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brendanz

Member

From: NZ/AU

Registered: 2009-02-16

Posts: 5

[solved] udev permissions for /dev/vmnet*

Hi all.
I am having trouble keeping +rw permissions for the users group on /dev/vmnet*.
chmod works fine for the current session but revert to root only permissions after reboot.
Having read the udev man page and sifted through the forums, i have created /etc/udev/rules.d/00-vmnet-rules with the following:

KERNEL=="vmnet[0-8]", NAME="%k", SYMLINK+="vmnet-%k", GROUP="users", MODE="0666", OPTIONS="last_rule"
ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="vmnet[0-8]", SYMLINK+="vmnet-%k", GROUP="users", MODE="0666", NAME="%k"

This does not solve the problem.
Attempting to start vmware as a user and run a vm which attempts to set vmnet0 in promiscuous mode results in the following:

"The virtual machines operating system has attempted to enable promiscuous mode on adapter Ethernet0. This is not allowed for security reasons. Please go to the Web page "http://vmware.com/info?id161" for help enabling promiscuous mode in the virtual machine."

The instructions at the above web page work fine for the current session but revert to root only permissions after reboot.
I figure my udev rule is incorrect.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I'll keep reading and experimenting with udev rules and mark as solved if i get it right.

EDIT:

I was focusing on udev rules instead of scripts to manage devices.
Modified the Start/stop script from the vmware wiki to use elevated permissions for /dev/vmnet0.
All works fine, marked solved.

Last edited by brendanz (2009-02-16 07:11:50)

sefs

Member

Registered: 2009-11-18

Posts: 1

Re: [solved] udev permissions for /dev/vmnet*

Hi there.

I would like to know specifially how you solved this problem.  I would like persistent changes on my /dev/vmnet0 also.

I did not understand your method.

Thanks.

Maeda

Member

Registered: 2015-02-17

Posts: 44

Re: [solved] udev permissions for /dev/vmnet*

Hi all,

For my first post, I give the information to set promiscuous mode, as I didn't find it here. Hope it helps someone else (as this post show up in internet search)...
The easiest way to do it is either :

1/ Method 1
- First, create a new Linux group which has permission to use promiscuous mode, and add yourself to the group.

groupadd promiscuous
usermod -a -G promiscuous <your_user_id>

- Update the group ownership and access permission of /dev/vmnet*

chgrp promiscuous /dev/vmnet*
chmod g+rw /dev/vmnet*

2/ Method 2
To allow all users (instead of a specific user) to set the virtual adapter to promiscuous mode, run the following command on host machine.

chmod a+rw /dev/vmnet*

After changing access permission, you need to restart VMware Workstation or Player to make the change effective.

=> This is a temporary solution as the reboot will delete changes.

==To make it permanent at each reboot==

- For Method 1 (assuming that you already created a Linux group called "promiscuous" as described earlier):
Find the line vmwareStartVmnet in /etc/init.d/vmware

vmwareStartVmnet() {
  vmwareLoadModule $vnet
  "$BINDIR"/vmware-networks --start >> $VNETLIB_LOG 2>&1
  chgrp promiscuous /dev/vmnet*
  chmod g+rw /dev/vmnet*
}

-For Method 2 :
Find the line vmwareStartVmnet in /etc/init.d/vmware, and put the chmod as below :

vmwareStartVmnet() 
  vmwareLoadModule $vnet
  "$BINDIR"/vmware-networks --start >> $VNETLIB_LOG 2>&1
  chmod a+rw /dev/vmnet*
}

Source for further informations

BTW, thanks for all the other information I got here and in the Wiki when installing my Archlinux system

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