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IT_Dude
Contributor
Contributor

Freesco NAT Router not detecting VM NIC's

I'm having trouble setting up a Linux router using the Freesco software on a floppy image. When I boot up Freesco after configuring it, it does not detect any network cards. In the VM's BIOS I see that there are two AMD am79C970A cards and I've tried including the lance drivers provided in the floppy image and still not luck. Any one have any idea why I cant get it to detect the NIC's? I'm not familiar with Linux.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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Texiwill
Leadership
Leadership

Hello,

I am not familiar with Freesco, can you provide a link? But most likely there are no drivers for the PCNET32 devices presented to it. I use Smoothwall to do this. It works quite well and is also very small.


Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education. CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354, As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

--
Edward L. Haletky
vExpert XIV: 2009-2023,
VMTN Community Moderator
vSphere Upgrade Saga: https://www.astroarch.com/blogs
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/Texiwill
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RDPetruska
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Why not just use the prebuilt Freesco VM?

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IT_Dude
Contributor
Contributor

I will look for it. I tried doing a search for it and didnt come up with anything on Freesco VM. I'll keep looking and try it out.

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thasan10
Contributor
Contributor

The prebuilt version gives me the same error. I have copied the pcnet32.gz from the module-040.zip with same result.

Bottom line, it does not detect any Nics with VM2.0 server.

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Texiwill
Leadership
Leadership

Hello,

I would contact the makers of Freesco as it could be a problem with their software. The other option is to make sure all the vNICs are in 'Connected' State'. This would be under edit settings of the VM. Check out http://dingetje.homeip.net/dokuwiki/freesco/howtos/vmware

vNICs need to be Connected at Power on as well as Connected. If there is a pcnet32 driver then it should work.


Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Blog_Roll

Top Virtualization Security Links: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Top_Virtualization_Security_Links

--
Edward L. Haletky
vExpert XIV: 2009-2023,
VMTN Community Moderator
vSphere Upgrade Saga: https://www.astroarch.com/blogs
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/Texiwill
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thasan10
Contributor
Contributor

My vNIC is connected automatically and they remain connected whilst the VM is powered on. I have a BartPE CD in the same image and if I boot with the BartPE, I see all the vNIC. I have used their PCNET32 driver as Freesco suggested. Also, I've tried using a prefabricated image with same result.

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Texiwill
Leadership
Leadership

Hello,

This sounds like a freesco issue more than anything else. I would email the product maintainers about this.


Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Blog_Roll

Top Virtualization Security Links: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Top_Virtualization_Security_Links

--
Edward L. Haletky
vExpert XIV: 2009-2023,
VMTN Community Moderator
vSphere Upgrade Saga: https://www.astroarch.com/blogs
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/Texiwill
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rssca
Contributor
Contributor

I know this is an old thread - but this may help someone in the future running into this issue.

FREESCO when configured for VMware is using the vLance network driver.  If you add additional NICs to the prepackaged VM make sure that VMware (Workstation or ESX) has these configured as vLance network drivers.  The alternative is to obtain and install Intel PRO 1000 network driver for FREESCO.

This is what I did for VMware Workstation:

1) Stopped the FREESCO router.

2) Located my vnx file.

3) Edited the file and searched for ethernetX.virtualDev.  X represents the network card number.  Numbering starts at 0.

4) Verify that the virtual device is vlance.  Should look similar to this:  ethernet1.virtualDev = "vlance"

5) Changed the new (added) ethernet adapters to vlance.

6) Saved file.

Starting FREESCO and it detected the added ethernet adapters.

nickd76
Contributor
Contributor

You my friend are a life saver.... I wasted a month trying to fix this... Now I can route from my 10.4.4.0 network to my management net and even get to the internet with my VMs!!!

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