vmtoolsd.exe User instance doesn't run

[Biggle78]

Hi,

Running VMWare Fusion 4 (latest release 4.1.2) with a Windows 7 Professional guest.  The guest machine is part of a Windows domain.

I do not have copy/paste/drag-and-drop/unity functionality.  The Suspend/Shutdown/Restart all are prefixed with "Force".

After rummaging around I discovered that all that functionality is supported by the user instance of vmtoolsd.exe using the "-n vmuser" switch.

The problem I have is that the process crashes with no errors/logs/messages that I can find.  Is there a way to debug the process or find out why it's crashing?

I have tried re-installing VMWare Tools several times under several conditions (Run as...) none of which have worked.  I have restarted after each removal/installation.

Thanks in advance

[gehirnmann]

I have exactly the same issue. VM is also Win7 with some extra scanners/security tools installed.

Has there been a solution for this?

I suspect a security guideline prevents the service from accessing a particular resource and it silently dies.

[Biggle78]

Hi All,

I figured out what was causing the daemon to crash, without any log or debug information.  Using a tool called Process Monitor (Sysinternals) I was able to determine that the running user process didn't have permission to the HKLM/SOFWATER/VMware, Inc. registry key. By giving my user full permission to this registry key the process was able to start again.

I still have an issue where the Suspend | Restart | Shutdown options are showing as "Force" but atleast now I have copy, paste and time sync to my guest.

If anyone discovers the reason for having the "Force" this would completely resolve my issues with this guest.

[avanish321]

Basically they are power options.  You will get Force Start / suspemd/ shutdown if you press and hold the options key.

In your case its enabled by default. Not sure how this may have happended.

My advise : Click on the Virtual machine menu .   Then press and hold options key . If my logic is right , force should be gone and only shutdown suspend restart shud appear.

If you want to fix this permanently, the only solution i can think of is to reinstall fusion. ( I have noticed that you are using 4.1.2 ) . So instead of updating simply uninstall fusion> download latest version of 4 from vmware and install it.

For details refer this article

[Biggle78]

Thankyou, option does change them, temporarily.

I have been upgrading Fusion and Tools with every release to date in the hope that it will  "magically" fix my problem, so I am now running 5.0.1.  My guess is that if the Option Key changes the menu then there is most likely a setting in Fusion somewhere that has gone wrong.

Cheers

[avanish321]

Cool. So the logic worked.

As far as I know, that setting is not available. Fusion is designed to show those options only when you press and hold the options key.

In your case its showing those options ( force ) just like that without even holding the options ( sounds strange ).  I am not aware of any setting that may have caused this.

A simple reinstallation as described in the article ( link ) posted previously should fix the issue permanently.

Anyhow before you do that lets see if anyone else had similar issue or any alternate fix available.

[scerazy]

@Biggle78, thanks a lot, registry key rights was also what needed to be fixed (Fusion 5.0.1 & Win 7 SP1 SP1)

[WoodyZ · Accepted solution]

Biggle78 wrote: I still have an issue where the Suspend | Restart | Shutdown options are showing as "Force" but atleast now I have copy, paste and time sync to my guest.

If anyone discovers the reason for having the "Force" this would completely resolve my issues with this guest.

I know the OP of this thread is a bit old, almost a year, and I don't know why I originally missed it to begin with however since you just referenced this thread in your reply, Re: vmtoolsd.exe Will Not Start In USER Process, I though I'd answer the second issue of this OP...  It sounds like the Virtual Machine was not originally created in VMware Fusion and as an example if I copy a Virtual Machine from one of my Windows systems to my Mac it displays the "Force ..." commands by default.  In other words, pressing the Option Key is backwards of what its supposed to be.  This is because the following options are missing from the Virtual Machine's .vmx configuration file.

powerType.powerOff = "soft"
powerType.powerOn = "soft"
powerType.suspend = "soft"
powerType.reset = "soft"

By default, VMware Fusion creates these options in the Virtual Machine's .vmx configuration file while VMware Player/Workstation does not.  So, add the above options to the Virtual Machine's .vmx configuration file and the "Force ..." commands will then exhibit VMware Fusion normal behavior.  Meaning in order to access the "Force ..." commands one will need to press the Option Key.

Have a look at: Editing the .vmx file for your Fusion virtual machine (1014782)

Message was edited by: WoodyZ - Another scenario, and not the only other, for this to occur is a P2V/V2V using VMware vCenter Converter to create the Virtual Machine as if I recall correctly it omits these options as well.

[Biggle78]

Thanks WoodyZ, that's gold. Now just to try and sort out the new issue with my screen resolution on the external monitor (Thunderbolt Display Resolution not available in Windows 7 Guest)