vmware-host-modules start Virtual ethernet failed even after patched.

Hi, I recently upgrade my ubuntu to 21.10, and since then vmmon and vmnet compile start to fail.

I found your great repo from google, then I follow up the INSTALL and patched my vmware (method 2), but still have the error of unable to start services, and I even failed by restart vmware service due to some LSB error. Would you mind to provide some suggestions please?

sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all                 
[AppLoader] Use shipped Linux kernel AIO access library.
An up-to-date "libaio" or "libaio1" package from your system is preferred.
[AppLoader] GLib does not have GSettings support.
Stopping VMware services:
   VMware Authentication Daemon                                        done
   Virtual machine monitor                                             done
make: Entering directory '/tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only'
Using kernel build system.
/usr/bin/make -C /lib/modules/5.13.0-20-generic/build/include/.. M=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. \
  MODULEBUILDDIR= modules
make[1]: Entering directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.13.0-20-generic'
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/linux/driverLog.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/linux/hostif.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/common/apic.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/common/comport.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/common/cpuid.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/common/crosspage.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/common/memtrack.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/common/phystrack.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/common/sharedAreaVmmon.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/common/statVarsVmmon.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/common/task.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/common/vmx86.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/vmcore/moduleloop.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/bootstrap/bootstrap.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/bootstrap/monLoader.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/bootstrap/monLoaderVmmon.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/bootstrap/vmmblob.o
  LD [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/vmmon.o
  MODPOST /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/Module.symvers
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/vmmon.mod.o
  LD [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/vmmon.ko
  BTF [M] /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/vmmon.ko
Skipping BTF generation for /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only/vmmon.ko due to unavailability of vmlinux
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.13.0-20-generic'
/usr/bin/make -C $PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. \
  MODULEBUILDDIR= postbuild
make[1]: Entering directory '/tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only'
make[1]: 'postbuild' is up to date.
make[1]: Leaving directory '/tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only'
cp -f vmmon.ko ./../vmmon.o
make: Leaving directory '/tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmmon-only'
make: Entering directory '/tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only'
Using kernel build system.
/usr/bin/make -C /lib/modules/5.13.0-20-generic/build/include/.. M=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. \
  MODULEBUILDDIR= modules
make[1]: Entering directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.13.0-20-generic'
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only/driver.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only/hub.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only/userif.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only/netif.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only/bridge.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only/procfs.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only/smac_compat.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only/smac.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only/vnetEvent.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only/vnetUserListener.o
  LD [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only/vmnet.o
  MODPOST /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only/Module.symvers
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only/vmnet.mod.o
  LD [M]  /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only/vmnet.ko
  BTF [M] /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only/vmnet.ko
Skipping BTF generation for /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only/vmnet.ko due to unavailability of vmlinux
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.13.0-20-generic'
/usr/bin/make -C $PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. \
  MODULEBUILDDIR= postbuild
make[1]: Entering directory '/tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only'
make[1]: 'postbuild' is up to date.
make[1]: Leaving directory '/tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only'
cp -f vmnet.ko ./../vmnet.o
make: Leaving directory '/tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only'
Starting VMware services:
   Virtual machine monitor                                             done
   Virtual machine communication interface                             done
   VM communication interface socket family                            done
   Virtual ethernet                                                   failed
   VMware Authentication Daemon                                        done
Unable to start services

journalctl -xeu vmware.service                                                               1 ⨯
░░ 
░░ The process' exit code is 'exited' and its exit status is 1.
Oct 20 17:51:33 P5560 systemd[1]: vmware.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
░░ Subject: Unit failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░ 
░░ The unit vmware.service has entered the 'failed' state with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 20 17:51:33 P5560 systemd[1]: vmware.service: Unit process 1716 (bash) remains running after uni>
Oct 20 17:51:33 P5560 systemd[1]: vmware.service: Unit process 1717 (logger) remains running after u>
Oct 20 17:51:33 P5560 systemd[1]: vmware.service: Unit process 1719 (vmware-authdlau) remains runnin>
Oct 20 17:51:33 P5560 systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: This service starts and stops VMware services.
░░ Subject: A start job for unit vmware.service has failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░ 
░░ A start job for unit vmware.service has finished with a failure.
░░ 
░░ The job identifier is 128 and the job result is failed.
Oct 21 10:02:12 P5560 systemd[1]: Starting LSB: This service starts and stops VMware services...
░░ Subject: A start job for unit vmware.service has begun execution
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░ 
░░ A start job for unit vmware.service has begun execution.
░░ 
░░ The job identifier is 15883.
Oct 21 10:02:12 P5560 vmware[103379]: Starting VMware services:
Oct 21 10:02:12 P5560 vmware[103379]: [36B blob data]
Oct 21 10:02:12 P5560 vmware[103379]: [52B blob data]
Oct 21 10:02:12 P5560 vmware[103379]: [53B blob data]
Oct 21 10:02:13 P5560 vmware[103379]: [30B blob data]
Oct 21 10:02:13 P5560 vmware[103379]: [41B blob data]
Oct 21 10:02:13 P5560 systemd[1]: vmware.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAIL>
░░ Subject: Unit process exited
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░ 
░░ An ExecStart= process belonging to unit vmware.service has exited.
░░ 
░░ The process' exit code is 'exited' and its exit status is 1.
Oct 21 10:02:13 P5560 systemd[1]: vmware.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
░░ Subject: Unit failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░ 
░░ The unit vmware.service has entered the 'failed' state with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 21 10:02:13 P5560 systemd[1]: vmware.service: Unit process 103435 (bash) remains running after u>
Oct 21 10:02:13 P5560 systemd[1]: vmware.service: Unit process 103436 (logger) remains running after>
Oct 21 10:02:13 P5560 systemd[1]: vmware.service: Unit process 103438 (vmware-authdlau) remains runn>
Oct 21 10:02:13 P5560 systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: This service starts and stops VMware services.
░░ Subject: A start job for unit vmware.service has failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░ 
░░ A start job for unit vmware.service has finished with a failure.
░░ 
░░ The job identifier is 15883 and the job result is failed.

systemctl status vmware.service
× vmware.service - LSB: This service starts and stops VMware services
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/vmware; generated)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2021-10-21 10:02:13 AEDT; 36s ago
       Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
    Process: 103379 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/vmware start (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
        CPU: 148ms

Oct 21 10:02:12 P5560 vmware[103379]: [52B blob data]
Oct 21 10:02:12 P5560 vmware[103379]: [53B blob data]
Oct 21 10:02:13 P5560 vmware[103379]: [30B blob data]
Oct 21 10:02:13 P5560 vmware[103379]: [41B blob data]
Oct 21 10:02:13 P5560 systemd[1]: vmware.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAIL>
Oct 21 10:02:13 P5560 systemd[1]: vmware.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 21 10:02:13 P5560 systemd[1]: vmware.service: Unit process 103435 (bash) remains running after u>
Oct 21 10:02:13 P5560 systemd[1]: vmware.service: Unit process 103436 (logger) remains running after>
Oct 21 10:02:13 P5560 systemd[1]: vmware.service: Unit process 103438 (vmware-authdlau) remains runn>
Oct 21 10:02:13 P5560 systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: This service starts and stops VMware services.

And my guess is this message might be the root cause?

Skipping BTF generation for /tmp/modconfig-y3PV4T/vmnet-only/vmnet.ko due to unavailability of vmlinux

If there's any log you might need, please let me know. Thank you very much.

Oct 20 '21 23:10 diegoxcn

No, this is certainly not the reason, it's just a warning (you most likely do not need BTF for the modules) and apparently the modules built correctly. Some time ago, I was also seeing "Virtual ethernet ... failed" on one of my machines even if everything worked correctly so you may want to check if vmmon and vmnet modules are loaded (lsmod command) and if starting Workstation/Player works.

Some suggestions:

there may be some useful information in /var/log/vnetlib
if you are using secure boot and signed modules, you need to get vmmon and vmnet signed
vmware-modconfig has library problems on some systems so method 1 may be more reliable there
Workstation/Player 16.2.0 modules build (with warnings) correctly against kernels up to 5.15-rc6

Oct 22 '21 08:10 mkubecek

Hi, thanks for replying.

Yeah, the behavior my vmware now have is, I will have to open Virtual Network Editor before I launch any VM guest, or I will have some virtual NIC not working error. And after I opened the Editor and save it, all guests can launch and working fine. The only weird thing is when multiple guests running together, the vmware itself would be extremely lagging, and not responding, even vm network disconnecting, etc. But only run one guest works fine.

BTW, secure boot is disabled before I install ubuntu. Current running kernel is 5.13.0-20, and yeah, I tried method 1 as well. Hmmmm, seems the same? Because I can't tell vmware behave any differently.

vmmon and vmnet modules are there:

$ lsmod | egrep '^vm*'
vmnet                  53248  21
[...]
vmmon                 126976  0

$ tail -n100 /var/log/vnetlib
Configured subnet: 192.168.30.0
Setting vmnet-dhcp IP address: 192.168.30.254
Opened: /dev/vmnet3
Recving on     VNet/vmnet3/192.168.30.0
Sending on     VNet/vmnet3/192.168.30.0
Forked child process, pid=5100
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_StartService - Started "DHCP" service for vnet: vmnet3
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLRemoveFile - Cannot delete Directory: /etc/vmware/vmnet3 because of: Directory not empty
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_UpdateNATFromConfig - Removing NAT configuration file succeeded for vnet: vmnet3
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLServiceStop - Could not extract PID of NAT
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_StopService - Stopped "NAT" service on vnet: vmnet3
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLServiceStop - Could not extract PID of Bridge
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_StopService - Stopped "Bridge" service on vnet: vmnet8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_StopService - Stopped "DHCP" service on vnet: vmnet8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_StopService - Stopped "NAT" service on vnet: vmnet8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_SetVnetSubnetAddr - Successfully set set the subnet address for vnet: vmnet8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_SetVnetSubnetMask - Successfully set the mask for vnet: vmnet8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_SetVnetDisplayName - Successfully set the display name for vnet: vmnet8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_RemoveMTU - Removing MTU setting succeeded for vnet: vmnet8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_EnableNetworkAdapter - Successfully enabled hostonly adapter on vnet: vmnet8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLNetCfgEnumNATPortFwd - List of forwarded ports is empty
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_EnumNATPortForward - No ports to enumerate for vnet: vmnet8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLNetCfgEnumNATPortFwd - List of forwarded ports is empty
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_EnumNATPortForward - No ports to enumerate for vnet: vmnet8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLDHCPWriteDHCPCfg - Trying to locate the vmnet dhcp config block
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLDHCPWriteDHCPCfg - DHCP config hash not found in vnet config, creating a new config file and backing up existing file
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLDHCPWriteDHCPCfg - Backing up DHCP config into "/etc/vmware/vmnet8/dhcpd/dhcpd.conf.bak" before modification
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLDHCPGetParameter - Value for DHCP parameter: "Default Lease Duration" not found in configuration for vnet: 8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLDHCPGetParameter - Value for DHCP parameter: "Max Lease Duration" not found in configuration for vnet: 8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLDHCPGetParameter - Value for DHCP parameter: "Lease Begin IP" not found in configuration for vnet: 8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLDHCPGetParameter - Value for DHCP parameter: "Lease End IP" not found in configuration for vnet: 8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLDHCPGetParameter - Value for DHCP parameter: "Broadcast Address" not found in configuration for vnet: 8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLDHCPGetParameter - Value for DHCP parameter: "DNS Address" not found in configuration for vnet: 8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLDHCPGetParameter - Value for DHCP parameter: "Domain Name" not found in configuration for vnet: 8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLDHCPGetParameter - Value for DHCP parameter: "Subnet Default Lease Duration" not found in configuration for vnet: 8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLDHCPGetParameter - Value for DHCP parameter: "Subnet Max Lease Duration" not found in configuration for vnet: 8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLDHCPGetParameter - Value for DHCP parameter: "Netbios" not found in configuration for vnet: 8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLDHCPGetParameter - Value for DHCP parameter: "Routers" not found in configuration for vnet: 8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLNetCfgEnumDHCPMACToIP - List of mappings is empty
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_UpdateDHCPFromConfig - Writing DHCP configuration file succeeded for vnet: vmnet8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLServiceStop - Could not extract PID of DHCP
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_StopService - Stopped "DHCP" service on vnet: vmnet8
Internet Software Consortium DHCP Server 2.0
Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 The Internet Software Consortium.
All rights reserved.

Please contribute if you find this software useful.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/dhcp-contrib.html

Configured subnet: 192.168.244.0
Setting vmnet-dhcp IP address: 192.168.244.254
Opened: /dev/vmnet8
Recving on     VNet/vmnet8/192.168.244.0
Sending on     VNet/vmnet8/192.168.244.0
Forked child process, pid=5108
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_StartService - Started "DHCP" service for vnet: vmnet8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLNetCfgEnumNATPortFwd - List of forwarded ports is empty
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLNetCfgEnumNATPortFwd - List of forwarded ports is empty
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_UpdateNATFromConfig - Writing NAT configuration file succeeded for vnet: vmnet8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNLServiceStop - Could not extract PID of NAT
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_StopService - Stopped "NAT" service on vnet: vmnet8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_StartService - Started "NAT" service for vnet: vmnet8
Oct 22 14:05:56 VNL_Unload2 - Vnetlib unloaded.

Oct 22 '21 11:10 diegoxcn

This has been quiet for over a year, closing. Feel free to reopen if the issue still persists with current version of Workstation and current branch head.

Nov 27 '22 12:11 mkubecek

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start Virtual ethernet failed even after patched.

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