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sparky62
Contributor
Contributor

VM Workstation 6.5 doesn't create VMnet0 on Vista Ultimate 32-bit

I've just upgraded from 6.0.3 to 6.5.0 on Vista Ultimate 32-bit. When I restarted after the install there was no VMnet0 iterface and the VMs complain that they can't connect to the network. Was it something I did?

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alvintc1
Contributor
Contributor

Exactly the same problem here.

When I upgraded I lost my virtual adapters. When selecting to create new adapters everything appears fine but they do not appear in the host virtual adapters list.

I'm also unable to select which adapters can/ can't bridge. This is annoying as I like to restrict VM's to certain physical network adapters.

this post[/url] appears to have solved the same issue but I have no idea what the parental controls are...

I tried to downgrade to 6.0.3 but still unable to create the adapters!

FWIW

Vista Ultimate 32, logged on as admin, UAC disabled running VMWare 6.5 build 118166

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KevinG
Immortal
Immortal

The output from ipconfig /all should not show a vmnet0, since it is a virtual switch and not a virtual network adapter.

The only virtual network adapters/ interfaces that should get installed on the host is vmnet1 (Host-Only) & vmnet8 (NAT)

Check your properties of your physical adapter to make sure that the VMware Bridge Protocol was installed

sparky62
Contributor
Contributor

I also tried reverting to Workstation 6.0.3 but it didn't fix the problem.

After reinstalling VMware workstation 6.0.3 I tried to check that the VMnet protocol had been correctly installed into the physical NICs (to ensure that support for the VMnet0 switch had been installed correctly) but got an "other Network property sheets are already open" error which meat that I couldn't view or change the NICs properties. This error turned out to be very tricky to solve. After googling around for a solution for this error I found this post http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-3088958.php which suggets a regedit is required to remove some garbage left over from a previous VMware install. After making this regedit change and rebooting I can at least now view and edit my NIC connections.I'm now going to try to reinstall VMware Workstation 6.5.

I suspect that if you have this "other Network property sheets are open" error the VMware installer fails to install the networks but fails silently

Anyone know where VMware Workstation 6.5 keeps its install log file on Vista so I can check that the installer's not complaining?

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alvintc1
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Guys,

Problem is in 6.0.3 I used to be able to add virtual host adapters... I'm not able to do this anymore, which means I cannot bing any of the guest to specific physical adaptors.

Checking for the VMNet bridge on the physical adapter it is not present. However if I try to add the protocol I get:

"Could not add the requested feature.The error is: The system cannot find the file specified."

This happens before I'm able to select any new protocols.

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alvintc1
Contributor
Contributor

Okay... I attempted to remove & reinstall the driver for the physical network... Get the same error on trying to re-load the driver:

"Could not add the requested feature.The error is: The system cannot find the file specified."

This was all working fine before the 6.5 upgrade so I'm thinking that this is blocking something somewhere. I've tried removing all (again) and also removed all the registry keys it allows me to, however same result.

If anyone has any suggestions that'd be great.

Dell Precision M6300

Windows Vista Ultimate SP1

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sparky62
Contributor
Contributor

FYI After re-installing 6.5 I get the same problem when I try to manually install the VMware Bridge protocol on my adapter: "Could not add the requested feature. The error is: The system cannot find the file specified." It looks like I'm going to have to reinstall Vista from scratch to solve this one.

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markiehill
Contributor
Contributor

I have exactly the same problem, I installed 6.5 on Vista X64 ultimate and I now have no connectivity in the VM's.

If I try and add the bridge protocol I recieve a file not found error.

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markiehill
Contributor
Contributor

after spending a bit of time with promon and going cross eyed, i have found this in one of the windows logs... setupapi.app.

cci: NCI: Local Network Connection Properties asking for write lock.

cci: NCI: Local Network Connection Properties acquired write lock.

cci: !!! NCI: (loading external data) Error 0x80070002 opening vmware_bridge instance key

flq:

flq: {SPFILENOTIFY_CABINETINFO - exit(0x00000000)}

flq:

flq: {SPFILENOTIFY_FILEEXTRACTED - exit(0x00000000)}

cci: NCI: Write lock released.

cci: NCI: Local Network Connection Properties asking for write lock.

cci: NCI: Local Network Connection Properties acquired write lock.

cci: !!! NCI: (loading external data) Error 0x80070002 opening vmware_bridge instance key

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sparky62
Contributor
Contributor

I gave up and reinstalled Vista on my laptop.

I'm now about to install VMware Server 2.0 on a Server 2008 server.

Wish me luck!

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alvintc1
Contributor
Contributor

I still haven't had time to fix this (can't re-install as I cant risk no laptop just yet!). It's irritating as hell as currently my VM's have external access through NAT but this means as soon as I VPN etc on the host it screws up the VM's.

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MUITTech
Contributor
Contributor

I appear to be having the same or very similar issues. I can't connect my VMs... either XP SP3 or Vista Business, through my XP sp3 host. I get

VMnet0: The system cannot find the file specified

Failed to connect virtual device Ethernet0.

If i NAT the devices i get

VMnet8: The system cannot find the file specified

Failed to connect virtual device Ethernet0

I have uninstalled the Virtual Bridge Protoco, rebooted, re-installed the Virtual Bridge Protoco and rebooted. the issue persists.

This started after the upgrade to 6.5 I have since uninstalled workstation, re installed Workstation 6, had the same issue, redownloaded the 6.5 upgrade, and still have the same issue.

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Asaf_Moalem
Contributor
Contributor

Found a sollution, after burning my brains out

I have installed the VMware under a different folder, in my case under another partition.

all works well now

Asaf.Moalem

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dougpeck
Contributor
Contributor

I had the same problem when I upgraded from 6.0 to 6.5. This did it for me. On Vista x64, I uninstalled VMWare Workstation 6.5, then installed again but to a different drive. Installation went much quicker, and works fine now.

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nextech
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I'm running Vista Ultimate x64 under VMWare Workstation 6.5 (running on Vista Ultimate x64 as well).

I noticed that my networking works, as long as it's setup for NAT, but if I switch it to BRIDGE, the connection no longer works.

I need to be able to bridge the VMWare network adapter with the host network (same IP range, etc.) and I need to bridge the connections and not use NAT. But for some reason NAT is the only one that works. Anytime I try to switch to BRIDGE, the connection stops working.

It seems as if Bridge doesn't work under Vista Ultimate x64.

Another weird thing, is when I go into my Virtual Machine Settings, it shows that I have 5 network adapters, in my host machine I have 2 ethernet jacks, but in the VMWare it's showing I have 5 network adapters. Any ideas as to why? Do I need all those adapters? Can I delete/remove some of them? Why were 5 of them created?

Also they are ALL set for NAT (all 5 adapters). If I switch the top (first) Network Adapter to "Bridged" then my internet connection fails, and I'm unable to ping, or access the network. If I switch it back to bridged, then all is fine.

Any ideas as to how I can possibly bridge the adapter instead of using NAT? Also do I need to change all 5 adapters to bridge? or just the first one? Or should I leave them all as NAT? (except for the first one?)

I've never had this many problems trying to bridge a connection before. In the old VMWare Workstation 6.0 it used to work fine (but I don't recall having 5 network adapters show up either). I just converted this host machine using the VMWare converter, and it now shows 5 network adapters, and I've been unable to bridge the network connection. Any ideas?

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nextech
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

These are the Network Adapters that show up under Network Connections in the VMware guest operating system (Vista Ultimate x64):

1) Local Area Connection 3

2) Local Area Connection 4

3) Local Area Connection 5

4) Local Area Connection 6

5) Local Area Connection 7 (cable unplugged) - This may be the 2nd NIC in my Apple Mac Pro, because the Mac Pro has 2 NIC's, but I only have 1 of them connected to the network.

6) VMware Network Adapter VMnet1

7) VMware Network Adapter VMnet 8

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CGATX
Contributor
Contributor

I have experienced the problem described here on every single instance of VMWare Workstation and Server (back in the day) on Windows Vista/Windows Server 2008 including the one I'm now running. I've experienced with clean OS installations, old OS installations, upgrades Workstation to Workstation and Server to Workstation.

I certainly suspect Windows Vista/WS2008 networking code as the culprit but this error has driven me crazy because I just can't find a root cause or even a consistent workaround. Most of the time it just magically fixes itself after a few dozen reboots. Unfortunately, I just don't have time for that right now.

Symptoms: After installation/upgrade I notice a lack of virtual host adapters. Run Virtual Network Editor (VNE) and try to add a host adaptor to get one of two errors...

1) When I attempt to add a Virtual Host Adapter using Virtual Network Editory by selcting "Edit, VNE" form within VMWare Wkstn, select "Allow" from the UAC prompt I get: An error occurred while trying to update the Virtual Network setting. Error code: 183

2) When I run VNE from the Start menu using the "Run as Administrator" option I get: An error occurred while trying to update the Virtual Network setting. Error code: 0

Please tell me there's an easy fix and I've simply overlooked it the last 100 times I've searched. Considering that google searches come up with nothing pertinent - a reference to VMWare 2005 issue with same error.

I'm going to try the 15th uninstall/reinstall cycle. That and 6 or 7 reboots seemed to work last time.

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Scissor
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Are you running any 3rd party firewalls? Any VPN solutions (Hamachi)? What AntiVirus are you running?

I can confirm that bridged networking does work under Vista Ultimate x64.

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CGATX
Contributor
Contributor

Remember I've suffered this issue on many installations of Workstation on the Vista/WS2008. I'm not saying that Host Networking Adapters never work, just that they work on their own time seemingly by magic and fairy dust.

On installation Bridged and NAT networking work fine. It's the Local Host Adapters that are broken. VMWare Workstation seems unable to create Virtual NICS in Vista/WS2008. Under some random circumstances (constant de/re-installations, reboots etc.) the Local Host Adapters begin to work correctly, seemingly at random.

ISSUE UPDATE:

After approx 15 installations, countless reboots and ultimately configuring Shared Folders as a workaround my Local Hosta Adapters just started working on my last test. What the heck? Again, my gripe is not that it breaks, it's that I cannot figure out the root cause for this behavior. Just seems to randomly start working again. Admittedly, I did (kinda) take the advice of earlier posters and installed VMWare Workstation to C:\Program Files\VMWare2\Workstation2 folder but Local Hosta Adapters did not work at the start of my VM session nor did they work 3 hours ago when I decided to randomly test.

I run MSFT firewall and no antivirus on this system.

-


I guess I'm the only person to suffer from this condition (chronically) so I'll put this issue to bed permnently. If I'm wrong and there ARE others who suffer these issues with the personal products hopefully this thread gives you some solace if not solutions.

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Jordo
Contributor
Contributor

Using Vista Uitimate 32-bit, upgraded to Workstation 6.5 and lost some network accessability.

Could ping into VMware Virtual Machine XP and receive a reply but I could not ping out. Could not access and network drives on our server but could access local machine shared drive on the host machine..

I dropped Bridge Network services, rebooted and reistablished bridge newtwork services and didnt have VMnet0, reinstalled using repair only, this restored VMnet0

Now I can access the internet ie browsing via gateway from the VM machne, but cant ping gateway? The virtual machine is making DNS connections but I cant ping the DNS server?

Continuing to uninstall and reinstall.

Confused.

Update: 10 min later : Ran VMWare as Administrator i.e. Run as and intially it didnt work and then it just started working i.e all network services available.

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