I know there is another thread about this same NIC but thought I should start my own.

Newbie to all things VMware/Ubuntu/etc so please bear with me!

So I've tried to install ESXi 4.1.0 Update 1 via VMware Go (compatability test states not on approved list, but all components compatible)...which errors out with a message about the NIC is either not present or assigned to another connection.

I burned the ISO to disk and ran the installer and it looks as if it tries to install but errors out with "vmkctl.HostCtlException: Unable to load module /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/vmfs3: Failure". Found out this too deals with the NIC.

Checked into the NIC and it is the onboard Broadcom NetLink BCM57788, 14E4, 1691. Which led me to the script to make a custom ISO (viewtopic.php?f=17&t=4).

So I've installed VMware Player and a vm of Ubuntu 10.10 (let's just say that being a strictly MS guy it's been fun trying to figure all this out) and I've copied the ISO and mkesxiaio_4.2 over to their own folder w/in the Ubuntu user folder and I've ran the script...choosing 4.1, ISO, which then immediately errors out saying "No OEM file.. Exiting", deletes all folders and exits the script.

Which brings me to the 2 reasons for my post...
1. Anyone else get their installation to work with the BCM57788? (I did see a thread with exactly that NIC in the title, but nothing really solid)

2. Issue with the mkesxiaio 4.2 script...I looked at the script and it says something about "if you are using the auto function and haven't set -iso it till stop the script". Is there something I need to do prior to running the script? I've made sure the ESXi ISO was in the same folder as the script thinking that it didn't know where to look for it, but the script does check for *.iso...so I don't know what else to do so that it will see the ISO.

Besides going out and buying an Intel NIC, which I'm sure is easier, I wanted to try and get this going with the onboard NIC

Any help would be greatly appreciated from this ultra noob.

Thanks in advance!
lv

Hello and welcome to the forum.

You need a oem.tgz file to run my script and you need one that contains the drivers / settings for your nic.

Dave may have some ideas so just wait for him to post

//Daniel

You can test the driver that comes with ESXi before you start making changes to the install image. If it doesn't work with the below steps, then you'll need another driver.

1) Boot the ESXi install CD until you get to the VMFS error.
2) Press ALT+F1 to access Tech Support Mode.
3) Login with the user root - the password is nothing.
4) Load the driver manually with the command vmkload_mod <drivername>.

You can get a list of drivers with the command ls -l /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/.

After you run the vmkload_mod command, run esxcfg-nics -l. If you don't see your NIC listed then the driver won't work with it and changing simple.map won't help.

Thanks guys...just got in this morning and I'll give it a shot. Also, thanks for the detailed explanation of what I need to do Dave!

I'll reply back with what I find after I get the morning routine out of the way.
lv

Dave...how do you get the list to wait for my input to go on to the next page...like "dir /p"? It lists the entire list but I can't see anything except for the bottom of the list...

I did find this link:
http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/e ... ViZHR3JQ==

also, i'm sorry but what am I looking for as far as a driver name? I dl'd the above link to get a look at the driver name, but I'm not seeing anything that looks like what I dl'd...sorry Dave...for the first time in a long time I don't know what the heck I'm doing...

It'll likely be the tg3.o driver that you want to try. If you use less you can control output - like lspci | less.

yeah i guessed at it and tried the tg3.o last week but when i loaded that driver and ran esxcfg-nics -l, it listed nothing...it had all the headers on the listing, but absolutely nothing in the list.

http://www.vm-help.com/esx40i/Hardware_support.php
this list shows other drivers that i'll try for giggles just to see if anything pops up.

so i take it i'm SOL on this and need to get an Intel NIC? is there no way to use Daniel's script to add in the necessary driver?

I found this: http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/e ... ViZHR3JQ== but don't know how to incorporate this driver or how to load it after i've gotten to the Admin area. i'm not familiar enough on how to access the CD drive after i'm in Admin...

am i on the right path or am i just spinning my wheels here?
thanks for any help
lv

just got done trying to load those other drivers that are listed as Broadcom and nothing shows after esxcfg-nics -l

figured that was going to happen, but one never knows.

I managed to get this working in the end! It turns out the tg3 driver included in the latest version of ESXi is very very old. You need to download this driver iso file:

http://download3.vmware.com/software/es ... 313461.iso

Even though the version number appears to be older than the current version included in ESXi, it is in actual fact much newer (no idea why they did this). I just extracted the tg3.o file, renamed it tg4.o and placed it in the same directory as tg3.o. I think referenced tg4 as the driver instead of tg3. I'm sure there is an easier way to actually genuinely upgrade the driver however I never spent much time investigating this. If someone could shed some light that would be appreciated.