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?

[01004753]

.

[psychowood]

Bumping the thread since vSPhere6 RC is out... can anybody test it with a J1900 platform motherboard?

[Burner1977]

Tested with a asrock q2900-itx but it is a no go. Same issue as with 5.5. Hopefully they will support the bay trail in de official 6.0 version

[tronester]

I too am wanting to get VMware ESXi 5.5 working on a J1900 based system.   Hopefully they will get it working in the near future

[psychowood]

I had to replace my D2700MUD, a J1900 board was the obvious choice. I went to XenServer, I'm quite happy with it (even if I'd have preferred to stay with ESXi). The migration was quite painful, tho.

[Martin050]

Hi psychowood,

Did you manage to install Xenserver on a Q1900-ITX Asrock?

The Xenserver 6.2 installer freezes at the keyboard selection, so I'm looking for a fix.

[psychowood]

@Martin050 Yes, I did without problems with the standard 6.2 install, via PXE boot of the base ISO,  sharing the package repository via FTP. I also used PS/2 keyboard, if you used a USB one that could be the culprit.

[Martin050]

The USB-keyboard was the culprit.

Thanks for the hint!

[miles1976]

same motherboard and same problem........

[Martin050]

You're having trouble with ESXi of Xenserver?

I've succeeded in installing both on the Q1900-ITX from Asrock.

Xenserver fix: use a PS2 keyboard and a SATA DVD-driver (USB-DVD and USB-stick failed)

ESXi fix: use a stand-alone graphics card. I've used a PCI-E X1 to PCI-E X16 riser so I could use a "standard" graphics card. You could use a X1 graphics card as well. A riser was only 5 euro and I've had a spare card I could use, so this was the cheapest fix for me.

[miles1976]

that‘s a good news.but, after install complete,can i remove the stand-alone graphics card? just using graphics card on motherboard ?

[gbonny]

Has anyone already tried installing the latest bios 1.40 (10 nov 2014) and then ESXi 5.5 ?

[psychowood]

Martin050 which graphic card did you use, specifically?

Thanks

[Martin050]

I've tested a Radeon HD 6450 and a Nvidia 8600GS (both old video cards I had on the shelf). Since I don't have a heavy power supply, these cards are at the limit I can test. If I had a heavier power supply, I would have tested a GTX 970 and a R9 290X as well.

To answer Miles's question: no, I've not tested ESXi without a external video card. I had little time to do so, but I will try it this weekend.

I'll get back to you with the results.

The latest bios is installed. This fixes a great number of problems, but does not give you the opportunity to install ESXi without an external video card.

[miles1976]

Hi,Martin. How‘s your test？

[Martin050]

First, I've updated the BIOS. This fixes a lot of problems I had with the board, so I would recommend an upgrade (front panel for example, didn't function properly, after update it does).

Second, I've tried another video card (Geforce GT220), it doesn't function well with the board (same problem as on-board GPU). Tried it in Windows 8.1 as well. Did not function properly.

Third, I've encountered an setback after the BIOS update. The 8600GS that worked earlier, doesn't function with the new BIOS (it works in Windows 8.1, not for ESXi).

Fourth, I've installed ESXi with the Radeon card and then removed the video card. ESXi is able to boot and all functions work properly.

Conclusion: the two Nvidia cards I've used did not fix the problem (don't know if other Nvidia cards function properly). The AMD card gave me the possibility to install ESXi on the Asrock board. After removal of the card, ESXi seems to function properly. A BIOS upgrade is recommendable.

Perhaps another trick to get ESXi to run on the board as well: Use another Intel platform to install ESXi on a SSD, HDD, USB-drive or memory card. Then use this drive to boot the Asrock board. Don't know if this works, I'll try this later this week.

[Martin050]

BIOS 1.4

[psychowood]

Martin050 ha scritto:

Perhaps another trick to get ESXi to run on the board as well: Use another Intel platform to install ESXi on a SSD, HDD, USB-drive or memory card. Then use this drive to boot the Asrock board. Don't know if this works, I'll try this later this week.

Would you mind uploading somewhere a dd image of a drive (an USB one, probabily easier to do than an hdd image) with a clean installation (without your license number, of course  )? I already tried to install to a USB drive via VMWare but it would not boot anyway on the Q1900, probably because the system differed too much..

TIA

[miles1976]

Thank you very much！！！

[gbonny]

Martin, thanks for testing! Now I know this I might buy this card for installation purpose only: Club3D Radeon R5 230 PCIE X1

After that I can swap it with my Intel NIC. Its the cheapest available card I could find..

Btw, you did try to install ESXi with just the onboard graphics card AND bios 1.40?