VMware Workstation 7&8&9 does not generate /etc/vmware/network upon installation

Question

When I install VMware Workstation on Arch linux Virtual ethernet is not working.

$ sudo tail /var/log/vnetlib 
Aug 28 22:20:33 VNLFileExists - Cannot check for file or directory: /etc/vmware/networking , error: No such file or directory
Aug 28 22:20:33 VNLNetCfgLoad - Import file does not exist
Aug 28 22:20:33 VNL_Load - Error loading the vnet configuration, file used: /etc/vmware/networking
Aug 28 22:20:33 VNLNetCfgUnload - Requested cache is not loaded
Database file is not present.
Failed to initialize
Aug 28 22:20:41 VNLFileExists - Cannot check for file or directory: /etc/vmware/networking , error: No such file or directory
Aug 28 22:20:41 VNLNetCfgLoad - Import file does not exist
Aug 28 22:20:41 VNL_Load - Error loading the vnet configuration, file used: /etc/vmware/networking
Aug 28 22:20:41 VNLNetCfgUnload - Requested cache is not loaded

Required modules compiled.

Previously I have copied that file or directory (I don't remember) from a working installation, but now I need a real solution.

It's strange for me, may be a hardware issue also because with Ubuntu the same thing happens on the same computer.

Answer 1

Agreed with iptables being a critical and hidden part of getting the VMware Workstation host network configured. Specifically, I needed to allow ICMP in and out. This is with a fairly tight default deny input & output iptables configuration, so other people might have different filtering issues.

The symptoms and error logs did not help figure this out at all. With VMware Workstation 9, vmware-netcfg behaved oddly (not saving new configurations), and /etc/init.d/vmware start failed to create or configure any of the /dev/vmnet{0,1,8} interfaces. So if ifconfig -a does not show any interfaces after the vmware service has been started, look into this.

I took a slightly different path to the iptables step, by creating an "empty" /etc/vmware/networking file:

$ touch /tmp/x
$ vmware-networks --migrate-network-settings /tmp/x

But then got stuck where this iptables answer helped. The .../VMxxx/vmware.log file showed lines like the following:

2013-08-20T11:14:11.075-05:00| vcpu-0| I120: VNET: MACVNetPortOpenDevice: Ethernet0: can't open vmnet device (No such file or directory)
2013-08-20T11:14:11.075-05:00| vcpu-0| I120: VNET: MACVNetPort_Connect: Ethernet0: can't open data fd
2013-08-20T11:14:11.075-05:00| vcpu-0| I120: Msg_Post: Warning
2013-08-20T11:14:11.075-05:00| vcpu-0| I120: [msg.vnet.connectvnet] Could not connect Ethernet0 to virtual network "/dev/vmnet1". More information can be found in the vmware.log file.
2013-08-20T11:14:11.075-05:00| vcpu-0| I120: [msg.device.startdisconnected] Virtual device Ethernet0 will start disconnected.

Answer 2

It was an iptables issue. The way vmware initializes it's network requires to pass through some packets in iptables's chains. Though, I don't remember exactly the offending iptables rule. I have turned off my firewall and then it worked.