X10SDV-TLN4F, ESXi 6, and i350-AM2 NICs: No Network Adapters

[ZeroOne]

After much nail biting, finally received this board with high hopes. Honestly didn't expect to get sidelined on the regular 1G NICs. ESXi install fails with "No Network Adapters." Googling around, it appears there are some others with a similar issue.

Things tried:
-both versions; 6.0, 6.0U1
-ESXI-Customizer-PS with modified Intel driver outlined here (VMware Front Experience: A fix for Intel i211 and i350 adapters not being detected by ESXi
-ESXI-Customizer (GUI) with 6.0U1 and modified Intel Driver (Net-igb - V-Front VIBSDepot Wiki

 

[ZeroOne]

Wow... well I really hope this helps someone else out there.

As it turns out..... the NIC lights weren't even on at all. Hadn't noticed that for the last 2 hours. The jumper on the motherboard located at JPL1 (near the rear USB ports) is in charge of enabling LAN1 / LAN2. Even though the jumper, from the factory, was in the correct place, it was somehow not making good enough contact with the pins. After re-seating a few times, it's up and running.

 

[Davewolfs]

Was gonna say bios or jumper as this thing runs amazingly well with esxi. I had to update my ipmi firmware to get rid of some false voltage alarms but that is about it. Unfortunately 10G does not work on esxi.

 

[ZeroOne]

Noticed the same here, with the memory voltage. It shows at 1.19 in ESXi but 1.2v in ipmi.

This might be a dumb question, but does anyone know a way to check the status on speedstep in ESXi? It's set to "balanced" for the host, but I'm curious to see real numbers or know that the extra speed is being used. VMs (Windows) show the non-speedstep 2.00Ghz.