When you say "you are unable to get a desktop screen", do you mean that you can't see the screen of the VM itself in the VMware Console? And when you say that it does work when you connect using VNC, do you mean connect to your Win XP machine running the Console, or do you mean you connect via VNC to your Linux box and run the Console there, or do you mean something else?

In any case, I am not sure what the problem is because I have used exactly this scenario (connect via RDP to XP Pro machine, run Console there and connect to Linux host and run VMs) and it worked fine. The only difference is that my RDP client is from a Linux machine, not Mac OS X. I can't imagine that would matter, but you could try with a different RDP client.

The Console uses VNC to display the VM's screen, so using either VNC or RDP to connect to the Windows machine and then using VNC again to go to the VM is going to be a lot slower than ideal. Whenever possible it would be preferable to connect directly to the guest using RDP (or if it's a Linux guest, either VNC or X).

Do you login as same user with both Linux and Windows console? Verify permissions on files in the directory with VM - you should have rwx rights on *.vmx configuration file if you want to be able to see, configure & poweron your VM.

Also check vmware logfiles on your Windows machine (when you'll go to the Help->About in the console, you should see list of logfiles used at the bottom). Maybe you'll find some interesting messages there (like that vmware-remotemks is missing, or something like that).

I am not thinking that I need to do much more than "run the products", I'll look carefully at the "solution" presented here - this is my schenario:
1) have RHEL4 on Dell single CPU
2) removed Workstation 5.5.1
3) installed Server
4) use VMware Server Console e.x.p. build-20925 connect to localhost
5) able to play VM and actually see the VM running Linux 2.4.21
6) go to the WinXP Laptop, run VMware Server Console e.x.p. build 20923
7) connect to IP:port as user name and password
8) open existing VM - same VM which was opened and then shutdown in #5 above
9) Press "Play" and the VM starts - in the VM Console on the Linux box!
10) shows "playing" on the XP, but is displying the actuial VM on the Linux Console - I exepct it to display on the XP Console.

Why does it not display on the XP VMware Console?
Why would it show up on the Linux (server host) Console?
Why does starting it on the XP client end up launching it on the Linux Host machine?
I do not expect to have to chnage any permissions anywhere. If I can log in as the person which is running VMware - the same person who always ran VMware Workstation - and I can "Play" the VM, I expect to see the VM from where I am "Playing" it not back at the host machine ?

I also started the Console on the host machine by connecting to the hostname:port specifically as the same user that I am connecting with on the XP client machine.

No difference in behavior: When I start the VM, it displays on the Console of the host Linux machine, but will not display on the Console of the client XP machine. This does not change if I press the "Play" button from the client or the host machines. Either way, the vm displys only on the console of the host and only displays the console.

{You have too much use of the same terms throughout the product}

When running a VM, you can switch form "Summary" to "Console" and back. But this is only working on the "Server Console" running on the host machine and does not have the option on the "Server Console" running on the client XP machine.

Apparently, there is no clear error message conveyed regarding permission to view the VM once started.

I could view the VM once I set the permissions on the VM files correctly on the Linux host.

eeneb - please check your permissions as noted several posts above - and let us know if that helps.

I've not seen the "capture screen" problem, nor can I find anything similar in the bug database.

I'll pass the typo info on - thanks!

Kevin
hosted sustaining

I have had problems exactly like you describe them. I have solved them by booting the server with keyboard connected. In my case at least it seems that Linux (FC5 test3) knows there is no keyboard attached and Vmware Server (build 20923) doesn't like this.

You can safely disconnect the keyboard after the host boots and Remote Console will remain working as it should. I suspect this problem shouldn't occur on "real servers" which have "always report keyboard" option just for such cases. Unfortunately I just don't have any of those lying around to test on them (sorry VMware guys). Anyway... try to reboot the server with keyboard connected and report any findings - whether it works or not.