Re: [open-vm-tools-devel] open-vm-tools-2007.10.08 questions

[Adar D. <ad...@vm...>]

> > 1) Is it really necessary to load the vmxnet driver inside=20
> a VMware ESX
> >    guest ?
>=20
> I think it isn't required.  On a RHEL5 VM running under ESX=20
> with VMware=20
> tools from ESX installed, vmxnet isn't loaded.  It looks like=20
> the init=20
> script they use checks /proc/bus/pci/devices for certain=20
> strings to see=20
> if vmxnet is needed.   Unfortunately that init script doesn't seem to=20
> have been included in the open source release, so we can't just reuse=20
> that code.

See my previous e-mail: whether or not the guest needs vmxnet depends on =
the
virtual networking device(s) exposed to that guest. The latest ESX can
support all three types of devices as far as I know.

I don't think you should need the check employed by the Tools init =
script,
because udev/hotplug should recognize the virtual nic well before any =
init
script has a chance to run. If udev sees a vmxnet backend, it'll load =
the
vmxnet module. If it sees an e1000 backend, it'll load Linux's e1000 =
module.
If it sees an AMD vlance, you should use an /etc/modprobe.d script to =
have it
try the vmxnet module before the pcnet32 module.