I hereby want to confirm the motherboard MSI P35 Platinum to be working with ESX 4.0.

It has been a bit of a strugle though

For the impacient, I've attached a some files which you can use to patch initrd.img pre_install, patch initrd.img post install and patch esxconsole after succesful first boot.

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Specs:
Motherboard: MSI P35 Platinum
http://eu.msi.com/index.php?func=prodmbspec&maincat_no=1&cat2_no=&cat3_no=&prod_no=1212
Processor: Intel Core Quad Q6600
Memory: 4GB Kingston HyperX
Storage: Onboard SATA controller. AHCI mode.
Network: Onboard RealTek 8168 Gigabit.
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UPDATE:
I noticed networking problems with driver (r8168.o). Even with newer version. The same problem has been described on the forum (connection lost).
Therefore I am now using the driver in this post:
http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1670&start=30&hilit=r8169

*Note: this driver is not used in the attachments yet!

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The whole story
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*- Note: following paths are contained within initrd.img!
*- Note: I know that this can be a whole lot quicker if you know how to make a driver package.

Problem 1:
ESX 4.0 does not want to install on this motherboard. During execution of /etc/vmware/init/init.d/32.networking-drivers it will fail, saying there are no compatible NIC's found.

Solution 1:
I've found this post (THANK YOU!! geppi); viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1272&start=0
It contains the r8168.o driver.

Problem 1.1:
In the previously mentioned package there is also a file /etc/vmware/simple.map. Which is great, but during installation it will get overwritten when loading system drivers.
You will notice a line "Rebuilding Map File" (executed by. /usr/lib/vmware/weasel/applychoices.py --> /usr/lib/vmware/weasel/customdrivers.py)

Solution 1.1:
- I've checked out the driver xml files in /usr/share/hwdata/pciids/ and decided to role my own. This file is attached to this post.
- Now we need to add this file to initrd.img. The following was done on a CentOS 5 machine (vmware workstation):

--> Copy initrd.img to /tmp
--> Extract attachment pre_install.tgz: to /tmp/hack







- So now we have a new initrd.img which contains the driver and the necessary information for ESX to generate /etc/vmware/simple.map. Put on your .ISO or whatever boot mechanism you use.
obviously renaming it to initrd.img, otherwise isolinux will call the wrong one

Problem 2:
After I thought I cracked it (around 02:15 last night), it turned out that the IDE DVDRW couldn't be detected during installation.

Solution 2:
- Get an empty USB drive (at least 900MB!).
- Create a bootable installation
fdisk /dev/sda
(delete all current partitions)
(create new partition)
n
1
<enter>
<enter>
t
(W95 FAT16 (LBA) - id=e)
(Dont forget to make it bootble, like me)
a
1
(Write changes)
w
q

- Format it.

- Add a syslinux boot record


- Now copy the Vmware ESX4.0 media to the USB disk.


- Create the following /mnt/usb/syslinux.conf



- Copy that menu.c32 file.


- Don't forget to copy the new_initrd.img!



Problem 3:
Ahhh finally, once I figured out the parameter askmedia could be used as kernel parameter (which took me a couple of fails), I could succesfully install ESX 4.0.
But then ... booting into ESX, turned out to get the same error as during installation (problem 1). I couldn't mount my usb on the recovery console either ?!

Solution 3:
This solution is very similar to solution 1. Except that we need to use the simple.map, because this file won't be generated during boot.

So again, i modified the initrd.img, but this time the ESX installed version.



Note: The drive could be different for you


--> Extract attachment post_install_pre_boot.tgz: to /tmp/hack





--> Add the information in /etc/vmware/simple.map.ADD to /etc/vmware/simple.map





Problem 4:
So I figured I'd cracked it. I posted this message and that was that. Then I booted the server this morning. Damn, same error as Problem 3. I can't keep patching initrd.img every boot!

Solution 4:
- So I did a bit of digging. Everytime Vmware reboots it will execute 'esxcfg-boot -b'. This will rebuild initrd.img. Log files for the process can be found (esxconsole!) in /var/log/vmware/esxcfg-boot.log
I read the log file and understood what was going on. It wants a manifest + an xml (to build simple.map) and the driver (r8168.o).

- In order for this to work, solution 3 must result in a succesful boot.
- Log in to the console.

--> Extract attachment post_boot.tgz: to /tmp/hack



- Make sure to check /var/log/vmware/esxcfg-boot.log. The driver file must have been copied!

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The end
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Hope this helps other people here!