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I'm having an issue kickstarting an installation of VMWaare ESX Classic 4.1. I've stripped down my kickstart a bit to just:

accepteula

keyboard us

auth

clearpart --firstdisk --overwritevmfs

url --url=10.16.0.1/cblr/ks_mirror/esx-classic-4.1.0-260247

rootpw --iscrypted $1$zZJa3g7g$mD8d.6QgbPku1QovQTAps/

timezone 'US/Pacific'

network --addvmportgroup=true --device=vmnic0 --bootproto=dhcp

part '/boot'  --fstype=ext3 --size=1100  --onfirstdisk
part 'none'  --fstype=vmkcore --size=110  --onfirstdisk
part 'datastore1'  --fstype=vmfs3 --size=8920 --grow  --onfirstdisk

virtualdisk 'esxconsole' --size=7920 --onvmfs='datastore1'

part 'swap'  --fstype=swap --size=916 --onvirtualdisk='esxconsole'
part '/var/log'  --fstype=ext3 --size=2000 --onvirtualdisk='esxconsole'
part '/'  --fstype=ext3 --size=5000 --grow --onvirtualdisk='esxconsole'

%post --interpreter=bash

However, when I attempt to use this kickstart during a PXE install with no additional kernel options, I get the following error:

There was a problem with the Network Device specified on the command line.
Error: No NIC found with name bootif

If I comment out the network line in the kickstart, the error changes to:

There was a problem with the Network Device specified on the command line.
Error: No NIC found with name eth0

How can I fix this? Thanks.

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3
  • Why are you bothering, do you really need the SC?
    – Chopper3
    Nov 16, 2010 at 21:29
  • Sorry, I'm not familiar with that abbreviation SC
    – William
    Nov 16, 2010 at 21:38
  • Service Console. It's the primary difference between ESX and ESXi
    – Mark Henderson
    Nov 17, 2010 at 20:35

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
1

You might try adding "IPAPPEND 2" to your pxe stanza.

Also, are you sure that the drivers for your nic exist in the installer you are trying to boot?

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1

Did you try setting --device=eth0 in the network line? I looked at this:

and that's the only mention of and always eth0.

EDIT: Since OP uses Cobbler, this is the important link:

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10
  • I'll give it a shot, thanks. I recall trying this and having something go wrong.
    – William
    Nov 16, 2010 at 21:11
  • Well I tried that but the first error persisted, No NIC found with name bootif.
    – William
    Nov 16, 2010 at 21:17
  • Do you have ksdevice parameter to kernel defined in your PXE config? Look here: blog.scottlowe.org/2010/03/02/pxe-booting-vmware-esx-40
    – icyrock.com
    Nov 16, 2010 at 21:21
  • I've tried with it both defined (as vmnic0 and eth0) and not defined. Unfortunately the error is still there.
    – William
    Nov 16, 2010 at 21:35
  • That's a bummer - do you have any mention of bootif anywhere in your config files or is this some VMWare default?
    – icyrock.com
    Nov 16, 2010 at 21:38
0

The error comes from the installer trying to parse the kernel boot command line BOOTIF=XXX parameter. Check the boot command line with cat /proc/cmdline to see what you booted with. BOOTIF it typically added by a PXE bootloader, but can also be found in grub.conf

Edit:

This can also happen if 'ksdevice=' or 'netdevice=' are set on the kernel cmdline

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