VMWare Fusion and network bridging
Software December 13th, 2007
I’ve had VMWare Fusion running an image of my work laptop, on my Macbook, for nearly three weeks now. I’ve had no problems at all, running over both NAT and via network bridge.
Until this week.
Now, when I try to use the image over network bridge I get the error “The network bridge on device /dev/vmnet0 is not running”. It still works over NAT but i’m perplexed as to where this problem has come from. No software updates, no network config changes, nothing that I can think would affect this at all.
I started to wonder if it was something to do with being assigned a bridged DHCP on my home lan (10.0.0.X), suspending and being brought up on the work lan under a different subnet completely. Maybe something was going majorly wrong with the bridge device.
I couldn’t/can’t find anything logged anywhere other than the error message above in the vmware.log within the VM image folder.
Running the following command restarts all the vmnet related services:
/Library/Application\ Support/VMWare\ Fusion/boot.sh –restart
You’ll need to sudo that command.
I haven’t found anything on the VMWare community forums to indicate that this has been bugged for fix in a later release so i’m still not entirely sure of the cause…
Technorati Tags: VMWare Fusion, Networking, OS X, Virtualisation
January 14th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Thank you, this worked for me too. Wonder why vmware can’t do it himself. Sometimes it looks somewhat stupid.
January 14th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
I was going to log this with VMWare but haven’t been able to reproduce it since.
February 23rd, 2008 at 5:59 pm
[...] /23.02.2008: Another failure, this entry helped I use now wo different network configurations in Leopard: one server based with a [...]
March 1st, 2008 at 9:55 pm
i would be very grateful if someone could write out in full what i should enter at the prompt in TERMINAL.
no sudo experience, but getting this problem in 1.1.1
thanks,
yossi
March 1st, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Yossi,
No problems:
1. Shutdown VMWare if it is running.
2. Open terminal.
3. Enter the following line exactly (this must be entered all on one line in terminal):
sudo /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/boot.sh –restart
4. You’ll be prompted for the Administrator password for your Mac – this is usually the first account that was created when you installed OS X.
5. You’ll see output in terminal as VMWare processes are stopped and then started again, along with the virtual interfaces being assigned their IPs.
Hope that helps, please let me know.
Ian
March 6th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
I have tried the boot.sh restart but still get the problem
Was working fine for me until recently too….
March 6th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
@Mark Wilson – Does the reset complete successfully, as in all the services restart without error?
Does it not fix it at all?
If not, you could try removing the virtual interface from the VM. Then running the boot.sh -restart and then add an interface back in, that might kick it too life.
Finally, search spotlight for ‘vmare.log’ and see if there are any obvious errors in that.
Feel free to post them up here – the errors that is, not the entire log
March 11th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
I tried the fix above and didn’t have any luck. Then I remembered the problem appeared about the same time I tried using two virtual processors. I shut down the virtual machine, switched back to one virtual processor, and switched over to “bridged” from “NAT” again. Seems to work, so far. But it could be coincidence; I can’t be sure of the timing or other changes I made.
I need the bridged mode because with NAT, our HP OfficeJet 7210 scanner won’t communicate with the virtual windows XP machine.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Sorry to say the virtual processor switch appears to have made no difference – the problem still recurs at random intervals.
March 18th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
@Tim Jervis – I’ve not suffered this for almost a month now so i’ve not been able to pin point a root cause nor do any further investigation..
If you get this again, try shutting down the VM and enable diagnostic logging. This will burn CPU time so don’t leave it on for long, just start the VM up long enough to get the error pop up so you capture the trace.
There might be something in there indicating a locked file or process.
March 25th, 2008 at 5:38 am
[...] on the VMWare Fusion. I tried disabling / enabling network to no avail. Luckily I found this blog post which showed me the steps to restart vm. It fixed my problem [...]
March 25th, 2008 at 5:40 am
Thanks, this fixed my problem right away.
June 5th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
There’s a bug filed for this now. (I filed it.)
No, don’t ask me anything, I’m not in Fusion engineering.
June 24th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Worked for me. Thanks!
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Once again, thank you for putting this out there! You have saved me much pain and suffering.
August 4th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Thnx.
Worked like a charm
August 20th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Worked for me… I had to restart my Mac after doing the steps in Macca’s post but worked great
August 27th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Thanks! Got me running again.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
[...] After almost switching to Pararllels, I found the solution at Fine Malt Techr. [...]
October 4th, 2008 at 10:33 am
I’ve had the issue running an XP VM in Fusion 2.0 GA version.
I ran this command and after doing it twice I noticed that the VMware network adapter in XP tried to pull a new IP, but did not succeed.
I also had a few error messages after running the command.
Then I shut down the guest completely, shut down Fusion. I ran the command again. When I restarted Fusion the VM was set to bridged, but the moment I resumed the guest I had the ugly error pop up again.
At this point I still have the same problem. Any more ideas?
October 6th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
So after I copy and Paste into Teminal, hit enter and then enter password this next line shows up. Usage: /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/boot.sh {–start|–stop|–restart}. I’m guessing it doesn’t like the imput? Opened VMWare to check and nothing has changed. So I imput this instead, /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/boot.sh -restart. And get this response, -bash: /Library/Application: No such file or directory. Any ideas?
October 6th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Oh I see – I left out the space indicator in the command:
/Library/Application\ Support/VMWare Fusion/boot.sh –restart
Notice the \ after Application.
Give that a try and let me know how you go..
–ian
October 6th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Got it working! Needed to put 2 of these ( — ) before restart like this. sudo /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/boot.sh –restart. Thanks for your help. Needed this to work in a hurry!
October 6th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
the 2 dashes show as one when I post for some reason. Thanks for your help though!
October 12th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Hi all,
tried sudo /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/boot.sh –restart
and it did something. But still I can’t use my network connection. It worked a long time ago, but then it stopped working. Since then I never got it to work again. And also this above doesn’t improve. Is there anything about the order of events when I log in to my provider under OS X and then activate VM?
Quite desperate – any help???
-kris
October 12th, 2008 at 10:37 am
oh and yes, I used the suggested double – which oddly still doesn’t show when posting here…
October 12th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Hi Kris,
What’s the error you get? Also, have you upgraded to the 2.0 release version of Fusion?
Thirdly, what do you mean by “…log in to my provider..”?
–ian
October 12th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Kris et al,
I finally have it working – the key on my setup was to manually add connection details and “force” VMware to use specific network adapters.
In my case I first wanted to use it via ppp0 (a UMTS modem via USB stick) and then back home via wireless network.
There is an excellent knowledge base entry on the VMware website which explained the steps.
Once I had done that it worked like a charm.
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1001875&sliceId=1&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&dialogID=35756018&stateId=1%200%2035748698
Richard
October 13th, 2008 at 11:14 am
@macca
1)Well there’s no specific error message. But I can’t connect to any website or do the McAfee Update.
2) Yes, it’s 2.0 Fusion
3) Sorry that wasn’t very clear. I’m using a LAN-Connection to which I have to connect when booting in Mac OS X. That is what I ment by “log in”. Just the normal Lan PPPoE-Connction.
@RD
I tried the described steps. Step 7& 8 worked. But I give up at step 12. That’s too confusing for me. Which .vmx-file do they mean? And where exactely do I find it? Is it in the packege of the program file, or is it in the Liprary/Application Support. I don’t get that part.
And again step 13 isn’t clear. Sorry, I’m neither a hacker nor a programmer so have merci with me…
October 14th, 2008 at 1:49 am
Kris,
for step 12 you simply search for .vmx files in finder. Pick the one whose name is the same as the name of the Virtual Machine you are running.
Typically Fusion will store these in your Documents folder in the subfolder \Virtual Machines.
Once you have added those two lines into the .vmx file:
- Start Fusion
- Select, but don’t resume the VM you just modified, eg. Windows XP
- Go to the menu “Virtual Machine”
- Go to the “Network Adapter” selection further down
- Open “Network Adapter Settings”
- Add with the “+” sign a second network adapter.
- Select “Bridged” mode for the new adapter
- Make sure you chose “Connect the Network Adapter”
That should be it.
RD
- Select
October 14th, 2008 at 7:59 am
@RD
I managed to find the .vmx files myself. But I’m not so sure about picking the right one. I clicked on “Show Package” of the VMWare Program-File. Then in the Resources Folder I found two .vmx files. One called Template.vmx and the other Template-Vista.vmx. I got WinXPCoro installed so I chose the template.vmx file.
Now with both files changed correctly I still have a problem. I can’t add any other Network Adapters because the “+”Button is greyed out.
Maybe I’m blind, maybe I “just forgot to connect to the power supply” – can’t get it to work.
Another thing I noticed is: When the virtual machine is stopped and VMWare is opened: When I go the the Settings of the Virtual Machine and hit the “+”Button in the Overview Section everything is greyed out, except for adding a shared folder.
Any help is appreciated…
October 15th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Kris,
make sure your VM is shut down – not just suspended – when you try to add the additional network adapter. Once the VM is completely shut down the choices should no longer be grayed out.
Hope that helps,
RD
October 16th, 2008 at 9:08 am
this is getting absurd. ok, now it worked. my bad. shut it down, added a 2nd networkadater, set it to “bridged” and “connected”. Still it doesn’t work.
I think I give up on this. Already spent too much time and this is way to complicated for the average user to handle.
RD, if you still have the nerve, I take any further advices, but else I just stick to browsing in Mac OS. Only bad thing is, I can’t update any anti-virus and so on.
So long,
kris.
October 16th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Does the VM actually obtain an IP address from DHCP?
Can you ping the gateway from the VM?
October 16th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
If you are connected to a VPN, try to disconnect. It worked for me.
October 17th, 2008 at 8:57 am
@ER: Not using VPN on this machine.
@Macca: If I use IPConfig in the cmd-tool it shows me an IP-Adress.
So I guess the first part would be answered with yes.
Secandly: How do I ping the gateway?
October 17th, 2008 at 8:58 am
Hey,
OK, if you run “IPConfig /all” you’ll see a line that says Default Gateway followed by an IP Address.
Ping that IP, see if it returns ok.
Do the same for the primary DNS server also if it’s different.
October 17th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Hmm,
If I use IPConfig it shows an IP-Adress, Subnetmask is 255.255.0.0 and the Standard(or default)Gateway is blank.
If I ping that IP it says 4 sent and 4 returned.
If I use IPConfig/All it says DHCP activated: yes Auto-Configuration: yes, BUT it doesn’t show an IP-Adress. I get a blank 0.0.0.0. Same goes for the Subnetmask and the Standard-Gateway isn’t shown.
IP-Routing is off and WINS-Proxy is off.
October 17th, 2008 at 9:52 am
OK.
Do you have two adaptors configured for the VM?
If so, disable (in Windows) the one that has no ip address assigned to it.
If you only have one adaptor configured:
Try changing the Network adaptor in your VM Settings to NAT.
Run “ipconfig /release” then “ipconfig /renew” and then “ipconfig /all”. See if that brings up a DGW
October 19th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
This is so frustrating: I went to my University and plugged in. Didn’t have to do anything. Internet under OS X worked fine. Checked VMware Fusion, worked fine. Went back home. Same problem as before.
Okay.
Now first I used the above steps which gave me a 2nd network adapter. Now I deleted all network-adapters exept one. Run all the ip-commands and everything is there (IP, Subnet, Standard-Gateway and evth else).
AND: Still I can’t connect to any website or update the anti-virus.
December 4th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Hey Guys, I tried this line and it worked, perfectly:
sudo “/Library/Application Support/VMWare Fusion/boot.sh” –restart
Got it from another message board – this is the ONLY command out of about 5 google results that worked!
March 15th, 2009 at 5:30 am
nothing works
April 14th, 2009 at 12:32 am
If it helps anybody, this fixed all networking for me in VMWare Fusion with Windows 7:
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/191584
May 19th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Thanks for this, it worked first time for me, now I can get the internet to work properly on my VM! Thanks!
May 25th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
[...] After almost switching to Pararllels, I found the solution at Fine Malt Techr. [...]
August 10th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
I was having similar issues with my install of VMWare Fusion – I could connect to my business network on the Mac side, and the network icon appeared in the System Tray in the VMWare Windows side but I could not connect to the network with my Windows XP Pro install. I tried most of the suggestions in this string to no avail. Then, a fellow who works with me suggested I type the following line in a Windows command prompt window: netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt. After I typed that command and pressed the enter key, then restarted Windows XP within VMWare, I was able to connect to the network with no problem. I hope this helps.
October 13th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Thanks to all for this post. I just updated to latest edition of VMWARE 2.0.6 running a virtual Windows 7 RC install and had the same network adapter issue. Running the code in post 5 worked for me, but only after a shut down of Windows and a restart of the Macbook. Thanks so much for the helpful info here.
November 8th, 2009 at 1:51 am
Guys, Having the same problem I selected “bridged”. I went into the adapter properties, set a fixed IP address like (192.168.1.117) mask 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.1.1 and DNS 192.168.1.1 (these depend on your network and router. Doing so this worked fine but not for NAT! When I run a VPN with my IP set to automatically selected I can connect normally so the problem is with WIN7 (Vista) there is an error in obtaining an IP address from the router using bridged and NAT connections so try to fix (assign yourself) an IP address and hope it works for you!
November 8th, 2009 at 2:18 am
Guys, try setting an IP address in the IPv4 of your local area network using the router info for gateway and DNS. I did that and I am able to work with the “Bridged” network setting just fine. I believe there is something wrong with VMware 3 and Win 7 not obtaining an IP from the router when selecting a “Bridged” network type. Even NAT type was not working until I used the terminal instruction above. I hope someone can make use of this info and let us know how to fix this once and for all. I can’t believe VMware did not test this basic interaction with of their software with Win 7???
November 8th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
@ammoun
For clarity, I’m running Win7 in VMWare Fusion 3.0 and have no problems with DHCP allocation either from my DHCP server or from the VMNet process.
I was also running it upon Fusion 2.x for quite some time without this issue showing up again.
November 8th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Macca, I also ran Fusion 2 for 18 months without ever encountering the NAT/Bridged connection errors. However, I was running Win XP not Vista nor Win 7. With Win 7 and Fusion 2 I could connect only in NAT network type not Bridged, no matter what I did.
Now in Fusion 3 and Win 7 it is even worse, it is erratic and I cannot figure out what is happening! I only know it is a DHCP problem because when I use a VPN or set my own IP and specify the Gateway and DNS servers, I connect to the Internet with no problems as the VPN assigns me an IP and somehow things work fine.
As I am no expert in networking, Win 7 or Fusion I can only state my observations and hope they are of use to some guru out there who may come up with an answer for those of us suffering from this incompatibility or whatever you may call it.
I only wish I was as lucky as you with this issue.
Regards.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Just to confirm, if I set my own IP address, Gateway IP and DNS IP, my “Bridged” network adapter works fine and I can see my network printer …etc. If I leave the IP to Automatic then I cannot see the printer, my “Bridged” network adapter setting does not connect to the internet, my “NAT” connects, however it fails to see local network, only the internet! This is weird and most definitely has to do with the VMware/Win 7 combo failing to obtain and IP address (register on the network) properly. Any suggestions from anyone? I do not wish to keep my IP set as I move from one WiFi network to another at different venues.
November 11th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
I just tried a fresh Win 7 installation with Parallels Desktop 5 and it is exactly the same problem as with VMware Fusion 3 with Win 7. So…. it seems that the problem is Win 7 (and Vista before it)! This is as far as my knowledge goes! Anyone with an answer?
Bless you all.
November 17th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Guys,
I changed my router to Belkin N1 (from LiveBox that came with my ISP provider’s subscription) and my NAT and BRIDGED networks both worked well!! It seems that neither VMware Fusion v3 nor Windows 7 are at fault, it was my router!! So please try to change your routers or fiddle with the settings!
Bless you all.
November 17th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
I am sorry, I rushed my comment! I restarted and found out my NAT network does not “see” my printer or other computers on my local network! We are back to square one with no help from VMware or Microsoft!
November 17th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
My final comment and the resolution of my problem; as explained to me by the VMware support (very good people indeed); NAT networks use virtual IP addresses assigned by the virtual machine’s DHCP not by the router and hence the virtual machine is not given an IP in the physical local network which explains why NAT networks do not “see” network printers and other computers on the physical network (router and devices connected to it), it only connects to the internet through the NAT (and router) and connects to the MAC of course.
Bridged networks, however, obtain an address from the DHCP of the router and are, therefore, part of the physical network and hence can “see” the local network devices and other computers connected to the router and are on the network along with the MAC of course.
The above has been the case since I changed my router and so I am now OK. Support tells me that some routers act weird and for some reason refuse to assign IPs to some computers on the network and this is documented with several models out there. So, if your computer is not able to get an IP from the router or the router is failing to act as a DNS for your network in Bridged network configuration, then try another router before anything else.
I hope this is useful to someone.
Good luck to all and God bless.
January 15th, 2010 at 6:43 am
[...] Thanks google and credit to this blog owner: http://blog.maccarocks.com/2007/12/13/vmware-fusion-and-network-bridging/ [...]