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LLBecke
Contributor
Contributor

VMWare workstation 15 solaris 11.4

I see Solaris 11.4 is supported under ESX, but no listing for under Workstation 14 or 15.

Where do we stand on getting support for Solaris 11.4 under VMWare Workstation Pro 15?

I'd hate to have to revert to using Oracle VirtualBox just because VMWare can't figure out how to run 11.4...

But if VMWare cannot deduce how to do this, perhaps I'd be better off with VirtualBox.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

Curious.

VMware Compatibility Guide - Guest/Host Search

I would expect that to be an oversight.

It also lists only VMware Fusion as the only desktop product supporting Solaris 11.3, whereas normally guest OS support comes for both Workstation and Fusion.

Perhaps Mikero​ can shed a light on this?

-

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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Mikero
Community Manager
Community Manager

Probably an oversight. Consider it supported. If it fails somewhere, do let us know. We have it in our testing and address bugs when they're filed.

-
Michael Roy - Product Marketing Engineer: VCF
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LLBecke
Contributor
Contributor

I've tried upgrading a working Solaris 11.3 running under VMWare Workstation 15.0.1 to 11.4, after upgrading, going to text console/single-user mode, re-installing vmware tools for Solaris.

Rebooting, comes up to gui, keyboard is mostly non-responsive, mouse is 100% non-responsive.

I then did a fresh install of Solaris 11.4, latest SRU from text based iso, installed solaris-desktop ips subset, installed vmware-tools for Solaris, rebooted.

Keyboard / mouse non-responsive, aside from working to switch to character console,via ctrl-alt-f1.

It looks like a driver failure under 11.4.4.4.0 (tried fresh installs with original release as well as every SRU to current with the same results).

I've attached a screen-shot of the CHUI console that I switched to via CTRL-ALT-F1, no further key-strokes were recognized or actioned.

The HOST system is running Windows 10 Professional Workstation, latest fall release, all patches applied.

64 Bit, 32GB RAM, 8GB dedicated to the Solaris 11.4 VM.

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xishengzhang
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Thanks LLBecke for the posts.

We have forwarded this to corresponding owner to do more investigation.

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xishengzhang
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hello, LLBECKE

Could you please try below configuration to see any improvement for mouse movement? Thanks

a) Add an USB controller to the VM.

b) Add the following to the .vmx file:

mouse.vusb.enable = TRUE

mouse.vusb.useBasicMouse = FALSE

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rubenwhitney
Contributor
Contributor

I have the same issue in ESXI 6.5. That configuration change did not help.

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LLBecke
Contributor
Contributor

For the VM that I had working with 11.3, these changes break the mouse movement, the clicks still work, but movement shows on screen, but actual positioning is upper left corner and extends/retracts the Solaris 11 toolbar at the top of the screen.

For an 11.4 fresh install, I am still rebuilding that VM from scratch.

Will post after complete.

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LLBecke
Contributor
Contributor

11.4 - adding the entries doesn't seem to help.

The gui crashes - drivers don't appear to load properly or stay loaded.

Attached the CHUI console screen shot where it went to after crashing x-windows, post-tools-install and reboot.

Also, a snippet from the log file... should I be adding a usb keyboard snippet to the vmx file as well?

2019-01-12T16:14:41.287-06:00| vmx| I125: MKS PowerOn

2019-01-12T16:14:41.287-06:00| usbCCIDEnumCards| I125: USB-CCID: Could not establish context: SCARD_E_NO_SERVICE(0x8010001d).

2019-01-12T16:14:41.288-06:00| mks| I125: VTHREAD 10260 "mks"

2019-01-12T16:14:41.288-06:00| mks| I125: MKS thread is alive

2019-01-12T16:14:41.289-06:00| mouse| I125: VTHREAD 13844 "mouse"

2019-01-12T16:14:41.289-06:00| mks| I125: MKS-HookKeyboard: RegQueryValueEx(LowLevelHooksTimeout) failed: The system cannot find the file specified (2)

2019-01-12T16:14:41.290-06:00| kbh| I125: VTHREAD 14388 "kbh"

2019-01-12T16:14:41.295-06:00| mks| I125: MKS Win32: Registering top level window (0x905ec) to receive session change notification.

2019-01-12T16:14:41.295-06:00| mks| I125: Current Display Settings:

2019-01-12T16:14:41.296-06:00| mks| I125:    Display: 0 size: 3840x1080  position: (0, 0) name: \\.\DISPLAY1 

2019-01-12T16:14:41.296-06:00| mks| I125:    Display: 1 size: 1920x1080  position: (986, -1080) name: \\.\DISPLAY2 

2019-01-12T16:14:41.297-06:00| mks| I125: MKS Win32: MIL: 0x4000

2019-01-12T16:14:41.297-06:00| mks| I125: MKS-RenderMain: PowerOn allowed MKSBasicOps

2019-01-12T16:14:41.297-06:00| mks| I125: MKS-RenderMain: Started MKSBasicOps

2019-01-12T16:14:41.297-06:00| mks| I125: MKS-RenderMain: Stopping MKSBasicOps

2019-01-12T16:14:41.297-06:00| mks| I125: MKS-RenderMain: Collecting RenderOps caps from MKSBasicOps

2019-01-12T16:14:41.297-06:00| mks| I125: MKS-RenderMain: Started MKSBasicOps

2019-01-12T16:14:41.297-06:00| mks| I125: MKS-RenderMain: Found Full Renderer: MKSBasicOps

2019-01-12T16:14:41.297-06:00| mks| I125: MKS-RenderMain: MinimalCaps: maxTextureSize=32768

2019-01-12T16:14:41.298-06:00| mks| I125: KHBKL: Unable to parse keystring at: ''

2019-01-12T16:14:41.298-06:00| mks| I125: MKSRemoteMgr: Set default display name: NovaXI.IV

2019-01-12T16:14:41.298-06:00| mks| I125: MKSRemoteMgr: Loading VNC Configuration from VM config file

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LLBecke
Contributor
Contributor

Have my updates been forwarded as well?

Oracle provides an appliance image that can be downloaded, as well as installation binaries.

No support contract required, individuals can register with Oracle and download.

I've gotten things to work using VirtualBox, but I'd prefer to use VMWare workstation as it's usually more stable.

Thanks!

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NetExpressLabs
Contributor
Contributor

I have the exact same issue.

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LLBecke
Contributor
Contributor

FYI - VMWare Workstation 15.5, with current 11.4 release - still non-functional.

What's it going to take to get VMWare off its collective duffs and fix their problem?

Tried this with the following host operating systems:

Windows 10 Pro

Windows 10 Pro Workstation

Windows 10 Enterprise

All 64 bit...

VMWare Workstation 14.x, 15.0, 15.5 - all same results.

Intel and AMD CPUs - No differences.

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LLBecke
Contributor
Contributor

Right now, the only fix is to remove VMWare workstation and replace it with VirtualBox.

Is that what VMWare wants their customers to do?

Is VMWare (Dell) so (REMOVED) off with Oracle that they refuse to help VMWare (Dell) customers make use of the operating systems their customers chose?

With VMWare (Dell) declining revenues and stock value, can VMWare (Dell) afford to (REMOVED) off their customers?

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Moderator: I have removed the profanities from your post, please keep it clean.


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Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
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MelvinLusk
Contributor
Contributor

From what I can tell, this appears to be a driver issue with Solaris itself.

Solaris 11.4 Mouse not working within VMRC and Webview. · Issue #307 · vmware/open-vm-tools · GitHub

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scottkay
Contributor
Contributor

I was basically able to work around this problem. It is a pain in the rear end but I did get it working and so far it appears pretty stable after getting all the way updated to 11.4.21.0 (11.4 SRU 21). So I can attest to the fact this thread is correct, it doesn't f'ing work unless you approach installation the right way. So I started with the Solaris 11.4 text installer iso and created the VM new in VMWare Workstation 15.5. From there I messed up once and needed to do another complete scratch install but hopefully if you follow the steps you won't need to.

So after the install I added my certificate and key pem file so I could get the official support repos added vs just the release (free) which I can't comment on. Once I had the support repo added I did a little more research on the Oracle support portal and determined the most current SRU release *after 9* with "no ignore dependency patch" was 11.4.10.3.0  (SRU 10). So before anything else (no Solaris desktop installed) I did the update to SRU 10.

pkg update --be-name 11.4.10 entire@11.4-11.4.10.0

I avoided the more recent updates at this time because the thread referenced another thread where it was stated the SRU 9 and later fixed the mouse/kbd control problems so I picked 10. I have had previous dealings with dependency issues that created problems so I didn't want to deal the "ignore dependency patch" until I determined whether SRU 10 was stable.

I performed the system SRU 10 update and created the --be-name 11.4.10 so I could boot to this if the desktop install went wacko. After that I did a full 'pkg install --be-name 11.4.10GUI  solaris-desktop'.  I rebooted and installed vmware-tools and tested this out for a while and it worked but was a little "wonky", not completely unstable but a bit 'jinky' would freeze a little and seemed like it might not be that stable for long term use. So at that point I decided I might as well try updating all the way to SRU 21 and see if that improved anything. It took a while to do that update:

pkg update --be-name 11.4.21 entire@11.4-11.4.21.0

But it did seem to fix the problems with hesitation of the mouse and GUI/terminal response and also the Firefox browser is up to 68.6.0 and is much more usable. At this point I will give it another week of testing and then delete my older 11.3 VM which I ran into countless problems trying to update to 11.4 - and how I got into this little mess. lps

Hope it helps some of you.

-Scott

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