VMware Player "Bridged" networking no longer works - host=win8.1 guest=Mint 17 Linux

Question

Basic background tech info:

1. Host: Windows 8.1
2. Guest: Linux Mint 17
3. VMWare Player version: 6.0.3 build-1895310
4. Host hardware: ASUS Laptop with broadcomm wifi chipset

In the past (earlier versions of Linux Mint, and earlier versions of VMWare Player), I could switch networking between NAT and Bridged, and both would work as expected. I settled on NAT. Recently, I had need to switch to Bridged, and the guest Linux OS failed to connect. Switch back to NAT, and everything reconnects and works fine.

I've updated VMWare Tools in the guest OS, with no effect. Alas, I don't know which Mint upgrade, or VMWare Player upgrade broke the functionality, or when.

Variations of this question seem to crop up frequently, but none of the questions I've read here on Superuser seem to directly address, or offer a fix for, this problem.

Happy to provide logfiles or other info to help debug the issue. Just let me know what you need. Since I can use NAT as a work-around, this isn't urgent. However, I'd like to understand what's wrong and fix it.

Thanks.

Solution 1

Found a solution for my version of the problem. Hope it helps someone else.

Previously, I had been using VirtualBox. Switching over to VMWare (using NAT) worked just fine, but VirtualBox had left a host-only adapter in Windows Networking, which was (silently) making "bridged" mode in VMWare not work.

I hit a similar issue installing "boot2docker" (which uses VirtualBox) on an other machine which had VMWare working, which then stopped after installing "boot2docker". Diagnosis of that led me to VirtualBox being the culprit.

SOLUTON:

On the windows host, go to Networking Connections, and "disable" any VirtualBox network entries there. Your "Bridged" VMWare connections will start working again.

Solution 2

There is another, not so 'brutal' approach to fixing this. This has bit me more than once. Go to the VMWare Virtual Network Editor, and in the VMNet Information section for "Bridged", pull the drop down "Bridged to:" and change from Automatic to your physical adapter name. This allows both VMWare and VirtualBox to play together on the same host. (I'm surprised that VMWare does not detect this where the host has more than 1 VM application installed)

Solution 3

You don't have to disable the VirtualBox adapters in Windows. You can fix this within VMWare Player directly. Go into your VM Network settings, select Bridged, and then click the Configure Adapters button. Uncheck "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter".

This will fix your problem and leave the VirtualBox adapters functional in Windows so that you can use both VB and VMWare on the same system without having to constantly switch settings.

Solution 4

I found that in VMware Player, there is no network editor. However, you can specify which adapter to bridge to, and that resolved the problem for me. In the screen below, both adapters were selected. De-select the Hyper-V, leaving only the physical adapter.

Solution 5

The only thing that fixed my connection was to add another network adapter (NAT) on top of the existing one.

Manage -> Virtual Machine Settings -> Add -> Network Adapter -> Finish.

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Comments

[iBabur]

a simple solution that worked for me as well

[Slava Babin]

I am so glad that i found this answer! I completely forgot that i have installed virtualBox and i noticed that after a few restarts I could use my bridged network. Thanks!

[fixer1234]

You make it sound like you pressed random keys and they happened to spell "nmcli networking on", and magically, it worked. Surely, you had some reason to try that command.

[Karu]

I can confirm that I've had to do this exact thing a few times - it's almost like VMWare loses the connection to the virtual NIC on the host, and creating a new NIC on the guest reestablishes it.

[smac89]

This actually worked

[Josh Porter]

I was in a 6 hour daze trying to fix this by typing in random c**p from stackexchange, sweating with desperation. I entered a fugue state and woke naked in a field with my laptop's VM connection fixed and the command "nmcli networking on" written in twigs next to me.

[Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style]

Are you certain this is not a duplicate answer? Others mention the bridge mode on the adapter too so just curious if the end result of uninstall and reinstalling has the same outcome as messing with the bridge mode as other answers indicate. Even if uninstall and reinstall it is not mentioned, I just wonder if it's still basically just enabling or disabling or changing the mode, etc. to make it work which is essentially just a different way making that happen. Think about it and tag me back with your thought or edit accordingly if needed. I'm not sure, just mentioning the thought.

[Shoaib Mohammed]

This solved. Thanks!!!

[Tokenyet]

Works on vmplayer 16.1.1.6780 :D

[AndyO]

I have 9 adapters listed there but Hyper-V was indeed the only one that needed to be unchecked.

[cekar]

This is still working today. I had the same problem that I changed the network setting in VMWare from NAT to bridge mode as my connection was really slow. In Ubuntu 20.04 the network connection couldn't established. On my host machine I just deactivated the VirtualBox Host-Only Network Adapter and it immediately works within the VM.