Member Avatar for franktardif

I finally managed to get RH9 up and running on my WinXP host, however another problem surfaced: I can't connect to my home network. It says that it can't detect any connection, here's the message: "Determining IP information for eth0...failed; no link present. Check cable?".

I followed pretty much everything in the VMWare help guide, using bridged connection. Any ideas?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by blackbirddh

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Summary and practical next steps

This thread shows the classic RH9 + VMware symptom: the guest’s network scripts refuse to bring eth0 up because they don’t see a physical link. describes the failure, notes bridged works for them, and (confirmed by ) posted the well-known workaround that bypasses the link-detection check. Below are safe diagnostics, alternatives, and cautions that fill in practical detail.

Why it happens (short): Red Hat’s ifup scripts probe for a link (via mii/ethtool) and exit if none is found. Many virtual adapters don’t present the same hardware link state as a physical NIC, so the check fails even though the VM can otherwise talk to the host. Overriding the link check is one fix; installing the VMware-provided driver (VMware Tools / vmxnet) or using a different networking mode are cleaner options.

Quick checklist (back up files before editing):

# see interfaces and driver state
ifconfig -a
lsmod | egrep 'vmxnet|e1000'

# find guest config files that reference eth0
grep -l "DEVICE=eth0" /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/*

# check link (if ethtool installed)
ethtool eth0

# restart networking after changes
/etc/init.d/network restart

Practical tips and cautions

  • Install VMware Tools to get the proper vmxnet driver before hacking scripts. That often fixes link detection.
  • If you edit network-scripts, back them up and edit every copy that references eth0 (some systems keep multiple files). After edits, restart networking and check /var/log/messages and dmesg for driver errors.
  • On Windows hosts, ensure vmnet0 is bridged to the correct physical adapter; bridging over some Wi‑Fi adapters can behave oddly, so use NAT if bridging fails.
  • If the VM was cloned or the virtual NIC changed, update or remove the HWADDR line in the ifcfg file so MAC mismatches don’t prevent bringing the interface up.

These steps will save time compared with blind edits; the override suggested works, but try the VMware driver + config fixes first.

Recommended Answers

All 3 Replies

Member Avatar for Dani

I use bridged networking with no problems. In fact, it seems to be the easiest to configure for me. Have you tried host-only or NAT??

Member Avatar for GarrathE

The answer to this one is buried in the VMWare site. You have to find all copies of ifcfg-eth0 and add the lines:
check_link_down() {
return 1;
}
That fools the device into thinking the vmWare NIC is giving it a link up signal, which it doesn't.

Hope this helps, it works everytime for me. Good luck.

Member Avatar for blackbirddh

The answer to this one is buried in the VMWare site. You have to find all copies of ifcfg-eth0 and add the lines:
check_link_down() {
return 1;
}
That fools the device into thinking the vmWare NIC is giving it a link up signal, which it doesn't.

Hope this helps, it works everytime for me. Good luck.

>>> For me this did it ... thanx ... Daniel

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