hgfs driver for VMware tools version 9.6.1-1378637 (Fusion 6.0.2) for linux is broken

[jamesnine]

host OS: Mac OS X 10.9

guest OS: debian 7 (wheezy) 32/64-bit

version: VMwareTools-9.6.1-1378637

this is just an FYI:

I upgraded to Fusion 6.0.2 recently, and every time I tried to load any files via the hgfs shares, the files ended up being corrupted.  It would happen randomly; and sometimes I would end up doing the file transfer again, and everything was fine again.  At first, I thought it was my debian install going bad (I've been upgrading and carrying it over ever since I've used Fusion 5), so I re-installed debian from scratch, but I still got the same file corruption issues.  I figured it might have been the hgfs driver, so I tried downloading the previous version of vmware tools for linux for Fusion 6.0.1 (since there's no way to downgrade, you can grab them at: https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/fusion/6.0.1/1331545/packages/) and downgraded vmware tools on my debian guest server.  Now everything works fine again.

[gsaito]

I ended up reinstalling VMWare fusion 6.0.1, from 6.0.2.  (not just using 6.0.1 tools on 6.0.2)

The truncation problem is gone (although I experience a slight sync delay once in a while).

I am not sure why I was unable to get the 6.0.1 tools + 6.0.2 fusion combo to work to stop the truncation problem.  For my VMs, it required doing a full install of 6.0.1 VMWare fusion to fix the problem.

[sheretov]

@gsaito @steve

For folks with Linux guests who are coping with this issue, NFS seems to work quite well as a workaround.  Make sure your VM gets a stable IP on a host-only network, expose an NFS share to it, and you're good to go.  I'm back on VMware 6.0.2.

[WoodyZ]

sheretov wrote: Make sure your VM gets a stable IP on a host-only network

Might you mean to assign a Static IP Address to the VM on the Host-only Network?

[sheretov]

Indeed, that might be a better word choice.

WoodyZ wrote:

sheretov wrote: Make sure your VM gets a stable IP on a host-only network

Might you mean to assign a Static IP Address to the VM on the Host-only Network?

[GGRIII]

I can confirm another instance of file corruption with Linux guests, sharing folders with a Mac OS X host running Fusion 6.0.2.   I'm the co-author of Scalpel, a file carving tool, and in some recent tests before releasing a new version, we encountered situations where files written to a shared folder on the Mac OS X host from a Linux guest clearly don't match what's written when the output directories are either in inside the Linux guest, on bare hardware, or inside a Windows guest.  For now, we're simply not going to use shared folders with Linux guests, but this is a huge problem that needs to be addressed quickly, because a lot of people in the digital forensics and security arena used shared folders and assume they work.  For what it's worth, the corruption is infrequent.  As an example, in one test, a dozen or so files were corrupted out of ~16,000.

Thanks

--Golden

[alex_time]

It's a shame...after a week or more how many people does not know anything about this and how many files are been corrupted unless they reboot the virtual machines?! I have switched to SSHFS and I am not going back even if/when Wmware will solve the problem, I HAVE to be sure that files I update are the VERY SAME in the virtual machines! We are not playing here, this is a really big bug that should be solved but first of all all the customers should be warned about it. Very disappointed.

[kevinastone]

I also experience this corruption/truncation of files over hgfs on 6.0.2.  You can mitigate the issue by re-mounting the hgfs partition (`sudo mount /mnt/hgfs`) which should resolve the truncation issue, so you shouldn't need a full reboot.

[domino14]

Guys this is a terrible horrible bug. Please fix it asap or show us how to mitigate, how can there be no ETA for a bug of this magnitude? We can't figure out how to downgrade to an earlier version of VMWare Tools either.

Is there a workaround for a Mac host and Ubuntu guest that doesn't involve rebooting the machine every time we make a change to a file?

[steve_goddard]

First of all I am working on this bug and that existing caching bug fix which lead to this issue arising.

I can't give you an ETA because I am prevented from doing so as a company policy. All I will be able to state is that there is a fix coming...

Secondly, you have been given workarounds for downgrade to 6.0.1 which does NOT have this bug which was introduced in 6.0.2 tools. See https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/fusion/6.0.1/1331545/packages/

Thirdly, you can try to switch to sshfs which is similar and easy enough to install into the Linux VM and use that to access files on your host too.

Or set NFS or Samba if you have other differing requirements but which maybe more work.

Lastly the previous user update also stated remount of the HGFS partition also solved this for them so a reboot is not necessary.

Sorry that this has caused you inconvenience that is certainly not my intention. The intentions are to get rid of these nasty caching issues which occurred.

Steve

[31415926535]

This silent data corruption bug has been open with no resolution (just the workaround of "the current release is broken, don't use it") for almost a year now.

Any chance of a fix being released any time soon?

[steve_goddard]

This issue is now fixed and will be released in the next VMware tools release which will not be too long.

Note, I am not allowed to say when this is exactly as it is VMware policy as schedule changes often occur and so exact dates often change. Also I am not included or a party to those discussions.

Thanks for everyone's help and patience.

Steve

[kevinastone]

Big thanks Steve.  Can't wait for this.