Network problems in VMware Player

[luggw1]

Well, I just installed VMware Player using the info in the article:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3095339.0

I found that to be imminently helpful, thank you to all who contributed.

I am using a virtual machine that I created under VMware Server version 1 that I had running on a previous machine. I started up fine, but I seem to be having a problem with the network connection in it. WinXP is running as the VM and it shows the connection to the router as having "Limited or no connectivity". Attempting to Repair the connection just generates a message that it's trying to renew my IP address and then it fails with the message "Windows could not finish repairing the problem because the following action cannot be completed: Renewing your IP Address."

There is also a message in the VMware message log stating: "The network bridge on device /dev/vmnet0 is temporarily down because the bridged Ethernet interface is down." When I do an ifconfig there is no vmnet0 listed, but /dev/vmnet0 does exist. I know very little about networking, especially where VMware is concerned, so I don't know if this is a problem or not. I should also say that I'm running a wireless network and it could be attempting to use the wired Ethernet adapter on the mobo.

First, is bridged networking the right choice? If so, is there a way to force VMware to use ath0 instead of eth0 (if that is in fact the problem)? Does the fact that vmnet0 doesn't exist in the ifconfig list pose a problem or is it a reflection of the fact that eth0 is not connected?

Thanks.
Bill Lugg

[dibl]

Re: Network problems in VMware Player

Bill, I feel a little like "the blind leading the halt" here -- networking is not my strength, either. However, I have occasionally experienced the "network bridge is down" issue", so I'll share what I think I know in case it helps you focus your search for a solution.

First, the "bridge" is referring to VMware's use of your Linux network connection. So, you need to have an existing fully functional network connection(s) running at the time you install VMware Player.

Second, there is exactly zero tweaking that you can do on the Windows side that will make any difference, as far as I know, wrt this particular problem. Windows should have detected and configured itself for your network connection (s) at time it was installed on the VM. You got your Windows VM from a different method than I used, so maybe there's an issue arising out of that process. I simply pulled out a Win XP installation CD and installed it on the running VMware Player.

Third, it strikes me that the error message could be a result of your Linux eth0 connection (the wired connection) not being connected. I dunno how your wireless connection is configured, but it may be that VMware is not finding or using your ath0 or wlan0 or whatever the wireless connection is. If it were me, I would try connecting the wired ethernet and seeing whether the Win XP VM can connect that way. If so, then you can limit your troubleshooting to the wireless connection only.

HTH

[luggw1]

Re: Network problems in VMware Player

That sounds like a plan. Right now the machine is 30 feet or so from the router, so connecting the wire is not practical. However, when it moves to its permanent home it will be wired by default, so the problem may just go away. I'll give it a try and see what happens.

Thanks for the info.

By the way, the keyboard fixes say to put the lines in ~/.vmware/config, but there is no file by this name in that folder. I assume I just create this file and add the line or lines if no file exists already?

Bill Lugg

[Snowhog]

Re: Network problems in VMware Player

From the VMware Player 2.5 Getting Started Guide

Open VMware Player from your Desktop Program menu or run vmplayer in a terminal to launch the kernel
module updater to install and configure the kernel.

When ever a new kernel is installed, it (the kernel) needs to be configured for VMware Player. This is no different (using the 'new' bundle installer) than what was required using the earlier version.