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gi-minni
Contributor
Contributor

Missing ICH8M AHCI controller string in U2 build 110271

In the actual ESX3i U2 release (Build 110271) I was unable to attach a local SATA datastore to my notebook.

Looking inside the pci.ids file I could only find the Mobile SATA IDE Controller (ICH8M) string.

I went into the BIOS and changed the SATA mode from compatible to AHCI.

With lspci -p I identified the missing vendor/device ID and after inserting

2829 Mobile SATA AHCI Controller (ICH8M) into pci.ids and

8086:2829 0000:0000 storage ahci into simple.map every thing worked as expected.

Can you dev guys confirm this and consider it in the next patch release?

Thx

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7 Replies
nick_couchman
Immortal
Immortal

There are quite a view PCI IDs "missing" from the ESXi installer. Only VMware can say how many of these are intentional and how many are purposely left out, but they definitely have a small set of hardware supported in ESXi. There are quite a few controllers like this that require modifications to the simple.map file in order for ESXi to detect them correctly.

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Peter_vm
Immortal
Immortal

It is not "missing". It was most likely not tested, therefore is not supported, so it was not put there.

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gi-minni
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Peter,

is there any timeline or roadmap for inclusion?

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Peter_vm
Immortal
Immortal

I don't know, I do not work for VMware. Maybe one of VMware employees reading those posts can comment on that.

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

Try a post here for requesting inclusion - Requests for unsupported hardware - http://communities.vmware.com/message/947521#947521

If you have a chance to try it, could you test this method to install ESXi onto the controller when it is in IDE mode? http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/ESXi_install_to_IDE_drive/ESXi_install_to_IDE_drive.php

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Peter_vm
Immortal
Immortal

Try a post here for requesting inclusion - Requests for unsupported hardware - http://communities.vmware.com/message/947521#947521

It does not seem to be taken seriously. No regular VMware employee commenting on progress of any request of that kind.

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nick_couchman
Immortal
Immortal

<sarcasm>Shocking...</sarcasm>

Neither does the Suggestions forum for product suggestions, for that matter, and yet I still hope that VMware will lend an ear to my plea for a Linux VI Client...

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