Configuring a building environment for ESXi 6.7

[FrancisAugusto]

Hi,

Many people already followed these (temp.vm-help.com - View topic - ESXI 5.x Drivers Part 1: Making a Build Environment ) instructions to build an environment for compiling drivers for ESXi.

I wonder if anyone had successfully built their environment for ESXi 6.7U.

[continuum]

Are you trying to save money for hardware by creating drivers for unsupported hardware ?
If yes then I highly recommend to reconsider this idea for the following reasons:
1. if you ever need VMware support you give them a perfect reason to run away without helping you
2. you may have to repeat the process every time you update the host
3. if you ever have problems with THAT device you will be completely on your own and cant use google to help with your troubleshooting
4. the amount of money you may eventually safe by building your own drivers will not justify the amount of extra time and nerves you will lose during the attempt
The only reason to compile anything yourself for ESXi is IMHO if you need special tools like for example rsync or ddrescue.
And even for that purpose I would nowadays rather use Linux directly.

[FrancisAugusto]

While those are valid points, the argument for not building a driver ignores the fact that often the community wins when something new is added by the community itself. It might end up on a dead end, it might end up as you describe. Or it might end up catalyzing energy into something for the greater good. Something that might end up bringing VMWare's attention for some need that they are not addressing.

I don't want to make this post into an argument for the pros and cons of building an own drive. There might be better places for this kind of argument. My question was concrete, direct and simple, and an answer to that question could benefit myself and others in the same situation.

[continuum]

> Or it might end up catalyzing energy into something for the greater good. Something that might end up bringing VMWare's attention for some need that they are not addressing.
Your enthusiasm is refreshing ! Welcome to the community.
After 15 years of watching this madhouse / forum I can tell you that VMware is less open minded than you hope for.
Anyway - maybe this recent post helps a little bit:ddrescue standalone binary for esxi ?
As far as I know the closest match for ESXi is Centos - so the next step would probably be to find out which Centos version matches best.
Please keep us updated on your results.
Ulli

[FrancisAugusto]

Just an update: yeah, not the easiest thing in the world.

Today I finally managed to set up a decent environment. The instructions from VMWare do not help that much, as they say a myriad of systems can be used, but on my experience it wonly worked on a 32-bit system.

I used CentOS 5.6 i686 and got the main parts of the toolchain compiled. I compiled some drives, and while I got tons of warnings compiling them, including some segmentation faults :smileyalert:, it finished compiling without a error and I got binaries.

[FrancisAugusto]

Things are beginning to bear fruits: WiFi ESXi on the 2018 Mac Mini - networking

[RWoodring79]

If you are you looking for the Toolchain Open Source Disclosure package. try here:

https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?downloadGroup=ESXI670-OSS&productId=742 - 2.2 GB (Appears to be for VMWare Tools, not the Toolchain)

https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?downloadGroup=ESXI67U2-OSS&productId=896 - 4.42 GB

https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?downloadGroup=ESXI67U3_OSS&productId=896 - 18.8 GB

For anyone wanting to retrace my steps to find it, I started at the "VMWare Download Search" page

https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/downloads#tab2

Then I searched for "esxi 6.7u3"

In the results, find the "Open Source Information" link

Hovering over the link will show: https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=ESXI67U3_OS...

But clicking it will take you to: https://maintenance.vmware.com/info6.html?downloadGroup=ESXI67U3_OSS&productId=859

In the original link, replace "web" with "group" to make: https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?downloadGroup=ESXI67U3_OSS&productId=896

TADA!!! You have the page for ESXi 6.7U3 Open Source Information

Changing web -> group seems to fix errors on a LOT of the links that redirect to a 'Maintenance" page