson. This worked like a charm!

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