Any Way to Download Older Tech Preview Versions?

[colinmaccreery]

I have a working Ubuntu 21.04 VM with a MSP430 toolchain installed and working that I have to support. This is functional under version 18656771.

However, the newer version of the application (20191287) cannot boot this VM. It simply says An error occurred while restoring the virtual machine state from file ".../Ubuntu 21.04-d3acccbc.vmss"

In smaller print it says "Your virtual machine did not resume because of a correctable error". But I don't know what error needs to be corrected? Perhaps this is related to the kernel issues mentioned on some other posts.

But this toolchain is used in a University course and any student with an M1 Mac will be unable to use the toolchain unless they can obtain the older version of the application. Is this possible or is there another route I can take? Is there some kind of change I'm able to make in the newer version of Fusion to make this VM work again?

I would honestly just recommend they use Parallels to avoid this whole mess but the institution still has a license agreement with vmWare (maybe not for much longer)

[ColoradoMarmot]

Well, first, I wouldn't rely on any tech preview for mission critical work.  We should have a production release later this year.

You might be able to find an archive of the TP page and get the link from there, but they may have pulled it down.

However, that message looks like it's because the VM is trying to resume - not boot.  If you hard-power-off the VM, it's possible it may startup (make a backup first).  It's always best practice to shut down, not suspend, a VM before upgrading - and absolutely before distributing to other machines (I'd delete snapshots before doing that too).

I'd also look in the unofficial TP guide posted by @Technogeezer for hints on getting ubuntu to work with the TP. 

[Technogeezer]

From what I see you have two problems.

You've already encountering one of them, as @ColoradoMarmot notes. Don't upgrade Fusion versions while virtual machines are suspended. You don't know what internal changes VMware has made that could affect the info it keeps on suspended VMs, especially between major versions (or tech preview refreshes).

Second. because of changes that VMware has made as well to the latest tech preview release as well as Ubuntu's incomprehensible reluctance to deliver kernels that have known Linux issues fixed, the existing kernel that's on the 21.04 release may not boot under the latest tech preview. You'll find out for sure when you hard power off the existing VM and then try to restart it.

Students that haven't upgraded yet may be able to install a mainline 5.19 kernel immediately before upgrading the tech preview. I've done this for 22.04 LTS, but it may work for 21.04. See the unofficial TP guide for more info.

Unfortunately if you have upgraded, the path forward may be a bit murkier.

[Mikero]

In case it's really necessary... the old dmg direct link is still live:

https://download3.vmware.com/software/fusion/file/VMware-Fusion-e.x.p-19431034_arm64.dmg 

[colinmaccreery]

It's actually even messier than this because the toolchain we're using requires a certain version of libboost (1.71) to work properly and the new OS's stopped packaging that version.

So I'm currently trying to build a working 20.04LTS VM and everything is working okay except for the fact that I can't change display resolution even with open-vm-tools-desktop installed. I've read in your guide @Technogeezer that you need a 5.14 kernel or newer for this to work properly, but you cannot install a 5.14 kernel on 20.04LTS because of the libc6 dependency (needs 2.34 but maximum packaged version for 20.04LTS is 2.31).

Really unsure of how to get over this hurdle, I was lucky enough that 21.04 was functioning, but now all of the repositories for hirsute seem to be missing (apt update complained of 404 on Release repos) so building something workable under 21.04 doesn't seem possible. It is in a fairyland sweet spot that works properly as a VM, but isn't so new that libboost1.71 is inaccessible.

I will just have to keep bashing my face against the wall 😢

[Technogeezer]

I wonder if the workaround I’ve published in the unofficial guide for a larger screen resolution for RHEL 9 would help you out. 

I found as well that Ubuntu has removed pretty much all “interim” releases  from their  downloads. Only things I can find are the LTS releases. I was trying to find a 21.10 to test against and came to the same roadblock. 

ubuntu has never been one of my favorites, but lately it has not done anything to improve my opinion.

You might want to give UTM (a more usable front end to QEMU) a try with those Ubuntu versions. It’s free, and for arm64 operating systems it will virtualize, not emulate. Performance probably should be OK for your use case.  

[colinmaccreery]

Yeah, actually Parellels doesn't have any of these issues. But, the one problem it does have is with the actual hardware we are programming with the toolchain. It appears not to hangup the device properly and students must unplug/replug the hardware for it to be functional again. There's a way to work around this on the software side, but it's not something I wanted to recommend. Especially since we have educational licensing specifically for VMware.

I'm also not a fan of Ubuntu, but it's the only distribution with the prerequisites for the toolchain to be built successfully.

Is there no way to put the correct video driver into the 5.10 kernel?

Thanks for the link @Mikero I guess students will have a choice between being stuck at 1024x768 or obtaining this older version of the software to run 21.04. Do you know how long this older version will be available? Should it be assumed that it could be removed at any moment?

[Technogeezer]

I don't know of a way to put the vmwgfx driver into a 5.10 kernel. From what I recall, the driver was built and submitted to the Linux kernel maintainers at 5.14 and later on arm64 architectures. It may not even compile from source on a 5.10 kernel.

I'm trying a variant of the workaround that I used on a RHEL 9 kernel that does not have a working vmwgfx driver. I'll post back here if I'm able to get that working.

[Technogeezer · Accepted solution]

I just checked and the work-around for RHEL 9 will work on Ubuntu 20.04 to get a larger statically sized screen.

In this instance I've configured a 1920x1200 screen - the gotcha is that the screen size must be supported by the video driver. 

In short:

once booted into Ubuntu 20.04.4, sudo to root and edit /etc/default/grub

add the following 2 lines to the file:

GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1200
GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="gfxterm"

Save changes and exit the editor.

Then rebuild the grub configuration with: 

update-grub

Next time you boot, the virtual graphics will be a non-changeable 1920x1200.

[colinmaccreery]

Hell yeah, thank you so much! This works great!

[ColoradoMarmot]

He's a rockstar on working around Ubuntu problems, and saved me a ton of work...really appreciate the efforts.

Aside, I so wish there were a viable alternative OS for what I do - I'm really done with Ubuntu's ongoing issues.   I may try building a new debian VM...haven't done that on the TP yet.  Hmmmm.

[Technogeezer]

@colinmaccreery Glad I was able to help out.

however I’m beginning to realize that I have way too much spare time on my hands. 😜