After Windows Creator Update, no remote access a web server running within a Linux VM under VMPlayer 7

[fixpertise]

Two days ago I had a PC updated to Windows 10 Creator.   Since that time I can start VMPlayer 7.1.4 (build-3848939) and the Fedora 20 VM just fine.  If I examine the listening ports, all the ones I expect to be there are fine.   I can even access the web server via FireFox running locally on the Linux VM.   What I can't do is access the web server from the host or even a remote machine.

I have tried uninstalling and re-installing VMPlayer, but that does not help although I saw it make some new entries in the Firewall Inbound rules.  I suspect something is wrong with the adapters, but I can't figure what it might be.

I have been using the Bridged Network Connection without a problem up to this point. 

[wila]

Hi,

Not surprised to hear that. There's been a bunch of problems with Windows 10 hosts where networking stopped working.

You can search the forum and see some of the solutions presented helps, but quite frankly VMware Player version 7.x has been out of support for a long time and for security reasons you should use a more recent version.

As the cost is the same - free - you'd best update to the latest VMware Player 12.5.x

--

Wil

[fixpertise]

The next thing I did was upgrade to 12.5. Same result.

[wila]

Hi,

OK, so much for the "just update to 12" theory.

You say the webserver can be browsed on the VM itself, but don't mention if you browse via the localhost or the assigned IP address.

Is an IP address coming up as expected? (just making sure)

Also have you tried to access anything from outside of your host?

Eg. can you ping google.com?

Can you even run a name query for google.com and does it return the correct IP address?

Is it only the bridged interface that isn't working?

What happens if you switch to NAT can you access any outside resources then?

I was going to suggest to use the "restore default" option in the virtual network editor, but VMware Player does not have a virtual network editor.

Soo.. what happens if you start a cmd as admin and then run:

net stop vmnetbridge

net start vmnetbridge

Does that help?

Another thing that might have happened is that the update has removed the VMware bridged protocol,  see post 177 here in this monster thread on how-to add it back:

Re: Windows 10, Workstation 10, no LAN bridge

--

Wil

[fixpertise]

First of all. the interfaces are not being set properly on VM.  I haven't yet found a solution.  Every thing seems to be set up as it should.

Here is what ifconfig -a shows.

eno16777736: flags=4098<BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500

        ether 00:0c:29:66:e8:4c  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)

        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)

        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0

        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)

        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536

        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0

        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>

        loop  txqueuelen 0  (Local Loopback)

        RX packets 619  bytes 59118 (57.7 KiB)

        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0

        TX packets 619  bytes 59118 (57.7 KiB)

        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

When I tried browser access to the web server I used localhost.   Given the above, that should work and does.  I can't access it via the intended IP (198.162.1.165).  But the interface config flle, ifcfg,  reads as below an may now be incorrect,  Its pretty old. But it did work prior to the Windows 10 Creator Update. I am looking for a more recent prescription.

TYPE="Ethernet"

BOOTPROTO=none

DEFROUTE="yes"

IPV4_FAILURE_FATAL="no"

IPV6INIT="yes"

IPV6_AUTOCONF="yes"

IPV6_DEFROUTE="yes"

IPV6_FAILURE_FATAL="no"

NAME="eno16777736"

UUID="cf5f4a73-cd1c-4204-8ffc-93bdf49b9132"

ONBOOT="yes"

IPADDR0=192.168.1.165

PREFIX0=24

GATEWAY0=192.168.1.1

DNS1=192.168.1.1

HWADDR=00:0C:29:66:E8:4C

IPV6_PEERDNS=yes

IPV6_PEERROUTES=yes

"ifcfg-eno16777736" [readonly] 18L, 358C

This is surely the problem. I executed

ifconfig eno16777736 192.168.1.165 netmask 255.255.255.0

as root to set the static IP I wanted.  Sure enough I could access the web server from any machine connected to my network.   Why this stooped working after the Creators Update is a mystery, but I will bet some API changed somewhere.  I don't think Fedora 20 was updated in the last few months.

I am at the point where I can bring up the interface manually using the above.

After setting it manually systemctl restart NetworkManager. followed by systemctl status NetworkManager shows

NetworkManager.service - Network Manager

   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/NetworkManager.service; enabled)

   Active: active (running) since Sat 2017-06-17 17:28:33 PDT; 29s ago

Main PID: 2480 (NetworkManager)

   CGroup: /system.slice/NetworkManager.service

           └─2480 /usr/sbin/NetworkManager --no-daemon

Jun 17 17:28:33 vega NetworkManager[2480]: <info> (lo): No existing connection detected.

Jun 17 17:28:33 vega NetworkManager[2480]: <info> (eno16777736): link connected

Jun 17 17:28:33 vega NetworkManager[2480]: <info> (eno16777736): carrier is ON

Jun 17 17:28:33 vega NetworkManager[2480]: <info> (eno16777736): new Ethernet device (driver: 'e10...: 2)

Jun 17 17:28:33 vega NetworkManager[2480]: <info> (eno16777736): exported as /org/freedesktop/Netw...es/1

Jun 17 17:28:33 vega NetworkManager[2480]: <info> (eno16777736): Generating connection from curren...tus.

Jun 17 17:28:33 vega NetworkManager[2480]: <info> (eno16777736): Using generated connection: 'eno1...736'

Jun 17 17:28:33 vega NetworkManager[2480]: <info> startup complete

Jun 17 17:28:33 vega NetworkManager[2480]: <info> NetworkManager state is now ASLEEP

Jun 17 17:28:33 vega NetworkManager[2480]: <info> ModemManager available in the bus

Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.

But if I look at the status of the NetworkManager after a restart of the VM, I get

NetworkManager.service - Network Manager

   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/NetworkManager.service; enabled)

   Active: active (running) since Sat 2017-06-17 17:43:46 PDT; 2min 13s ago

Main PID: 691 (NetworkManager)

   CGroup: /system.slice/NetworkManager.service

           └─691 /usr/sbin/NetworkManager --no-daemon

Jun 17 17:43:46 vega NetworkManager[691]: <info> (eno16777736): carrier is OFF

Jun 17 17:43:46 vega NetworkManager[691]: <info> (eno16777736): new Ethernet device (driver: 'e1000' ifindex: 2)

Jun 17 17:43:46 vega NetworkManager[691]: <info> (eno16777736): exported as /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1

Jun 17 17:43:46 vega NetworkManager[691]: <info> (eno16777736): No existing connection detected.

Jun 17 17:43:46 vega NetworkManager[691]: <info> startup complete

Jun 17 17:43:46 vega NetworkManager[691]: <info> ModemManager available in the bus

Jun 17 17:43:46 vega NetworkManager[691]: <info> NetworkManager state is now ASLEEP

Jun 17 17:43:49 vega NetworkManager[691]: <warn> connection /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Settings/0 failed to activate: (2) Device not managed by NetworkManager or unavailable

Jun 17 17:44:47 vega NetworkManager[691]: <warn> error requesting auth for org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.settings.modify.own: (3) GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Could not get UID of name ':1.36': no such name

Jun 17 17:44:47 vega NetworkManager[691]: <warn> error requesting auth for org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.settings.modify.hostname: (3) GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Could not get UID of name ':1.36': no such name

.

I guess the next step is to remove that inerface and create a new one. Notice is thinks the Carrier is OFF!

[wila]

Hi,

The output of the "ifconfig -a" line at the top is missing the IP address which certainly isn't the way it should be.

I have not used fedora for many years (fedora 9 I think was my last fedora before I hopped over to another distro) and don't know if the ifcfg file is enough to set the static IP address, nor am I sure from when Fedora 20 is, sounds like a while ago (2014?).

Sorry, but Linux keeps on changing the way it handles this, so I just keep track of things for the distributions I use regularly.

For CentOS 6 your config file looks reasonable, although my notes have "IPADDR=" where you have "IPADDR0=".

As you mention with setting the IP address manually you can now access the webserver on its intended IP address.

The next question is if you can access the gateway address?
What happens if you ping that? Can you access it?

--

Wil

[fixpertise]

Once I set the IP manually, i can connect to my web server from any where in my home network.   What doesn't work is DNS from the VM and because the adapter does not come up on boot, my remote file system are not mounted.    I can work around this but its a pain.

Your'e right about Linux  changing.  Not all modifications are well thought out and are getting unnecessarily  complicated.   I got a bit of a shock when I had to do some installs on several Redhat Rel 7 machine several months ago.  The last RH I worked on was RH 4 which has been rock solid since 2008.

You have to keep in mind here that this stuff all worked flawlessly with VMPlayer 7 until after the Creators Update.  I now fear that VMPlayer 12.5.6 build-5528349 does not interface well with Windows 10 Creators update.   I may have to upgrade Fedora to get this to work. again.

My guess is the VMWare adapters are not correct.   Neither of them have an IPv4 DNS entry.

Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet1

   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-56-C0-00-01

   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::25de:bdb3:3c9b:37ae%14(Preferred)

   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.254.1(Preferred)

   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, June 17, 2017 10:55:35 AM

   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, June 18, 2017 9:16:32 AM

   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.254.254

   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 100683862

   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1B-5C-BE-18-00-16-76-DA-CA-C5

   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1

                                       fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1

                                       fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1

   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet8

   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-56-C0-00-08

   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::d146:43ee:f2af:1345%2(Preferred)

   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.67.1(Preferred)

   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, June 17, 2017 10:55:35 AM

   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, June 18, 2017 9:16:32 AM

   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.67.254

   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 134238294

   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1B-5C-BE-18-00-16-76-DA-CA-C5

   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1

                                       fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1

                                       fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1

   Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 192.168.67.2

   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

I finally punted.   I run this script as root  after the VM comes up and its good enough for now.

[kmp@vega ~]$ cat start-script

#!/bin/bash

/usr/sbin/ifconfig eno16777736 192.168.1.165 netmask 255.255.255.0

/usr/bin/mount -a

That at least gets networking to work.  DNS too!

[wila]

Hi,

I was going to suggest to use a script to bring the network interface up with a predefined IP address.

It is still a bit weird though that you would have to do that.

Anyways, glad to hear you found a workaround for the moment and thanks for sharing it.

--

Wil

[fixpertise]

Its still a bit weird.   DNS does work, but I get an error on an attempt to use the resolved address.

[root@vega kmp]# nslookup www.google.com

Server: 192.168.1.1

Address: 192.168.1.1#53

Non-authoritative answer:

Name: www.google.com

Address: 172.217.5.100

[root@vega kmp]# ping 172.217.5.100

connect: Network is unreachable

To fix it I also  had to add the default route to the routing table.

I finally upgraded to .VMplayer 12.5.7 and Fedora 25.  After a bit of a struggle getting System V init.d scripts to run, all is well.  .  The strange thing is that all the relevant configuration files are more or less identical between Fedora 20 and 25.  Something at a pretty low level in the Fedora 20 VM was changed  (either corrupted or updated) causing boot to fail to initialize the network interface.