Hi all.

I am trying to install esxi 3.5 update 4 on a lenovo t400 laptop.
But I am having problems with the NIC.

It´s intel 82567LM with id 8086:10f5.

I have tried all the e1000e.o drivers I can find from Community Unified Driver Pack for ESXi but all return with error.

But I know that this is the driver I should use as it works fine with ubuntu 8.10.

Is there anything I can do or is this impossible to install.

Thanks.

What sort of errors do you see in /var/log/messages when you try the driver for this NIC? The NIC drivers that come with ESXi are sometimes based on Linux drivers, but they have to be compiled specificially to work with ESX/ ESXi. They also tend to be a bit older, so for example the 82566DM-2 NIC just started working in the latest release of ESXi because the prior e1000 drivers were new enough to support it.

Hi Dave and thanks for the reply

Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.570 cpu0:1221)Loading module e1000e ...
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.570 cpu0:1221)Mod: 936: Starting load for module: e1000e R/O length: 0x16000 R/W length: 0x9000 Md5sum: 5ccbd2e5d04cab9e48a7690ad8337882
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)Mod: 1373: Module e1000e: initFunc: 0x950098 text: 0x94a000 data: 0x2963440 bss: 0x29635c0 (writeable align 32)
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)Mod: 1389: modLoaderHeap avail before: 7797168
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)Initial heap size : 102400, max heap size: 4194304
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)<6>e1000e: Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver - 0.4.1.7
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)<6>e1000e: Copyright (c) 1999-2008 Intel Corporation.
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: driver e1000e is looking for devices
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Trying 00:02.0
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Announcing 00:02.0
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Trying 00:03.0
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Announcing 00:03.0
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Trying 00:19.0
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Announcing 00:19.0
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Trying 00:1a.0
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Trying 00:1a.1
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Trying 00:1a.2
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Trying 00:1a.7
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Trying 00:1b.0
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Announcing 00:1b.0
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Trying 00:1c.0
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Announcing 00:1c.0
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Trying 00:1c.3
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Announcing 00:1c.3
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Trying 00:1c.4
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Announcing 00:1c.4
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Trying 00:1d.0
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Trying 00:1d.1
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Trying 00:1d.2
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Trying 00:1d.7
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Trying 00:1f.2
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Announcing 00:1f.2
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Trying 00:1f.3
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Announcing 00:1f.3
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Trying 15:00.1
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: Announcing 15:00.1
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)PCI: driver e1000e claimed 0 device
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)ALERT: Mod: 1413: Initialization for e1000e failed with -19.
Apr 16 16:35:16 vmkernel: 0:00:00:08.750 cpu0:1221)e1000e failed to load with status 0, -19, 0xbad0001.

I think this driver is too old.

Is there a newer driver anywhere for the esxi around?

ESXi 4.0 (there should be an announcement next week on when it will be out) will have newer versions.

Some folks have compiled drivers for ESXi (to add Realtek support) so it is possible to do that if one has experience in that area.

Thanks again for the reply.

Can you point me in the right direction to compile a new driver for the esxi?

Thanks.

Here's the source - http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/open_source.html

Basic instructions - http://communities.vmware.com/message/1140875#1140875

Thanks for all you help, I´ll see how I do with this and let you know.

Thanks, Dennis

I really want to thank you for our effort to help everyone here. I have managed to compile the e1000e intel 0.5.18.3 under the ESXI Update 4. It required some modification of the code but I got it work with some trial and error effort. I have not tested this completely but the nic now appears in the console as well in the infrastructure manager.

Thanks again.

Would you be able to post a copy of the driver or oem.tgz file?

Sure Dave,

Here is the oem.tgz. But I would not recomend to use this in a production env. as this is not tested fully. But it works for me.

Regards, Dennis