VIC(4)

💅 vic — the VMware VMXnet Virtual Interface Controller device, bestie

okay so this page is VIC(4) from the Kernel Interfaces Manual — yes we're reading kernel docs for fun now, that's the energy 🧚

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✨ NAME ✨

vic — the VMware VMXnet Virtual Interface Controller device. that's it, that's the name, she's iconic 👑

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

vic* at pci?

literally just that. one line. she's lowkey mysterious like that 💅

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so the vic driver? it's the whole support system for the VMXnet virtual NIC — that's the virtual network card you get inside virtual machines made by VMware. and here's the gag: it looks like a plain little Ethernet device from the outside 🎀 but ngl it's actually a whole virtual network interface wired straight into the underlying host operating system. main character energy fr fr.

so this driver speaks the vmxnet driver protocol, and it's the alternative to the emulated pcn(4) and em(4) interfaces — those also exist in the VMware environment, so you got options bestie 💖. the vic driver is optimized for the virtual machine, and depending on what the underlying host OS is and what the physical network interface controller of the host is, it can bring advanced capabilities to the table. she adapts. she's versatile. 🔥

the vic driver supports VMware virtual NICs from these products:

• VMware ESX 2.0 and newer ✨
• VMware GSX 2.5 and newer ✨
• VMware Server 1.0 and newer ✨
• VMware Workstation 4.5 and newer ✨
• VMware Fusion 1.0 and newer ✨

and now the media types, because there's exactly one and she's the queen:

🎀 media types 🎀

• autoselect — enables autoselection of the media type and options. the driver always uses the fastest available speed plus the media options that the underlying host of the virtual machine hands over. no negotiating, no drama, she just takes the best one 🫶

for more info on configuring this device, go see ifconfig(8). iykyk 💜

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

you gotta add this entry to the VMware configuration file to actually get the vic device — no cap, it will not appear without this:

ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet"

put that in and you're slaying 💅✨

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

arp(4), em(4), ifmedia(4), intro(4), netintro(4), pci(4), pcn(4), vmx(4), hostname.if(5), ifconfig(8)

the whole friend group, we stan a linked circle 🫶🍓

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🕰️ HISTORY 🕰️

the vic driver first appeared in OpenBSD 3.9. a vintage queen, honestly ⭐

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💖 AUTHORS 💖

the vic driver was written by Reyk Floeter <reyk@openbsd.org> and David Gwynne <dlg@openbsd.org>. absolute legends, we thank them for their service 🙇‍♀️✨

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okay that's the whole page, nothing skipped, every single detail present and accounted for 💀🫶

and a lil sign-off: this beauty is from the Debian edition, dated January 4, 2018, filed under VIC(4) — bookmark it, screenshot it, live your truth 🎀💜