Another PCoIP black screen - View 5.1.1

[Jeff808]

We're having a black screen/disconnect issue with View 5.1.1 using PCoIP only. RDP logon works fine. When connecting with PCoIP, the connection seems to take, we get a black screen for about 10 seconds then kicked off with a message that says "could not connect" or something to that effect. I see this is a common problem, but we haven't been able to remedy it with any fixes found in the forums or VMWare documentation on the issue.

We're running a Connection Server only (no Security Server) and Composer is on the same machine as vCenter Server. We're using floating virtual desktops configured to use a Persona share.

Firewall on the virtual machines, Connection Server and vCenter Server have been disabled for testing. VMWare tools is up to date on all machines and the video driver on the VMs is 11.9.1 (2/17/2012), apparently the latest for ESXi 5.1.1.

Oddly enough, we were able to get PCoIP to work without issue on a test lab at our office with vSphere 5.0, but for some reason, the production one we're getting ready to roll out with 5.1.1 isn't working. The setups are the same as far as we can tell. We actually rolled back to VMWare tools 8.6.0 temporarily like on our 5.0 office server since that one works and has a different video driver, but no change.

Here's the log from the machine with View Client installed (starting where the PCoIP connection is initiated).

2012-10-03T22:27:26.364-10:00 INFO  (0B98-0B9C) <2972> [pcoip_mfw] Program 'vmware-remotemks - VMware Workstation Remote MKS' started, version=8.0.2 build-697851, pid=0xB98, buildtype=release, usethread=0, closeafterwrite=0

2012-10-03T22:27:26.379-10:00 INFO  (0B98-0B9C) <2972> [vmware-remotemks] Program 'vmware-remotemks - VMware Workstation Remote MKS' started, version=8.0.2 build-697851, pid=0xB98, buildtype=release, usethread=0, closeafterwrite=0

2012-10-03T22:27:26.410-10:00 INFO  (0B98-0B9C) <2972> [vmware-remotemks] Program 'vmware-remotemks - VMware Workstation Remote MKS' started, version=8.0.2 build-697851, pid=0xB98, buildtype=release, usethread=0, closeafterwrite=0

2012-10-03T22:27:26.676-10:00 INFO  (0328-0B50) <DesktopWindow> [wswc_ui] Ask UsbDeviceManager to open client/agent channel

2012-10-03T22:27:26.676-10:00 INFO  (0328-0B50) <DesktopWindow> [wswc_ui] vmware-view-usbd channel created OK

2012-10-03T22:27:39.328-10:00 INFO  (0328-0B50) <DesktopWindow> [wswc_pcoip] The connection to the remote computer ended.

2012-10-03T22:27:41.028-10:00 INFO  (0328-0CCC) <MessageFrameWorkDispatch> [wswc] VMware View Windows Client received shutdown signal

2012-10-03T22:27:41.886-10:00 INFO  (0328-0D44) <TunnelRead> [wswc_tunnel] Tunnel Unnamed: STOPPED by peer, properties:

reason = Logout request by system

2012-10-03T22:27:42.214-10:00 INFO  (0328-084C) <Main Thread> [wswc] VMware Windows Client stopped (exit code 0)

As you can see, the connection suddenly ends after vmware-view-usbd channel gets created. I don't know if this is related. I tried disabling USB forwarding, but no change.

There might be something which gives it away in this log, but I just don't see it. The log from the Connection Server also says nothing before abruptly disconnecting. Let me know if I should post another log for more info.

Does anyone have any ideas with this?

Thank you.

[TheLittleOne]

Maybe this will change nothing, but I have nearly the same Problem with View 4.6 and the Problem was the Resolution of the TFTs. After I changed the resolution it works fine.

Maybe this link helps:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=102833...

[etieseler]

Read the Known Issues in the realease note. The 4th bullet point under "Installation and Upgrade". The USB Hub drivers take a while to install and if the desktop is rebooted to quickly then they will not get installed.

http://www.vmware.com/support/view51/doc/view-51-release-notes.html

See if thats your issue.

I saw this because I am looking for an answer to an issue I am having where after a user logs off, a couple of the View services are stopped so that the next morning when the user tries to login, they get the "Desktop Not Available" message.

-Ed

[Jeff808]

Thanks, but I reinstalled the USB hub drivers as per the articled, and no change.

[etieseler]

It was worth a try. Something that I have seen when having problems logging in and getting the "Desktop Not Available" message, I will log into the console of the VM and open up services.msc and check the VMware Services. There normally should be 4 running, but only 2 are: VMware Tools and VMware View Agent. If I restart these two (in any order) the other two services will startup, and the user can login after that.

I wonder if something like this is happening on yours too.

[EricConley]

What version fo vSphere are you using in your production environment.  Last I heard 5.1 was not supported with any version of View.  Also check your local firewalls and AV on your endpoints to see if port 4172 UDP and/or TCP is being blocked.  Depending on your setup you may have to actually tell your AV to allow that port in order to get it through.  In my experience a black screen in PCoIP when it doesn't happen in RDP almost always has to do with a firewall or AV blocking that port somewhere.

[vedeht]

Do you ever see the windows screen or does it always show black when it connects for those 10 seconds?  If its all black then you have a firewall or network related issue.  Trust me.  There's a firewall somewhere blocking your sessions.  Try connecting to the virutal desktop on the same exact network segment as the virtual desktops are on.

Your session when not connecting through a security server goes from your user device straight to the virtual desktop and bypasses the connection broker when it tries to connect via PCOIP.  Something is blocking that.

Now if you ever see the windows screen even for a brief second before it goes black then i'm wrong.  But if you never see windows then it is a firewall or network issue. 

[Jeff808]

Sorry, got sidetracked with other projects.

I took a log from the test VM machine that I'm trying to PCoIP into:

2012-10-22 12:56:11.181 [0F80] ## Starting MKSVchan Server logging.

2012-10-22 12:56:11.181 [0F80] wWinMain: Loading pcoip_vchan.dll.

2012-10-22 12:56:11.247 [0F80] wWinMain: Finished loading pcoip_vchan.dll.

2012-10-22 12:56:11.247 [0F80] wWinMain: Calling pcoip_vchan_plugin_app_init.

2012-10-22 12:56:11.336 [0F80] wWinMain: pcoip_vchan_plugin_app_init finished.

2012-10-22 12:56:11.336 [0F80] MKSVchanWin32_ReadRegistryDWORD: Registry key HKLM\Software\Policies\Teradici\PCoIP\pcoip_admin not found.

2012-10-22 12:56:11.336 [0F80] MKSVchanWin32_ReadRegistryDWORD: Registry key HKLM\Software\Policies\Teradici\PCoIP\pcoip_admin_defaults not found.

2012-10-22 12:56:11.336 [0F80] MKSVchanWin32_ReadRegistryDWORD: Registry key HKLM\Software\Policies\Teradici\PCoIP\pcoip_admin not found.

2012-10-22 12:56:11.336 [0F80] MKSVchanWin32_ReadRegistryDWORD: Registry key HKLM\Software\Policies\Teradici\PCoIP\pcoip_admin_defaults not found.

2012-10-22 12:56:11.336 [0F80] Registering connect callback function

2012-10-22 12:56:11.336 [0F80] We are not connected yet, so wait for connect callback.

2012-10-22 12:56:11.336 [0F80] FindProcess: Successfully opened process handle.

2012-10-22 12:56:11.347 [0FE8] MKSVchanWin32_ReadRegistryString: Software\VMware, Inc.\VMware VDM\TraceEnabled value not found.

2012-10-22 12:57:34.169 [0FE8] HelperWndProc: Received WM_ENDSESSION with wParam 0x0001 and lParam 0x80000000.

2012-10-22 12:57:34.169 [0FE8] HelperWndProc: Application is closing. Clearing clipboard first.

2012-10-22 12:57:34.169 [0FE8] ClearClipboard: Successfully cleared clipboard.

_____________________________________

So it looks like the connection is getting through okay but these registry values don't exist. I searched the registry and indeed didn't find them anywhere. Is there something I didn't do in the setup that would have created those keys for me?

[markbenson]

Did you install the View Agent *after* VMware Tools? If not can you reinstall View Agent and try again. If that doesn't work can you try increasing Video RAM for the VM.

Mark

[Jeff808]

The issue has been resolved by rebuilding the VM master image (a WinXP image) from scratch. Made sure to install VMware tools first, patched it, converted to template for future use, then added the Microsoft patch for WinXP to use Composer linked-clones (otherwise they get stuck on "Customizing..." for us), then added VMware Agent (and made sure to wait serveral minutes after Agent install completed to make sure it finished background processing as I've seen mentioned elsewhere). Made sure 4172 was open in the firewall, built out our pool, and now PCoIP works with no problems. I guess the original master image had a corrupted Agent install that uninstalling and reinstalling couldn't fix.

Hope this helps others.

[kslish]

I've been follwing this thread because I have the same issue with one of my Windows 7 masters.  Update the agent to 5.1 or 5.1.1 and it drops the PCoIP connection but it works fine using the 5.0.1 agent.  For now I've just rolled back to the 5.0.1 agent on that master image.  It'll take me a while to redo the image from scratch if that's the only solution, as it's our main lab image that involves a lot of software installs and tweeks.  What a pain when it works fine with 5.0.1, not sure what changed.

Other Windows 7 images that I have in our environment updated fine to 5.1 or 5.1.1.

[killerutu]

Try enabling 3D support on the VM.

After a esx crash in my test environment i ran into the same issue.

I remember that i had previously enable 3D support on the VM i was trying to use but now it was disabled.

After re-enabling 3D Support on the VM i was able to connect fine and i have no more issues.

[anienhuis]

I had the same problem with Windows 8 and PCoIP (RDP works fine) and tried to change the Video settings (3D, memory, as suggested elsewere). However the View Manager changed everything back just a couple of seconds after my changes. The new strategy was changing the video requirements of the pool in View Manager. I tried:

• default display: PCoIP
  
• Allow to choose: No
  
• Rendring: Disabled
  
• Max monitors: 4
  
• Max resolution: 2560x1600
  

This resulted in virtual machines with 4 displays, 125 MByte memory and no 3D. Everything works now with PCoIP.

[anienhuis]

...the problem is a little more complex: I have a pool with Win 8 Pro that works now and a pool with Win 8 Ent that still has the problem. I will see if I can find the relevant difference between these two