ESXi no longer installs with 4.3, worked fine with 4.2

[jarwin-dosling]

VirtualBox 4.3 no longer installs VMware ESXi as a guest OS. However this works wine with 4.2 I tried this in 2 OS's - in both Windows 7 running VirtualBox and Linux Mint running VirtualBox. I just downgraded Mint from 4.3 to 4.2 and now it installs. I did not try Windows 7 running 4.2, just know that 4.3 doesn't work. If you want to try it yourself, you can easily obtain the ESXi image from here: ​http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/driverdetails?driverid=RD5JN or also from VMware itself since it is free.

Please note: when you first try it, it looks like it works, for the first minute or so. But then it goes to a BLACK SCREEN where you cannot see anything the installer is doing. If I run VirtualBox 4.2, there is no problems, but running VirtualBox 4.3 then the ESXi install leads to a BLACK SCREEN during the install where you cannot see anything going on. This behavior is both in Windows 7 and Linux Mint hosts OS's.

I customized the following settings after googling many sites and watching YouTube videos or people getting ESXi to run in VirtualBox 4.2: Selected Linux OS (In 4.2 there is only one "LInux other" choice, in 4.3 there is a 32-bit and 64-bit inux other choice, tried them both, no luck). Also increased processors to 2, made sure there was at least 2 gigs of RAM (I used 4 gigs or RAM), and I increased video memory to 128. Also in 4.2 had to enable IO APIC but pretty sure that was default in 4.3, and I changed the NIC to Intel PRO/1000 MT Server, which multiple sources said was needed for ESXi to recognize the NIC.

In 4.2 I can install VMWare ESXi 5.1 as a guest OS it works. But in 4.3.6 neither works. Please kindly look into this issue, this is definitely a bug.

[Frank Mehnert]

I miss a VBox.log file of such a VM session.

[Frank Mehnert]

And it could also make sense to install the test build provided in #12544 (perhaps the same problem).

[jarwin-dosling]

Please kindly see attached VBox.log. I am running Linux Mint Host OS and with the latest VirtualBox 4.3.6 r91406.

I am trying to install ESXI 5.5 and it soon goes to a black screen and nothing happens. However it installs fine with VirtualBox 4.2. The same happens with installing eSXI 5.1

Please note there is not much in the log file as the installation seems to "hang"

[Frank Mehnert]

In that case it's indeed the same problem as #12544 and will be fixed with the next 4.3.x maintenance release. Could you install this test build and verify that it fixes your problem? Thank you!

[Marvin_]

i have the same Problem with Virtualbox 4.3.6 and VMWare 5.X. I use openSuse 12.3 64bit as basesystem, pls can you provide also an build for that plattform?

Or when will the official Fix/new version released?

[Frank Mehnert]

Could you test ​VBox 4.3.8 RC1?

[Frank Mehnert]

VBox 4.3.8 was just released, closing.