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IvarREW
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Slow/nonexistent sync for shared folders in VMWare Fusion 6.0.2

I've got a mac host and a Ubuntu linux guest. I recently upgraded from 6.0.1 to 6.0.2.

The guest has the latest vmware tools installed (ie: from Fusion 6.0.2).

I'm now having issues where changes to files made on the host are not being seen by the guest os.

Note: The host shared folder is being mounted - I can still navigate the directories from both systems.. it's just that file changes on the host are not reflected inside the guest.

This is highly problematic as my development environment is on OSX but my server environment is on the linux guest. Without a functioning file sharing system I can't work, so any suggestions appreciated.

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steve_goddard
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Hi all,

For downgrade here is the problem when you still see this issue:

Can you run the vmware-toolbox-cmd with -v option and verify that you actually did downgrade and that the auto upgrade didn't kick in and reapply the latest 6.0.2 tools.

*The 6.0.1 tools do not have the issue for sure.*

Can you check the VM .vmx file setting (see link below how to do this):

tools.upgrade.policy = "manual"

If it is set to autoupgrade it will override what you just did and revert back to the 6.0.2 tools.

You should see the build-1294478 in the vmware-toolbox-cmd output if you see build-1378637 then you have the 6.0.2 tools installed.

Sorry I forgot about the upgrade policy setting. I think it is getting in the way here.

For those using OS X here's a tutorial that explains how to edit the .vmx file:

VMware KB: Editing the .vmx file for your VMware Fusion virtual machine

Thanks.

Steve

Thanks. Steve
dogweather
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Thanks. The workaround worked for me: reverting to 6.0.1's tools, and setting the upgrade policy to manual.

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dogatonic
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It works! At last, a solution. I had not noticed the problem that was occurring when I tried to downgrade to 6.0.1 tools - even though I downloaded the file for 6.0.1 and installed it, it was actually reinstalling 6.0.2 again.

Thanks to goddard's tip on Dec 19th, I edited my .vmx file, did the reinstall, got 6.0.1, and now the synching problem seems to have gone away.

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sshrefler
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After editing the vmx file and installing build 1294478 I can no longer use sharing. 

I get an error:

Unable to update run-time folder sharing status: There was an error mounting Shared Folders file system inside the guest operating system

when I try and enable a share.  Nothing is found in /mnt/hgfs

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steve_goddard
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Sounds weird. No-one else ran into this issue and I have not seen it either.

Just some basic general questions:

Assuming there was no errors in the tools install and you ran the vmware-config-tools part too where you should have been prompted for the HGFS sharing feature?

So you enable sharing and add a new share from the UI, but you get this error message on the enable sharing, right?

What is the version of Linux you are running? What is the output from a shell "lsmod |grep vm" ? Do you see vmhgfs in the list?

So can you privately send me your vmx file in a private message and maybe I can decipher what is wrong?

Thanks,

Steve

Thanks. Steve
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snoo74
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EDIT:

I found the solution to the problem in the original message I posted (see below). The solutions is described here (thanks to Steve, Rasa and Nacholito):VMware Tools Compile Problem

Summarizing, one has to

1. get the 6.0.1 tools and patch

wget https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/fusion/6.0.1/1331545/packages/com.vmware.fusion.to...

wget https://raw.github.com/rasa/vmware-tools-patches/master/patches/vmhgfs/vmhgfs-d_count-kernel-3.11-to...

2. untar/unzip the tools and mount payload/linux.iso on some directory (sudo mount payload/linux.iso linux)

3. copy and untar linux/VMwareTools-9.6.0-1294478.tar.gz somewhere

4. cd /vmware-tools-distrib/lib/modules/source

    tar xvf vmhgfs.tar

    from the lib/modules/source directory, and with the patch file saved in that directory, run the command "patch -p0 < vmhgfs-d_count-kernel-3.11-tools-9.6.0.patch"

    tar up the vmhgfs-only folder as vmhgfs.tar

5. sudo vmware-install.pl -d

and the shared directories should be in /mnt/hgfs

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

I experienced the same problem with VMware tools 6.0.2; i.e. everything installs smoothly, the shared folders mount but I have an issue with synching between host and guest.

I tried to install the previous version (9.6.0.26048 (build-1294478)).

Unfortunately the vmhgfs module fails to compile (while in the 6.0.2 version it compiles smoothly).

I attach below the terminal output I get.

Anybody has any hint?

Enrico

---

Using 2.6.x kernel build system.

make: Entering directory `/tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only'

/usr/bin/make -C /lib/modules/3.11.0-15-generic/build/include/.. SUBDIRS=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. \

   MODULEBUILDDIR= modules

make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.11.0-15-generic'

  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only/backdoor.o

  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only/backdoorGcc64.o

  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only/bdhandler.o

  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only/cpName.o

  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only/cpNameLinux.o

  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only/cpNameLite.o

  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only/dentry.o

  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only/dir.o

  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only/file.o

  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only/filesystem.o

  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only/fsutil.o

  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only/hgfsBd.o

  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only/hgfsEscape.o

  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only/hgfsUtil.o

  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only/inode.o

/tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only/inode.c: In function ‘HgfsPermission’:

/tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only/inode.c:1893:29: error: ‘struct dentry’ has no member named ‘d_count’

          int dcount = dentry->d_count;

                             ^

make[2]: *** [/tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only/inode.o] Error 1

make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only] Error 2

make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.11.0-15-generic'

make: *** [vmhgfs.ko] Error 2

make: Leaving directory `/tmp/modconfig-oYZqxx/vmhgfs-only'

The filesystem driver (vmhgfs module) is used only for the shared folder

feature. The rest of the software provided by VMware Tools is designed to work

independently of this feature.

If you wish to have the shared folders feature, you can install the driver by

running vmware-config-tools.pl again after making sure that gcc, binutils, make

and the kernel sources for your running kernel are installed on your machine.

These packages are available on your distribution's installation CD.

---

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sshrefler
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This fixed my issue, allowing me to run 6.0.1 and sync works correctly!   Thank you!!!

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steve_goddard
VMware Employee
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Hi Enrico,

snoo74 wrote:

EDIT:

I found the solution to the problem in the original message I posted (see below). The solutions is described here (thanks to Steve, Rasa and Nacholito):VMware Tools Compile Problem

Summarizing, one has to

1. get the 6.0.1 tools and patch

wget https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/fusion/6.0.1/1331545/packages/com.vmware.fusion.to...

wget https://raw.github.com/rasa/vmware-tools-patches/master/patches/vmhgfs/vmhgfs-d_count-kernel-3.11-to...

2. untar/unzip the tools and mount payload/linux.iso on some directory (sudo mount payload/linux.iso linux)

3. copy and untar linux/VMwareTools-9.6.0-1294478.tar.gz somewhere

4. cd /vmware-tools-distrib/lib/modules/source

    tar xvf vmhgfs.tar

    from the lib/modules/source directory, and with the patch file saved in that directory, run the command "patch -p0 < vmhgfs-d_count-kernel-3.11-tools-9.6.0.patch"

    tar up the vmhgfs-only folder as vmhgfs.tar

5. sudo vmware-install.pl -d

and the shared directories should be in /mnt/hgfs

Did you apply the patch and fix as the above edited message suggests?

This definitely fixes that compile issue. It is relevant for Linux 3.11 kernels and newer without it you will have compile issues.

Thanks

Steve

Thanks. Steve
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sshrefler
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I did.  It worked on Ubuntu Desktop vm.  But a server ubunutu VM 12.04 still fails.

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AktDave
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Hi Steve,

Please confirm that a proper fix for this issue is a priority for the Fusion team. We're coming up on two months since this issue was originally reported on this thread and asking your paying customers to downgrade and patch the tools supplied directly from VMWare for a "Professional" version of Fusion is a very frustrating nuisance.

--

Dave

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steve_goddard
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AktDave wrote:

Hi Steve,

Please confirm that a proper fix for this issue is a priority for the Fusion team. We're coming up on two months since this issue was originally reported on this thread and asking your paying customers to downgrade and patch the tools supplied directly from VMWare for a "Professional" version of Fusion is a very frustrating nuisance.

--

Dave

Yes, Dave, my priority is to get this addressed.

When the releases are made though is beyond my control. A proper fix will be made to get all the known issues addressed. It just happens to be a complicated issue to get the caching within the VM correct and not miss host side updates in-between uses. I apologize that it is not a quick fix and out in very short order, which is why I am spending a lot of time just keeping everyone running with the 6.0.1 tools correctly until that change is correctly addressed.

Thanks.

Steve

Thanks. Steve
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AktDave
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Thanks for acknowledging the high priority to fix this, Steve. I appreciate the fact that it is a complicated issue and the schedule is beyond your control.

--

Dave

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Codacity
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It seems that VMware have a rather poor strategy to updating and testing the tools and fixes are reactive rather than proactive. This renders a major feature of Fusion unusable and it seems there is no sense of urgency to resolve the problem. This is not the first time either that there have been major issues with the tools. There was the issue that required a symlink to version.h (I don't remember which kernel version) or the installer failed to see the kernel headers. Also, back in May last year I blogged about the multiple compile issues with tools and Ubuntu 13.04, or more specifically the 3.8 kernel. At the time of writing Ubuntu 13.04 had been available a month and the kernel released for over 3 months (plus there would have been beta and RC releases prior to this) and to this day I'm still getting messages and comments thanking me for the post compiling all the various fixes together (not just from Fusion users either).

This bug does not even relate to external changes but an internal VMware change so also suggests a serious failure in testing/quality control, which I find unacceptable for company the size of VMware. What are VMware doing to ensure that bug fixes and support for future kernel/OS releases are provided in a timely manor? Also, what are you doing to ensure such catastrophic failures are not going to be repeated in future versions of your software?

snoo74
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Hi Steve,

yes what I posted is what I did. Things work smoothly now.

By the way, do you know if Unity with a macos host and Ubuntu guest will be supported soon?

Thanks!

Enrico

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nosajis
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Steve,

It's been a little over a month since the last status update.  Is a standard update to the tools still in progress?  Is there any kind of timeline that can be shared?

Thanks!

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steve_goddard
VMware Employee
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Yes there are many releases going to be hitting the streets.

Since there has been some especially urgent issues that are going out probably ahead of this.

I am still working on this issue with a couple of security related changes.

Steve

Thanks. Steve
IvarREW
Enthusiast
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Excellent - great news!

(Please please don't let 6.0.3 ship without this issue getting properly sorted)

nosajis
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+1

Agreed!

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behdad
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To get around this problem for now, I am mounting the folder using NFS and not using hgfs.

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pwhitfield
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Does anyone know how to get rid of the 'The virtual machine must have up-to-date Vmware Tools installed and running' message on the screen? It sits on top of every window and is a real pain.

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