Ok, I can install ESXi 4 to a USB Drive, but what if I don't want to install to an IDE/Pata Drive?

I've been trying (literally all day, the wife is not too happy ) to get the installer to recognize my 250GB IDE Pata Drive. I also have 2 - 250GB Sata drives.

Not matter how many times I do the following:

http://vm-help.com/esx40i/ESXi_install_ ... _drive.php

The installer will not recognize my F@&U$%C#^&K*I*&^*N&%$%G PATA DRIVE!!!!!!

If I run the vmkload_mod ahci command it will recognize my Sata drives and I can install ESXi4, but When I reboot I get the "boot device not found" error. I haven't tried to fix that problem yet.

I just cannot accept the fact that I cannot get IDE to work.

My motherboard is a TUL TRS690-M1 (Basically a re-branded Foxconn A6VMX) and has an AMD 690V North Bridge and an AMD SB600 South Bridge Chipset

I have seen the same chipset work with IDE/Pata and ESXi4, or should I say I have found a few websites that claim that this chipset works with ESXi4.

My question is what else can I do to try and get IDE Pata to work with ESXi4? and/or What do I need to do to make the install work with my Sata drives?

When I type lspci I can see the 00:20.01 Mass storage controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 IDE

But when I type fdisk -l it doesn't show anything?

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks

For the IDE part what's the PCI id for the controller and if you run lspci -p does it show a module for the PCI id?

>> If I run the vmkload_mod ahci command it will recognize my Sata drives and I can install ESXi4, but When I reboot I get the "boot device not found" error. I haven't tried to fix that problem yet.

For this you would need to add the change to simple.map and put it in oem.tgz.

any particular place in the simple.map? and I have notices that most of the AMD ahci entries in the simple.map end in .o? should I add the .o?

Here is the output of lspci -p

~ # lspci -p
Bus:Sl.F Vend:Dvid Subv:Subd ISA/irq/Vec P M Module Name
Spawned bus
00:00.00 1002:7910 1002:7910 V
00:01.00 1002:7912 0000:0000 V
001
00:05.00 1002:7915 0000:0000 V
002
00:18.00 1002:4380 105b:0e0c 11/ 11/0x69 A V ahci vmhba33
00:19.00 1002:4387 105b:0e0c 5/ 5/0x71 A V usb-ohci
00:19.01 1002:4388 105b:0e0c 15/ 15/0x79 B V usb-ohci
00:19.02 1002:4389 105b:0e0c 10/ 10/0x81 C V usb-ohci
00:19.03 1002:438a 105b:0e0c 15/ 15/0x79 B V usb-ohci
00:19.04 1002:438b 105b:0e0c 10/ 10/0x81 C V usb-ohci
00:19.05 1002:4386 105b:0e0c 10/ 10/0x89 D V ehci-hcd
00:20.00 1002:4385 105b:0e0c V
00:20.01 1002:438c 105b:0e0c 0/ 0/0x71 A V
00:20.03 1002:438d 105b:0e0c V
00:20.04 1002:4384 0000:0000 V
003
00:24.00 1022:1100 0000:0000 V
00:24.01 1022:1101 0000:0000 V
00:24.02 1022:1102 0000:0000 V
00:24.03 1022:1103 0000:0000 V
01:05.00 1002:791e 105b:0e0c 10/ 10/0x81 A V
02:00.00 10ec:8136 105b:0e0c 15/ 15/0x79 A V
03:00.00 8086:107c 8086:1376 3/ 3/0x91 A V e1000 vmnic0
03:01.00 8086:107c 8086:1376 9/ 9/0x99 A V e1000 vmnic1

and without the -p

~ # lspci
00:00.00 Bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 Host Bridge
00:01.00 Bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (Internal gfx)
00:05.00 Bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Port 1)
00:18.00 Mass storage controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Non-Raid-5 SATA [vmhba33]
00:19.00 Serial bus controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI0)
00:19.01 Serial bus controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI1)
00:19.02 Serial bus controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI2)
00:19.03 Serial bus controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI3)
00:19.04 Serial bus controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI4)
00:19.05 Serial bus controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB Controller (EHCI)
00:20.00 Serial bus controller: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller
00:20.01 Mass storage controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 IDE
00:20.03 Bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to LPC Bridge
00:20.04 Bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge
00:24.00 Bridge: AMD Inc K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:24.01 Bridge: AMD Inc K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address MapK8 NorthBridge
00:24.02 Bridge: AMD Inc K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:24.03 Bridge: AMD Inc K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:05.00 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 [Radeon X1200 Series]
02:00.00 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
03:00.00 Network controller: Intel Corporation 82541PI Gigabit Ethernet Controller [vmnic0]
03:01.00 Network controller: Intel Corporation 82541PI Gigabit Ethernet Controller [vmnic1]

It can be anywhere in the file, but I usually place it with the same devices. You will want to have the '.o' on the driver name.

Gave up on trying to get Pata to work but.....

Got Sata to work on 2 motherboards with SB600 chipset!!

The key was to delete all of the other AMD storage ahci.o entries and just add the 1002:4380 0000:0000 storage ahci.o to simple.map.

I followed these instructions http://www.vm-help.com/esx40i/customize_oem_tgz.php#Example, but didn't need to do steps 7-9:

7) cp /etc/vmware/pci.ids pci.ids
8) vi pci.ids
-- add the necessary description for your devices (this will be displayed in the console and VI Client)
9) close vi - press ESC and enter :wq

Now I can reboot and my Datastores and VMs show up without having to run the vmkload_mod ahci script.

Thanks for your help.