This has been a recurring problem for me across the last few releases. Each time VMware releases a new update I pick it up and cross my fingers, but no luck, even on the latest release 15.1.0. The symptom during installation is that the virtual network install process hangs for about 4 minutes while attempting to install vmnet1 and vmnet8. It appears to be waiting for something that never happens. During the process Device Manager shows each VMware virtual network interface with the yellow warning marker being installed, but it goes away on the apparent timeout. Upon completion there are no VMware network interfaces installed, vmnet1 shows as "Custom" and vmnet8 shows as NAT in the virtual network editor. Luckily NAT appears to work even in the absence of a virtual network device so my VM can reach the outside world. I see the same behavior after install if I use the virtual network editor to try and connect vmnet1 as host-only, i.e. attempt to install for 4 minutes then failure with status going back to "custom".
I've attached what appears to be the relevant section of the vminst.log file for this request. This abridged snippet from that attachment is probably where the failure is happening.
2019-07-01T22:31:17.857-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I2: VNLInstallNetworkAdapterW2K: device NOT already found: vmnet1
2019-07-01T22:31:17.904-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I2: VNLInstallNetworkAdapterW2K: device name: VMWARE
2019-07-01T22:31:17.904-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I2: VNLInstallNetworkAdapterW2K: calling UpdateDriverForPlugAndPlayDevices
2019-07-01T22:31:27.794-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I1: VNLSpawn64BitVnetlibTask: Waiting for process returned, still need to wait longer
2019-07-01T22:31:27.794-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I1: VNLSpawn64BitVnetlibTask: Waiting for process, 1 loops
2019-07-01T22:31:37.809-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I1: VNLSpawn64BitVnetlibTask: Waiting for process returned, still need to wait longer
...
2019-07-01T22:34:48.094-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I1: VNLSpawn64BitVnetlibTask: Waiting for process, 21 loops
2019-07-01T22:34:58.109-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I1: VNLSpawn64BitVnetlibTask: Waiting for process returned, still need to wait longer
2019-07-01T22:34:58.109-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I1: VNLSpawn64BitVnetlibTask: Waiting for process, 22 loops
2019-07-01T22:35:04.108-04:00| inst-build-13591040| E1: VNLInstallNetworkAdapterW2K: device install failed: 0x000005b4
2019-07-01T22:35:04.124-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I2: VNLAddFileToUninstallList: writing uninstall keys for VMware Workstation
2019-07-01T22:35:04.124-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I2: VNLRegCreateKeyEx: Creating key using security specification
2019-07-01T22:35:04.124-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I2: VNLAddFileToUninstallList: writing uninstall keys for VMware Workstation
2019-07-01T22:35:04.124-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I2: VNLRegCreateKeyEx: Creating key using security specification
2019-07-01T22:35:04.124-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I2: VNLAddFileToUninstallList: writing uninstall keys for VMware Workstation
2019-07-01T22:35:04.124-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I2: VNLRegCreateKeyEx: Creating key using security specification
2019-07-01T22:35:04.124-04:00| inst-build-13591040| XX: VNL_InstallNetworkAdapter: Adapter install result FALSE needsreboot FALSE
2019-07-01T22:35:04.124-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I1: ParseCommand: operation: successful
2019-07-01T22:35:04.139-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I1: VNLSpawn64BitVnetlibTask: Done waiting for process, code 0
2019-07-01T22:35:04.139-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I2: VNLSpawn64BitVnetlibTask: process exit code 4
2019-07-01T22:35:04.139-04:00| inst-build-13591040| I1: VNLSpawn64BitVnetlibTask: process was not successful
I cannot find any other logs with more detail about what the device installation process is trying to do/waiting for at the time.
Ideas, anyone?
