Cannot get Copy-Paste to work for Workstation Player 12

[Fafnr]

Hi all,

I'm running Windows 7 64 as the host, with Linux Mint 17.2 as the guest.

I've installed the VMWare tools, and have a shared folder between the two, so *something* is working at least

However, I simply cannot manage to copy-paste between the host and guest, no matter the "direction", and what I do...!

Does anyone have any tips / tricks / ways to debug this issue?

Thanks in advance!

[wila]

Hi,

This is a VMware Tools issue, see if you have open-vm-tools installed in your linux mint.

If you do, uninstall open-vm-tools, then reinstall the vmware tools that comes with VMware Workstation.

Alternatively you could also try to install VMware Tools 10

--

Wil

[Fafnr]

Hi wila,

Thanks a lot for your quick suggestion!

I checked, and I did indeed have open-vm-tools installed.

I removed it by doing sudo apt-get remove open-vm-tools, and I think reinstalled vmware-tools + rebooted the guest.

Unfortunately, while my shared folder does work, I still cannot copy-paste between host and guest 😕

Do you have any other tips?

[wila]

Hi,

It is possible to disable copy&paste operations on a per VM bases. I don't have access to a VMware Workstation 12 setup atm, but on Fusion it is called "Isolation" settings, Workstation 8 it is under "Settings" -> "Options" -> "Guest Isolation".

Yet another possibility is that you have set your VM as a shared VM which would cause you to loose a number of features, including copy&paste.

Quote from http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2005585

When you share a virtual machine, you lose these features:

• Unity
• Shared Folders
• AutoProtect
• drag and drop
• copy and paste
• Thin Print
• Ability to connect/redirect USB devices from the host to the virtual machine not available with Workstation 8.x
• 3D Acceleration

--

Wil

[Fafnr]

Hi Wila,

I have the following in my .vmx file:

isolation.tools.copy.disable = "false"

isolation.tools.paste.disable = "false"

from what I understand, that should ensure that at least the isolation settings are OK?

I don't think Player 12 supports sharing - at least I can't find any options for it:

Thanks again!

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hello,

My bad, managed to miss the "Player" bit in the title of your question.

Guess I still have to get used that the Player now also has "Workstation" in the name.

The isolation settings look fine.

VMware Player indeed does not have the shared Virtual Machine feature so that can't be the issue.

VMware Player must run a process in the guest in order to provide the feature.

What output do you get when you run:

ps ax | grep vmware

In addition what desktop environment are you running in Mint?

In the past this was provided via vmware-toolbox command, that command no longer exists (there's a vmware-toolbox-cmd variant, but it doesn't look like it provides copy & paste integration) If I'm not mistaken then this feature is nowadays provided via the vmware-user process.

If the above ps -ax command shows a vmtoolsd process, kill it via the process number and run vmware-user (as a normal user)

Here's my test output from this:

$ sudo ps ax | grep vmware
  1514 ?        Ssl    0:00 /usr/sbin/vmware-vmblock-fuse -o subtype=vmware-vmblock,default_permissions,allow_other /var/run/vmblock-fuse
  2301 ?        Sl     0:04 /usr/lib/vmware-tools/sbin64/vmtoolsd -n vmusr --blockFd 3
  2895 pts/4    S+     0:00 grep --color=auto vmware
~$ kill 2301

Now test and see if it was properly killed:

~$ sudo ps ax | grep vmware
  1514 ?        Ssl    0:00 /usr/sbin/vmware-vmblock-fuse -o subtype=vmware-vmblock,default_permissions,allow_other /var/run/vmblock-fuse
  2301 ?        Dl     0:04 /usr/lib/vmware-tools/sbin64/vmtoolsd -n vmusr --blockFd 3
  2898 pts/4    S+     0:00 grep --color=auto vmware

Still there, so I was a bit inpatient, seems it needs time to clean up properly, IOW do not do a kill -9

Another try:

~$ sudo ps ax | grep vmware

  1514 ?        Ssl    0:00 /usr/sbin/vmware-vmblock-fuse -o subtype=vmware-vmblock,default_permissions,allow_other /var/run/vmblock-fuse
  2910 pts/4    S+     0:00 grep --color=auto vmware

Gone now.

~$ vmware-user
~$ sudo ps ax | grep vmware
  1514 ?        Ssl    0:00 /usr/sbin/vmware-vmblock-fuse -o subtype=vmware-vmblock,default_permissions,allow_other /var/run/vmblock-fuse
  2995 pts/4    S      0:00 /usr/lib/vmware-tools/sbin64/vmtoolsd -n vmusr --blockFd 3
  3022 pts/4    D      0:00 /usr/lib/vmware-tools/sbin64/vmtoolsd -n vmusr --blockFd 3
  3032 pts/4    S+     0:00 grep --color=auto vmware

Starting up, list again:

~$ sudo ps ax | grep vmware
  1514 ?        Ssl    0:00 /usr/sbin/vmware-vmblock-fuse -o subtype=vmware-vmblock,default_permissions,allow_other /var/run/vmblock-fuse
  2995 pts/4    Rl     0:01 /usr/lib/vmware-tools/sbin64/vmtoolsd -n vmusr --blockFd 3
  3162 pts/4    S+     0:00 grep --color=auto vmware

And the normal daemon is now running.

If the vmtoolsd process is not displayed in the list then just run vmware-user (again just run as normal user)  and it should startup the daemon as above.

Try if copy&paste works now.

--

Wil

[newbie93]

Here's something else to try that works for me:

After you have the VMWare Tools verified that it's working, when you want to try to copy/paste between host->guest (or guest->host) try this:

After you have "copied" the text/graphics or whatever, before attempting to paste it, move the mouse cursor to the desktop (i.e. the background, not in any other window) of the host (in your case Win x64) and just left click once on the host's desktop and then proceed to the guest and try pasting. This works for me and I have the exact setup that you have: Win x64 host and Linux Mint 17.2 (Cinnamon) guest, the only other item that might make a difference is the video card, in my case it's a nVidia card in a Dell Precision Laptop.

One other thing: I find that Cntl + C (for copy) and Cntrl + V (for paste) works more consistently for me anyways.

I can't explain why this works, but it does for me - and with most host/guest combinations. I will be curious if this does anything for you.

[Fafnr]

Hi Wila,

Well, now, that is interesting...

ps ax | grep vmware

only produces the grep itself (excuse me not pasting it here, but well... You know )

So, clearly the tools processes are not running.

I therefore tried to re-install it, but still - the same issue... I'm wondering if the defaults for where to place things might not be right for Mint...

At any rate, it's very strange - for instance, vmware-user is not know on my system.

However!! You have managed to get me 90% of the way there - if I manually start vmtoolsd with the params I can see you have then I have copy paste!

It looks like this might just be an issue of initialization, and I might have to set it up to auto-run vmtoolsd automatically...!

So, thanks a lot - I will look further into this as soon as I can!

[wila]

Hi,

Glad to hear we're making progress.

On my ubuntu test VM, it claims that vmware-user is in /usr/bin and in /usr/bin/X11.

Both appear to be symbolic links and that one points to:

vmware-user -> /usr/lib/vmware-tools/bin64/vmware-user-suid-wrapper

If my memory serves me well then invoking vmware-user is the correct way to start the vmtoolsd daemon.

--

Wil

[Fafnr]

Hi wila,

I checked it out, and /usr/lib/vmware-tools/bin64 contains, as you say, vmware-user-suid-wrapper.

This, on my system, is a *broken* symlink. ./vmware-user-suid-wrapper gives me:

sgan@sgan-virtual-machine /usr/lib/vmware-tools/bin64 $ ./vmware-user-suid-wrapper

vmware-user: could not resolve symlink: No such file or directory

vmware-user: failed to start vmware-user

There is no vmware-user in /usr/bin or /usr/bin/X11 for me.

For now, I've solved my issues by ensuring that on boot I start the vmtoolsd manually.

Thanks wila - you solved it 🙂

[abwitt]

I had the same issue as you where there were no symlinks for vmware-user. Seems like after uninstalling open-vm-tools there were still configuration files left behind which caused an issue for the vmware-tools installer.

I ran

apt-get remove --purge open-vm-tools

to remove ALL config files.

After uninstalling and re-installing vmware-tools everything was created correctly.