VMware Communities
ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Building Ubuntu VM challenges

Well, shoot.  

Finding the right ubuntu ISO's is a huge PITA.  No wonder Linux never succeeded on the desktop 🙂

Seriously, most of the links in the testing guide aren't valid anymore.  All of the arm links I can find for 21.x releases are for server only.  And for 22.04, the installer crashes and won't work.

Tried Debian too, but for the life of me I can't get the tools to install.  I know I'm rusty, but wow this is a major challenge.

Reply
0 Kudos
83 Replies
Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

Doesn't look like Canonical is making daily builds of Impish (21.10) any more. Guess I was lucky to scarf a copy of Impish desktop away when I did.

I was able to download the latest Jammy Jellyfish (22.04) desktop daily build from here https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current

This build installed for me without incident in a new VM on my Mac ( M1 Mini running  Monterey 12.0.1). Once I installed it, I rebooted to the hard drive, disabled Wayland, then downloaded the 5.14.17 Mainline kernel .deb's from https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.14.17/

Installed them, rebooted and then installed open-vm-tools and all seems to be working. Desktop resolution change works as documented in the TP Guide for example.

I tried a 5.15.1 kernel but had a Fusion error. So I backed down to the 5.14.x kernel. I'll revisit to see if a 5.15 kernel will be stable.

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
Reply
0 Kudos
ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Interesting, no matter what I do, the installer fails.  Maybe i grabbed a bad daily, will have to try again when I have time.

ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Errors on boot in Jammy: 

dlhotka_0-1636481640363.png

 

And the installer still crashes:  

 

dlhotka_0-1636481875794.png

 

 

Reply
0 Kudos
Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

I got the "stdin: invalid argument", but didn't get the others.

Hmm.... The Jammy build I got was from Nov 8, maybe I'll try a later one and see if I can get the same behavior...

 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
Reply
0 Kudos
Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

I downloaded the build from Nov 9 ( https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current). I got the same failures - the installer crashed).

Try the one from Nov 8 (https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/20211108/) or Nov 5 (https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/20211105/) and see if you get the same behavior. 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
Reply
0 Kudos
ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Thanks, will give it a go!

 

Nice to know it's not my brain failing 🙂

Reply
0 Kudos
FlandreScarle7
Contributor
Contributor

I got the same problem on VMWARE.I download the latest ubuntu 22.04 jammy ISO but it crashes when I install it.So i found the ubuntu 20.04 LTS .It succeed but still have problem.I followed the guide but can't upgrade the linux kernel version to 5.14.I try to find the correct ISO ,but it only for server .......In the end,I got a 21.10 ISO from my friends.It is perfect but still can't upgrade to 5.15 kernel version.

Today i saw a new ISO in daily live.I will try it when i am free.

Reply
0 Kudos
Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

You may not want to bother with the Jammy desktop daily build. I downloaded yesterday’s (11/17) Jammy desktop build and the installer still crashed.

Canonical doesn’t seem to want to post a GA generic ARM desktop version of Ubuntu - they only post “ppre packaged” ones for Raspberry Pi. That means the Impish 21.10 desktop daily builds that are in the TP guide no longer exist. 

I had some luck installing the released Server version of Impish 21.10, adding the packages for the graphical desktop and then installing a mainline 5.14 kernel from the Ubuntu repository noted in the guide. There are a couple of manual configuration items that have to be done to make networking come alive after the desktop bits get installed though. I’ll have to write that up and post it for all to take advantage of. 


My suspicions are that the daily Jammy server builds might be able to be installed in a similar manner. 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
Reply
0 Kudos
FlandreScarle7
Contributor
Contributor

I uploaded impish desktop ISO just now.Hope it helps.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sdz5s88HShu2duMLZ7ulOvbddX3fXTed

Reply
0 Kudos
Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

@ColoradoMarmot  - Just FYI - I downloaded the latest Jammy 22.04 daily build (as of 11/28) and it no longer crashes during install.

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
Reply
0 Kudos
todivefor
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

jammy-desktop-arm64.iso2022-02-13 08:332.3G

 

Does not boot.

Screen Shot 2022-02-13 at 12.43.19 PM.png


Macbook Air M1, Ventura 13.5, Fusion Player 2023 TP
Reply
0 Kudos
oneechan69
Contributor
Contributor

Yesterday, I got an Ubuntu 21.10 ISO working, I think this was the download link: https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/21.10/release/ubuntu-21.10-live-server-arm64.iso. After installing it, I ran sudo apt install -y ubuntu-desktop and startx to get the desktop running.

Reply
0 Kudos
todivefor
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I used  @FlandreScarle7's 21.10 ISO download, updated the kernel, disabled wayland, and installed tools per TP, and it works like a charm. Thank you. I also tried the 21.10 server route and got it working.


Macbook Air M1, Ventura 13.5, Fusion Player 2023 TP
Reply
0 Kudos
Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

just got the Jammy daily ISO that you referenced.

Ubuntu has upgraded their kernel to their 5.15 version in this daily build. Their 5.15 kernels have a known issue with device discovery in a Fusion VM that causes this behavior. This issue has been reported to the Ubuntu developers by both a fellow community member and VMware.

There's a workaround provided by VMware. Boot the ISO, but at the grub menu, select "Ubuntu" and hit 'e' to edit.

On the line that says

linux /casper/vmlinuz quiet ---

Change it as follows to add the "acpi=force" argument as follows:

linux /casper/vmlinuz acpi=force quiet ---

Then press "ctrl-x" and the kernel will boot and come up in the live environment. From there you can install Ubuntu.

Note that you will probably want to make this more permanent in the VM once you install Ubuntu. See the thread Anyone have any luck with Ubuntu 5.15 kernels? for more info on how to do this.

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
Reply
0 Kudos
todivefor
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

@Technogeezer that worked fine. I had read the referenced thread, but didn't understand. 

Thank you.


Macbook Air M1, Ventura 13.5, Fusion Player 2023 TP
Reply
0 Kudos
todivefor
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I spoke too soon. I've gotten to the point where I have installed ubuntu and ready to restart, which doesn't work. I'm not sure the sequence after install. I got confused with "When the Live CD installer is still booted, the installation path is `/target/` So you'd edit the file at /target/etc/default/grub." I've  tried changing /target/etc/defaults/grub and /etc/defaults/grub with acpi=force. Didn't work. I've tried installing 5.14.21 kernel. Also didn't work. What are the steps after install to allow to boot?


Macbook Air M1, Ventura 13.5, Fusion Player 2023 TP
Reply
0 Kudos
Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

The issue is that once you update /etc/defaults/grub, you have to run the "update-grub" command so that the defaults are placed into the grub configuration that's in the boot partition.  But it's not that easy when you're running from the live ISO since you have to make sure that the update happens on your new boot drive, and not the live ISO environment.

Here's one way to do the installation, disabling Wayland and changing the grub defaults to work around the boot issue:

  • Boot the installer ISO with the additional "acpi=force" argument.
  • Once the live environment is up and running, install Ubuntu to your hard drive. Do Not reboot.
  • Edit /target/etc/gdm3/custom.conf and uncomment the DisableWayland line.
  • Reboot the VM.
  • At the grub menu after reboot, edit the boot string like you did for the installer ISO to add the "acpi=force" argument. Boot the kernel (ctrl-x).
  • The VM should come alive in a graphical session. Log in.
  • Open Terminal and sudo to root.
  • Edit the /etc/default/grub file to include the acpi=force argument to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT. Save and close the file.
  • Run "update-grub" from the shell prompt.

You should now be able to reboot and have a graphical session without Wayland and not have to re-enter the acpi=force argument manually.

There are other ways to accomplish this, this is just one.

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
Reply
0 Kudos
Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

If you have already installed that Ubuntu 5.14 (or 5.15 kernel with the workaround) on your VMs boot disk and don't transition into a graphical login, it's likely you may have missed disabling Wayland. If that happens:

Boot the kernel (if you have a 5.15 kernel, edit the boot arguments to include acpi=force if it isn't there already).

When the boot happens and after you have the blank screen, click in the screen and type Option-Control-Fn-F3  (yes, it's a contortionist nightmare to get all 3 of those modifier keys held down while hitting the F3 key). That should bring up a terminal-style login.

Log in and sudo to root.

Now make your changes to /etc/gdm3/custom.conf to make sure Wayland is disabled.

And, if you have a 5.15 kernel installed, you can make the changes to /etc/defaults/grub and then run update-grub.

Reboot your VM and all should work as you expect.

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
Reply
0 Kudos
Anders56
Contributor
Contributor

Just want to confirm that this is how I got Debian 11 working.

I installed the base ISO without any issues. I then added the backports ppa to /etc/apt/sources.list and ran apt update.

I then installed the linux-image-5.15.0 to get the native vmware drivers installed. Next, I disabled Wayland just as you described and rebooted. Voila! Everything works as smooth as it should. I did NOT change the kernel boot arguments.

Reply
0 Kudos