How do you install a driver in a virtual machine?

[Ed_Flecko]

Hi folks,

I've set up a (virtual) machine (Vista, in this case) and the install detected all the drivers except one: my network adapter!

1.) How can I install a NIC driver, or somehow get the virtual machine to correctly detect/install the host NIC driver?

2.) For future reference, how do you install drivers for those times when your virtual machine doesn't have the correct driver(s)?

Thank you.

[RDPetruska]

Vista guests require the E1000 virtual NIC - there are no drivers for the AMD PCNet (vlance) one.

>For future reference, how do you install drivers for those times when your virtual machine doesn't have the correct driver(s)?

The same way you install drivers in your physical PC OS's.

[Ed_Flecko]

I guess I should have been clearer; I know how to install a driver.

What I meant was, on a physical box, you're going to use a physical CD or floppy.

What's the "virtual" equivalent. How do find this "E1000" driver?

Thank you.

[RDPetruska]

The Vista driver for the e1000 NIC should be on the Vista Installation DVD already.

Edit your vmx file, change/add the line for 'ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"', restart your guest. Search for new hardware, and follow the Wizard.

[edflecko]

Cool.

What's the actual name of this "vmx" file and/or where do I find it (i.e., %systemroot%\blahblahblah)???

Thank you.

[Texiwill]

Hello,

THe VMX file is on the ESX server not the Windows VM. It will be with the VMDK and can be editted from the service console of the ESX server.

cd "/vmfs/volumes/dataStoreName/ServerName"

nano "ServerName.vmx"

Note that dataStoreName will be the name of your datastore

Note that ServerName will be the name of your Server

Keep the double quotes just in case ServerName contains spaces

Find the appropriate line in the file and change it, then save the file.

You will need to restart your VM to make this change.

Best regards,

Edward