VMWare converted P2V Windows 7 guest - driver for network adapter not found
 

In a nutshell...

I used VMWare converter 4 to convert a Windows 7 Ultimate physical machine to a VMWare image. I moved the image to my Ubuntu 9.10 box and opened the image with VMWare workstation 7. The Win 7 VM booted up. However, it had no network connectivity. Seems that it did not have a driver for the VMWare NIC. And, I cannot install VMWare Tools - the option is grayed out and says "VMWare Tools not available".

I am guessing that VMWare tools may have the required driver. Is there another way I can install the tools manually? Other ideas?

Thanks,

Ken

p.s. I have created Windows 7 VMs directly in VMWare Workstation on this machine so all the pieces seem to be available.

Windows should have a driver that works, and VMware replaces it with a better one.

Try opening a command prompt window and type the following commands:
SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1
START DEVMGMT.MSC

In the tool bar, select View and Show Hidden Devices.

Then uninstall all of your network interfaces. Reboot.

Thanks carltm,

I went through the process. I uninstalled one NIC from the list however, I could not uninstall several Miniport entries - at least they did not disappear. I also uninstalled a NIC shown under computer hardware. When I rebooted I got the message "Ethernet Controller X No driver found". VMWare tools are still not available from the workstation menu.

Ken

See if you can manually change the driver and select a PCNET adapter.
It may be listed as "AMD PCNET Family PCI Ethernet Adapter".

Also, see if you have a cdrom installed in the vm. If not, add one.
That's the easiest way to install the tools.

I looked through the available drivers and did not find the AMD NIC driver which is required.

I do have a CDROM available in the VM. A silly question... where are the VMWare tools files hidden?

Ken

When you select to install the vmware tools, it will create a virtual
cdrom image. It's probably your D: drive in Windows. Open that in
explorer and run the installer.

That is what I am use to seeing. However, in the case of this converted VM the option to install VMWare tools is not available on Workstation menu. Let me see if I can do an install on another VM and snag the files from the "virtual" CD and move them to the ailing VM.

Ken

Well, I have managed to install VMWare tools. The NIC on another Win 7 VM is "Intel(R) Pro/1000 MT Network Connection". I have installed this driver on the bad VM however, I get the message "This device cannot start".

So... On the working VM I uninstalled the NIC and allowed Windows to scan for hardware changes. It found and installed the NIC back to working condition.

Apparently the NIC on the bad VM is not being recognized as the same model(?) Perhaps I will redo the conversion and try the whole process over again.

Ken

Question...have you tried deleting the virtual nic and then creating a new one?

I redid the conversion - this time I told the conversion to install Tools (it does not seem to have done so).

I removed the NIC from within Windows, rebooted, allowed it to detect - did not work.

I removed the NIC from within Windows, shut down, removed from VM as you recommended, powered up, powered down, added NIC to VM and restarted. Did not work.

To be honest, I did notice that the converter does not list Windows 7 - perhaps it cannot convert Win 7(?)

Ken

Well, you've tried all the tricks that I know, and I haven't used Windows 7.
You might want to check the VMware forums. If you find anything I'd be
interested to hear what you find.

Thanks carltm for standing by me in this fiasco. I think I will build an XP physical machine and convert it to see what happens. First I have to install a different video card in the physical box as my "generic" copy of XP does not have the necessary Dell drivers to even get the install done. Now if I could only remember why I am doing this :scratch:

Ken

Don't try to remember. ;) Just think of how good it will feel when you get it figured out.

Hi carltm,

I did some searching and it appears that Win 7 presents some issues with networking of converted machines. There may be some fixes - your recommendations were included - but not worth more effort on my part as the version of Windows is not critical. So I found a different XP disk and installed it on my old Dell hardware for testing purposes. The converted image loaded in VMWare workstation, installed VMWare tools, and seemed to automagically fix what ever needed to be fixed. It rebooted itself and was ready for use.

As to why I was trying this... Tabasco Pepper Sauce :redface:

I got an email from tabasco.com offering me 50 cents off coupons. However, to print them I need to install a coupon printer from coupons.com - a somewhat sleazy markinging company from what I have read. They filed suit against a fellow for publishing how to completely remove their coupon printing software from a PC (including some hidden registry keys etc.) Claimed he had reverse engineered their software in violation of the Millenium Copyright Act or some such thing.

So my first thought was to install the coupon software in a VM, print my coupons and then blow the VM away. I do that routinely with an XP VM which I use to run a few programs which I do not have Linux replacements for or have not gone the trouble to run in Wine. I keep a protected copy of the VM and replace the working one in the event of any issue.

But, the coupon software will not install in a virtualized environment. So I installed it on a Win 7 test physical machine and printed the coupons. However, curiosity got the better of me and thus I tried to virtualize the physical machine with the coupon program already installed and see what would happen.

Bottom line, I virtualized the XP machine with the coupon software installed, ran the VM in VMWare workstation and I can print a coupon ;)

I think I will open some V8 juice, add good dollop of Tabasco sauce and enjoy.

Ken

I'm impressed. No, not that you could figure out how to virtualize
the system with the coupon printing software. I'm impressed that
you did all this so you could add some hot sauce to your V8!

Thanks for posting what you tried and letting us know what did and
didn't work.