Linxu-Batocera install on ESXi

 -This is a cobbled together docuement of my experiences, of getting this to work on ESXi 8.0.  There is no source material or official documentation to reference, only techniques.


Download of the image
REF: https://wiki.batocera.org/install_batocera
REF: https://batocera.org/download
-Go to https://batocera.org/download, and download the Desktop PC version of the file
-The file will be something like batocera-x86_64-43.1-20260529.img.gz


Prepping image to upload to ESXi

-uncompress the batocera-x86_64-43.1-20260529.img.gz with WinRAR to an an IMG file
-rename this IMG file to the that you want to name of your VM, like batocera.img
-Run Starwind V2V converter, and choose [Local file], then click [Next >]
-Click on [...] then parse to the IMG file, and click [Open]
-Choose [Local File] then click [Next >]
-Choose [VMDK], then click [Next >]
-Select [ESXi pre-allocated image], then click [Next >]
-Let the tool convert the file
-When it is done you will get 2 files, a .vmdk file and a -flat.vmdk file, these will be needed for the next step

Creating a VM for batocera

-go to the host and create a machine with the following properties please make sure that the VM name is the same as the converted IMG file:

Name:        batocera
OS:            Linux
OS Verion:    Debian GNU/Linux 10 (32-bit)
Version:    8.0
CPU:        6 or 8
Memory:        4 GB
HardDisk:      10 GB
Controller:    IDE Controller 0, Master
SCSI:        LSI Logic Paralell

-One thing that is definetly not normal is that the HardDisk is attached to the IDE channel, not the standard SCSI channel.
-Stil playin with the OS and OS version to see if can use other versions, want the newest one that will work.

Manually inject the new virtual disk

-Since we are given a hard disk image, and no way to install Batocera, we need to replace the hard driver image with the one converted from the download

-Open up Filezilla and connect to our host
-Parse to the location of the virtual machine
-rename batocera.vmdk to batocera.vmdk.ori
-rename batocera-flat.vmdk to batocer-flat.vmdk.ori
-Upload batocera.vmdk, and batocera-flat.vmdk

Change the Virtual Machine to use 3d graphics
REF: https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/326319/enable-3d-support-option-is-greyed-out-i.html

-connect to the ESXi server with filezilla
-Parse to the vmx file, and download it
-Add the following line to the file, notepad++ works well:

mks.enable3d = TRUE

-Upload the modified vmx file.
-Log into the ESXi server via SSH:

# vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms

-find out the virtual machine ID by running the following command:

# vim-cmd vmsvc/reload <VMID>
 
-Go back to the WebGUI and edit the VM, if you go to the properties of the Video card and now you can change the following values:

Total video Memory:        1024MB
3D Memory:                512MB

Starting up VM, and current limitations

-To start, just start the VM

-This is just a proof of concept, so currently can only control it via keyboard and mouse. Know this is built for a controller, and will look into that
-Is only using emulated Video card, looking into adding a dedicated NVIDA or AMD GPU to the VM, that should really improve the performance of the system