VMPlayer 16.1 on Ububtu 20.10 - Virtual ethernet failed to start

[speculatus]

vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

...

Starting VMware services:
  Virtual machine monitor                                             done
  Virtual machine communication interface                             done
  VM communication interface socket family                            done
  Virtual ethernet                                                   failed
  VMware Authentication Daemon                                        done
Unable to start services

in /var/log/syslog

VMware[init]: /usr/sbin/vmware-authdlauncher: error while loading shared libraries: libssl.so.1.0.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

~ $ locate libssl.so | grep libssl.so.1.0.2
/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libssl.so.1.0.2
/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libssl.so.1.0.2/libssl.so.1.0.2
/usr/lib/vmware-ovftool/libssl.so.1.0.2

Is there any cfg/env file I could add the path above LD_LIBRARY_PATH or something?

Thx!

Kernel 5.8.0-41-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Mon Jan 18 16:48:44 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[mkubecek]

I have a similar problem on openSUSE Leap 15.2 (only openssl 1.1 and 1.0.0, no 1.0.2) but it does not prevent VMware Player from working correctly. Even the "Virtual ethernet... failed" message does not actually mean much, I was seeing that on a machine with VMware Workstation for quite long and everything worked fine, including the virtual network devices.

[speculatus]

Doesn't work for me - no virtual network devices, and no internet/network access on the guest OS.

[speculatus]

Devs, any chance to get an attention to this issue?

Pretty much stock Ubuntu 20.10, latest kernel.

Must be super-easy to reproduce.

[continuum]

Previous Ubuntu-versions used to work fine with the typical VMware virtual hardware.
So I had expected the same for Ubuntu 20 - wrong !
For Ubuntu 20 I had problems with e1000 and e1000e virtual nics.
Only option that worked for me is vmxnet3.
If you use anything other than the vmxnet3 - try to switch to vmxnet3 as first troubleshooting step.

ethernet*.virtualDev = "vmxnet3"

Note: this nic needs a PCIe-express-port !

Ulli

[RaSystemlord]

I'm altogether not sure what you are trying to achieve in all, but I did test this with out-of-the-box setup.

If with virtual ethernet, you mean the regular networks, host-only and NAT, vmnet1 and vmnet8, they do get created. Also, on a VM, internet access works fine with NAT networking.

There was no specific procedures to get this running, just the usual:

- 20.10 updates

- net-tools install to get command "ifconfig" working

- sudo apt install build-essential ... to get compile to work when opening VMware for the first time

Are you perhaps trying to create a custom network for VMware, something that you cannot achieve by changing NAT-networking address space?

[speculatus]

Thanks for the suggestion!

Unfortunately it's not helping because I think the issue is more fundamental - no virtual adapters at all as vmnet service fails to start.

I see no vm* adapters when I run ifconfig.

I think it's a simple as a broken build as it just cannot load all depended libs as shown below.

~ $ sudo /etc/init.d/vmware restart
Stopping VMware services:
  VMware Authentication Daemon                                        done
  Virtual machine monitor                                             done
Starting VMware services:
  Virtual machine monitor                                             done
  Virtual machine communication interface                             done
  VM communication interface socket family                            done
  Virtual ethernet                                                   failed
  VMware Authentication Daemon                                        done

in /var/log/vnetlib

Feb 05 12:05:48 VNLFileExists - Cannot check for file or directory: /etc/vmware/networking , error: No such file or directory
Feb 05 12:05:48 VNLNetCfgLoad - Import file does not exist
Feb 05 12:05:48 VNL_Load - Error loading the vnet configuration, file used: /etc/vmware/networking
Feb 05 12:05:48 VNLNetCfgUnload - Requested cache is not loaded
Failed to initialize

in /var/log/syslog

Feb  5 12:05:48 alpha kernel: [510762.235159] /dev/vmmon[3693596]: Module vmmon: unloaded
Feb  5 12:05:48 alpha kernel: [510762.371292] /dev/vmmon[3693618]: Module vmmon: registered as misc device vmmon
Feb  5 12:05:48 alpha kernel: [510762.371295] /dev/vmmon[3693618]: Using tsc_khz as TSC frequency: 3493437
Feb  5 12:05:48 alpha kernel: [510762.371296] /dev/vmmon[3693618]: Module vmmon: initialized
Feb  5 12:05:48 alpha VMware[init]: /usr/sbin/vmware-authdlauncher: error while loading shared libraries: libssl.so.1.0.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

[speculatus]

All I'm trying to achieve is to have VMplayer working under 20.10

Plain installation of downloaded 16.1.0 package didn't work - no Internet in guest OS.

build essentials are installed, sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all does compile all, then fails to start Virtual ethernet.

ifconfig does not show any vm* devices

NAT option gives me popup 'Could not connect 'Ethernet0' to virtual network '/dev/vmnet8'. More information can be found in the vmware.log file.
Failed to connect virtual device 'Ethernet0'.

vmware.log file

--

2021-02-05T14:17:37.796-05:00| vmx| I005: VNET: 'ethernet0' enable link state propagation, lsp.state = 5                                                                                                               
2021-02-05T14:17:37.796-05:00| vmx| I005: VNET: MACVNetPortOpenDevice: Ethernet0: can't open vmnet device (No such file or directory)                                                                                  
2021-02-05T14:17:37.796-05:00| vmx| I005: VNET: MACVNetPort_Connect: Ethernet0: can't open data fd                                                                                                                     
2021-02-05T14:17:37.796-05:00| vmx| I005: Msg_Post: Error                                                                                                                                                              
2021-02-05T14:17:37.796-05:00| vmx| I005: [msg.vnet.connectvnet] Could not connect 'Ethernet0' to virtual network '/dev/vmnet8'. More information can be found in the vmware.log file.                                 
2021-02-05T14:17:37.796-05:00| vmx| I005: [msg.device.badconnect] Failed to connect virtual device 'Ethernet0'. 

--

I'd happily look to any other log files to give more details on the issue.

[mkubecek]

I see no vm* adapters when I run ifconfig.

Well, ifconfig, apart from being obsolete for over 21 years, does not show all network interfaces in general. "ip link show" or "ip addr show" is way more reliable.

Cannot check for file or directory: /etc/vmware/networking , error: No such file or directory

This says that the network configuration file was not found. So I would suggest to check if it's really missing and if it is, recreate it with e.g. vmware-netcfg.

[continuum]

Do you have installed  ifconfig ?

AFAIK it does not come with default Ubuntu 20

Ulli

[RaSystemlord · Accepted solution]

A few points of the workflow that should work:

The following is something that I just did today to test this particular matter

- build is from ubuntu.com, where did you get it?

- I did update the system prior to installing anything (kernel is this: 5.8.0-41-generic)

- ifconfig works and shows vmnet1 and vmnet8 interfaces if everything is OK

- ifconfig shows what to do to get it installed, but it was "sudo apt install net-tools"

- sudo apt install gcc build-essential , is the required install

- I did not do any manual restart or compile or anything. Just accepted the compile when VMware Player start required to do it, when trying to open VMware for the first time.

If your system is new and out of the box, I cannot see why it wouldn't work with these steps.

[speculatus · Accepted solution]

I think I've found the culprit - my custom iptables rules (apologies for confusion by stating having "plain" 20.10)

Works as expected with iptables cleared out, now the trick to find what vmnet needs (netstat is not much help, ports vmet is listening on are keep changing after each restart).

Will keep digging and post what needs to be opened through iptables (if I manage to find it).

Thanks all for the input, much appreciated!

[RaSystemlord]

OK, thanks. Yes, as mentioned before, it works by default with Ubuntu 20.10.

Can you mark this Solved (in the subject) or Answered, since the original question is clear. You can still post more tips into this thread afterwards.

[alexvmware007]

Regarding this part:

/usr/sbin/vmware-authdlauncher: error while loading shared libraries: libssl.so.1.0.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

It's a mistake on VMware developers, their binary is looking for this libs in... /usr/lib! This practice is super-outdated. Dirty fix is like this:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libssl.so.1.0.2/libssl.so.1.0.2 /usr/lib/libssl.so.1.0.2
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libcrypto.so.1.0.2/libcrypto.so.1.0.2 /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.1.0.2

Also... can you please add to your code sample forum function support for shell? Kinda ridiculous that it lacks it!

[WhyItsLikeThis]

I really hoped this trick you've mentioned will work but sadly, it didn't. Because I still see the same message:

1 question though, do I need to install libssl.so.1.0.2 package separately?!, or is it already installed in my distro.

Because I think the trick you have mentioned will work if there is a binary named "libssl.so.1.0.2" inside this folder -> " /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/".

Another question:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libcrypto.so.1.0.2/libcrypto.so.1.0.2 /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.1.0.2

Is this command correct? Because the symbolic links will be created in /libcrypto.so.1.0.2 /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.1.0.2 folder instead of this  /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcrypto.so.1.0.2 folder. Is my correction correct, or your earlier comment did a typing mistake?

[alexvmware007]

Ooops, my bad, edited my previous reply!

[john7523]

That is one way to do it, another is simply adding a file /etc/ld.so.conf.d/vmware.conf with following content:

$ cat /etc/ld.so.conf.d/vmware.conf                                          
# VMware outdated OpenSSL lib, custom add
/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libssl.so.1.0.2
/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libcrypto.so.1.0.2

then, you just run

$ sudo ldconfig

And after that you may check with ldd that every shared library is now correctly resolved by the dynamic linker

$ ldd /usr/sbin/vmware-authdlauncher                 
	linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffca7f8b000)
	librt.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/librt.so.1 (0x00007f4513052000)
	libssl.so.1.0.2 => /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libssl.so.1.0.2/libssl.so.1.0.2 (0x00007f4512de1000)
	libcrypto.so.1.0.2 => /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libcrypto.so.1.0.2/libcrypto.so.1.0.2 (0x00007f4512922000)
	libdl.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f451291c000)
	libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007f4512902000)
	libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f45128e1000)
	libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007f451271a000)
	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f451338b000)

so a simple

$ sudo systemctl restart vmware

will not produce any error of the kind « error while loading shared libraries: libssl.so.1.0.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory », as may be seen using journalctl -efu vmware...