2008 R2 mouse movements are jumpy. PVSCSI issues also.

[kac2]

I am running ESX 4.0 Update 1 build 208167 and vCenter build 208111.

I am building a Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise VM. The OS and VMware Tools get installed without any trouble. When I log into the VM, the mouse movements are very jumpy and not smooth. Jase McCarty pointed me to read KB Article: 1011709 , even though I am running Update 1, and tried removing the driver, but the problem still exists. just wondering if anyone else is seeing it.

I have built the machine with 2 different options. 1 using Bus Logis SAS and the other using PVSCSI. all with 1vCPU and 4GB of RAM and VMXNET3 NIC

When I build the machine with PVSCSI as boot, I mount the floppy .flp and the ISO for Win2k8r2. the install goes just fine when I specify the driver for PVSCSI, but once the install is done and has to reboot for the first time, the VM will hang on reboot with a blinking "_" on the screen, so I have to power off the VM and power it back on. If I remove the floppy .flp before the install reboots, then the machine will reboot and the installation will continue. Once the install has completed, I'm prompted to change the administrator passwor. If I leave the VM alone for a few minutes and come back to it, the VM will be frozen for about 20-30 seconds then I can move my mouse again. This is only experianced with 2008 R2 VM with a PVSCSI boot drive.

All of my other VMs seem to be working fine, but I wanted to start building out some new 2008 R2 VMs and test out PVSCSI as the boot drive.

if anyone else have tested these options, let me know if you are seeing any problems.

[AnatolyVilchins]

Firstly PVSCSI isn't supported for boot drives, it might

work but it's not supported - also using PVSCSI and/or VMXNET3 stops

that VM from ever using Fault Tolerance - don't know if you knew that

but it's worth knowing (it was a VCP4 question too by the way). Either

way that could be your boot problem ok.

As for the mouse jumping about, are you talking about via the VSClient Console or RDP?

from http://serverfault.com/questions/102217/2008-r2-mouse-movements-are-jumpy-pvscsi-issues-also

Starwind Software Developer

www.starwindsoftware.com

[AntonVZhbankov]

Install VMware Tools and set full video acceleration to make mouse smooth.

And as already said, PVSCSI is not supported and should not used for boot disk.

---

MCSA, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[kac2]

As of Update1 (which is what I'm running), PVSCSI IS SUPPORTED as a boot drive

Enhanced VMware Paravirtualized SCSI Support –

Support for boot disk devices attached to a Paravirtualized SCSI (

PVSCSI) adapter has been added for Windows 2003 and 2008 guest

operating systems. Floppy disk images are also available containing the

driver for use during the Windows installation by selecting F6 to

install additional drivers during setup. Floppy images can be found in

the /vmimages/floppies/ folder.

I'm not worried about running Fault Tolerance. Hardware Acceleration is by default already set to full when installing VMware Tools on a 2008 machine. I have also checked and it is already set to Full Acceleration.

So VMware Tools has been installed and is set at Full Acceleration. The mouse is jumpy on the console through the vSphere client. Have any of you built a VM with Windows 2008 R2 from scratch yet?

[AntonVZhbankov]

Didn't know about PVSCSI changes, thanks for mentioning it.

I have a couple of 2008 R2 - no issues like yours.

---

MCSA, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[dpopeck]

Hi,

I am experiencing the same mouse issues as the original poster.

I'm running ESXi 4.0.0, 208167 as well

A clean install of Windows Server 2008 R2 standard followed by the VMware tools still results in a machine with jumpy mouse and poor video performance.

The acceleration settings for the graphics adaptor is at full.

I've tried uninstall and reinstall of the tools, but it doesn't help.

It never seems to actually install the SVGA driver which might be problem here!

Has anyone else got 2008R2 to work on ESXi 4u1 as a fresh install?

Thanks

David

[kac2]

Been on the phone with VMware for a few hours today. They are going to try an re-create the problem on their end and escalate the request as a bug. I should be getting an update in 3 days as to where they are in the process.

EDIT> PVSCSI boot issue isn't really an issue.

Of course the machine is going to hang on a reboot with a cursor if a drive is connected to the floppy controller because the BIOS is going to try and boot from it. remove the floppy drive while install is going on and no issues.

I'm starting a new thread for the PVSCSI issue. This thread is only going to be related to the Mouse/Screen jumpiness.

[kac2]

This is a known issue to VMware now and they are in the process of creating a new KB for the workaround.

Here is how to fix the video problem for Windows 2008 R2:

After you install VMware Tools, reboot, login and your screen will be jumpy.

The VMware Tools install should have created the folder: C:/Program Files/Common Files/VMware/Drivers/wddm_video

browse to your Device Manager, choose your video adapter, right click, and "Update Driver". Browse to the folder listed above, reboot. At this point it should be fixed. If it is not fixed, shutdown your VM, go to edit settings, click on Video, and verify is has 8MB of Memory for Video. You may also need to verify this in the BIOS.

[slc71]

Just wanted to add a note on this issue.

I had the laggy mouse issue and i did the install of the wddm_video drivers and nothing changed.

Plus I could not change the Hardware Acceleration since the button was grayed out.

After removing the tools and reinstalling them, i went to the C:\Program Fields\Common Files\VMWare\Drivers\Video folder and used that driver which is the VMWare SVGA II and i could set the hardware acceleration.

Everything is now fixed.

Now I am not sure if that is the correct driver to use but it is working great.

[OZZY908]

I had the exact same issue and your advice fixed the problem.

I had 4.0.0.Update01-208167.

I installed Windows 2008R2 VM.

Initially I could not install VMTOOLS because ESXi4 could not find them. I fixed that problem by running the host update and applying updates and fixes.

Having installed VMTOOLS and checking Windows 2008R2 video HW Acceleration (Defaults correctly), I then had only the jerky mouse problem to fix.

I saw your post and updated the driver.

Thanks I owe you a beer!.

OZZY

[TobiasKracht]

Just a little add:

PVSCSI is supported for Windows boot drives starting with ESX 4.0 Update

1, released in November 2009 (VMWare KB Article: 1010398).

StarWind Software R&D

[Threonine]

Update: WARNING - I installed the SVGA II driver as slc71 suggested and this actually caused another much bigger problem! I would NOT recommend installing that driver after all. Installing that driver resulted in sporadic console freezes and problems logging off of RDP sessions.

I believe these articles are related to this issue:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=101170...

http://www.vmwareinfo.com/2010/01/svga-ii-driver-can-freeze-windows.html

Just ran into the choppy mouse cursor issue on a 2008 R2 machine and followed the steps as slc71 suggested and it's working great now! Thanks all.

[AndyChip]

I had exactly the same problem with R2 and these steps fixed it for me.

Perfect. Thank you!

[NJKwork]

So are there other drivers that are not correct as well on a Windows 2008 R2 fresh install? I am building my first R2 template on brand new ESX 4.1 servers. I would assume (I guess incorrectly) that installing the latest/greatest VMware tools would put all the needed drivers on the VM. After having the sluggish mouse issues I found this post and the solution of updating the video driver worked.

So why, on a brand new ESX 4.1 and vCenter 4.1 configuration, would the correct drivers not be put on the VM if this was a known issue back in 4.0 U1? Are there other drivers that are not getting updated besides the video driver that I need to be aware of?

Thanks

SB

[grcumm]

I concur. Upgraded to vCenter 4.1.0-259021 with ESX 4.1.0-260247. Create fresh VMs and I have to manually change the graphics card driver. At least the VM is configured with 8MiB video RAM by default such that upgrading to the aforementioned driver by manually selecting the folder and letting Windows install it automatically works like a charm.

[kastilem]

thanks kac2. that nailed it !

[Bastien_P]

Had the problem with 4.0. Pointing to the directory to update driver solved the problem. Tks!

[TaffTool]

Updating the Driver is working fine! Thanks for the help!

[robengstrom]

I just had the same problem with 2008 Standard R2 x64 and the mouse jumpiness (and the mem settings were 8mb) so I installed the driver as suggested and its working perfectly now (on ESX 4.1.0, 260247). Thank you!

[RobGirard]

I ran into the same problem on Windows 2008 R2 as well. I was convinced it was a video problem since HW Acceleration had always fixed it. I then followed instuctions to update to VMware SVGA 3D driver (c:\program files\common files\vmware\drivers\wddm video) and that fixed my issues on about half my Win2K8 R2 VMs, but not all of them.

The issue turned out to be 2-fold: Video Drivers AND mouse drivers! Here's a reply I made in another thread with the solution that worked for me:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1639809#1639809

Briefly,open Device Manager, drill down to your mouse and you probalby have a "PS/2 Compatible Mouse" listed. Update the drivers for it and point to c:\program files\vmware\vmware tools\drivers\mouse. When choosing the drivers, choose to manually select it from the list. When I let my Windows 2008 R2 VM decide, it showed both "PS/2 ComptibleMouse" and "VMware Pointing Device" when the "show comptible devices" checkbox is checked, but would choose PS/2 over VMware Pointing Device. Click OK and reboot is required.

Hope this helps!

Rob