So I tried to install ESXi 5.0 (the free edition) on a Dell OptiPlex 790 yesterday when I ran into a few issues with the Integrated Intel® 82579LM Ethernet LAN 10/100/1000 network card!!
Basically I kept getting this message:
So after some annoyance I found out I could inject the drivers for the network card into a ISO and obviously from there create a CD and install ESXi!!
So here how I did it:
- Download ESXi-Customizer (by Andreas Peetz) from here: http://v-front.blogspot.co.uk/p/esxi-customizer.html
- Download the drivers that have been adjusted for ESXi from here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27246203/E1001E.tgz
- Start ESXi-Customizer, browse to the ESXi ISO, browse to the above drivers, browse to where you want the new ISO going! Click RUN!
- Bun the ISO and jam it in your 790!!
Job Done!
You sir, rock.
I salute you!
this is awesome article. it saved a great deal of time. Thanks!
This worked like a charm! Thanks so much for taking the time to write this article.
[…] I ran into my first gotcha quite early thanks to Dell’s love for bleeding edge NICs. It’s one of the few things that drives me nuts about Dell hardware, and I facepalmed as soon as ESXi threw up it’s “No network adapters detected” error so off I went to research how – or even if! – I could inject drivers into the ESXi install, and fortunately stumbled on someone who had already done so on the OptiPlex 790:- http://bohemiangrove.co.uk/esxi-5-0-the-free-one/ […]
Hi,
Thank you for your the topic.
I tried the some procedure list on Dell Optiplex Hardware (790)but i have another problem after the ESX install.
I get below purple screen
“Error message: The system has found a problem on your machine and canot continue.
Could not load multiboot module: Boot Image is corrupted.”
Any ideas?
Best regards.
Awesome, thanks!