Sound/Audio issues on XP guest in ESX 3.5

[sboyce]

Hello,

I am having a serious problem with getting audio to work on VMware ESX Server 3.5 with regard to my Windows XP guests.

The thing is, I do not actually need the sound to come out of the speakers. There is an application on my guest that will not load without a sound driver present.

Here is what I am doing:

1. Provision XP guest. Everything works fine at this point.

2. Shut down XP guest. Add the following lines to the .vmx config file:

sound.present = "true"

sound.autodetect = "true"

3. Start XP guest. It runs with sound enabled, and everything looks ok.

4. Reboot host.

5. After reboot, in VI client, I am getting an "(invalid)" message next to the virtual machine. I am no longer able to start or configure this VM's settings.

6. Since I cannot start the guest through VI client, I attempt to do so from command line and get this message:

# vmware-cmd vo01-xp-b.vmx start

VMControl error -11: No such virtual machine

7. When I remove the sound directives and reboot the host, everything works fine again.

Please help, any advice will be appreciated. I have posted my .vmx file below:

START CONFIG

#!/usr/bin/vmware

config.version = "8"

virtualHW.version = "4"

floppy0.present = "false"

nvram = "vo01-xp1.nvram"

deploymentPlatform = "windows"

virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"

tools.upgrade.policy = "useGlobal"

powerType.powerOff = "default"

powerType.powerOn = "default"

powerType.suspend = "default"

powerType.reset = "default"

displayName = "vo01-xp-b"

extendedConfigFile = "vo01-xp-b.vmxf"

scsi0.present = "true"

scsi0.sharedBus = "none"

memsize = "256"

scsi0:0.present = "true"

scsi0:0.fileName = "vo01-xp-b.vmdk"

scsi0:0.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"

ethernet0.present = "true"

ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "false"

ethernet0.networkName = "VLAN 601 Voice 01"

ethernet0.addressType = "generated"

ethernet1.present = "true"

ethernet1.wakeOnPcktRcv = "false"

ethernet1.networkName = "VLAN 601 Voice 01"

ethernet1.addressType = "generated"

chipset.onlineStandby = "false"

guestOS = "winxppro"

uuid.location = "56 4d f2 62 44 3b 03 92-dd b8 e4 da 57 39 ba bf"

uuid.bios = "56 4d f2 62 44 3b 03 92-dd b8 e4 da 57 39 ba bf"

sched.cpu.min = "0"

sched.cpu.units = "mhz"

sched.mem.minsize = "0"

MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "false"

MemTrimRate = "-1"

ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

ethernet1.generatedAddressOffset = "10"

ethernet2.generatedAddressOffset = "20"

ethernet3.generatedAddressOffset = "30"

sched.swap.derivedName = "/vmfs/volumes/47df9c65-109fd440-ca90-001ec92faa43/vo01-xp-b/vo01-xp-b-875343b1.vswp"

vmware.tools.requiredversion = "7299"

scsi0:0.redo = ""

ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:39:ba:bf"

ethernet1.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:39:ba:c9"

tools.syncTime = "false"

guestOSAltName = "Microsoft Windows XP Professional (32-bit)"

sound.present = "true"

sound.autodetect = "true"

END CONFIG

Respectfully,

Sean B.

[subashchaitanya]

Hi Sean.B,

You can try adding the following entries to your .vmx file. Then you will not face any problems when you restart your Virtual Machine.

sound.present = "TRUE"

sound.virtualDev = "es1371"

sound.fileName = "-1"

sound.autodetect = "TRUE"

sound.startConnected = "TRUE"

However, if you take snapshot, you will land up into the same problem again (I am trying to find a workaround for this problem. Will post back once i find someworkaround).

Thanks

Subash Chaitanya

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Moved to Virtual Machine and Guest OS forum.

Is this sound through RDP, VMware Remote Console or what?

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009
====
Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.
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