Guest display split into identical panes

[dominicus]

I have Ubuntu 12.04 LTS linux running in a VMWare Player 6 VM, in a Win7 host.

This install has been stable for >2yrs, but after some Ubuntu updates today, my screen now boots into 3 repeated and truncated panes.  See bottom of msg for how the display shows.

I found this VMWare KB article that describes the issue, but I'm unsure this applies to Player6:

VMware KB: Linux Guest Display Splits into Multiple Panes with Identical Content

I had installed VMWare Tools using the Player controls, but running the prescribed command in Ubuntu terminal:

sudo vmware-config-tools.pl --overwritesvga

....doesn't do anything, just gets me to the man pages for this config package.

Help appreciated!  I'm unable to use this VM as is.

[vmtester602]

Just for information, I have the same "split screen" issue on Ubuntu 14.04 VMs created with an old version of VMware Player (Workstation 6.5-7.x virtual machine / virtualHW version 7) :

I have the split "screen issue" with kernels :

- linux-image-3.13.0-29-generic

- linux-image-3.13.0-30-generic

It works fine with kernels :

- linux-image-3.13.0-24-generic

- linux-image-3.13.0-27-generic

Thanks a lot for your help Thomas and Chris !

[rojer9]

i can confirm that upgrading VM hardware version (7 to 10 in my case) solves the problem.

thanks Thomas and Chris!

[vmtester602]

On my side, remedies 1 and 2 solve the problem, but a patch would be welcome (if it's possible)

Thanks again !

[Gork]

I'm on Workstation v7.1.6 running vm hardware version 7.  I'm unable to upgrade because newer versions of Workstation won't run on WinXP-32.  It sounds like my only option is "Remedy 2."  I'm concerned that this might cause unforeseen problems later on and I won't be smart enough to figure out what the problem is.  If I understand your explanation, though, it doesn't sound like it, unless I forget about all this and end up upgrading this license of WS later along with the vm hardware version.

[thellstrom]

Actually I would consider "Remedy 2" the safest option for workstation 7 even if we release a patch in the future. IMO, that's how the guest OS should have been set up at installation time.

Thanks,

Thomas

[Gork]

Thanks.  And just for the record, "Remedy 2" worked perfectly for me.

[Engeeaitch]

And for me, Remedy 1b is working fine:

VMware Player 6.0.3, Ubuntu 12.04 Kernel version 3.2.0-65 generic

Thanks for your help.

[TAJ57]

Spent hours trying to get this resolved and ran across your post.  Applied the change to vmwgfx enable_fbdev=0 and worked like a charm.  Thanks.

Tim

[hathanhle]

I had same problem with VMware Workstation 9 (on Windows 7). It happened when I upgraded Ubuntu 12.04 to 14_.

When I found this thread, I followed Thomas' Remedy 2 and IT WORKS LIKE CHAMP!

Thank you very much, Thomas!

[thellstrom]

Hi!

A permanent workaround for this problem has been released with xf86-video-vmware 13.1.0

Thanks,

Thomas

[stlengr]

Tried Remedy 2 first, that did not work.

Remedy 1 worked but I had left Remedy 2 fix in place.

VMware Player 6.0.7 build-2844087

Host OS: Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit 6.1.7601, Service Pack 1

Guest: Linux ubuntu 3.2.0-77-generic #114-Ubuntu SMP Tue Mar 10 17:26:03 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

jd