Shared folders on Linux arm64

[izeyad]

Hey everyone,

I am using the VMWare Tech Preview on the new MacBook Pro's with an M1 Pro processor. I've installed a Debian distro and got everything working, then built the 'open-vm-tools' from the official VMWare GitHub repo, and it appears to have installed properly.

However, I am not able to locate 'vmhgfs-fuse', so I am not able to mount the shared drives. Running 'vmware-hgfsclient' shows the shared drives, but I cannot mount them without 'vmhgfs-fuse'.

Has anyone been able to mount the shared drives on the tech preview, or would we have to wait for the official release of VMWare for M1 with open-vm-tools for arm64? Also, has anyone found a way to build and install 'open-vm-tools-desktop' on arm64, as this should also solve the issue?

[Mikero]

Works OOTB over here...

Which specific distro/version are you using?

You should be able to install from apt as well, tho building from source is totally fine, and HGFS works on all my Linux boxes that have OVT installed.

In many cases on Linux you have to disable and re-enable (like literally uncheck, wait 1 second, re-check) the 'Enable Shared Folders' feature, then everything 'just shows up' in /mnt/hgfs.

Does vmhgfs-fuse return anything when you run it?

[izeyad]

I'm on Ubuntu 20. 'vmhgfs-fuse' is missing after building the tools from source, so something may have gone wrong.

Which apt repo has arm64 version of open-vm-tools-desktop with all dependencies? I also tried disabling/enabling share folders, but I get 'an error while mounting', probably because 'vmhgfs-fuse' is missing.

[izeyad · Accepted solution]

After reading the tech preview guide, I found a pre-built version of both 'open-vm-tools' and 'open-vm-tools-desktop', and now everything works as expected.

For anyone who needs to install the tools where they aren't available on their apt repo, they can do so with the following commands:

wget https://packages.vmware.com/tools/open-vm-tools/ovt-arm-tech-preview/Debian-10/open-vm-tools-11.2.5-2debian10.tgz
tar -zxf open-vm-tools-11.2.5-2debian10.tgz
sudo apt install  libmspack0 libxmlsec1 libxmlsec1-openssl
sudo dpkg -i ./open-vm-tools-desktop_11.2.5-2debian10_arm64.deb ./open-vm-tools_11.2.5-2debian10_arm64.deb

Then, you can manually enable the shared folders with:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/hgfs/
sudo /usr/bin/vmhgfs-fuse .host:/ /mnt/hgfs/ -o subtype=vmhgfs-fuse,allow_other

Hopefully this helps others

[bmac215]

I, too, have to disable and re-enable shared folders every time I boot my Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS VM on the Fusion for Apple Silicon tech preview. A minor inconvenience, but I thought I should report it as that's the goal of this discussion group.

[wila]

---

@bmac215 wrote:

I, too, have to disable and re-enable shared folders every time I boot my Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS VM on the Fusion for Apple Silicon tech preview. A minor inconvenience, but I thought I should report it as that's the goal of this discussion group.

---

That's a known issue, even for VMware Tools on intel.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Tools/11.3/rn/VMware-Tools-1130-Release-Notes.html

VMware Tools Issues in VMware Workstation or Fusion

Shared Folders mount is unavailable on Linux VM. If the Shared Folders feature is enabled on a Linux VM while it is powered off, the shared folders mount is not available on restart.

Note: This issue is applicable to VMware Tools running on Workstation and Fusion.

Workaround:

If the VM is powered on, disable and enable the Shared Folders feature from the interface. For resolving the issue permanently, edit /etc/fstab and add an entry to mount the Shared Folders automatically on boot.

For example, add the line:

vmhgfs-fuse   /mnt/hgfs    fuse    defaults,allow_other    0    0

also see:

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/74650

--
Wil

[bmac215]

This works perfectly; thanks. Either I didn't have to do that when I was using Fusion on Intel, or I did it so long ago that I forgot.

[BytesGuy]

Hi all, do you have any tips on getting this to work on Debian 11? The pre-built packages of OVT hosted by VMWare are only available for Debian 10 and there are no arm64 packages in the default repos. I tried building from source and it seems vmhgfs doesn't work. Cheers

[Technogeezer]

The Debian 10 packages seem to work on Debian 11 - I was just able to install them.

Follow the instructions above.

Just realize that you will not be able to change the resolution of the console display until Debian upgrades their kernel to 5.14 or later. The kernel version installed by Debian 11 (at least through the latest 11.2 that I just installed) is 5.10. That version does not contain the VMware graphics driver. VMware submitted a driver that does allow resizing of the VMware graphics adapter to the kernel maintainers and is is a default part of Linux kernel versions starting with 5.14.

[Technogeezer]

FYI - upgrade to the 5.15 kernel from the bullseye-backports repository if you want to be able to change the screen resolution on Debian 11.  Once you set up the bullseye-backports repository for use by apt, I installed the following:

# apt install linux-image-5.15.0-0.bpo.2-arm64-unsigned/bullseye-backports

and the resize works.

There is a 5.14 kernel that's available in the bullseye-backports repo  but I could not use that to change the resolution. Turns out that build does not contain the vmwgfx driver that allows the screen resolution to be changed.  

[BytesGuy]

Interesting, thanks for the tip! I am a bit further forward but still have one issue. Here is how I am installing OVT:

wget https://packages.vmware.com/tools/open-vm-tools/ovt-arm-tech-preview/Debian-10/open-vm-tools-11.2.5-2debian10.tgz
tar -zxf open-vm-tools-11.2.5-2debian10.tgz
sudo dpkg -i ./open-vm-tools_11.2.5-2debian10_arm64.deb
sudo apt --fix-broken install -y
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/hgfs/
sudo /usr/bin/vmhgfs-fuse .host:/ /mnt/hgfs/ -o subtype=vmhgfs-fuse,allow_other`

However, when I load this VM via Vagrant I get this:

==> default: Waiting for HGFS to become available...
==> default: Enabling and configuring shared folders...
An error occurred while executing `vmrun`, a utility for controlling
VMware machines. The command and output are below:

Command: ["enableSharedFolders", "/Users/adam/vagrant/.vagrant/machines/default/vmware_desktop/c5c18bf5-8ff7-477f-b573-2c91a96879ac/Debian 11.vmx", {:notify=>[:stdout, :stderr]}]

Stdout: Error: There was an error mounting the Shared Folders file system inside the guest operating system

Stderr: 

So it still seems unhappy about something, but I am a bit further forward. I'm going to have a poke around for any logs etc. If I find anything I will post back here!

[BytesGuy]

Quick update. This seems to resolve itself when I install the fuse3 package!

[Technogeezer]

The commands you issued above give you a one time mount of the shared folders that does not persist across reboots - this is a known issue with open-vm-tools.
see https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/60262 for more information.

To make the mount persist, try adding an entry in /etc/fstab such as

vmhgfs-fuse /mnt/hgfs fuse defaults,allow_other 0 0

[logopk]

FYI: open-vm-tools are now available in debian bullseye-backports

Add 

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports main contrib non-free
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports main contrib non-free

to 

/etc/apt/sources.list

[Technogeezer]

Thanks for the heads up, and this is good news.  

I also found that If you have the VMware-provided packages installed, they will be updated to the version in the bullseye-backports repo.

[roqueeee]

With Debian 11 I get a black screen on the framebuffer console using linux-image-5.15.0-0.bpo.2-arm64. Once inside X11 no more black screen and resizing works just fine with vmwgfx as well.

[logopk]

I see the same behaviour, black console after the kernel 5.15 is selected.

linux-image-5.14.0-0.bpo.2-arm64_5.14.9-2~bpo11+1_arm64  from debian snapshots is working fine on that part.

I reverted to 5.10 though and installed open-vm-tools from backports.

After that I see my console flooded with

Unknown ioctl 1976

https://github.com/vmware/open-vm-tools/issues/425

I am not sure if blacklisting the modules really helps.

[logopk]

blacklisting is mentioned: https://github.com/vmware/photon/issues/1117

[roqueeee]

It seems that 5.14 from backports doesn't include vmwgfx. So the issue seems to be related to it. I tried blacklisting vmwgfx but it still loads at boot.

I also blacklisted a couple of modules according to this post and the "Unknown ioctl 1976" messages stopped.

[roqueeee]

The framebuffer console will work with kernel parameter "vmwgfx.enable_fbdev=1" using linux-image-5.15.0-0.bpo.3-arm64 in Debian 11. Apparently fbdev is not enabled by default for vmwgfx in Debian 11.

You could also build the kernel from source and set "Enable framebuffer console under vmwgfx by default" to true under Device Drivers/ Graphics support/ DRM driver for VMware Virtual GPU.

Kernel 5.15 will also not have the "Unknown ioctl 1976" issue.