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gavin0001
Contributor
Contributor

Mac Mini

Hi All,

I would really like to get ESXi 4 working on the latest mac mini (i.e. mac mini 4.1 (mid 2010)) to run as a little home vm server. Is there any way to get past an unsupported nic error? The mac mini has a Broadcom BCM57765 gigabit nic, which seems to be one of the few that is not on the vmware hcl list.

Cheers,

Gavin

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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

You should have a look through http://vm-help.com to see if there are any references to the Broadcom NIC. Even getting past the NIC you may have other install / setup issues.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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ribbz
Contributor
Contributor

Why not just use Fusion?

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donnib
Contributor
Contributor

gavin0001: did you succeed in this ?

Can anybody else help here ? There is a thread for this in vm-help : http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2232

donnib

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donnib
Contributor
Contributor

Well if you want to get rid of the OS footprint then ESXi is the best option and it's much faster than Fusion.

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gavin0001
Contributor
Contributor

Hi donnib,

The best answer I can give is sort of. I haven't yet managed to get esxi to install, BUT with the latest version (ESXi 4.1), it would seem that vmware has updated the nic driver, which now appears to support the nic that the macmini uses. However the issue that I now have is that once i get to the install screen, I can't actually do anything as it is unresponsive. I also have the same issue if I try to use the ESXi4.1 on a workstation vm. Unfortunately I haven't had much of a chance lately to see why that is, but if anyone has some suggestions I'd be happy to hear them. When I do an upgrade from ESX 4.0 on a vm, (i.e. using the upgrade archive) it completes successfully, but I get the same issue, however I can connect to the esxi host using the vsphere client with no problems.

Cheers,

Gavin

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donnib
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Gavin,

It seems that this is a problem with USB keyboard or sort of USB problem. Same problem is mentioned here http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2232

I have just ordered my Mac Mini (Server model) 2010 and i expect to have it on 9 october then i will have to see if there is any way to solve this. I really hope so.

donnib

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