Greetings,
We're trying the View 4 2-month trial but one of the issues is that when we try to connect to a Windows 7 VM in multimonitor mode we just get 2 black screens and after a couple of seconds it disconnects and the View Client closes.
Did anybody manage to get multimonitor working for Windows 7 clients? I've already tried raising the vram memory to 128mb.
Multimonitor works without any problems when connecting to a Windows XP client.
Thanks in advance,
Bram
I had the exact same issue and resolved it. You can read the full demo I did here:
http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/gunnarb/2010/01/26/pcoip-review
However, quick reply is: uninstall vmware tools, uninstall view agent from the guest os. Reinstall tools then agent. See if you can connect to the base image (we aren't doing linked clones yet). Also all I care about at this stage is that you get one monitor to work.
Once you can connect to Windows 7 with one monitor, go in Device Manger to uninstall your graphics driver and replace that drive with the SVGA driver found C:\program files\common files\vmware\drivers do not use the WMMD driver. With the SVGA driver in place you will get multi monitor support. Also it'll fix the annoying UAC issue and the screen saver issues.
One problem with this solution is that it's not support and has known issues with BSOD, but you do get a working multimonitor VM. Once you have all that in place go ahead and do your linked clone stuff.
-Gunnar
Small unsignificant and obvious update, this same behaviour is also present with a Windows Vista VM.
Win7 isn't supported yet, but is supposed to be early this year according to sources within VMWare.
But Windows Vista is supported and the same behaviour shows on those VMs aswell.
Hi All,
When using multi-monitor you need to ensure the VM has enough video ram. There is a tab in Edit Settings for the VM that allows you to calculate this. I suggest you calculate this then manually enter the value.
I've explained this issue here:
http://xtravirt.com/vmware-view-4-multi-monitor-issue-with-pcoip
-
Peter Grant
Virtualization Consultant
Xtravirt.com
Please award points if you found this helpful
Unfortunately raising the video ram didn't help either, as mentioned in my first post I even raised it to 128mb just to try it.
With edit settings it calculates the result to about 29,4 MB. I also tried to lower/change the resolution settings in the desktop/pool settings of the broker, no luck there either.
There are some known issues on the View4 release notes around multi-monitor support with PCoIP in case you haven't seen them.
Also try on your client OS reducing resolution really low like 800x600 just in case (I know its similar to reducing the pool settings but that worked for me)
Other people report that GPO settings can affect this somehow so maybe move everything to root of the domain outside all but the default domain GPO?
Finially community member Linjo suggested the order that you install the .NET framework and Agent may make a difference. He had this post: http://www.thatsmyview.net/2009/12/18/how-to-get-pcoip-with-view-4-to-work-every-time/
This may help....
I updated my parent image last night with an extra application (which was working with dual screens fine) and then when I came in today it wasn't working. The advice I gave yesterday about adjusting the video memory doesn't appear to work the first time you boot up. I had to reset my desktops to get it working.
Here's my testing scenario:
STEPS:
1. Create an XP 32-bit desktop parent image
2. Manually assign parent image 36MB of Video RAM from ‘Edit Settings’ in VI Client (This is enough to cover 2 monitors x 32-bit graphics x ‘1920x1200’)
3. Create a Non-persistent Desktop pool using max of 2 Monitors and 1920 x 1200 resolution and PCoIP as default
4. Provision a Linked clone VM(s) from this pool
5. Linked clone VMs show in the VI Client as having 35.19 MB video ram (not 36MB like their parent)
6. Using View Software client connect to pool using PCoIP Result multi-monitor not working, a single screen is displayed across to monitors
7. With View Manager Reset this desktop
8. Upon reset (nothing else changed) the same linked clone Video memory has automatically adjust itself to 35.19
9. When I logon to this same linked clone VM now it works!
It appears that even though the linked clone is provisioned from scratch it needs a reset. One of the many issues with this is that if a desktop pool is configured to “delete after first use” then multi-monitor will never work.
Seems like a bug to me ![]()
Peter,
Thanks for your continued help on this issue, however moving the VM in an OU where group policies are blocked (or the root OU for that matter) didn't seem to make a difference, nor did changing the resolution on the client PC.
Most of the .NET Frameworks are installed with the OS, so they're usually already on the system when the tools and agent are installed. I re-installed in the suggested order but that didn't seem to work either.
I don't use linked clones because the composer isn't supported on 64-bit yet (support says it will be in View 4.5 which should be out this summer), so I'm just testing some brokers. It does seem that View is quite buggy though, maybe this will all improve when 4.5 is released. I tried to reset the desktop anyway but that didn't result in working multimonitor either.
Something I've noticed, when setting the number of desktops in the broker to (for example 4) and resetting the VM afterwards, XP machines actually show 4 displays when I take it over with the vSphere client console. However when I do the same for the Windows 7 or Vista VMs, they keep only showing 1 display. This points to the video ram thing again but I've tried changing the video ram to just about any number I can think about and even tried to edit it straight in the .vmx file with no luck.
I had the exact same issue and resolved it. You can read the full demo I did here:
http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/gunnarb/2010/01/26/pcoip-review
However, quick reply is: uninstall vmware tools, uninstall view agent from the guest os. Reinstall tools then agent. See if you can connect to the base image (we aren't doing linked clones yet). Also all I care about at this stage is that you get one monitor to work.
Once you can connect to Windows 7 with one monitor, go in Device Manger to uninstall your graphics driver and replace that drive with the SVGA driver found C:\program files\common files\vmware\drivers do not use the WMMD driver. With the SVGA driver in place you will get multi monitor support. Also it'll fix the annoying UAC issue and the screen saver issues.
One problem with this solution is that it's not support and has known issues with BSOD, but you do get a working multimonitor VM. Once you have all that in place go ahead and do your linked clone stuff.
-Gunnar
Oh ya and don't fool around with teh Video RAM settings as so many people are saying to do. These settings just get overwritten by the View Manager anyway. I learned this the hard way as a vmware employee told me i was just chasing my tail becuase View Manager just kept putting these settings back.
I recommend you just crank up the resolution in View Manager to be higher than you need, you'll notice the VMs will automatically adjust their vRAM settings. Also remember to power off your VMs completely after making these changes.
-Gunnar
Ref video monitor settings, there does appear to be a bug with this. View is meant to calculate the correct video monitor settings however it appears at this stage that with 2 displays at 1920x1200 view or possibly esx isn't calculating correctly in the first go. You shouldn't need to change this however it does seem buggy and it's worth keeping an eye on it. I'm working with vmware to investigate this and track down the exact cause.
I'll update this when I know more. All in all it seems that there are several different issues
peter
VMware told me that the calculations are wrong and they are working on fixing this known bug. The bug is only apparent on wide screen monitors.
gunnarb,
Thanks, this confirms what I'm seeing and yes it's on wide screen monitors. I've got VMware support in Ireland researching this and they initially weren't aware of it. If you have a contact at VMware or a case ref then I'll let me VMware contacts know in order to save them time researching an already identified issue. Feel free to email me direct peter.grant@xtravirt.
Cheers
Peter
Removing the video card driver and replacing it with (in my case) the SVGA II driver from the drivers folder in common files did seem to solve the issue like gunnarb said.
Thanks!
I too experienced this same issue. I resolved it using gunnarb's driver technique. (Thank you gunnarb!)
I have a windows xp pro host running vmware view client 4
Two 19" monitors that are NOT wide screen.
The VM they connect to is Windows 7 Pro.
Works like a CHARM.
I did not adjust any resolutions or anything else as suggested in earlier posts. (Not saying they're wrong - just didn't have to do it)
Great Post - Thank You!
