I downloaded the source and found that there was a constant
(NICINFO_MAX_NICS in ./lib/guestRpc/nicinfo.x) defining the max amount
of NICs. If there are more NICs, it makes the method
GuestInfoAddNicEntry in ./services/plugins/guestInfo/getlib/guestInfo.c
return null, resulting in the crash.
The constant of 16 was set for the purpose of avoiding possible DoS
attacks, but it's an arbitrary limit. I've patched it and rebuilt, and
this seems to fix my problem.
Attached is a recursive diff of the ./debian directories.
diff -ruN open-vm-toolsDEB/open-vm-tools-8.8.0+2012.05.21-724730/debian/changelog openvmtools/debian/changelog
--- open-vm-toolsDEB/open-vm-tools-8.8.0+2012.05.21-724730/debian/changelog 2012-12-26 08:02:43.000000000 -0600
+++ openvmtools/debian/changelog 2014-08-05 14:38:10.000000000 -0500
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+open-vm-tools (2:8.8.0+2012.05.21-724730-1+nmu2.1) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
+
+ * Non-maintainer upload.
+ * There is an arbitrary constant declared limiting the amount of NICs that
+ it supports. I have bumped the limit from 16 to 64 to make this toolset
+ functional for larger setups.
+
+ -- Nicholas Levi Sielicki <[email protected]> Tue, 05 Aug 2014 14:32:31 -0500
+
open-vm-tools (2:8.8.0+2012.05.21-724730-1+nmu2) testing-proposed-updates; urgency=low
* Non-maintainer upload.
diff -ruN open-vm-toolsDEB/open-vm-tools-8.8.0+2012.05.21-724730/debian/patches/NICpatch.diff openvmtools/debian/patches/NICpatch.diff
--- open-vm-toolsDEB/open-vm-tools-8.8.0+2012.05.21-724730/debian/patches/NICpatch.diff 1969-12-31 18:00:00.000000000 -0600
+++ openvmtools/debian/patches/NICpatch.diff 2014-08-05 14:31:02.000000000 -0500
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+--- a/lib/guestRpc/nicinfo.x
++++ b/lib/guestRpc/nicinfo.x
+@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@
+ */
+ const NICINFO_MAX_IP_LEN = 64;
+ const NICINFO_MAX_IPS = 64;
+-const NICINFO_MAX_NICS = 16;
++const NICINFO_MAX_NICS = 64;
+
+ /* MAC Addresses are "AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF" = 18 bytes. */
+ const NICINFO_MAC_LEN = 18;
diff -ruN open-vm-toolsDEB/open-vm-tools-8.8.0+2012.05.21-724730/debian/patches/series openvmtools/debian/patches/series
--- open-vm-toolsDEB/open-vm-tools-8.8.0+2012.05.21-724730/debian/patches/series 2012-12-26 08:36:57.000000000 -0600
+++ openvmtools/debian/patches/series 2014-08-05 14:21:56.000000000 -0500
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
01-kvers.patch
02-procps.patch
03-dkms.patch
+NICpatch.diff
