VMXNET and Ubuntu VMs - no network interfaces

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sjalloq

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Jun 20, 2011
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Hi there,

I've been trying to set up a couple of test VMs using Ubuntu 11.04 Server and Desktop editions. However, I'm trying to use the VMXNET2 adapter which isn't recognised. When trying to install the Server edition I get a "No network interfaces found" error.

The VMWare wiki seems to suggest that all 64-bit versions of Ubuntu support the adapter so what am I doing wrong?

Cheers.
 
I seem to recall having similar issues with ubuntu 10.10. I would recommend the e1000 NIC instead. The performance is just as good, and it's more stable (I've had issues with the vmxnet adapters in ubuntu AND opensolaris - bursty performance, etc...)
 
+1 for NetJunkie.... if you are using vmxnet you will need to use the Tools driver or it will not identify, Using E1000 is best for Linux as the typical Intel E1000 Driver has been installed for a very long time in pretty much all editions of Linux. if you want to run VMXNet2/3 you will definatly need to add the drivers via the tools
 
Thanks for the info. I have tried installing the VMTools but haven't managed to find the relevant documentation on how to reconfigure the network interfaces yet. Still looking.

As a side rant, one of the reasons for using ESXi is that it is supposedly "enterprise" grade and should be the pollished article. The fact that they're displaying support info that is clearly wrong doesn't fill me with confidence. It's hard enough fighting with Linux let alone ESXi too. :confused:
 
well your main issue now is yes tools are installed but there was no previous network card install and during the installation of linux either you configure it in the installer or you go in and manually configure the eth interfaces..

to do this in the GUI
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tRcW4a2K3w"]YouTube - ‪HOWTO: Manually configure network interfaces in Ubuntu Linux‬‏[/ame]

command line
http://www.sucka.net/2009/08/manually-configure-ubuntu-networking/


I will also mention that if you are also selecting VMXNet 2 which is not the native selected NIC Card for Ubuntu (defaults are usually flexible or e1000) then you are also modifying the natrual parameters of how the VM is optimized for ESX(i). VMXNet2 is also considered legacy when it comes to VMXNet3. E1000 is going to have your best compatibility.

i get this might be your introduction to Linux but remember linux/windows/mac doesnt always support everything natively out of the box.

Personally i never trust WIKI's 100%
i would however trust a KB from VMware http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/mi...nguage=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1001805
also even though it says supported doesnt mean that it has the native drivers installed just that it will work.
 
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So the KB article you linked to was the one I was referring to above. If the driver isn't supported out of the box then the least they could do would be to link to a KB article that describes how to get it working rather than letting the customer think they've done something wrong by selecting a "supported" network adapter.

I'm not new to Linux but find the Open Source method of getting help annoying. It always involves searching through multiple different solutions, many of which are conflicting, and a lot of time lost to banging your head against a wall. But that goes hand in hand with Open Source software. I had assumed, incorrectly, that a professional product aimed at enterprise clients wouldn't have so many issues.

As another example, I have since installed a VM using the default E1000 adapter and have been trying to install VMTools. The version that ships with 4.1 U1 isn't compatible with the latest kernel versions so when you try and install them, a number of errors crop up that aren't documented anywhere on the VMWare support site. There seems to be lots of people asking the same questions but not definitive answer.

Perhaps I set my expectations too high. Thanks for your help and pointers though, they'll be useful.
 
The article you point to says that VMXNET2 is "supported". It doesn't say it's supported during installation. You have to install the kernel drivers later. Try installing with the Flexible card which will convert to VMXNET when you install the VMTools modules.
 
Thanks NetJunkie.

I'm not 100% sure but I don't think I had that option when creating the VM. I think I only had the choice of E1000, VMXNET2/3. Either way, I think I'm happy with E1000 for now but it would be good to be able to install VMTools.

Cheers.
 
You're making this way too complicated. :)

Ubuntu 11.04 ships with the vmxnet3 driver already installed. Just choose that during VM creation and you're good to go. Or, shut down the VM. Remove the existing E1000 NIC. Apply it. Edit again. Add a VMXNET3 NIC (So it's NIC1) and then reboot the VM. It'll pick up the driver.

I still highly suggest installing VMware tools (You'll need to compile some of it...I had to grab the header files, etc) but they aren't required for VMXNET3 support. Works during install.
 
I was about to fire up my lab and load up Ubuntu because I did not have this issue with the tools installed and running VMXNET3. NetJunkie beat me to it.
 
OK, I'll try an install with VMXNET3 but that doesn't get round the problem that the tools won't install.

There are lots of posts all over the net about the errors regarding "clear_inode" and "ioctl" calls. I'll start again tomorrow and detail the steps I go through. I won't rule out that I'm doing something stupid.

Thanks.
 
Install the right compiler tools and you should be fine. I had no issues at all getting the tools to compile and install.
 
Can you list the packages you installed?

What I've just done is create a new VM with the following properties: Virtual machine version 7, guest of Ubuntu 64-bit, 2VCPU, 1GB RAM, VMXNET3, LSI Logic Parallel.

I then started the VM and attached the amd64 server edition ISO and installed using all the defaults.

Once I had a shell I used apt-get to install build-essential which has gcc and the linux headers included. However, when running the VMTools installation, I get the same error that I had before:

/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmhgfs-only/super.c:73:4: error: unkown field clear_inode specified in initializer.

This is due to the headers changing between kernels 2.36 and 37/38 and VMWare haven't updated their source. There are lots of posts on the internet trying to find solutions. A member of a German forum had a suggestion for modifying the source which works for this particular error but you just get as far as the next one when rerunning.

How did you get past these errors?
 
Are those complaining all on AMD systems? Mine are Intel.

I used:

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r` psmisc
 
My hardware is Intel. amd64 refers to the X86 64-bit arch that both Intel and AMD CPUs support. From that I must assume that you downloaded the 32-bit version.
 
sjalloq said:
My hardware is Intel. amd64 refers to the X86 64-bit arch that both Intel and AMD CPUs support. From that I must assume that you downloaded the 32-bit version.
Click to expand...

Sorry..wasn't paying attention. I downloaded the 64-bit version. Had no issue.

ubuntu-11.04-server-amd64.iso
 
Hmmm, so what's different then?

I'm using ESXi 4.1.0 348481 and VMWare Tools is VMwareTools-8.3.7-341836.tar.gz.

And you're sure you didn't just hit enter at one of the prompts telling you of a compile error? Sorry, had to ask.
 
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Don't THINK I did...but can't check it. On a plane headed to Vegas for Cisco Live. :)
 
sjalloq said:
OK, I'll try an install with VMXNET3 but that doesn't get round the problem that the tools won't install.

There are lots of posts all over the net about the errors regarding "clear_inode" and "ioctl" calls. I'll start again tomorrow and detail the steps I go through. I won't rule out that I'm doing something stupid.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

There is not an included kernel driver for Ubuntu of that version. You'll need glibc to compile your own, and the needed kernel headers as well.
 
Hey lopoetve,

must have missed your post but thanks for the reply. However, I managed to finally post on the VMware forum once they'd told me how to get around a bug in their user registration form and another member directed me to this page which I'd missed:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VMware/Tools

Seems that the tools won't compile on anything other than RHE based distributions and one of three workarounds is to use the open-vm-tools package. That seems to work fine. Not tried anything else yet.

Thanks.
 
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