Troubles with VMware ESXi

Started by brittnib0, June 26, 2024, 10:21:09 AM

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brittnib0

Hi,

I'm using VMware ESXi 7.x and connecting to VMs using the Remote Console (VM is running on a remote server, and the USB devices are connected locally in a Windows desktop). My virtual machines are configured to use USB 2.0 and the memory stick that I want to boot is connected using a USB 2.0 HUB (to overcome USB 3.x troubles).

Here my experience:

- When using UEFI mode in the BIOS of the VM, then the last version of PBM6-EFI (pbm6-efi-20230206.zip) doesn't boot. However, the ancient version pbm6-efi-20221104.zip boots. You can check it at https://www.plop.at/en/pbm6/blog.html searching for the "2022-11-04  -  PBM6 - EFI: ISO fix" and "The ISO did not work under VMware. It is fixed now." I don't know why this ancient version is fixed but not the current release. Any reason for it?

- When using BIOS mode in the VM, the PLOP boot manager boots, but the USB devices aren't detected. This is true with any version (including pbm6-20240301.zip). If I boot any LiveCD with the same configuration in the VM all USB drives are detected. However, the PLOP never display any of them. But it does in EFI mode with the same VM configuration. Any idea to fix this?

I really apreciate the effort of the developer of PLOP. This tool is impresive. And I hope you will continue improving it. But IMHO the ESXi support is a very valuable functionality, and now is partially broken. So, please fix it. Thank you.

Regards.

cloakedboing

I agree with you. Everything works quite well but there are often errors, I don't know if it's due to my browser or it

linnetmoan

This seems like not a bad experience. Thank you for sharing useful information.

troubleban

Quote from: cloakedboing on July 10, 2024, 06:02:13 AMI agree with you. Everything works quite well but there are often errors, I don't know if it's due to my browser or it dinosaur game
You can test by trying another browser or try the same browser on another device. Then you can know if it is your browser error or not.

tynsa

The problem where pbm6-efi-20230206.zip does not boot under UEFI, but pbm6-efi-20221104.zip does, seems related to how VMware ESXi handles ISO images and EFI bootloaders. As noted on the Plop Boot Manager (PBM) blog, the 2022-11-04 version fixed a known issue where the ISO did not work with VMware. However, it seems that this fix may not have been carried over to later versions, or there could be a regression in the newer PBM6-EFI versions.