VMware ESXi 4.1 on a Thinkpad T410 - installed

Recently I inherited a series of new products at Symantec that require several RedHat Enterprise Linux servers in order to operate, and so I decided (probably, foolishly) to provision my standby Windows laptop (a recent Lenovo Thinkpad T410 with 6GB of RAM) as a hypervisor in order to run a small test/familiarization/demo environment. I planned to manage it using the vSphere client on a Windows image (taken initially *from* that laptop by VMware Converter (standalone) running in Fusion on my day-to-day Macbook Pro. Any of those of you who've tried to use VMware's free hypervisor, ESXi, on anything not on the HCL have probably struggled with installation at some point, which is usually due to unsupported hardware and missing drivers, and this was no exception. 
Well, now with the help of various posts in the past at VM-Help (who also maintain their own HCL, known as the WHCL) I can report success - VMware ESXi 4.1 does install on such a small piece of hardware, albeit with a custom network driver that you must inject into a custom install ISO you create, before installing. Here I'm presenting the steps, in case this is of any use to you; 
*** Disclaimer: You will receive no support from VMware, and you'll likely receive a hefty ribbing from your cubemates should things go wrong and you begin gnashing your teeth/headbutting the desk/wailing in the corner.

1. Prepare. Download a few things;

a. VMware ESXi 4.1 (you'll need a VMware account, recall however that it's offered free)
b. The Intel e1000e2 custom OEM.tgz driver (I used the driver based on 1.1.19, created by a user on the VM-Help Forum)
c. Daniel Soderlund's mkesxiaio script from Google Code (customizes drivers and rebuilds the install .iso)
d. A working Linux box (I used an Ubuntu 10.10 desktop I had nearby, although there might be ways on Windows - I don't know)

2. Go to your Linux box. Put the first 3 download deliverables into one folder. There will be;

a. VMware ESXi install .iso
b. oem-8086-10f0-v1119.tgz
c. mkesxiaio_4.1.sh

3. Drop into a terminal, and change to that folder you've added the 3 files to. chmod +x the mkesxiaio_4.1.sh file so it can be executed. Run it, usually "./mkesxiaio_4.1" (without the quotes)

4.  Work through the questions. The easiest way to install (remember, my opinion) is to make a new installation .iso with your customer driver injected. I chose option 3) - ESXi 4.1, then option 1) - ISO installation. 

5. The script will ask you if you want to install a load of accessory software, ftp, ssh and the like. These are up to you; your mileage may vary and I suggest you read up on what these can do for you. I chose to not install any of these. 

6. The script will shortly ask you if you want to "add custom file from custom-esx (this is another folder the script itself creates). I said no. 

7. The script will then ask you if you want to edit respectively inetd.conf, pci.ids and simple.map. I said "No" to editing inetd.conf, and "Yes" to editing pci.ids and simple.map. Here's why, and it's the critical part;

– The Thinkpad T410 uses an Intel 82577LM network interface. 
– The 82577LM has a PCI address of 8086:10ea. This is important. 
– The drivers for this are what you wish to inject, and are in that oem_xxx.tgz file you added to the folder
– The mkesxiaio_xx.sh script watches for any oem_xxx.tgz file and injects those into your new custom install .iso it will build momentarily
– YOU need to edit pci.ids and simple.map to tell ESXi that you've done so, and that it should load these new drivers
– The mkesxiaio_xx.sh script will allow you to make the edits during it's processing

    • Edits
    *** pci.ids ***
    10ea 82577LM Gigabit Network Connection

    • (I just scrolled to the section, removed the existing 10ea definitions, and added the above line)

    *** simple.map ***
    8086:10ea 0000:0000 network e1000e2.o

    • (similarly, scroll to the relevant section, make the edit to include the line above)
    • In both cases, use the pico/nano commands CTRL+o and CTRL+x to writeout your file (save changes) and exit. The script will move on as you do.  

    8. The mkesxiaio_4.1.sh script will then finish building a new VMware ESXi custom install .iso file for you, including your new drivers from oem-8086-10f0-v1119.tgz and your edited pci.ids and simple.map files - and then it will tell you where it saved that .iso file. 

    9. Grab that custom .iso, burn it to a disc, and get cracking with your install. If it all worked, ESXi installation will proceed without error and you'll be running the VMware Hypervisor on your laptop in less than 15 minutes. 

    Enjoy! 

    The iPad rocks my world, and you know it droid-boy

    *Re-sending Aug 6th, initially sent Weds Aug 4th during Posterous' outage due DoS attacks* 

    Earlier tonight I dropped my wife, Jodie, off at the International Terminal at San Francisco airport, for a quick 1-week trip home to Aus to take care of some family stuff. Normally when we fly this kind of distance she has her regular suitcase (mid-size, bit bigger than an American-style roll-aboard case), and her little mini roll-aboard suitcase as a carry-on; and in this latter one is normally a travel pillow, eyemask, earplugs, moisturizers, headache pills and Ambien tablets, wallet, passport, pen, 3 magazines, a book, maybe my book, a camera, her jacket, my jacket, and some other random shit. Tonight, she hopped out of the car with just one suitcase, and a handbag. Like this:

    Why? Two days ago she got an iPad. Our first in this house. My friends are mostly surprised that I'd been holding out, but I secretly am a tight-arse (tight fisted here in the US) and was hoping to see maybe a front-facing camera, or a Retina display before dropping the Benjamins on a first release unit. But as we got her itinerary prepared for this trip, it became clear that the investment was worth it right now - not 14 months in the future when Apple somehow moved heaven and earth again (maybe). 

    How? Just look at these ticket prices, focusing on the third line:
    1. Ticket price on Qantas, direct flight, cheapest Economy seats: ~$1450
    2. Ticket price on V.Australia, layovers in LAX both ways (sucks balls), cheapest Economy seats: ~$1550
    3. Ticket price on United (gasp!), direct flights, Economy Plus seats +iPad: ~$1650

    So we naturally, decidedly, and quickly booked United (gasp! again, my friend Alex is going to think I've lost it as I was just dissing the heck out of them last week) and promptly went out and bought a 32GB iPad. 

    So back to tonight; I (and the dog) dropped Jodes at the airport with just one suitcase and that handbag, because in it, she had a travel pillow, eyemask, earplugs, moisturizer, pills, passport and wallet, and an iPad. And on that iPad is:

    And still there's 22GB of free space for more content, and the 8 to 10 hour battery. This is why the iPad rocks my world. Tell me again, why I'm supposed to moan about Jobs having a deity complex, and hopefully wait for a semi-functional Android or WebOS tablet with an unknown delivery timeframe? Or even worse, a Windows tablet (yet again) with nothing but Office apps for company, and quite possibly a shitty stylus (yet again)? Once more, this is why the iPad rocks my world: it's here, it works, it's gorgeous, and it changes your life. Computing can only get better. I'm looking forward to being part of it. Devices/software like the iPad remind me why. 

    Current status: iOS4, Cloud 9.

    Folders, and Unified Inbox are worth it alone. The rest is just a joyful bonus, for example, I can't wait for background Pandora. Say what you will about "lock-in" - Apple really makes me happy. I don't want things that they don't deliver, I think less about making my compute devices work, and I don't waste frustrated time on unnatural actions (task killer for Android, anyone? - my favourite task killer is the one I *never* think about, or have to use). As a software and experience producer myself, I can certainly see why people love/d working there. 

    *** Update *** Pandora, Evernote, and various other apps have already released iOS4-aware updates. Pandora backgrounding absolutely rocks! 

    MacBook Pro keyboard / trackpad fix

    Lewis Barclay saved my @rse today. The keyboard and trackpad on my Macbook Pro recently just quit, and I'm flying to India- Pune in fact in a few hours, for the week. Problems seem to have a sense of timing, don't they? The Power button still worked and is part of the same assembly, so I was confused and messed around with software updates and 'hacks' to no avail. The 'fix'? Press down on this little flimsy cable (it's usually a little bit bubbled up and outwards) that I've circled in the shot below (which is an iPhone app - goSnap creation.)

    You can access this little bubbled out cable just by removing your battery. As it happens I'd already disassembled the Macbook Pro by the time I found Lewis' short and handy little article (which is here). Here's my summary;

    1. flip the battery out (after shutdown)
    2. make a little ball of sticky tape, or something similar (not too big!)
    3. attach it to the little bubbled cable you see here
    4. gently reinsert your battery - don't force it. if it won't go, downsize the ball
    5. Enjoy your now working keyboard assembly, until you can get it replaced

    Thanks Lewis! Hope this helps others too.

    Sent from my iPhone