VM won't boot into graphical mode after migration

[jgiovann]

Hi, 

Not sure if this is the correct forum to post my question. Just looking for some guidance.

I have a Debian Linux 8 (32-bit) VM running on an ESXi host (ESXi v7.0.2) in full graphics mode. The host machine is a DELL XPS 8920 (4 CPUs x Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700 CPU @ 3.60GHz).

After I copy/migrate the VM to another host with the same ESXi version (7.0.2), the machine won't boot into full graphics mode. The target host machine is a DELL PowerEdge 7515 (16 CPUs x AMD EPYC 7282 16-Core Processor)

I've checked all settings between the source VM and target VM and they are identical.

I can't see any difference other than the new host machine may have backwards compatibility issues in supporting an older Linux operating system.

[jgiovann · Accepted solution]

I found the solution myself.

In this instance I had to manually enable 3D support in the Video card settings for the target VM on the new host. This was greyed even with the VM turned off.

• Shutdown the target VM
• Logged into the ESXI host (hosting the guest target VM)
• Manually edited the corresponding vmx file to include the following entry:
  mks.enable3d = TRUE
• Determined the VMid of the target VM
  vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
• Relaoded the VM's configuration file (e.g. VMid = 14)
  vim-cmd vmsvc/reload 14
• Powered on the VM

After these changes, the VM was able to boot into full graphics mode (Debian Linux 😎

[scott28tt]

Your post needs moving to the correct area, so I have reported it to the moderators.