Fusion 7 unusable graphics performance with Ubuntu guest

[myitcv]

After a straight upgrade to Fusion 7 (and upgrade of the tools), the graphics performance of by Ubuntu 14.10 guest has deteriorated massively. To the point that I've now switched back to Fusion 6.

I'm using 'Full resolution for retina display'

Shared graphics memory is at its maximum

The problem is most apparent when I have a terminal full screen in Ubuntu (which is most of the time). Text scrolling through the terminal is painfully slow, leaving artefacts all over the screen, some of which only get redrawn seconds later.

Can someone help with this?

[WhyWouldINeedAU]

Hi.

I'm having the same issue. Both with Mint 17 and with Fedora 20.

I'm running with the latest vmware-tools manually installed and compiled on each VM.

My vmware host is a MacBook Pro 15-inch, Mid 2010.

Considering going back to Fusion 6 which never had problems like this.

[WhyWouldINeedAU]

Quick update:

Just tried Fusion 7 on my iMac from late 2012.

I'm NOT seeing any graphical problems like this on my iMac.

I'm guessing it's a graphics card issue with vmware-tools that comes with Fusion 7.

What type of mac is OP running his vmware fusion host on?

[palter]

I was having similar problems in Red Hat 7 with graphics performance.  (I also noticed high CPU usage for gnome-shell.)

In a terminal window, run the command

    glxinfo | grep render

If it reports "llvm", you're using a software renderer rather than VMware's renderer.  I solved my problem by downgrading the VM's hardware from version 11 to 10.

The ultimate fix for this seems to be an updated X.org driver for vmware.  (I think 13.0.2 or later work.)

[myitcv]

Whilst I haven't tried downgrading the hardware version (this isn't a solution in my opinion, given that I'm upgrading), I was definitely using 1:13.0.2-2ubuntu1 of xserver-xorg-video-vmware in Ubuntu (I'm running 14.10) and the problem remained

Unrelated to the graphics problem, I've also noticed that Fusion 7 doesn't support a 3.16 kernel either.

[davidjbaird]

I get this problem as well, except with an Elementary (Luna) guest. glxinfo reports that it's using the software renderer, which consumes heaps of CPU. Interestingly Elementary Freya beta is able to use the VMWare 'native' driver but suffers from the occasional hang/black screen.

Have tried reinstalling VMWare client tools, and even tried a fresh install of Elementary. Have also tried rebuilding the "native" driver, with no luck.

Is anyone able to suggest a way to fix this?

*Edit: Downgrading to hardware 10 "solves" the issue, but obviously not optimal

[WhyWouldINeedAU]

Downgrading to hardware version 10 did NOT help me with this graphics problem.

I actually had to downgrade to vmware fusion 6.0.4 again to have a working

environment on my MacBook Pro.

As mentioned earlier, my iMac from 2012 looks like it's not affected. So I'm

keeping Fusion 7 on it to see when and if vmware releases fixes addressing

this.

[myitcv]

Any response from VMWare folks on this issue? I'm still stuck on 6.0.4, have paid for the upgrade, but can't upgrade until this is fixed...

[WhyWouldINeedAU]

myitcv wrote:

Any response from VMWare folks on this issue? I'm still stuck on 6.0.4, have paid for the upgrade, but can't upgrade until this is fixed...

Same here.

I'm guessing vmware needs us to create regular support tickets for this?

[fubvmware]

Hi Myitcv and WhyWouldINeedAUsername,

Can you collect the support data of the vm and send them to me via private message? We've got a similar issue reported but more log file for investigation will be very helpful!

[myitcv]

Thanks, although I will say it is a little disappointing that it has taken two messages from me (plus those from others) to get even an acknowledgement from VMWare.

Please can you detail what information you need, how it should be collected and where it should be sent.

[fubvmware]

You can select the virtual machine from the Library, go to Fusion menu -> Help -> Collect Support Information, then you will be prompted for password. After that, VMware Fusion will collect the support information of the virtual machine and generate a zip file on your desktop.

Since the size of the zip file varies depends on the Guest OS and usage, you can either send it to me via email to fub@vmware.com or using things like dropbox sharing.

[myitcv]

Has anyone noticed any improvement on this front? Using Professional Version 7.0.0 (2103067) I still see slow graphics behaviour.

@fub - I'm emailing you a link to a DropBox file. Any help much appreciated. If you could also confirm what kernel version version 7 is expected to work with (I managed to compile against 3.13 but failed against higher versions when testing the development build)

Thanks

[fubvmware]

Thank you myitcv for sharing the support data! Will have dev look into it.

Regarding the failure when compile against higher version than 3.13, the new version should work, so if you can give us the build log we can take a look from there.

[myitcv]

I was compiling against 3.16.0-18 on Ubuntu 14.10

It's a bit of a hassle to get the build error because I need to backup my VM, install Fusion 7, test, then revert to Fusion 6 and revert my VM (because Fusion 7 is unusable for me). But I'll try and get to this over the weekend.

[myitcv]

Any update on the graphics issue?

[myitcv]

*bump*

Any update?

If there are incremental releases of 7 which might address the issue I would certainly appreciate if someone from VMWare can post here when that happens.

As I said in previous posts, I'm stuck on 6 until this issue is resolved, so I'm not able to see when a new version is released and hence whether the problem is resolved.

Thanks

[WhyWouldINeedAU]

I've now played around with 7.0.1 on my Mid 2010 MacBook Pro.

I had to give up on 7.0 because of extreme graphics lag on linux,

and my first impression is that 7.0.1 is NOT any better. Sadly.

I'm considering asking VMware for a refund, since I'm still forced to

stay with vmware fusion 6.

Added video showing extreme lag in fusion 7.0.1 with linux.

[myitcv]

Just to report that I am now successfully using VMWare Fusion 7.1.0 with Ubuntu 14.10. No graphics issues since the 7.1.0 upgrade which is great news.

Thanks for the fix VMWare.