FreeBSD under VMware ESXi ARM Fling

[Robert Crowston]

> The largest issue currently is that SMP will cause the FreeBSD kernel topanic during boot.

Could you send the panic?

I’m guessing lack of spintable support.

— RHC.

On Mon, Oct 19, 2020 at 07:19, Vincent Milum Jr <freebsd-arm at darkain.com> wrote:

> Recently, VMware released what they're calling "ESXi ARM Fling" - an
> ARM64/Aarch64 version of VMware ESXi server.
>
> Details of the release along with the download can be found here:
> https://flings.vmware.com/esxi-arm-edition
>
> They support a number of ARM platforms already, most notably is the
> Raspberry Pi
> 4 (only 4GB and 8GB models). They have instructions on their site on how to
> install and configure the UEFI firmware on the Pi for getting the ESXi
> installer
> and then ESXi itself up and running.
>
> UEFI builds of FreeBSD ARM64/Aarch64 mostly work "out of the box" under ESXi
> ARM, whereas ARM 32-bit kernels are not supported by any guest OS under ESXi
> ARM.
>
> There are, however, some areas that could use some improvement, or need some
> massive work to get working.
>
> The largest issue currently is that SMP will cause the FreeBSD kernel to
> panic
> during boot. A VM with only one single vCPU however will boot and run just
> fine.
>
> Prior to the 13.0-CURRENT snapshot 2020-10-15, the CD-Rom driver was not
> included with the ARM64 builds, so the ISO would fail to mount itself on
> boot. This
> means the easiest way to try earlier versions, such as 12.1-RELEASE, you'll
> need
> to either convert the pre-built vmdk file from Workstation to ESXi format,
> or
> convert the raw disk image to ESXi vmdk format. This is how I initially got
> FreeBSD up and running prior to the 2020-10-15 snapshot.
>
> Every version of FreeBSD I've tested on ARM is lacking several drivers by
> default.
>
> uhci for USB 2.0 is not enabled by default. Ensure your VM is initially set
> up
> for USB 3.1 so the virtual keyboard and mouse will function. This is easy
> enough
> to fix post install with: uhci_load="YES"
>
> ums is the same as above. ESXi ARM uses USB instead of PS2 for the virtual
> mouse, so add this post install if you want mouse support: ums_load="YES"
>
> vmxnet and pvscsi are not pre-compiled. However, they compile and operate
> perfectly as expected without any modification on ARM.
>
> vmci has some x86 assembly that I've not dug into yet, so that is currently
> not
> working.
>
> I've documented in detail, and continue to update as I test more drivers
> over on
> my blog:
> https://vincerants.com/freebsd-on-esxi-arm-fling-fixing-virtual-hardware/
>
> The ESXi UI has a known bug in that it'll list some virtual hardware that
> doesn't actually exist inside of the VM. These are all legacy devices, and
> should be easy enough to figure out. There are no virtual IDE/ATA or PS2
> ports.
> Keyboard and mouse now use the virtual USB controller instead.
>
> open-vm-tools has required a bit of work to make functional on FreeBSD under
> ARM. There is currently a patch open with VMware with my changes to the
> codebase
> to make it functional. To make things easy, I've uploaded some pre-compiled
> binaries to my blog, as well as included steps to compile this customized
> package yourself. The blog will also be updated as development progresses
> upstream with VMware.
> https://vincerants.com/open-vm-tools-on-freebsd-under-vmware-esxi-arm-fling/
>
> Xorg desktop runs, and is mostly functional. I've yet to get the
> xf86-input-vmmouse or xf86-video-vmware working. Xorg can use sysmouse and
> the
> console framebuffer for rendering, and this is working okay for basic
> testing
> right now.
>
> I also have an early dmesg, but this was from before getting most drivers
> working.
> https://dmesgd.nycbug.org/index.cgi?do=view&id=5693
>
> I welcome any additional feedback on getting FreeBSD to 100% under ESXi ARM!
>
> - Vince (darkain)
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