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About TAP-Win32 Network Driver[]

Without a network connection, coLinux won't be very useful. However, since it runs within Windows and is supposed to cooperate, it won't just steal access to the network. Instead, it acts as a separate computer connected over a network.

The TAP-Win32 network driver is an odd little thing that allows a process in your computer (i.e., coLinux) to connect to your computer (Windows) as if it were a separate computer connected over a network. This way, you have a connection shared between Windows and coLinux with relatively little trouble.

There is one frequent problem regarding the TAP-Win32 Driver during coLinux installation: the dialog for TAP Win32 installation loses focus and gets hidden under other windows, giving the impression that the installation program is hung. You can find the lost window by pressing ALT-TAB continuously until you find the window that tells you you're installing an unsigned driver. Just press OK.

Installer[]

Set the option for TAP-Device, then the installer installs the device and the daemon colinux-net-daemon.exe (needed for TAP relevant networking).

Logo test[]

While installing, you get asked a question about Windows Logo-Test You should confirm that. If you do not confirm, then you can not use the TAP driver.

Manual way to install (GUI)[]

To install the TAP-Win32 driver, use the "Add New Hardware Wizard", accessible through the Control Panel->Add Hardware menu. I started out following the instructions included with coLinux, but my setup varied slighly, but had the same general trend: say that you have connected the hardware, select "Add a new hardware device" from the list of "Installed hardware", "Install the hardware that I manually select from a list", the "Network Adapters" hardware category, click the "Have Disk..." button, go to the TAP-Win32 directory and choose OemWin2k, and finish installation. Now, if you go to Control Panel->Network Connections, you should have, under "LAN or High-Speed Internet", a "Local Area Connection" with device name TAP-Win32 Adapter. Make sure this is enabled before trying to run co Linux. Windows may give you an error about a network device being unplugged, but you can just ignore this since you will be "attaching" coLinux to it soon.

Manual way to uninstall (GUI)[]

  • Go to MyComputer
  • right click
  • Properties
  • Device Manager
  • then under the Network Adapters category select the corresponding device to uninstall
  • then rightclick
  • uninstall
  • all done

its simple

Tapcontrol.exe - On the command line[]

Tapcontrol.exe can be used to test, install, upgrade and remove the tap driver from the command line, cmd.exe.


# check to see if tap is installed.
C:\coLinux\netdriver>tapcontrol.exe hwids TAP0801co   
ROOT\NET\0003
    Name: TAP-Win32 Adapter V8 (coLinux)
    Hardware ID's:
        TAP0801co
1 matching device(s) found.

# Update the current driver 
C:\coLinux\netdriver>tapcontrol.exe update OemWin2k.inf TAP0801co

# Install one more interface
C:\coLinux\netdriver>tapcontrol.exe install OemWin2k.inf TAP0801co
Updating drivers for TAP0801co from C:\coLinux\netdriver\OemWin2k.inf.

C:\coLinux\netdriver>tapcontrol.exe hwids TAP0801co
ROOT\NET\0003
    Name: TAP-Win32 Adapter V8 (coLinux)
    Hardware ID's:
        TAP0801co
ROOT\NET\0004
    Name: TAP-Win32 Adapter V8 (coLinux) #2
    Hardware ID's:
        TAP0801co
2 matching device(s) found.

# Remove all colinux interfaces.   
# ( I plan to test this with OemWin2k.inf from openvpn.
# OpenVPN uses the name TAP0801. 
# This should not change tap interfaces created by other 
# applications or inf configure files.)
C:\coLinux\netdriver>tapcontrol.exe remove TAP0801co
ROOT\NET\0003                                : Removed
ROOT\NET\0004                                : Removed
2 device(s) removed.

tapcontrol.exe is a very cool tool. Thank you for your hard work.

NicholasASchembri


You can make use of multiple TAP interfaces this way:

eth0=tuntap,"Bridged TAP"
eth1=tuntap,"Host-only TAP"

Don't mistake[]

The TAP driver is based on OpenVPN and used the same code. Only the name was changed int TAP0801co, so we are not in conflict with an existing OpenVPN connection on same PC. For coLinux you can only use the coLinux file named tap0801co.sys.

Update/Downloads[]

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