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FruitCake
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ESXi 5.5 Changes in USB controller support?

Trying to upgrade my home lab to 5.5 to test out some of the new features before getting it rolling at work and I've run into a problem with installing it.

I have a pair of hosts running 5.1 installed to a USB key with an internal SSD for use as a host cache disk (prob to be swapped to vCache if i can ever get 5.5 to install).

5.1 and 5.0 before it recognised the USB key and installed to it with no problems, 5.5 however does not see the USB key at all. In fact as far as I can tell half way through the boot (at the yellow top half point) it seems to turn the USB subsystem off entirely as the usb keyboard plugged in turns off at this point. It does however continue booting off the USB cdrom drive

My best guess is that the UEFI boot is keeping the usb controllers in legacy mode and presenting them to the boot evironment, then ESXi starts the drivers for the USB controllers attempts to take them over from the UEFI bios and shuts them down/fails to load/who knows.

Wondering if anyone else has seen this and has a workaround?

My systems are:

ASUS P8H61-I R2.0 motherboard

i3-3220 cpu

USB key plugged into usb2 ports NOT the usb3 ports

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Gerjan
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Hello Mauser,

EHCI is not an Hard drive option, but a USB option.

Normally you can find it under the tab "advanced" USB properties

Best Regards

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matthiasabele
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Thanks varnav, worked for me on the S1200BTL

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morpheus00de
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Hi,

4me disable legacy usb and Port 60/64 Emu work. Both not needed for esxi (legacy usb is for dos and 60/64 for nt imho)...

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RohitVCP7
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I have Intel SWQ67 m/b and it is working fine with ESXi 5.1, but when i am trying to install ESXi 5.5 getting below Purple screen, This purple screen coming during scanning PCI pass through...

esxi5.5.JPG

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Auton
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S1200BTL using LSI Megaraid 9240-4i Raid card various issues (resolved) using Esxi 5.5

(S1200BTL has no EHCI option under advanced USB).

Esxi 5.5 would only instal when USB was plugged into the mainboard USB on the chassis directly and BIOS set to USB legacy: disabled and 64/60 Emulation: disabled.

Problem THEN would be: no keyboard input possible when ESXI was completely booted.

If keyboard was directly attached to chassis and the USB stick with ESXI was on the USB rear port it would hang on the *"Loading module megaraid_sas"* screen.

Solution for ALL problems: plug USB hub ONTO the chassis USB poort next to the SATA poorts and connect keyboard AND USB stick with ESXI onto HUB. everything works fine now.

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RohitVCP7
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Hi Auton,

Thanks of the reply

I have disabled USB legacy but Port 60/64 Emulation option is not available , i think due to this ESXi 5.5 bootable USB is not detecting.

below are the screen shoot of the BIOS;

Please check if you can find something

BIOS_1.JPG

BIOS_2.JPG

BIOS_3.JPG

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AmironoX
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Hello all.

I can confirm an issue with USB controller on S1200BTL board (BIOS 41 is the latest one). I was able to install ESXi 5.5 only with USB hub connected to internal USB port. UEFI Optimized boot enable doesn't resolve this issue also. ESXi 5.1 works fine. Obviously something wrong with USB drivers in 5.5.

Unfortunatelly I need more than one working USB port after installation. Because nothing changed even if installation completed and server beeted from internal storage, USB ports still doesn't work.

The interesting fact that all USB ports are connected to C204 chipset and should be at the same state, but they aren't.

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nettop
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Problem here, only one usb device is recognized in vsphere 5.5 the one is a ups from online usv, but my usb hard disk to make the backup does no longer working, strange

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SkinLi
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I am do the same thing on Intel s1200bts and it works )

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ddmprojekt
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I have the same issue.

After switching on the PC, the USB-keyboard works fine to enter BIOS and even to enter the ESXI recovery mode, but once the booting is underway or ended (yellow-black screen), I cannot enter ESXI SETUP-mode or QUIT, because the USB-keyboard isn't working anymore.

In addition I observe that VSpheres lists appropriate USB hardware on my motherboard, while Windows fails to find or install drivers, ie. for a USB CD-drive or ext.-HD-passthrough.

All I know is that I had it working once with the very same hardware. It's not the motherboard.

There must be some special setting in Spheres or in the relevant ESXI ini-files, no?

or maybe a boot parameter?

Any ideas?

Publishing them here would be wonderful. Many thanks

  • MB Intel® Desktop Board DQ77MK
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srwsol
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I have a DQ77KB motherboard running ESXi 5.5, and I had problems initially installing ESXi (5.1 it was at the time) and trying to pass through the onboard USB ports.  Seemed like whichever port I tried to pass through, all of them would end up being unavailable for the keyboard and mouse.  I ended up getting a separate USB 3 add-in card and passing that through to the VMs, and I left the onboard ports alone.  One thing that may have something to do with it is the Intel-AMT stuff may be interfering as it also needs to monitor the on board USB ports in order to simulate keyboard presses and mouse movements when someone signs into the machine remotely.  I never did this because I needed the AMT support as the computer is in a remote location, but if it's in a local location you might try disabling all the AMT stuff in the bios. 

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ddmprojekt
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Hi srwsol,

and with your USB3 addin card, does passthrough finally work? And can you administer ESXI with your keyboard? (I mean the black-yellow part, where you can reboot and administer network settings)

In my case, with the same board (DQ77KB_MK, latest BIOS), I never had any issues INSTALLING and RUNNING ESXI (5.1, 5.5, 5.5upd01), but after booting ESXI, the keyboard doesn't work anymore. The USB ports can be 'seen' in Vspheres (passthough enabled), but none of the VMs can make use of USB.

I need AMT, because I want to access BIOS etc through RealVNC (machine is headless).

Philipp

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srwsol
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Yes.  I passed through the USB 3 add-in card successfully and left alone the ports on the motherboard.   Originally ESXi 5.1 had terrible problems passing through a USB 3 card, but it seems to work OK with 5.5.  Here's a screenshot of what I am doing:

pcidevices.jpg

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pointman1921
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Seems I am having the same issues as everyone else on here. 

ESXi 5.5 ISO install via USB on fresh HD into physical box. 

I recently had ESXi 5.0 (test) installed and had my keyboard and mouse working without an issue. 

I ended up buying a license and started the install of 5.5 on a fresh system.  No issues at first.  Went into bios changed the appropriate settings, keyboards working (have used 5 completely different keyboards so far), was able to force a USB boot without issue.  Finally after everything loaded up, I came to the black and yellow install screen.  Like others stated before me, all keyboard lights died roughly 25% in.  After the lights died, there was no response what-so-ever.  Meaning, I am unable to install or quit.

I'm not sure about everyone else, but having input into an operating system is a pretty big thing for me.  Especially during the install.

I am going to try and internal-usb this one, but I really do hope someone finds an answer to this issue.  The more I search about it, the more I find, and no one seems to have a complete answer.

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ddmprojekt
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Hi pointman1921,

It seems that the keyboard issue has something to do with the passing through of onboard USB (i.e. of the ESXi host hardware)

In Vsphere I unchecked this option, restarted the ESXi host and voilà, USB keyboard works!

In order to have some USB port to pass through, I inserted a Delock PCI Express card 4x external USB 3.0 (NEC/Renesas chipset), which showed up fine in VSphere, but heck, this card destroyed 2 external USB drives (bothe drives were totally dead). So be careful with USB cards in ESXi. The wrong card may destroy your external hardware.

I don't count anymore how many times I had to reinstall ESXi. The slightest change (e.g. changing passthrough) made ESXi halt at the 'storage stack' when booting. Terrible.

°P.

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FruitCake
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For me it was enabling the EHCI handoff mode in the bios of the motherboard. Once I did that USB stayed working and was able to install to USB keys the same as I had done under 5.1

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FruitCake
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All the ones where I've seen this is due to the change in the driver structure change in ESXi between 5.1 and 5.5. The new drivers only work if the controller is set to handle EHCI handoff. Whats happening during the boot when EHCI handoff is disabled is that the EHCI drivers start in ESXi and attempt to take over the USB input devices/drives, when this happens the boot level stuff shuts down so nothing is handling the devices because EHCI handoff to the drivers could not occur.

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FernandoSuperGG
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Same problem here.

ESXi 5.5 U1a does not recognize Intel S1200BTLR USB controller anymore. It's fine with 5.1.

It does not have any "EHCI handoff" config.

I used internal USB for installation, but I can't passthrough USB devices using front/back ports anymore.

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thebalkan
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Same issue here until a few minutes ago.

I have no EHCI Handoff support on my mobo so I couldn't try that. I searched but came back with nothing and had the same issue both in 5.5 and 5.1. Once the installer starts, the keyboard goes off completely.

Finally went into the closet and grabbed an old basic USB keyboard, plugged it in, and it works! Awesome! It didn't like my fancy Logitech G510 Smiley Happy.

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cdrouin3
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This did it for me thanks!

I was able to install 5.5 using the internal USB port I didn't know I had 😉

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