ESXi 5.x on an Intel J1900 board (Q1900-ITX Asrock) issue

[gbonny]

Hello everyone!

I have been trying to install ESXi 5.1u1 & 5.1u2 & 5.5u1 on the following configuration to no success so far:

Asrock Q1900-ITX mobo (Intel J1900 Baytrail SoC, BIOS 1.20 with VT-x support)

8GB RAM Kingston

120GB OCZ Vector 150 (tried to connect on both SATA2.0 and SATA3.0)

Intel CT1000 NIC

Bootable 4GB FAT32 USB stick with an extracted installation (using Unetbootin) (tried to connect on both USB2.0 and USB3.0)

ESXi 5.1uX results in/stops at a black window/screen after the "Relocating modules and starting the kernel" message.

ESXi 5.5u1 starts loading the modules and stops/freezes right after the "Relocating modules and starting the kernel" message.

I have tried in the bios:

- Boot USB legacy

- Boot USB UEFI

- Disabled PXE (both NICs)

- Video memory to a minimum (64MB)

- Disabled onboard audio & NIC

- I have tried (unofficial?) inserting drivers into the installation ISO (NIC/microcode/xahci) from v-front.de.

I know that most/all of my hardware is not on the HCL, which doesn't mean it can't work, of course (like my old system).

All to no luck so far. However I successfully installed Proxmox hypervisor on this system. Others successfully installed NAS4Free (FreeBSD) or Ubuntu/Debian.

But I want ESXi 5.x for my home server, like I have on my old Intel D525 with a max of 4GB and OCZ Vertex 2 SSD (ESXi 5.1u2).

Maybe someone has some tips or advice to install ESXi 5.x on my new system?

[uebinet]

Hey there!

Are there any news regarding this issue? I already got this mobo in my basket, but I'm hoping for some good news before ordering.

Thx and have a nice day

[admin]

No news; sorry.

[uebinet]

No prob, but please keep this thread updated if you find a solution.

Thanks a lot for your work so far!

[gbonny]

Asrock (Taiwan) is looking into it as well a.t.m. It seems it's a processor and/or ESXi related thing so far..

[admin]

Try adding this option:

ignoreHeadless=TRUE

[psychowood]

Already tried, same for noACPI. No effect.

[admin]

Hmmm...

How about

vmkBootVerbose=TRUE

Message was edited by: Jim Mattson - Fixed the option name.

[admin]

Also, just for grins...

useNUMAInfo=FALSE

[gbonny]

useNUMAInfo=FALSE

No luck for me, unfortunately.

[admin]

gbonny wrote:

useNUMAInfo=FALSE

No luck for me, unfortunately.

Nor any change with vmkBootVerbose=TRUE?

[uebinet]

Could somebody with a J1900 mainboard try the latest beta??

http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2014/06/now-open-vmware-vsphere-beta-program.html

KR,

uebi

[gbonny]

VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.0.0-1921158.x86_64.iso (no modifications to the ISO nor the hardware + BIOS)

Doesn't work either; stuck at relocating modules and starting the kernel.Tried

ALT+F12: no go.

logOnScreen: no go.

noIOMMU noPoisonPagePool logOnScreen: no go.

iovDisableIR=TRUE vmbLog=TRUE: no go.

ignoreHeadless=TRUE: no go.

noACPI: no go.

useNUMAInfo=FALSE: no go.

vmkBootVerbose=TRUE: no go.

[uebinet]

Ahhhhh that's bad 😞

Thanks for your time!

[psychowood]

I know it is not much, but there's a BayTrail-D OS Compatibility chart on supermicro website. Perhaps it will be updated if something changes...

[newjohnsmith]

I have the Supermicro x10SBA J1900 with the same issue.

[gbonny]

Since bios 1.30 the installation of VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.5.0.update01-1623387.x86_64.iso already hangs on "loading /lsi_mr3.v00". Not good

[gbonny]

Since bios 1.30 the installation of both VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.1.0.update02-1483097.x86_64.iso and VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.0.0-1921158.x86_64.iso hang after the "relocating modules and starting the kernel" message on a black screen. This seems to be -little- a step further..

[01004753]

.

[AnvbiZ]

Always check for your hardware on the compatibility check. One thing I've learned is that if it isn't there, 99% it won't work. No AsRock product featured as comptible with ESXi 5.x as far as I can see.

VMware Compatibility Guide: System Search

[psychowood]

It's highly improbable that a cheap motherboard (asrock or not) would be listed as compatible: most of (if not every single one) the motherboards listed in this thread are whiteboxes, not supported by definition...

Btw, I've used Asrock products in the past (atom-based itx boards) without any real problem with ESXi: most of the time, with all-in-one motherboards, same platform will behave the same, regardless of the manufacturer. This seems to be the case for BayTrail-D motherboards, sadly: not a single board is working, as of today. Not MSI, not Gigabyte, not Supermicro, and so on.