VMware Player 14 Not loading Virtual Machine Even After Confirming It Was Installed

[VMwaretroubles]

I have 64 bit VMware® Workstation 14 Player version 14.0.0 build-6661328 installed on Linux Mint 18.3 x64. My laptop is a Lenovo Ideapad z510 and I've made sure the virtual machine option in BIOS is enabled. The installation of VMware Player 14 on Mint was successful and VMware Player also opens without issues.

Whenever I choose "Create a New Virtual Machine", it lets me go thru all the appropriate steps. It allows me to pick an ISO and goes thru the full installation process without issues. VMware Player confirms that the virtual machine was installed successful and the virtual machine even boots fine after it's done with the initial installation.

However, the minute I shutdown the virtual machine, I can no longer open it again. It's not listed in the Home panel either. I've tried using the "Open a Virtual Machine" option, but nothing happens when I choose the vmx file.

I get the same symptom when using the ISO file of Kali Linux (kali-linux-2017.3-amd64.iso) and when using the virtual machine version of Kali Linux (kali-linux-2017.3-vm-amd64.ova)

Attached is a screen shot of the files found in the vmware folder (I believe these are for kali-linux-2017.3-vm-amd64.ova) . I've also included a screen shot of the empty Home panel.

Can someone please help? Don't understand why this is happening if all signs confirmed the virtual machine was installed.

[VMwaretroubles]

Anyone?

[parmarr]

Try KB https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2034362

[jtbr2]

I'm having the exact same issue with a fresh install of VMWare Workstation Player 14.0.0. I'm also running Linux Mint 18.3 (based on Ubuntu 16.04) as host. The Guest operating system installed successfully and was running. But after closing the vm window and try to re-open it it no longer responds. (Opening the .vmx file appears to do nothing from the GUI). VMWare installer tells me no files have changed; the installation is valid.

The only difference from the original post is that I installed Windows 10 x64 as the guest OS.

One possible issue might be related to the Tools installation, which I accepted and completed, but had not yet been in use (I don't believe). Perhaps using this has caused it to fail somehow?

parmarr I tried using the howto you suggested, to no effect. There are no lines beginning with "policy." in the .vmx file and there is no .vmdi file. (I might have the details wrong here since this is by memory, but the steps didn't apply to me)

Perhaps the following might help debug. When I run vmplayer from the command line and open the .vmx file in question, I get the following messages :

[AppLoader] Use shipped Linux kernel AIO access library.

An up-to-date "libaio" or "libaio1" package from your system is preferred.

[AppLoader] Use shipped Linux kernel AIO access library.

An up-to-date "libaio" or "libaio1" package from your system is preferred.

I/O warning : failed to load external entity "/etc/vmware/hostd/proxy.xml"

Fail to open executable: No such file or directory

All but the last line occur when the GUI opens (EDIT: the first 4 lines go away after installing the libaio1 package, but nothing else changes.). The last line happens when I try to open the VM. (There is no file /etc/vmware/hostd/proxy.xml)

On this run there is a log file in /tmp/vmware-me/vmware-player-7017.log which ends with the following:

2017-12-30T22:43:31.293-05:00| vmplayer| I125: VMMgr::OpenVM (cfgPath=/home/me/vmware/Windows_10_x64/Windows 10 x64.vmx)

2017-12-30T22:43:31.294-05:00| vthread-3| I125: VTHREAD initialize thread 3 "vthread-3" tid 7544

2017-12-30T22:43:31.294-05:00| vthread-3| I125: /home/me/vmware/Windows_10_x64/Windows 10 x64.vmx: Reloading config state.

2017-12-30T22:43:31.299-05:00| vthread-3| I125: VMHS: Transitioned vmx/execState/val to poweredOff

2017-12-30T22:43:31.311-05:00| vigorCnx| I125: VTHREAD start thread 3 "vigorCnx" tid 7548

2017-12-30T22:43:31.314-05:00| vmplayer| I125: SnapshotTree: Emitting refresh (/home/me/vmware/Windows_10_x64/Windows 10 x64.vmx)

2017-12-30T22:43:31.315-05:00| vigorCnx| I125: VigorOfflineGetToolsVersion: updated tools version to 0

2017-12-30T22:43:31.316-05:00| vmplayer| I125: ReadProxyFile: Failed to read file: /etc/vmware/hostd/proxy.xml

2017-12-30T22:43:31.320-05:00| vmplayer| I125: Setting power state poweredOff

2017-12-30T22:43:31.327-05:00| vmplayer| I125: OnVMStateChanged: alive = 0

2017-12-30T22:43:31.331-05:00| vmplayer| I125: IPC Manager: Error while connecting socket client: No such file or directory

2017-12-30T22:43:31.331-05:00| vmplayer| I125: OnGuestCanRunUnityChanged: The guest is a supported version of Windows, checking Tools status. Version status: 5, running status: 3

2017-12-30T22:43:31.331-05:00| vmplayer| I125: OnGuestCanRunUnityChanged: Tools status is not INSTALLED

2017-12-30T22:43:31.331-05:00| vmplayer| I125: VMMgr: Finished opening VM at /vm/#9801d81c1e48e136/ from /home/me/vmware/Windows_10_x64/Windows 10 x64.vmx

2017-12-30T22:43:31.532-05:00| vmplayer| I125: IPC Manager: Error while connecting socket client: No such file or directory

2017-12-30T22:43:31.832-05:00| vmplayer| I125: VMHSGetDataFileKey: Could not get the dataFileKey from VMDB

2017-12-30T22:43:31.933-05:00| vmplayer| I125: IPC Manager: Error while connecting socket client: No such file or directory

2017-12-30T22:43:32.734-05:00| vmplayer| I125: IPC Manager: Error while connecting socket client: No such file or directory

2017-12-30T22:43:34.337-05:00| vmplayer| I125: IPC Manager: Error while connecting socket client: No such file or directory

2017-12-30T22:43:37.538-05:00| vmplayer| I125: IPC Manager: Error while connecting socket client: No such file or directory

2017-12-30T22:43:43.941-05:00| vmplayer| I125: IPC Manager: Error while connecting socket client: No such file or directory

2017-12-30T22:43:56.754-05:00| vmplayer| I125: IPC Manager: Error while connecting socket client: No such file or directory

2017-12-30T22:44:22.357-05:00| vmplayer| I125: IPC Manager: Error while connecting socket client: No such file or directory

2017-12-30T22:44:46.778-05:00| vmplayer| I125: MKSWindowTrans: The current transaction 558BFA085FB0 has not been submitted.

2017-12-30T22:44:46.778-05:00| vmplayer| I125: VMMgr::CloseVM: closing VM at /vm/#9801d81c1e48e136/

2017-12-30T22:44:46.787-05:00| vmplayer| I125: VMMgr::OnVMDestroyed: cleaning up after destroyed VM at /vm/#9801d81c1e48e136/

2017-12-30T22:44:46.999-05:00| vmplayer| I125: WORKER: asyncOps=0 maxActiveOps=0 maxPending=0 maxCompleted=0

So it looks like the Tools install indeed failed. And there is some socket problem where some file is missing. Not clear what.

I looked for all these signs online and found nothing relevant. Anybody got a clue? Or anything else to look at?

Note: running "vmware-modconfig --console --install-all" before vmplayer makes no difference.

[soulsuke]

I'm having the very same issue (Arch Linux x86_64, 4.14.9-1-ARCH, VMware Player 14.1.0 build-7370693). I've successfully installed Wind10 on a guest VM, everything seemed to run fine, but once closed it is not possible to start it up via the GUI again. Restarting the player also takes down the VM from the list of available ones, and cannot be added back in.

The oddest thing, however, is the VM can be started via command line with `vmrun -T player start /path/to/file.vmx`, and all the features seem to be there and working (ToolBox, networking, etc). Anyone else tried to do this??

[jtbr2]

soulsuke​ Thank you. I don't have a vmrun app on my installation (some arch vs ubuntu difference?) but if I run

vmplayer /path/to/file.vmx

The VM opens and works! This is bizarro, but it is a successful workaround.

For further debugging, I'll note that I still get these messages at the command line:

I/O warning : failed to load external entity "/etc/vmware/hostd/proxy.xml"

Fail to open executable: No such file or directory

And in the log file, there are still a bunch of error messages about IPC manager connecting to socket client.

Finally, I had not yet installed the Tools in the guest OS, but was able to once the VM ran again using this method, and they seem to be working.

So none of these things seem to have been related to this issue.

[VMwaretroubles]

Thank you guys. I can also confirm running the following command starts up the VM fine:

vmplayer /path/to/file.vmx

So far, it's the only way for me to run it. I am also getting your same error at the command line:

"I/O warning : failed to load external entity "/etc/vmware/hostd/proxy.xml"

Fail to open executable: No such file or directory"

Guess it's going to be up to us to figure out what's wrong cause the support here... smh

Is this the same case if we had the paid version or is there actually support for it?

[sdaks]

Hello, I just did a clean install of a physical host using Linux Mint 18.3 64bit and VMware-Player-14.1.1-7528167.x86_64.bundle and am having the same issue as others, when I create and/or try to add an existing guest to the player it does not show up in the GUI.  Using the workaround above I am able to launch guests using vmplayer /pathto/file.vmx successfully.

Any advice on how to correct would be helpful.  In the interim I created a shortcut to directly launch my guest OS from the desktop.

[ricksdunn]

I reverted my system back to vmplayer 12.5 after uninstalling vmware-tools from VMs I've started under 14.1.1 ... so far everything works with the previous player including the system indicators on the bottom right which also did not function in the latest version. NOTE I am running this all from a Ubuntu 14.04 LTS host.  Hope this helps.

[sdaks]

Posted in another thread I found a fix/workaround:

Have had this issue for a while and did some more searching today and came across this thread from 2015 which suggested it's a security/privacy setting related issue.   I saw a post from user dsy72 stating:

The file /home/user/.local/share/recently-used.xbel will be emptied from time to time and every time you log out, thus the library / list of VMs will be lost.  
 This only happens if you have deactivated 'Record file & application usage' in Ubuntu System Settings 'All Settings / Security & Privacy / Files & Applications'.
 If you activate 'Record file & application usage' your list of VMs will not be lost anymore, as the file 'recently-used.xbel' will no longer be emptied. I'm actually very happy to have discovered this, because before I had to manually restore the list of VMs dozens of time.

While I don't use Ubuntu, in Linux Mint (latest release 18.3) I went into privacy settings and told it to remember recently accessed files (Set to "on") and Never forget old files (Set to "On") and now I can add the machine(s) to my Library.

Hope this helps others!

[DinoSchwingel]

Worked for me too. Tks!

[henriquecoelho]

The solution worked for me!!!

Thanks for everything!!!

[Horseman04]

This solution worked for me as well. Thank you very much!

[adialfonso]

This worked for me as well!  Thank you!

[miltonhowe]

I was having the same problem with VMware Workstation 14 Player (14.1.2 build-8497320) on Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon.

Thank you @sdaks for the privacy settings suggestion. After changing that when I use the GUI to open a .vmx file, it shows up in the library list.

[JimiSpenc]

Running Linux Mint 18 and VMware Workstation Player 15.1.0 build-13591040. The Privacy settings changes fixed the problem! Wow, how is this still an issue VMware player? No correlation between the VMplayer errors and the privacy settings. Great find on the fix action!

[Andrei2]

4 years later, this absurd issue still persists. Glad I found this thread. Why you'd need to lower your desktop environment's privacy settings just to load a VM is beyond me.

[paulrea]

totally agree, it's now December 2022 and it still persists,  Found this by accident after countless wasted hours searching log files and google!!  Thanks so much.  I simply could not get a VM to open, and enabling File History in Ubuntu fixed the issue and it's now reliably opening all my VMs.