Marvell 88E8056 PCIe on ESXi 5

[nea]

Hi, I'm pretty new to VMWare and started to test ESXi 5. I've got a couple of onboard Marvell 88E8056 NIC's which is not detected. I've done a search for the topic, and I do find a lot of information about the subject on ESXi versions 4.x. Anyone got this working on ESXi 5, and able to point a newbie in right direction?

Anyone know if there is any plan to make Marvell 88E80xx series official supported?

Any help would be appreciated  ...

[peetz]

Can you try the driver that was posted here?:

http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=3494&p=13546#p13546

- Andreas

[nea]

Hi, this did not help. I did install the vib as described and rebooted the system but without any new adapters. I did a list of installed vib's and it is listed as installed with the following properties:

Name=skge

Version=1.13

Vendor=Marvell

Acceptance Level=CommunitySupported

Install Date 2011-12-08

If it can help, I did a list of the properties of the PCI hardware. The following is listed with the device:

Vendor Name: Marvell Technology Group Ltd.

Device Name: 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller

Configured Owner: Unknown

Current Owner: VMkernel

Vendor ID: 0x11ab

Device ID: 0x4364

SubVendor ID: 0x1043

SubDevice ID: 0x81f8

Any other information I can provide here?

[peetz]

Try loading the driver manually with

  vmkload_mod skge

in an ESXi shell.

If the NIC works then (check with "esxcfg-nics -l") then it's just the PCI id of your NIC  (0x11ab:0x4364) that is missing from the driver's map file.

Let me know ... I will then ask the author (ichi) to add that to the package.

- Andreas

[nea]

Hi...

I've now tried to load the driver manually as suggested with no luck... any other suggestions or information I can provide?

BTW the motherboard model is: ASUS P6T Deluxe V2.

//NEA

[teeqemm]

'vmkload_mod sky2' worked for me (ASUS Rampage Formula, PCI ID 11ab:4364), is there any way for me to modify sky2.map so I can actually perform an install?

Thomas

[teeqemm]

OK, now I've figured out how to build my own oem.tgz for Marvell 88E8056 wit PCI id 11ab:4346 (based on the tutorial her http://vm-help.com/esx40i/customize_oem_tgz.php, but with a modified directory layout), which then got integrated into a bootable ISO using ESXi-Customizer - installation went fine, after reboot I had to load the network driver sky2 and configure the nic manually.

Thomas

[PhreakShow]

Nice help, had the same problem on an Asus "Server" Board. Worked fine, the only problem is that I have to load the module "sky2" after every boot; and after that, configure the management network.

Is there a way to set the network up at boot time?

[teeqemm]

It seems, that once the system reboots oem.tgz is loaded too early, so its content will be overwritten by the original files in net-sky2.v00. All you have to do is to open an ESXi Shell, vi /bootbank/boot.cfg (look for entry 'modules=') and move oem.tgz just behind net-sky.v00, so the 'modules=' line  looks like this: ... --- net-s2io.v00 --- net-sky2.v00 --- oem.tgz --- net-tg3.v00 --- ....

Thomas

[efremcri]

I've tested a solution for marvell 88e8056 with device id: 0x4364 and vmware esxi 5:

-login into esxi 5 with ssh

-cp /bootbank/net-sky2.v00 /tmp/

-cd /tmp

-vmtar -x net-sky2-v00 -o test.tar

-mkdir test

-cp test.tar test/

-cd test

-tar -xvf test.tar

-cd etc/vmware/driver.map.d/

-vi sky2.map

-type "o" and past this following line:

regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=11ab:4364 0000:0000,driver=sky2,class=network
-type esc and ":wq"

-cd /tmp/test

-tar -cf test2.tar etc usr

-vmtar -c test2.tar -o /tmp/net-sky.v00-new

-cd /bootbank

-mv net-sky2.v00 net-sky2.v00.bak

-cp /tmp/net-sky.v00-new net-sky2.v00

-reboot

sorry for my english... but i'm italian :smileysilly:

Bye!

[Gaute2000]

Can someone confirm that this solution is working? I tried yesterday, but then I got an error message during startup

[peetz]

Hi,

install the vib file that I provided here:

http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=3558&p=13787#p13787

It will permanently add a mapping for the 88E8056 adapter to the sky2 driver.

- Andreas

[gmartin123]

Hello, I'm starting to play with vsphere but not able to install it, when I start the installation from ISO (I'm using last release ESXi 5.0 UP1) the installation says that I don't have any Network card. I really don't understand how it works, so... if it's possible could you explain step by step how to install? I tried to buy another card but couldn't find any compatible card... I really apreciate if someone can help me

[unkelsunk]

I found the information in this thread very heplful, along with the information found in http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=3558&p=13787#p13787. However, I have one problem. My motherboard has two Marvell 88e8057 NICs that I have gotten to load and when I list with lspci I can see that they are assigned vmnic1 & vmnic2. They do not however, show up when I list with esxcfg-nics -l, which only shows the Broadcom NIC I have also installed in the system to be able to install esxi at all. I should add that I am using ESXi 5.0 U2.

Can anybody provide me with any helpful tip or how I should proceed in finding the problem?

*Update* Tried with ESXi 5.1 and didn't get any vmnic with the same procedure.

Message was edited by: unkelsunk

[Centosuser]

i am having the same problem hopefully someone will advise how to get this Marvel works,

can't install my ESXI it hang on the boot asking for NIC

[loweek]

i am having the problem too!

my computer's NIC is Marvell 88e8057,and i tried the drive  which i download here (net-sky2-1-1.1.0.x86_64.vib)

but it is not working!

[joseaugusto]

I Installed net-sky2-1-1.1.0.x86_64.vib.zip [1.16 KiB], but the module sky2 is not found! I dont know why.

When I type "lspci - p", my nic's is show up with another modules (vmklinux_9) but dont work..

0000:04:00.0 11ab:4364 1043:81f8   5/  5/0x2f A V vmklinux_9   vmnic2

0000:05:00.0 11ab:6121 1043:8212  10/ 10/0x2a A V             

0000:06:00.0 11ab:4364 1043:81f8  11/ 11/0x2d A V vmklinux_9   vmnic1

~ # vmkload_mod sky2

VMKMod_ComputeModPath(sky2) failed: Not found

vmkload_mod: Can not load module sky2: not found

~ #

~ # esxcli software vib list

Name                           Version                               Vendor      Acceptance Level    Install Date

-----------------------------  ------------------------------------  ----------  ------------------  ------------

net-sky2-1                     1.1.0                                 V-front.de  CommunitySupported  2014-02-01 

and finally

~ # esxcfg-nics -l

Name    PCI           Driver      Link Speed     Duplex MAC Address       MTU    Description                  

vmnic0  0000:08:01.00 e1000       Up   100Mbps   Full   00:0e:04:14:52:96 1500   Intel Corporation 82541PI Gigabit Ethernet Controller

~ #

My Marvell's NIC dont show up

[peetz · Accepted solution]

Hi Jose,

the VIB that you installed just adds a device ID mapping (for 11ab:4364) to an already existing sky2 driver.

But you have probably installed ESXi 5.5, and that does no longer include the sky2 driver.

However, you can install it from the VMware Online depot by running

esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient

esxcli software vib install -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml -n net-sky2

reboot

Andreas

[joseaugusto]

now working....

Thank you!

[vamvas]

I am in the same situation with a Marvell Yukon 88E8056 onboard network adapter (VEN_11AB&DEV_4364) and I'm somewhat unsure of what to do in order to install ESXi 5.5 on the machine in question.  I boot using the ESXI CD and I can only reach the point where the installer complains about no network card being present.

Could you please explain what I have to do in order to get the installer to recognize the onboard LAN adapter?  My other installations of ESXi 5 on other hardware were always successful so I have no idea how to tackle this.

I'm grateful for any advice offered.