I have been working on building out my knowledge of OpenWrt by creating a build environment on VMWare Workstation for Windows. I have been a user of VMWare since 2001 and version 2. I have been a user of OPenWrt for over 5 years initially running it under VMWare.
The latest VMWare version 25H2 introduces a new hardware version “22” that breaks any working VMs when upgraded from a prior version as well as disallowing any new VM from working correctly. The network connection will obtain a IPV4 address using NAT but it will not be possible to connect to the machine regardless of the state of the firewall on the VM. Reverting the version to “21” resolves the issue.
The string in the .vmx file should be “21” or lower as shown below:
virtualHW.version = “21”
Reverting this on a VM where I am testing a snapshot build created using the Image Builder immediately got the network connection working. I had thought that it was the snapshot image that was the issue until i carefully compared the working to the broken VM.
You can always use e1000 adapter. Would help if you get as much more info about vmxnet3-s new version as you can, usually it boils down to ethtool -k/K disabling some features.
It is you who should get those details. Does any linux with kernel 6.6 support that virtual machine, is it EFI ot BIOS. And when vmxnet stopped working? Normally one would upgrade when the new hardware needs new version (btw it is vmware 9.0 out about month ago, not your random numbers) since whole clusters run old CPU cap, VM version cap and switch and storage caps.
It is kind of your own decision to get from 512 to 1024 CPU and 1PB to 4PB RAM support.
Ahh yes, OS profile should be Debian or Fedora - others do CPU ram hotplug and agent provisioning.
Any other VM I have created works fine. I created a new CM using Arch Linux for the Image Builder. I have two NICs on there - one using NAT and one using Bridge. Both work fine.
I also did go back to double check which NIC is being emulated. It is presented as “Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper) (rev 01)”
Driver is e1000, what you are installing additionally bears no function whatsoever,
Please use the "Preformatted text </>" button for logs, scripts, configs and general console output (red circle; this works best in the 'Markdown' composer view in the blue oval):
Arch uses kernel 6.17, not 6.6 or 6.12, it MAY support next reincatrnation of paravirtualized devices in vmware.
25H2 was released October 2025. It introduced version 22 of the hardware definition A new machine at version 22 did not work as expected, dropping it back to 21 did.
If there a specific template for information I can provide I’m happy to provide further information so that a fix can be created. Otherwise, I’ll just leave this an advisory note for others to remain at version 21 of the hardware definition.
Term"vmware" is usually used for "vsphere", since their software changed should not present a problem to utilize their commercial support channel to undo the damage.
The advisory stands. VMWare 25H2 with hardware version 22 does not work with OpenWrt. Version 21 does work properly. When creating a new machine, compatibility should not be set to 25H2. Users should not upgrade to the new hardware version when prompted .
I’ll end this with pointing out that VMWare is a product family that includes VSphere and Workstation. I have been using VMWare Workstation for 25 years. I also owned and maintained a VSphere ESXI server for over 10 years.
