Comment thread started by Rennyfuchs on USB Network Native Driver for ESXi

Hello,

Is there any way to make this work by injecting the driver into the image? I injected the offline bundle, but it doesn't appear to recognize the USB network adapter on install, although it is the correct vendor/dev ids. The vmkusb driver appears to load and find the device, but I can't seem to get the network nic list to enumerate, and the esx.conf file doesn't make reference to a vusb0 during install. Here is a link to a picture of some commands I ran: https://photos.app.goo.gl/s7hZaTfaagSaQYUPA

Is there something I can do from shell that will allow the network adapter to be recognized?

Hi @Rennyfuchs,

I just checked the picture you shared on the link.
The device you are using should be work with the fling. It is not recognized, because the 'vmkusb_nic_fling' module is not loaded as expected.
Please help to check if your install is corrected? As you ar

localcli system module list | grep usb

You should be able to see the module is listed.

vmkusb_nic_fling true true

Please help to double check it is installed and rebooted the host as detailed in the instructions tap.
Thanks,
Songtao

Thank you Songtao,

This is in the install environment, on booting to install media it says "no network devices detected" so I entered shell while within the install to check. Do I need to manually enter the device into esx.conf in order for the OS install to continue?

How about building a custom ESXi ISO which include the bundle? I do not tested that, but I think you can have a try. William havea blog about build custom ESXi ISO for Mac Mini, would you please check if it help for you? @https://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2014/09/how-to-build-custom-esxi-iso-for-apple-mac-mini.html
Let me know how it is going for you.
Thanks,
Songtao

Songtao,

The method that I used to inject the driver is with the ESXi Customizer script from here: https://www.v-front.de/p/esxi-customizer-ps.html

I did check the module and it is loaded/enabled (true/true).

I can certainly try the above mentioned link, just need to find a linux box to do so. Thanks!

The work around was to actually remove the vib from the ISO, and use /bin/mcopy -i from another USB key to copy the vib to /tmp, then localcli software vib install in the live install environment. Appears to be working, much appreciated!

Rennyfuchs, Please can you explain how you made your TP-Link UE300 to work. I don't understand fully your comment above.
Thanks In advance!

CikaKure, what I wound up doing was using PowerCLI to create a new image profile, then used v-front.de's customizer script to make it an ISO (https://www.v-front.de/p/esxi-customizer-ps.html)
Download and install PowerCLI
Download the offline bundle of your choosing
From PowerCLI:
Add-EsxSoftwareDepot C:\path\to\zipfile
Get-EsxImageProfile to list the profiles it has
New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile (name of profile from previous step) -Name MyNewImage -vendor "Me" -AcceptanceLevel CommunitySupported
Export-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile MyNewImage -ExportToBundle myimage.zip

Then use the customizer script to make it an ISO, and add the driver:
.\ESXi-Customizer-PS-v2.6.0.ps1 -izip .\myimage.zip -pkgDir (location of fling driver)

In hindsight, this can also be done just by using the customizer script, for some reason when I ran it before it didn't modify the image profile from the script, but have verified that this should work:
.\ESXi-Customizer-PS-v2.6.0.ps1 -izip -v6X (specify v65 or v67) -pkgDir (location of fling driver)

@rennyfuchs, I am trying to do the same thing as you (install ESXI with only a USB NIC). I can get the esxi installer running but it fails at 85% with the following:
Exception: No vmknic tagged for management was found

Did you ever run into this?