manual root filesystems specification under VMware

[Jeff Dickens]

I'm trying to move a FreeBSD 6.1 virtual machine from VMware server to 
VMware ESX Server.  The original VM used a virtual IDE controller for 
the disks, and apparently VMware ESX server doesn't support this.

The "VMware converter" applications translates the virtual disk files to 
use the Virtual SCSI controller under VMware ESX Server.  However, I 
then get dumped at the "Manual Root filesystem specification" prompt, 
where I should be able to just type "ufs:da0s1a" and off I go.

But what happens is that the system is hung right at that point and 
doesn't accept keyboard input. 

If I boot FreeBSD into safe mode I can make an entry at the prompt.

But "da0" is not available.  If I type "?" I see that all there is is 
acd0 and fd0.  But the scsi device must be there because the system is 
booted from it.

Anyone see how I can straighten this out?  Once I get the root 
filesystem mounted I should be able to edit fstab and go.