An ugly VMWare Fusion error “/dev/vmnet0″ is not running
A VMWare Fusion getcha (new word?) that I ran into tonight. So you don’t waste much time with it, here’s how to fix it. Don’t panic if you encounter an “the network bridge device on /dev/vmnet0 is not running” when trying to start your VMWare instance. It generally means a service didn’t start correctly when you booted your machine.
Don’t suspend your VM. Let your VM start. Go to a full screen view and shutdown the machine without logging on to a running instance. Shutdown VMWare Fusion. Now, you can reboot your Mac or you can run the following command from the /Library/Application Support/VMWare Fusion directory (options are -start, -stop, or -restart):
# sudo boot.sh -restartAfter restarting the service, you shouldn’t have any problem launching VMWare Fusion. I don’t like the fact that you can’t abort the launch of the VM though. That’s got to be a bug!
Subscribe via RSS
Hi Michael,
Great tip! I’ve had that situation bite me a few times, and it certainly isn’t very well-documented. I wanted to point out, however, that your sudo command contains “–reboot” instead of –restart:
“Don’t suspend your VM. Let your VM start. Go to a full screen view and shutdown the machine without logging on to a running instance. Shutdown VMWare Fusion. Now, you can reboot your Mac or you can run the following command from the /Library/Application Support/VMWare Fusion directory (options are –start, –stop, or –restart):
# sudo boot.sh –reboot”
Here’s how it looks on my machine:
zathras:VMware Fusion jpiwowar$ ./boot.sh –reboot
Usage: ./boot.sh {–start|–stop|–restart}
Apologies for leaving a comment that mostly reduces to, “Whoa, dude! Typo!” I checked around for a way to email you privately, but couldn’t find an email link on your blog or on Oracle Community (might just be pre-coffee confusion on my part).
Regards,
John P.
John P
10 Sep 08 at 1:12 pm
Thanks! I hate typos but make them too often. I’ve fixed it in the post.
maclochlainn
10 Sep 08 at 3:23 pm
Hi
I am having this same problem for long time now. i tried your tips but it didnt work for me.
1st i did this:
Don’t suspend your VM. Let your VM start. Go to a full screen view and shutdown the machine without logging on to a running instance. Shutdown VMWare Fusion. Now, you can reboot your Mac
Result: same error message /dev/vmneto is not running”
2nd I did this:
Instead of rstart the mac, i tried this
# sudo boot.sh –restart from the terminal windows from directory /Library/Application Support/VMWare Fusion but nothing happened.. then i tried ./boot.sh –restart i show some messages such as
VMware Fusion 62573: Shutting down VMware Fusion:
./boot.sh: line 215: kill: (90) – Operation not permitted
./boot.sh: line 215: kill: (90) – Operation not permitted
./boot.sh: line 215: kill: (74) – Operation not permitted
./boot.sh: line 215: kill: (74) – Operation not permitted
./boot.sh: line 215: kill: (85) – Operation not permitted
./boot.sh: line 215: kill: (85) – Operation not permitted
./boot.sh: line 215: kill: (82) – Operation not permitted
./boot.sh: line 215: kill: (82) – Operation not permitted
what should i do?
Hassan
23 Sep 08 at 10:47 am
That appears to be a call to this line:
kill -”$signal” “$pid”
I’d suggest that they might try a kill without prejudice, and you could kill with prejudice the NAT jobs. However, did you close VMWare with a Command+Q before attempting the command? If not, you should close the VMWare application, then run the restart command. Another alternative, you can reboot after shutting down the virtual machine before running the restart command.
If these don’t solve the problem let me know. I’ll modify the script to give you more diagnostic information.
maclochlainn
23 Sep 08 at 1:57 pm
If you get the boot.sh not found try this:
if you don’t use the sudo it will give you continuous operation not permitted.
Billy Marlin
19 May 09 at 7:23 am
Hi,
I thought it might be useful to mention that on my machine and in combination with VMWare Fusion 2.0.2, the following, slightly modified command worked:
Without the back slashes before the spaces it didn’t work for me, but this did the trick.
Regards,
Ariaan
Ariaan
25 May 09 at 12:18 pm
Thanks a million for this tip! I was running around in circles as a result of my XP virtual machine’s inability to find my network. Thanks to a Goggle search on the error message, “The network bridge on device /dev/vmnet0 is not running,” I found your blog and did as you suggested: I quit Windows, closed VMWare Fusion, and rebooted its host, a MacBook Pro. Viola! When I opened up VMWare fusion and restarted XP, all was well again. Whew, what a relief.:)
Grey Satterfield
25 May 09 at 12:19 pm
Hi
I’ve tried all of the above but still no luck… I’ve got the right command (it does try to run that script), but I get the following:
[CODE]VMware Fusion 196839: Shutting down VMware Fusion:
No matching processes were found
No matching processes were found
No matching processes were found
No matching processes were found
kextunload: unload id com.vmware.kext.vmcrosstalk failed (result code 0xe00002c2)
kextunload: unload id com.vmware.kext.vmmon failed (result code 0xe00002c2)
kextunload: unload kext /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/kexts/vmmon.kext failed
kextunload: unload kext /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/kexts/vmci.kext succeeded
kextunload: unload kext /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/kexts/vmioplug.kext failed
kextunload: unload kext /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/kexts/vmnet.kext succeeded
VMware Fusion 196839: Starting VMware Fusion:
kextload: extension /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/kexts/vmmon.kext is already loaded
{/CODE]
There’s more stuff after that but it looks like the rest works. When I then reopen VMWare Fusion I still get the error and can’t turn on my bridged network.
I’ve tried rebooting my Mac before and after running the script, and I’ve even re-installed VMWare Fusion… I’m on OSX 10.5.8, VMWare 2.0.6
Any ideas?
Frank Harrison
23 Jan 10 at 6:09 pm