VM ware tools: Disable tools in Ubuntu, or if can disable auto size resolution

[philip89]

Hi,

Was wondering if it is possible to disable the screen auto size function in Ubuntu? I really need this function to be off.

In my Windows vm's I have disabled vmtoolsd in the service and startup, everything still works fine while that is disabled and auto size is turned off as a result. So was wondering if I can disable vmtools in Ubuntu? I tried but couldn't get it to work.

Help appreciated :smileygrin:

[chickgreen]

In your host machine you should be able to find a preferences file for vmware - I am unaware of where it is located in Windows hosts.  In the preferences file, look for the setting pref.autoFitGuestToWindow = "TRUE", and try changing it to pref.autoFitGuestToWindow = "FALSE"

[philip89]

Thanks for the reply

I tried adding pref.autoFitGuestToWindow = "FALSE" to the .vmx file in the folder of the actual Ubuntu VM. It didnt have the setting in there so I added the line. But that didn't work.

So in the host, in  C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Player\settings.ini   this file was empty but I added the setting, didn't help either

[chickgreen]

I think the file location was shown in a KB article:

The default locations are:

• Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows 8 & Windows Server 2012  – C:\Users\[username]\VMware\AppData\Roaming\VMware\preferences.ini
• Windows XP – C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\VMware\VMware\preferences.ini
• Linux – ~/.vmware/preferences

[philip89]

Found the file, added the settings, but still no luck

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hi,

There might be a vmx setting that works, but ..

Disabling vmware-toolsd is probably possible, it is started via /usr/bin/vmware-user

However doing so will also disable any of the other feature provided by the vmware-toolsd deamon.

Most notably the clipboard functions for easy copy & paste between guests.

As you are looking for a hack you might be able to try and rename the following file:

/usr/lib/vmware-tools/plugins/vmusr/libresolutionSet.so

Note that depending on your architecture you might also have to rename the

/usr/lib/vmware-tools/plugins32/vmusr/libresolutionSet.so

or

/usr/lib/vmware-tools/plugins64/vmusr/libresolutionSet.so

Of course doing so is not supported at all, but it might disable auto resizing.

I suggest to take a snapshot before experimenting with this.

Good luck and enjoy!

--

Wil

[philip89]

Hi Wila thanks for the reply. trying to rename the file but its not letting me because its probably in use. So I got to disable vmtools completetly to be able to rename its files? Not sure on how to do that, can only uninstall.

[wila]

Hi,

I doubt that "in use" is the problem, that's more a windows thing.

Normally you can rename executables even if they are in use, but you might need to use root permissions, so rename using "sudo"

Aka:

sudo mv libresolutionSet.so libresolutionSet.so.no

Just tried it here and renaming the file worked for me.

--

Wil

[philip89]

Wila, thank you!!

It worked! No more screen resizing and I can still drag and drop files from host to guest, which I need!

[myzkm]

this would work for ubuntu 22.04 in vmware player 17: sudo mv /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/open-vm-tools/plugins/vmsvc/libresolutionKMS.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/open-vm-tools/plugins/vmsvc/libresolutionKMS.so.bak