I am re-posting this message from the "Customizing Installation Images/Realtek test drivers of ESXi 5.0" thread where it was posted some time ago and never answered.

I recently bought a $309 (believe it or not) Asus X54L laptop with a Sandy Bridge Core i3 (dual core processor plus hyperthreading with Intel virtualization enabled) and 4GB RAM (since upgraded to 8GB). I thought, before placing my order that the machine would have an Intel onboard NIC but as it turns out, it has an Atheros AR8151 PCI-e gigabit adapter onboard (or so Windows 7 tells me).

I've tried all of the .vib packages listed and downloadable in the "Customizing Installation Images" forum and I've gotten as far as ESXi (5.0 Update 1) loading the driver and successfully getting an address, subnet mask, gateway and DNS from DHCP. Once that happens, the machine doesn't communicate on the network. Pings to and from fail.

Is there possibly a later driver? Can anyone assist?

The machine was purchased for experimentation, training, etc. I have a tiny production vSphere 5 environment on a pair of Dell servers.

Thanks!
Jeff

I have tested this issue and found working fine.

I downloaded the below attached file using the following URL.

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=3494&start=20

injected to esxi "Mware-VMvisor-Installer-5.0.0.update01-623860.x86_64.iso" using ESXi-Customizer-v2.7.

After booting with the customised ISO, No more network card not found ....
The host can see the Atheros 8151 PCI-e
Thanks to vm-help.com and great going.....

No go.

After building an ESXi 5.0 U1 installation image incorporating net-atl1e-1.0.1.14.x86_64.vib, I can get ESXi to see the NIC and install but once installed there is no communication using the NIC.

The host doesn't get a DHCP address. Setting a static address, mask, gateway, DNS, etc., management network tests fail. There's just no communications.

We're halfway there. But still, not a good driver.

I'm having an identical problem. I install can build a custom ESXi 5.0 image using net-atl1e-1.0.1.14.x86_64.vib, and ESXi customizer, and it ESXi installs just fine.

But I cannot get DHCP, if I assign static addresses to ESXi I cannot ping anything on the network. I found the linux driver for AR8151, does anyone know the process for converting a linux driver into one of these .vib files that can be used with ESXi customizer?

Thanks,

Jeff D.

Add me to the list. I have a new Alienware M14X R2 with the 8151. Using the VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.0.0.update01-623860.x86_64.iso and net-atl1e-1.0.1.14.x86_64.vib, along with ESXi-Customizer-v2.7.

Installation goes well, and sometimes on boot it will even pull a DHCP address. But once the system is up, the networking goes unresponsive. Ping in and out fail, and restarting the network manager results in NOT getting a DHCP address. Statically assigning an address does not fix the issue.

Does anyone know if there is a more recent driver than the net-atl1e-1.0.1.14? My guess is the 1.0.1.14 driver has a bug in there somewhere.

Cheers,