VMware - ArchWiki

# VMware

Related articles

- Category:Hypervisors
- VMware/Installing Arch as a guest
- Moving an existing install into (or out of) a virtual machine

This article is about installing VMware in Arch Linux; you may also be interested in VMware/Installing Arch as a guest.

Note:

- This article is about the latest major VMware versions, meaning VMware Workstation Pro and Player 12.5.
- For older versions, use the vmware-patchAUR package.

## Installation

Install the correct dependencies:

- fuse2 - for vmware-vmblock-fuse
- gksu - for root operations (memory allocations, registering license, etc.)
- gtkmm - for the GUI
- linux-headers - for module compilation
- ncurses5-compat-libsAUR - needed by the `--console` installer

Download the latest VMware Workstation Pro or Player (or a beta version, if available).

Start the installation:

    # sh VMware-edition-version.release.architecture.bundle

Tip: Some useful flags:

- `--eulas-agreed` - Skip the EULAs
- `--console` - Use the console UI.
- `--custom` - Allows changing the install directory to e.g. `/usr/local` (make sure to update the `vmware-usbarbitrator.service` paths in #systemd services).
- `-I`, `--ignore-errors` - Ignore fatal errors.
- `--set-setting=vmware-workstation serialNumber XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX` - Set the serial number during install (good for scripted installs).
- `--required` - Only ask mandatory questions (results in silent install when combined with `--eulas-agreed` and `--console`).

For the `System service scripts directory`, use `/etc/init.d` (the default).

Note: During the installation you will get an error about `"No rc*.d style init script directories"` being given. This can be safely ignored, since Arch uses systemd.
Tip: To (re)build the modules from terminal later on, use:

    # vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

## Configuration

### Kernel modules

VMware Workstation 12.5 supports kernels up to 4.8 out of the box.

### systemd services

(Optional) Instead of using `/etc/init.d/vmware` (`start|stop|status|restart`) and `/usr/bin/vmware-usbarbitrator` directly to manage the services, you may also use `.service` files (also available in the vmware-systemd-servicesAUR package, and also included in vmware-patchAUR):

    /etc/systemd/system/vmware.service

    [Unit]
    Description=VMware daemon
    Requires=vmware-usbarbitrator.service
    Before=vmware-usbarbitrator.service
    After=network.target

    [Service]
    ExecStart=/etc/init.d/vmware start
    ExecStop=/etc/init.d/vmware stop
    PIDFile=/var/lock/subsys/vmware
    RemainAfterExit=yes

    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target

    /etc/systemd/system/vmware-usbarbitrator.service

    [Unit]
    Description=VMware USB Arbitrator
    Requires=vmware.service
    After=vmware.service

    [Service]
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/vmware-usbarbitrator
    ExecStop=/usr/bin/vmware-usbarbitrator --kill
    RemainAfterExit=yes

    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target

Add this service as well, if you want to connect to your VMware Workstation installation from another Workstation Server Console:

    /etc/systemd/system/vmware-workstation-server.service

    [Unit]
    Description=VMware Workstation Server
    Requires=vmware.service
    After=vmware.service

    [Service]
    ExecStart=/etc/init.d/vmware-workstation-server start
    ExecStop=/etc/init.d/vmware-workstation-server stop
    PIDFile=/var/lock/subsys/vmware-workstation-server
    RemainAfterExit=yes

    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target

After which you can enable them on boot.

#### Workstation Server service

The `vmware-workstation-server.service` calls `wssc-adminTool` in its command chain, despite having been renamed to `vmware-wssc-adminTool`.

To prevent the service startup, this can be fixed with a symlink:

    # ln -s wssc-adminTool /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-wssc-adminTool

## Launching the application

To open VMware Workstation Pro:

    $ vmware

or Player:

    $ vmplayer

## Tips and tricks

### Entering the Workstation Pro license key

#### From terminal

    # /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx-debug --new-sn XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

Where `XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX` is your license key.

Note: The `-debug` binary informs the user of an incorrect license.

#### From GUI

If the above does not work, you can try:

    # /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-enter-serial

### Extracting the VMware BIOS

    $ objcopy /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx -O binary -j bios440 --set-section-flags bios440=a bios440.rom.Z
    $ perl -e 'use Compress::Zlib; my $v; read STDIN, $v, '$(stat -c%s "./bios440.rom.Z")'; $v = uncompress($v); print $v;' < bios440.rom.Z > bios440.rom

### Extracting the installer

To view the contents of the installer `.bundle`:

    $ sh VMware-edition-version.release.architecture.bundle --extract /tmp/vmware-bundle/

#### Using the modified BIOS

If and when you decide to modify the extracted BIOS you can make your virtual machine use it by moving it to `~/vmware/Virtual_machine_name`:

    $ mv bios440.rom ~/vmware/Virtual_machine_name/

then adding the name to the `Virtual_machine_name.vmx` file:

    ~/vmware/Virtual_machine_name/Virtual_machine_name.vmx

    bios440.filename = "bios440.rom"

### Enable 3D graphics on Intel and Optimus

Some graphics drivers are blacklisted by default, due to poor and/or unstable 3D acceleration. After enabling Accelerate 3D graphics, the log may show something like:

    Disabling 3D on this host due to presence of Mesa DRI driver.  Set mks.gl.allowBlacklistedDrivers = TRUE to override.

This means the following:

    ~/.vmware/preferences

    mks.gl.allowBlacklistedDrivers = TRUE

## Troubleshooting

### /dev/vmmon not found

The full error is:

    Could not open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory.
    Please make sure that the kernel module `vmmon' is loaded.

This means that at least the `vmmon` module is not loaded. See the #systemd services section for automatic loading.

### Kernel headers for version 4.x-xxxx were not found. If you installed them[...]

Install the headers (linux-headers).

Note: Upgrading the kernel and the headers will require you to boot to the new kernel to match the version of the headers. This is a relatively common error.

### USB devices not recognized

Tip: Also handled by vmware-patchAUR.

If not using the systemd service to automatically handle the services, you need to manually start the `vmware-usbarbitrator` binary as root each time.

To start:

    # vmware-usbarbitrator

To stop:

    # vmware-usbarbitrator --kill

### The installer fails to start

If you just get back to the prompt when opening the `.bundle`, then you probably have a deprecated or broken version of the VMware installer and it should removed (you may also refer to the uninstallation section of this article):

    # rm -r /etc/vmware-installer/

#### User interface initialization failed

You may also see an error like this:

     Extracting VMware Installer...done.
     No protocol specified
     No protocol specified
     User interface initialization failed.  Exiting.  Check the log for details.

This can be fixed by either installing the ncurses5-compat-libsAUR dependency or temporarily allowing root access to X:

     $ xhost +
     $ sudo ./<vmware filename>.bundle
     $ xhost -

### Unable to download VMware Tools for Guests

To download the tools manually, visit the VMware repository.

Navigate to: "application name / version / build ID / linux / packages/" and download the appropriate Tools.

Extract with:

    $ tar -xvf vmware-tools-name-version-buildID.x86_64.component.tar

And install using the VMware installer:

    # vmware-installer --install-component=/path/vmware-tools-name-version-buildID.x86_64.component

If the above does not work, try installing ncurses5-compat-libsAUR.

### Incorrect login/password when trying to access VMware remotely

VMware Workstation provides the possibility to remotely manage Shared VMs through the `vmware-workstation-server` service. However, this will fail with the error `"incorrect username/password"` due to incorrect PAM configuration of the `vmware-authd` service. To fix it, edit `/etc/pam.d/vmware-authd` like this:

    /etc/pam.d/vmware-authd

    #%PAM-1.0
    auth     required       pam_unix.so
    account  required       pam_unix.so
    password required       pam_permit.so
    session  required       pam_unix.so

and restart the `vmware` systemd service.

Now you can connect to the server with the credentials provided during the installation.

Note: libxslt may be required for starting virtual machines.

### Issues with ALSA output

To fix sound quality issues or enabling proper HD audio output, first run:

    $ aplay -L

If interested in playing 5.1 surround sound from the guest, look for `surround51:CARD=vendor_name,DEV=num`, if experiencing quality issues, look for `front:CARD=vendor_name,DEV=num`. Finally put the name in the `.vmx`:

    ~/vmware/Virtual_machine_name/Virtual_machine_name.vmx

    sound.fileName="surround51:CARD=Live,DEV=0"
    sound.autodetect="FALSE"

OSS emulation should also be disabled.

### Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is running

To disable `KVM` on boot, you can use something like:

    /etc/modprobe.d/vmware.conf

    blacklist kvm
    blacklist kvm-amd   # For AMD CPUs
    blacklist kvm-intel # For Intel CPUs

### Segmentation fault at startup due to old Intel microcode

Old Intel microcode may result in the following kind of segmentation fault at startup:

    /usr/bin/vmware: line 31: 4941 Segmentation fault "$BINDIR"/vmware-modconfig --appname="VMware Workstation" --icon="vmware-workstation"

See Microcode for how to update the microcode.

### Guests have incorrect system clocks or are unable to boot: "[...]timeTracker_user.c:234 bugNr=148722"

This is due to incomplete support of power management features (Intel SpeedStep and AMD PowerNow!/Cool'n'Quiet) in VMware Linux that vary the CPU frequency. In March 2012, with the release of linux 3.3-1 the maximum frequency Performance governor was replaced with the dynamic Ondemand. When the host CPU frequency changes, the Guest system clock runs too quickly or too slowly, but may also render the whole Guest unbootable.

To prevent this, the maximum host CPU frequency can be specified, and Time Stamp Counter (TSC) disabled, in the global configuration:

    /etc/vmware/config

    host.cpukHz = "X"  # The maximum speed in KHz, e.g. 3GHz is "3000000".
    host.noTSC = "TRUE" # Keep the Guest system clock accurate even when
    ptsc.noTSC = "TRUE" # the time stamp counter (TSC) is slow.

Tip: To periodically correct the time (once per minute), in the Options tab of VMware Tools, enable: "Time synchronization between the virtual machine and the host operating system".

### Networking on Guests not available after system restart

This is likely due to the `vmnet` module not being loaded [1]. See also the #systemd services section for automatic loading.

### Kernel modules fail to build after Linux 4.9

On VMware Workstation Pro 12.5.2, the module source needs to be modified to be successfully compiled under kernel 4.9 [2].

    # cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source
    # tar xf vmmon.tar
    # mv vmmon.tar vmmon.old.tar
    # sed -i 's/uvAddr, numPages, 0, 0/uvAddr, numPages, 0/g' vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c
    # tar cf vmmon.tar vmmon-only
    # rm -r vmmon-only

    # tar xf vmnet.tar
    # mv vmnet.tar vmnet.old.tar
    # sed -i 's/addr, 1, 1, 0/addr, 1, 0/g' vmnet-only/userif.c
    # tar cf vmnet.tar vmnet-only
    # rm -r vmnet-only

### vmplayer fails to start from version 12.5.3

It seems to be a problem with the file `/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libstdc++.so.6/libstdc++.so.6`, missing `CXXABI_1.3.8`.

If the system have installed gcc-libs or gcc-libs-multilib, that library is already installed. Therefore, it's possible to remove that file and vmplayer will use the one provided by gcc-libs instead.

    # mv /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libstdc++.so.6/libstdc++.so.6 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libstdc++.so.6/libstdc++.so.6.bak

### vmware 12 process terminates immediately after start, no GUI is launched

Registered bug at Mageia, but it seems that there are no error messages shown in terminal with arch. When inspecting the logs, which are in `/tmp/vmware-<id>`, there are `VMWARE_SHIPPED_LIBS_LIST is not set`, `VMWARE_SYSTEM_LIBS_LIST is not set`, `VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_LIBS is not set`, `VMWARE_USE_SYSTEM_LIBS is not set` issues. Process simply terminates with `Unable to execute /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-modconfig.` after vmware or vmplayer is executed. Solution is the same, as root do:

    # mv /etc/vmware/icu/icudt44l.dat /etc/vmware/icu/icudt44l.dat.bak

Also there is a workaround:

    # export VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_LIBS='yes'

## Uninstallation

To uninstall VMware you need the product name (either `vmware-workstation` or `vmware-player`). To list all the installed products:

    $ vmware-installer -l

and uninstall with (`--required` skips the confirmation):

    # vmware-installer -u product --required

Tip: Use `--console` for the console UI.

Remember to also disable and remove the services:

    # rm /etc/systemd/system/vmware.service
    # rm /etc/systemd/system/vmware-usbarbitrator.service

You may also want to have a look at the module directories in `/usr/lib/modules/kernel_name/misc/` for any leftovers.

Category:

- Hypervisors