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Freeko
Contributor
Contributor

Vmware player totally freezing Ubuntu

It used to work perfectly well but at some point it became almost unusable - I'm running Windows 8.1 guest on Ubuntu 14.10 host (vmplayer 7.0, attaching about screenshot).

It is i7 with 8 gigs of ram, 2x SSD (windows guest on dedicated SSD), nVidia NVS 5400M, original nvidia driver).

At some point cpu usage increases dramatically without me doing anything in guest and just stays high.

It's impossible to use host or guest (I can't even switch KDE or Windows' windows, the graphical UI just freezes).

Even if I try to SSH to the machine, it is also horribly slow (it takes an minute to login).

TOP reveals vmware-vmx and xorg cpu usage very high.

If I strace, I can see many "resource temporarily unavailable" errors, I guess that could be the reason for lockups (see attached files)

Does anyone have an idea what could be wrong? :-S

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38 Replies
dbasabe
Contributor
Contributor

You don't need to modify any configuration file. Try to open a shell and run:

vblank_mode=0 vmware

or

export vblank_mode=0

vmware

Bye!

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CE12345
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks a lot, I think it works.

Do I need to type that command every type I restart my computer?

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mik047
Contributor
Contributor

Same problem was there for me (high high cpu usage)

btw, i tried "vblank_mode=0 vmware" but it says "vmware command not found"

I am running 7.1.0 build-2496824 on ubuntu 14.04 LTS. any other command that works?

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mik047
Contributor
Contributor

I tried disabling "nvidia settings -> opengl settings -> sync to vblank" but did not help.

I am still wondering how to do "vblank_mode=0 vmware" thingy. Please help!

However, i have noticed that, my cpu usage goes high only when i start "CentOS" vm. (My host is ubuntu 14 04 lts) It is not the case when i run my other two ubuntu 14 04 lts vms.

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dbasabe
Contributor
Contributor

Open a shell and type:

vblank_mode=0 /path/global/to/vmware

(substitute the global path to the vmware binary)

It's probable that you installed VMware in a not default path.

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mik047
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks dbasabe. However I think i am lost a bit. Could not find any "vmware" binary per se!

Here is what my command prompt shows!

$ whereis vmware

vmware: /etc/vmware /usr/lib/vmware /usr/share/man/man4/vmware.4.gz                            <- the first two are directories, not a binary! Smiley Sad

Sorry if i am missing on something. But after trying to look into those folders, the one highlighted below looks closest to what you are referring. Do you reckon it is indeed the case?

ls -lah /usr/lib/vmware/bin/

drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4.0K Jun 13 15:02 .

drwxr-xr-x 22 root root 4.0K Jun 17 12:58 ..

-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 783K Jun 13 15:01 appLoader

-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  22K Jun 13 15:02 fusermount

-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  15K Jun 13 15:01 launcher.sh

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  29 Jun 13 15:02 licenseTool -> /usr/lib/vmware/bin/appLoader

-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 495K Jun 13 15:02 mkisofs

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  29 Jun 13 15:02 thnuclnt -> /usr/lib/vmware/bin/appLoader

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  29 Jun 13 15:02 vmplayer -> /usr/lib/vmware/bin/appLoader

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  29 Jun 13 15:02 vmware-app-control -> /usr/lib/vmware/bin/appLoader

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  29 Jun 13 15:02 vmware-enter-serial -> /usr/lib/vmware/bin/appLoader

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  29 Jun 13 15:02 vmware-fuseUI -> /usr/lib/vmware/bin/appLoader

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  29 Jun 13 15:01 vmware-gksu -> /usr/lib/vmware/bin/appLoader

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  29 Jun 13 15:01 vmware-modconfig -> /usr/lib/vmware/bin/appLoader

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  29 Jun 13 15:01 vmware-modconfig-console -> /usr/lib/vmware/bin/appLoader

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  29 Jun 13 15:02 vmware-netcfg -> /usr/lib/vmware/bin/appLoader

-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 7.4M Jun 13 15:02 vmware-remotemks

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  29 Jun 13 15:02 vmware-unity-helper -> /usr/lib/vmware/bin/appLoader

-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 4.7M Jun 13 15:02 vmware-usbarbitrator

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  29 Jun 13 15:01 vmware-vmblock-fuse -> /usr/lib/vmware/bin/appLoader

-rwsr-xr-x  1 root root  20M Jun 13 15:01 vmware-vmx                                                                                                      

-rwsr-xr-x  1 root root  25M Jun 13 15:01 vmware-vmx-debug

-rwsr-xr-x  1 root root  23M Jun 13 15:01 vmware-vmx-stats

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  29 Jun 13 15:02 vmware-zenity -> /usr/lib/vmware/bin/appLoader

ps : just for the information, I used the standard .bundle installation provided by vmware, which is :

VMware-Player-7.1.0-2496824.x86_64.bundle

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ogghi
Contributor
Contributor

Hi, I have same issues on LinuxMint with XFCE, Kernel 3.16 64 bit.

I tried the above variable, but either I'm doing it wrong or it doesn't work.

I'm using Vmware Player ...

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dbasabe
Contributor
Contributor

ok ok

You are using VMWare Player, then  I supose that you have to run:

vblank_mode=0 /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmplayer

ogghi
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for this!

Much appreciated. You saved me lots of troubles!

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ogghi
Contributor
Contributor

Hmm, does not change my problem.

The strange thing is: I just have those issues when I'm browsing with Chromium/Firefox in my host  system.

Looks like as soon as video has to be "rendered" by the host it gets high CPU form vmware...

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mik047
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks dbasabe.

That worked. Although, initially i could not see the cpu usage going down when i resumed suspended cent-os vm, i can see the difference now, after resetting that vm. My cpu usage is indeed under control now. Smiley Happy

And yes, it seems that os freezing is also gone now.

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ohamoha
Contributor
Contributor

Mosieur, chapeau bas!

No more freezes. I was one step away from spending 500EUR on processor upgrade.

VMWare 12, Ubuntu 15, problem shows mostly in conjunction with Chrome or Firefox (but not necessarily).

MirekPlachta
Contributor
Contributor

I had the same problem, running kubuntu 15.10 and Windows 10 as guest with Workstation Player 12.

For me it helped to change the compositor from XRender to OpenGL 2.0.

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kewix1
Contributor
Contributor

Your tip work perfectly well for me. Ubuntu 15.10 with vmplayer 7.1.2.

Many thanks !

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packeter
Contributor
Contributor

I tried the tip  "vblank_mode=0 vmplayer" but it still hangs/freezes.


Finally I figured out it was due to the setting on this VM:  the "Accelerate 3D graphics" option turned on (by default),  after I turned it off,  there is no freeze any more.


On my vmware workstation 12 player,  the above option is at:  "Hardware tab" --> "Display" on the left panel  --> "3D Graphics". 

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beconnect
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Guys,

after several days strunggeling with this i found the only thing that solves the problem for me and publish that in my blog.

My brain was heating too much with this Smiley Happy

http://costatechnet.blogspot.pt/2015/10/vmware-vmx-eating-cpu-100-and-freezes.html

Regards

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scum73
Contributor
Contributor

Hi All, i have been having the same problem and seem to have narrowed it down to a few factors.

1. Problem occurs on openSuSE 13.x and 42.1

2. Problem began after upgrading VMware workstation to 12.x

What i have also found is that it only happens when i run Guests with v12 hardware and have Google Chrome running on the host at the same time.

If i change my guests back to v10 hardware the problem goes away.

Alternatively if i close Google Chrome the problem also goes away.

Does this pattern match anyone else?
Regards,
Leon.

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MirekPlachta
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Guys,

after several days strunggeling with this i found the only thing that solves the problem for me and publish that in my blog.

My brain was heating too much with this

http://costatechnet.blogspot.pt/2015/10/vmware-vmx-eating-cpu-100-and-freezes.html

Regards

That fixed all small probs I still was struggling with, thanks a lot.

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tgarijo
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

This is an old post  :slightly_smiling_face: I have the same issue.

vmplayer 15.5.7 build-17171714

cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=20.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=focal
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS"

sometimes it's freezing and sometimes no freezing.

Regards

 

 

 

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