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?

[FooDaddy]

Just thought I'd add to the list of things that don't work: An AsRock BeeBox N3000 (Celeron N3000, "Braswell") also fails at the "relocating modules" stage of the install. The smallest VRAM allocation the UEFI allows is 64MB. Pity, because this little machine has room for up to 16GB of RAM (32 if it is compatible with the 16GB SODIMMs!) and both a 2.5" drive AND an m-SATA SSD. Would make a very nice little media server! I'll keep fiddling with it.

[CollinChaffin]

Hey I'm about to buy a couple beeboxes the

ASRock Beebox N3150 model.  Curious I see lots of references to setup hanging at the relocating modules boiling down to setting the video ram option in the bios.

Have you updated the bios to the latest, and is there a setting for the video RAM?  I see that merely increasing to 8mb is all it took others to fix that issue.  Really hoping you got it working and can reply quick I don't want to waste time or money trying one of these if it's 100% known not to work - yes, yes, it's not on the HCL but like other whiteboxes I agree with iSCSI over gigabit and 16gb with 2 I could vmotion between them for my lab.

[FooDaddy]

So far I have not been able to make my Beebox work. I have the latest UEFI firmware installed, and the options for video RAM are Auto, 64, 128, 256 and 512. None of those options seem to make a difference, nor does the "ignoreHeadless=TRUE" trick (mentioned on page 2). I'm not willing to give up entirely (at least not yet), but at this point I wouldn't buy any Beeboxes to use as ESXi hosts if I were you. If you can get one for real cheap on sale or something, it might be fun just to have one around to experiment with--that's what I did.

[ashuan]

Tried ESXi 5.5 and 6.0 on SuperMicro X10SBA. Not working with default factory settings and last available BIOS (1.2a). In both ESXi versions stuck at "Relocating modules and starting the kernel".

I edited some BIOS parameters such video RAM, disabled USB, serial ports, PCI but nothing works.

Ideas?

Best regards,

Andrea

[sp46887]

I found more than one statement, where someone said frustrated that it is impossible to use ESXi with these boards.

But Nelson Mandela said, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

So first of all the good news – I made ESXi 6 running on an ASRock N3150 system!

Background

On this platform a standard ESXi installation hangs with a last message “Relocating modules and starting up the kernel”

I found out, that at this point the ESXI system is already working.
It can be “pinged” but login is failing due to failure completing the installation process (no password set, no management network configured, SSH disabled).

I suggest that the onboard graphics can’t be used by ESXi installer for console and there could be a switch to the serial port console.

Here are some hints from VMware documentation:

Q: What system configuration triggers ESXi to switch its console to a serial port?
A: During system boot up, if ESXi finds No VGA Present or Headless flag set in ACPI FADT table and if there is no user specified change in any of the serial services, the DCUI service will display on a serial port.

Ok, we have an unsupported and “headless” platform without graphical local console.
Give up now or find a solution?

First of all I posted a VMware feature request on their official site to support this platform in the future and in the second step I thought about a workaround for the meantime 🙂

I found three ways to get a working ESXi system on this platform and tested one of them successfully.

Option 3 / Install ESXi 6.0 on bootable USB Stick using a virtual machine with VMware player

Continue and read the documentation about this solution on my blog at:

http://mobiletiger.jorba.de/vmware-esxi-6-0-n3150-itx-intel-celeron-braswell-platform-problem-solved...

Greetings Antonio

[SlinkingAnt]

I can confirm that this method is working.

Although I couldn't get a virtual ESXi-install working in Workstation, one created on a physical machine was.

As soon as I could connect to the machine, I've installed the Embedded Host Client and afterwards uploaded the .vib's mentioned above.

Screen still hangs on 'Relocating modules and starting up the kernel', but after a 30 seconds the host will come online.

All in all it took me around 2 hours from start to finish.

[ganxiyun]

I tried a bit

If USB is OK, does it mean if we have 2 disks, install VMWare Player on Disk A, and install ESXi on Disk B, boot from Disk B will also work?

I tried, but it's blocked in 'Relocating ....', the same as before.

I attached vmkernel log. It seems VGA does not work.

VGA not available, ACPI FADT says it's unsafe to probe VGA hardware.

My hardware

GA-J1900N-D2H

[ganxiyun]

And I added

[apollomok]

What if I put a graphic card on the board during installation? Will the installation succeed then?

Besides, could I pull out the graphic card afterwards?

[gbonny]

Good news, I've got really far now, but we're not there yet.. The good news is: I have got ESXi 5.5u3 (default/unmodified ISO) running on my Q1900-ITX from a USB stick!! The bad news is: AHCI and onboard Realtek is not *yet* working.

How did I get here? You'll need:

- J1900(-like) board;

- 8GB+ RAM;

- a ESXi supported Intel NIC;

- 2 USB sticks (2GB approx. each);

- running Windows <10 on the hardware above (temporarily);

- hdd/ssd for Windows (temporarily);

- VMWare (Workstation) Player (temporarily);

Basic steps:

* create bootable install USB stick

> Boot in Windows;

> Download and start Rufus Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

> Download VMWare ESXi ISO from www.vmware.com ;

> Connect one of your empty USB sticks;

> Create a bootable stick from the VMWare ESXi ISO with Rufus.

* create bootable ESXi USB stick

> Boot in Windows on J1900(-like);

> Start VMWare player;

> Create a new VM (select 4GB or more RAM, 2GB Disk, tick virtualize VT-x, add a USB Controller);

> Download plop-usb-boot http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html (How to Boot a VMware Virtual Machine from a USB Drive) (ESXi USB boot doesn't work by default) and attach it to the cd-rom when you start the VM and boot from cdrom plop-usb-boot;

> Connect your bootable install stick to the VM;

> Boot continued via plop-usb-boot from USB and launch the VMWare ESXi installer;

> At the moment you reach the disk select screen in the installer, connect your empty USB stick to the VM;

> Before you rescan, take a look at the ID of the install USB stick, now rescan, then select the empty USB stick and follow the following installation instructions;

> Reboot the VM and then detach the install USB stick from the VM and boot the ESXi USB stick in the VM;

> Enable SSH in options (optionally set static IP) and shutdown;

> Reboot computer and boot your computer from the ESXi USB stick (F2/F8/F10/etc boot selector on POST);

You'll notice it hangs once more on the "relocating modules" message, however in the background the system is being loaded. After a while you can connect with vSphere client via your Intel NIC to your ESXi bare metal on J1900! You'll need the static IP or you'll need to discover your DHCP IP lease on your router (you can find it via your MAC address on your Intel NIC).

I based the above on this article, where you can find more details:

VMware ESXi 6.0 / N3150 ITX – Braswell platform **problem solved** | MobileTigers projects

After the above steps I've tried to create a custom ESXi install stick with AHCI & net8168 VIB drivers.

https://vibsdepot.v-front.de/wiki/index.php/Sata-xahci

https://vibsdepot.v-front.de/wiki/index.php/Net55-r8168

I merged both files with vib2zip from ( VMware Front Experience: ESXi Community Packaging Tools )

Then modified the ISO with VMware Front Experience: ESXi-Customizer (not supported anymore, no Win10 support!)

The result was that it was hanging as always on "relocating modules" and couldn't connect via IP.. So apparently something went wrong in these last few steps.

Alternative things/options to do/try based on the above:

Use ESXi-Customizer-PS (supported!) VMware Front Experience: ESXi-Customizer-PS

Give ESXi 6.0u1 and/or 5.1u1 and then upgrade to 5.5u3 a try;

Haven't tried to boot ESXi boot stick in UEFI mode yet;

...

[matrix2020]

Would storage work if you set storage to native ide mode?

[AndiBiront]

I just wanted to confirm that J1900 works fine with ESXi 6.0

There are several issues with installation and drivers, but you can get it working. I'd recommend:

* Install ESXi 6.0 on another platform

* Install customized drivers (you'll need Intel SATA and Realtek NIC)

* Configure management network

* Swap the HDD/SSD/USB or wherever you installed to the J1900 (or any similar platform)

* Done

Issues: no local graphics.

I've done this on two Q1900M from Asrock, and both are working fine in my lab.

The first step was made on an AMD Athlon II X3 455 platform, which has -nothing- in common with Intel, but it worked just fine.

Hope this helps.

[SolutionsPro]

I bought the Asrock J1900D2Y board recently and couldn't install 5.5 or 6.0 on it.

Unfortunately, none of the methods above worked. It seems this issue is here since 2013/2014 so don't think it will be fixed or supported anytime soon.

I ended up using XenServer.

[Mikee8080]

Hello, I can confirm that gbonny's method with installation ESXi to bootable USB stick with VMware Player works well for me with ESXi 6.0 U2 (I used ESXi-Customizer-PS to make custom .iso with sata-xahci added, without that was onboard SATA unsupported) on Asrock J1900D2Y board. Screen allways freeze on Relocating Modules during start, but ESXi continue booting in background and become manageable with vSphere Client after a while.

[Mofarocker33]

It's nice to know, that people did it, but - why is there no Download? Disk Image for Acronis or Dump or .iso? I feel left alone, and i think many others that step on this Thread without sayin sth. too.

[Kpaxart]

why is there no Download? same question~ can anybody help?

[AlexP62]

On the forums on the Internet and even in support VMware opened several topics on the installation of ESXi on the motherboard with a J1900 processor. The problems are caused by the incompatibility of the video adapter. The problem is solved simply: installing ESXi on USB Flash should be done on another computer that is supported by ESXi. During the installation, specify the automatic assignment of the IP address of the network adapter, the password for root, and the name of the computer. After that, boot from the configured ESXi on the computer with the J1900-based motherboard. Although the screen will not show a transition to the operating mode, the hypervisor will be launched and access to management via the web console will work.
If desired, you can allow access via ssh during the installation process. In this case, you can access the management console by ssh, although the monitor will not run after running ESXi.