There appears to be a problem with RHL 9 when run under VMware 4. RHL 9 uses ethtool to detect whether a network interface has an active link. However, VMware's emulation of the PCNet32 adapter apparently does not support detection of link state.
RHL 9 checks link state before issuing a DHCP request. Under VMware, the link is never detected as active and so no DHCP request is sent and the adapter never comes up.
The proper way to repair the problem would probably entail modification ethtool. However, a quick and dirty fix is to modify /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/network-functions as follows:
check_ethtool ()
{
[ -x /sbin/ethtool ] || return 2
output=`LC_ALL=C ethtool $1 2>&1`
echo $output | LC_ALL=C grep -q "Link detected: yes" && return 1
# Following line replaced to workaround VMware 4 problem
# echo $output | LC_ALL=C grep -q "Link detected: no" && return 0 || return 2
echo $output | LC_ALL=C grep -q "Link detected: no" && return 1 || return 2
}
Other experience or better ideas, anyone?
Cheers,
--------------------------------------------------- Bill McCarty
