Putting your VM (Virtual Machine) on your local network

[Jason]

Harry (aka Buster) and I were talking about this at the end of the meeting.

Apparently all that you need to do to make your guest OS available to your local network (that the host is connected to) is to switch to bridged networking in the configuration settings for the particular VM. In VMware/Virtualbox you will find it under networking. I did this, then started Deepin in a VM and it was assigned an IP immediately by my router's DHCP server just any real computer including the host would be. It's given a different IP than the host it's running inside so other devices will recognize it as an individual machine different from the host.

There is one limitation, I believe - that you can't network with the host OS. I get that impression based on the fact that the host and guest can't ping each other but they can each ping other devices on the local network.

In the screenshot you can see the host network adapters (Kubuntu) on the right and the guest network adapters (Deepin) on the left.

[BusterE]

I got a distinct ip in deepin, which had updated automatically to 15.9.1 when I wasn't looking. Mint couldn't seem to connect me to anything. Curious, but I'm in no hurry to pursue it.

[buster]

So deepin worked in both virtuals 1) in host Mint wired in, 2) in host Win10 on wifi.

Mint guest didn't in host Win10 on wifi.

Just in case someone tries it and thinks they are doing something wrong.

[buster]

Back to deepin - just one post Jason  . The auto update in deepin to the whatever the latest is, incapacitates the app store. I had three vms on different operating systems. All stopped working. When you finally find the terminal, and do a sudo apt-get install synaptic, the sun comes out from behind the clouds. And life goes on.

[Jason]

I should have reiterated that since it uses the hosts network adapter, wireless may not work if the Linux guest doesn't detect the wireless. Perhaps this is the issue you're having with Mint especially since you mentioned it works when the host is wired. If you're using a USB wireless adapter, it might even be that the VMware tools aren't installed, aren't activated or just not working right for some reason. I remember that getting some USB device working in Virtualbox (don't remember what it was) was a bit tricky.

[Jason]

Ignore the last comment I made. I'm leaving it there for historical reasons but I now believe it is incorrect.
The guest will use the host's connection but it still does it through the VM layer so as long as the host is connected to the internet or whatever network you want to connect to, it should come up. For example, if your host is using wireless and you're connected to the Internet, the guest will be able to access the Internet too but it will think it's using a wired connection.

If you want to use a wireless connection directly, you can plug in a USB adapter and the the VM layer should be able to access it. It might ask you about this right away via a popup message or you may have to configure it in the guest settings first and then start up the guest. Either way, if the guest uses the USB wireless adapter, the host won't be able to and vice-versa. This goes for any extra USB device (e.g. flash drive). I have such an adapter and when I plugged it in and started up the guest (Deepin, not that it matters), VMware Workstation Player offered to make the device available to the guest and warned it won't be available to the host if I did this.