ESXi 7 install failing - no network device found

[plotikai]

Hey everyone, I'm a total beginner just trying to play around with a home lab.

I have a Dell Precision 3240 that I am trying to install ESXi onto however it fails with the error "no network device found". My NIC is Intel I219-LM 0x8086 0x0d4e

From the research I've done, I think I need to install a driver to the offline bundle and found the community networking driver (https://flings.vmware.com/community-networking-driver-for-esxi#requirements) But I have no idea how to install this driver onto the offline bundle.

I'm at a roadblock here, the tutorials I found all seem to assume ESXi is already installed and needs to be upgraded. How do I get past this unsupported NIC error?

I have found a tutorial on injecting the driver into the ISO using v-front, so I attempted that and received a dependency error:

WARNING: The image profile fails validation. The ISO / Offline Bundle will still be generated but may contain errors and may not boot or be
functional. Errors:
WARNING: VIB VMW_bootbank_net-community_1.2.0.0-1vmw.700.1.0.15843807 requires vmkapi_2_6_0_0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied
within the ImageProfile. However, additional VIB(s) VMware_bootbank_esx-base_7.0.1-0.20.17325020,
VMware_bootbank_esx-base_7.0.2-0.0.17867351, VMware_bootbank_esx-base_7.0.0-1.20.16321839, VMware_bootbank_esx-base_7.0.1-0.15.17168206,
VMware_bootbank_esx-base_7.0.1-0.25.17325551, VMware_bootbank_esx-base_7.0.1-0.0.16850804, VMware_bootbank_esx-base_7.0.1-0.10.17119627,
VMware_bootbank_esx-base_7.0.0-1.25.16324942, VMware_bootbank_esx-base_7.0.2-0.20.18426014, VMware_bootbank_esx-base_7.0.2-0.15.18295176,
VMware_bootbank_esx-base_7.0.0-1.0.15843807, VMware_bootbank_esx-base_7.0.1-0.30.17551050 from depot can satisfy this requirement.

At this point, I'm pretty stuck, not sure where to go from here

Edit: So I realize I was using the vfront tool to try and inject a v7 driver into a 6.7 ISO. I've now tried to use that tool on an offline v7 bundle with no success (i guess the tool is only for 6.7?), i've also tried various 6.7 nic drivers with no success, I can't find one for the intel NIC i'm using that also is for 6.7

[SSCal]

Probably not what you want - but have you considered downloading the Dell VMware esxi iso image...?  Most of the dell drivers are already installed...

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000176963/dell-emc-customized-image-of-vmware-esxi-availabi...

[plotikai]

I have tried this and had the same issue, I also tried entering my exact Dell model into their support page but they dont have a custom image for it.

[SSCal]

TBH - You're trying to install ESXi onto an unsupported hardware platform.....   I personally wouldn't mess around with trying to install community drivers into the ESXi image; When for the minimal cost of a new supported  network adapter it would be easier to just fit another NIC and disable the onboard (or default) NIC.

Also,  one weird problem I encountered was that the network card wouldnt work due to an older version of firmware and updating the firmware fixed my issue.

[plotikai · Accepted solution]

The hardware is supported by the driver, so it wouldn't make sense to buy new hardware when this should be working, then just have the default NIC sit there unused.

But I ended up getting it working, I went to the vfront github and used that version instead of the version on their website, the driver was injected and ESXi was installed flawlessly.