ESXi 4 and USB issues

I had some USB issues when installing VMWare ESXi 4 on some non-VMWare approved hardware today. I was installing onto an ICH10 motherboard. In fact, by USB troubles, I mean I had major issues. I think I have solved them, but I am not sure of the exact solution.

Anyway, my install would die when trying to load one of the USB drivers. It would just sit there and sit there. Using a PS/2 keyboard would almost work, but would reach a screen that asked for me to press enter, and that did not work. I also had the machine hang on IDE.

The solution is simple. First, turn off the legacy IDE. I had SATA, and so I did not need IDE. I don’t know if this did anything, but it did not hurt. I also turned on VT in the bios. This was probably important too. The CPU I was using was a Core 2 Duo… The E-7500 running just under 3 GHz.

The solution to the lock ups? Simple. Remove the USB keyboard and mouse as soon as possible at the beginning of the Yellow and Black screen. Then just before it ends you need to put the keyboard back in. Actually, you can do this once it gets to about 2/3rds of the way through the process.

What this does is removes the USB device so it is not detected incorrectly by the VMWare software. Then, once we have gone past that step, the Plug and Play will detect the keyboard as a keyboard and things will be fine. I don’t know if you need to remove the USB on reboot, but the solution to that is to log in via SSH to the VMWare and edit a conf file in /etc