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Geoffrey84
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No Ethernet Connection VMware Fusion 12 macOS Big Sur Beta 6

With the newly released version of VMware Fusion 12.0 I'm having the same problem I did with the Technical Preview in macOS Big Sur Beta 6.

When starting a Windows 10 x64 virtual machine, I receive the following error message:

Could not connect 'Ethernet0' to virtual network '/dev/vmnet8'. 

More information can be found in the vmware.log file.

Virtual device 'Ethernet0' will start disconnected.

Has anyone found a solution to restoring internet availability in the guest virtual machine?

Cheers

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killee
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I am having these problems too, but on the first public release of macos Big Sur 11.0.1 that just came out and Fusion 12.0 on a 2015 Macbook Pro. No beta versions, I'm using the released versions of the OS and Fusion.

The network adapter Ethernet0 will not connect to virtual network.

The VMs then start up with no network adapter. I have tried the solution suggested in this thread but it does not work. I have also tried removing the adapter and adding it again, does not help. Also the mode of the adapter (NAT or bridged) does not make any difference. The issue happens in both Linux and Windows. I regret upgrading from Fusion 11 so far, these VMs worked fine with Fusion 11 but when I upgraded to Big Sur, Fusion 11 stopped working correctly so I bought 12 and it's worse, no networking at all.

no_ethernet0
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Error: Could not connect 'Ethernet0' to virtual network '/dev/vmnet8'. Failed to connect virtual device 'Ethernet0'.
Meta data: Macbook pro 2016 13 inch MacOS Big Sur 11.01, VMware fusion 12
Description: When a machine tries to connect through NAT with the network adapter, an error arises. Tried to solve this with the earlier given fix by deleting the NetworkInterfaces.plist file. Removing VMware (including .kext) and reinstalling also did not help. Maybe the right settings for the earlier named plist file could solve the problem.

When looking at 'Manage Virtual Interfaces' within Network settings, Ethernet (en0) is not present. The Thunderbolt Bridge services in the network settings are moving up and down when the machine tries to establish a connection with the network adapter.

See the screenshots below for the received error and Manage Virtual Interfaces settings.

Screenshot 2020-11-15 at 11.06.49.png

Screenshot 2020-11-15 at 10.49.03.png

 

 

 

jjaimon
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Same problem here with newly released VMWare Fusion 12.0 Pro and BigSur 11.0.1.  Virtual Machine starts with the error "could not connect to ethernet0".  This is a NATed interface.  We really need a solution for this.   This is on a Macbook Pro 15".

I tried the solution listed in this thread. It didn't work for me and currently left with no solution to use my VMs.  VMs are virtually unusable without network support.  @VMware we need a solution for this. 

I also created another network interface (Pro feature) and associated with the VM.  That didnt work either.  I raised a ticket with VMWare about this issue, but yet to hear from them.  

whitby1
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I have exactly the same problem on the released build of Big Sur (11.0.1) and VMWare 12.0.0. However this only occurs on 1 of the VMs. As a result this VM will not connect to the internet. All VMs are various builds of Windows 10 Pro (1809 and 1903 I believe).

I also have 3 other VMs that will connect to the internet but will not talk to the MS update server, my email client in any browser (Chrome/Firefox/Edge) and the Barracuda VPN will not initialize. This looks like a NAT problem. I am operating the network interface in bridged mode.

I have reverted to Catalina and VMWare 11 and everything works as expected.

Note that I could not get VMWare 12 to work on Catalina, since I kept getting missing pipes messages. I am not sure what is causing this, but it makes VMWare 12 useless on Catalina and it does not work on Big Sur either, but for different reasons. I was trying it out with the free license version prior to purchasing a full commercial license. I won't be purchasing VMWare 12 at this time. There seems to be a lot of reported issues with VMWare 12 at this time and are probably caused by VMWare switching to the Apple APIs (DEXTs) instead of using Kernel Extensions (KEXTs) however I have real evidence of this and it is supposition on my part. Whatever the reason, it is unreliable and unusable at present.

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virtualpboy
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Fusion 12 Pro absolutely works fine with NAT/bridging on Catalina. I am probably going to downgrade back to Catalina as well, unless VMware has identified the problems and found a workable solution.

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whitby1
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Do think my issues with VMWare 12 on Catalina is due to Pro versus standard version? 

I have read of a number of people who have made a comment about broken pipes warning when trying to get 12 to work on Catalina. I cannot get any VM to work on 12 in Catalina. I wish I had noted down the issue exactly, but having to make a copy of the  VM and then install 12 and try to run it, is a pain (after spending hours wrestling with Big Sur) so just noted that I was getting a series of 'broken' pipes messages and the VMs (I have 4 I use regularly) failed to start. 

I tried leaving security settings unlocked (I had  issues with OWCs Softraid which would not install unless you unlocked the security settings prior to install, rather than it prompt you to unblock to install the extensions it needs when installing) but it made no difference, so I am looking for some guidance here.

What am I doing incorrectly? My normal process is install the VMWare upgrade, run the VMs using the new install of the latest update to VMWare, respond to the question whether you want to upgrade the VM and then let it do its thing, which usually means it converts the VM, runs the client and then prompts for the install of the latest version of VMware Tools. I have done it for every version of VMWare from version 1 and had relatively few issues with the upgrades, but this is the first time I have had the converted VM refuse to run. So I am assuming I am not doing something and would seek guidance.

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whitby1
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I have made comments at other points in this thread but wanted to point out that, for me,  VMware 12 with the Big Sur 11.0.1 release does not work with or without this fix for 4 VMs. I either get the missing ethernet0 message or networking fails (most likely a NAT problem). My network interface is set to Bridge, Auto.

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virtualpboy
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Yes, Virtual network is a Pro feature. Pages like Add a NAT Configuration specifies:

With Fusion Pro, you can add additional NAT configurations for scenarios in which a virtual machine shares the IP address and MAC address of your Mac.

And this little bit from VMware Fusion product page:

Fusion Pro can additionally manage Virtual Network configurations, with a UI to create new networks, modify subnet settings, change MTU size, configure NAT port forwarding and more. View the traffic of each virtual network by using a standard PCAP reader, like Wireshark, to capture it with the built-in ‘vmnet-sniffer’ utility.  Finally, Fusion can even simulate things like packet loss, bandwidth limitations and latency to help test the resiliency of your app or service.

Activate 30-day Pro trial and see if your problem goes away.

IMO, if Fusion 11 works for you, I would continue using it until VMware fixes networking issues with Big Sur.

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whitby1
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Thanks for the help. I will try Pro (I used to have Pro versions on earlier versions but never used the extra features at the time, so saved money and bought the standard versions) and see if it makes a difference. However it might not be worth the effort as Big Sur will still probably not work. However I am curious so will have a go and let the forum know. Much appreciate the feedback.

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wd123
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There seems to be two problems mentioned in this thread.  One on a network-adapter level, and another on a DNS-server level. 

For those having trouble with only DNS with their VMs (which can be mitigated by manually configuring the DNS server used by a guest VM), see my notes here:
https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Fusion-Discussions/DNS-Forwarder-Does-Not-Seem-to-Exist-in-...

Starting with Big Sur, VMware Fusion will use mDNSResponder as a DNS server for virtual networks, and if anything is already listening on port 53 on your host, your VMs will not have working DNS by default.

For those having networking trouble because the host OS is using a VPN, see the workaround listed here:
https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Fusion-Discussions/Share-host-VPN-with-guest/m-p/2810095/hi...

 

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vikrampb
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I still seem to have this problem. Any ideas on what the issue might be? I have the version of Big Sur as released by Apple on Nov 12.

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martinkntk
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I solved this by creating a new virtual network, vmnet2, which is not NAT, I connected both my machines into this network, set both to static IP, they can communicate, VPN and everything works, at least for now

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KarthikeyanM
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this issue is not resolved in macOS 11.0.1. 

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killee
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As mentioned by wd123 above, there are two distinct issues in this thread. There is no solution yet for being unable to connect a network adapter to Linux or Windows VMs. I just tested adding a second NIC to a VM to see if it made any difference but it does not, the NIC still starts disconnected and refuses to connect properly when the VM is running as well - regardless of whether it's NAT or bridge mode. None of the network adapters will connect leaving all my VMs without network access.

I opened a support ticket recently on this issue and will work through to resolution. Cannot connect Ethernet0 or Ethernet1 for all VMs (Linux or Windows) on Fusion 12 with Macos Big Sur 11.0.1. Seems like a bug since numerous others in this thread have the exact same issue.

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reddy512
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Thanks for your solution, and additionally rebooted MAC and VM to fix the issue.

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vikrampb
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Are you now able to get past the "No Ethernet Connection" Issue? I've tried re-installing VMWare, deleting and recreating my VMs, rebooting my Mac several times, creating a new vmnet2 network as mentioned by someone else on this thread, and none of them have fixed the issue. I'm really stuck, and short of reverting back to Catalina and VMWare Fusion 11, I'm not sure what I can do to continue my work.

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whitby1
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I have not been able to get past this issue and ended up reverting to Catalina and WMWare 11 (I cannot get VMWare 12 to work on Catalina with a large number of 'broken pipes' messages that I cannot repair). The process was painful, even with a full Time Machine backup available. I ended up going to back bare metal (so to speak) and reinstalling Catalina (you have to do the Option, Command, Shift, R reboot otherwise it puts back Big Sur) as Time Machine was going to take 96 hours to restore. Apple do not want you to be able to revery to the original installation.

All rather unsatisfactory as I have not seen a VMWare comment (I do not expect Apple to respond or care, frankly - I filed a bug with Apple) on this apart from an odd note earlier on in one of the message streams that is was an 'Apple regression error' as this problem had been seen during beta releases of Big Sur and Apple apparently either fixed it and broke it or never fixed it. Anyway I have resigned myself to staying on Catalina and ignoring those persistent messages from Apple about an upgrade for a while and hope that at sometime it is fixed. I have no pressing need to upgrade to Big Sur as it provides no useful improvements to the Mac experience and seems to break more than it repairs.

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mtkrity2014
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still, we have no solution !!! any workarround? 

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whitby1
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Apparently VMWare Fusion 12.1.0 addresses the issues. I have yet to check this out. But I am aware that V12.1 provides a Fusion Health check to cure the Pipes issue on Catalina and a separate fix to address the Ethernet0 issue on Big Sur. Whether this solves the other networking issues I am not sure. However it looks as if VMWare have been listening (see their current Fusion Blog) and released a version to correct the problems reported. 

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killee
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Fusion 12.1 didn't fix it for me. That Health Check option sounds useful but I cannot find it in the GUI, does anyone know how to launch it? There is no built-in documentation about this feature, and no "single click" that I can find anywhere when the error occurs.

The link to the Fusion 12.1 release notes is also broken as I write this, but likely will be back soon. I'm hoping there are instructions inside on how to use that new feature that is mysteriously hard to find. I'm ok with command line too we just need some documentation.

My support case with VMware has been open for 2 weeks now but the support hasn't even started yet, the techs are extremely slow to respond and when they do, they ask simple questions that were answered in the notes I provided already. I would give them a -85 on the NPS (net promoter score) if asked today... ugh. I still have no network capability on *any* of my VMs since upgrading to Fusion 12 and then 12.1.

image.png

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