copy paste not working between mac Mojave and ubuntu 18.04

[poboxbrian]

Fresh install

VMWare Fusion Version 11.0.3 (12992109)

macOS Mojave Version 10.14.6 (host)

ubuntu-18.04.3-live-server-amd64.iso downloaded from Ubuntu site

Sharing a folder.

Keyboard & Mouse: Mac Profile

Bridged network: Thunderbolt Ethernet Slot 2

Sound card disabled.

Bluetooth disabled

Isolation > Enable Drag and Drop & Enable Copy and Paste both checked (default)

Can't highlight text on command line with mouse.  Can't see mouse arrow in VM.

Copy text from host and attempt to paste to VM command line fails.

VMWare tools appeared too auto install as Virtual Machine > "Install VMWare Tools" is grayed out.

Uninstalled tools and reinstalled via

sudo apt-get uninstall & subsequent install

Rebooted.

Still no copy paste functionality.

Anyone have an idea what I haven't done?

[wila]

Hi,

The shared clipboard feature with your Linux guest depends on a few things:

- installation of open-vm-tools (open-vm-tools-desktop really)

- a running windows manager

As you are talking about wanting to use this in command line.. you might be missing out on that latter requirement.

If you don't want to use a windows manager then there's also no mouse..

What I tend to do myself in these cases is to open up SSH and connect to the VM that way.

--
Wil

[poboxbrian]

Hi wila,

Thanks for the comment.

I also connect through an ssh connection normally, but I do occasionally want to copy and paste from window to window.

As I understand things, open-vm-tools-desktop is for the situation where your vm is running a GUI.  If you're running a headless server, then those tools are of no value.

Originally Shared Folders was working, but somewhere along the way this quit working.

I finally deleted Fusion from Applications, searched down every trace of VMware on my machine, and did a completely clean install.  I still have no shared folders or drag & drop.

These are the locations of files that I know to delete.  Maybe I'm missing one that is screwing everything up, or VMWare has altered the kernel (?).

/Library/Application Support/VMware

/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion

/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion

~/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion

~/Library/Caches/com.vmware.fusion

~/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion

~/Library/Preferences/com.vmware.fusion.LSSharedFileList.plist

~/Library/Preferences/com.vmware.fusion.LSSharedFileList.plist.lockfile

~/Library/Preferences/com.vmware.fusion.plist

~/Library/Preferences/com.vmware.fusion.plist.lockfile

~/Library/Preferences/com.vmware.fusionDaemon.plist

~/Library/Preferences/com.vmware.fusionDaemon.plist.lockfile

~/Library/Preferences/com.vmware.fusionStartMenu.plist

~/Library/Preferences/com.vmware.fusionStartMenu.plist.lockfile

Ugh!

[wila]

Hi,

Drag & Drop also falls into the same requirement.

There's no clipboard framework without a GUI, so no drag and drop.

Not sure about shared folders, I _think_ it should work without a GUI, but there's plenty of times that one has problems even when there is a GUI.

It's easier to use standard network shares.

re. install from scratch. It's pretty much always the vmware-tools in the guest that isn't working. Not the VMware Fusion install itself.

Without a GUI the main features (clipboard integration, drag & drop) won't work.

--

Wil