Hi, I'm switching over from VirtualBox to VMware Player, but still haven't found a version of Ubuntu that will work fine as client under Win8 host with the Shared Folders working properly.
The first Ubuntu that I tried was xubuntu 14.04 beta, and the Shared Folders is NOT working because of the problem reported at, http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2209291,i.e.,
make: Entering directory `/tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only'
/usr/bin/make -C /lib/modules/3.13.0-15-generic/build/include/.. SUBDIRS=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. \
MODULEBUILDDIR= modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-15-generic'
CC [M] /tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/backdoor.o
CC [M] /tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/backdoorGcc32.o
CC [M] /tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/bdhandler.o
CC [M] /tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/cpName.o
CC [M] /tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/cpNameLinux.o
CC [M] /tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/cpNameLite.o
CC [M] /tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/dentry.o
CC [M] /tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/dir.o
CC [M] /tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/file.o
CC [M] /tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/filesystem.o
/tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/file.c: In function ‘HgfsOpen’:
/tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/file.c:685:27: error: incompatible type for argument 3 of ‘HgfsSetUidGid’
current_fsuid(), current_fsgid());
^
In file included from /tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/file.c:46:0:
/tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/fsutil.h:92:6: note: expected ‘uid_t’ but argument is of type ‘kuid_t’
void HgfsSetUidGid(struct inode *parent,
^
/tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/file.c:685:27: error: incompatible type for argument 4 of ‘HgfsSetUidGid’
current_fsuid(), current_fsgid());
^
In file included from /tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/file.c:46:0:
/tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/fsutil.h:92:6: note: expected ‘gid_t’ but argument is of type ‘kgid_t’
void HgfsSetUidGid(struct inode *parent,
^
make[2]: *** [/tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/file.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
/tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/filesystem.c: In function ‘HgfsInitSuperInfo’:
/tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/filesystem.c:234:15: error: incompatible types when assigning to type ‘uid_t’ from type ‘kuid_t’
si->uid = current_uid();
^
/tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/filesystem.c:240:15: error: incompatible types when assigning to type ‘gid_t’ from type ‘kgid_t’
si->gid = current_gid();
^
make[2]: *** [/tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only/filesystem.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-15-generic'
make: *** [vmhgfs.ko] Error 2
make: Leaving directory `/tmp/modconfig-bllaQt/vmhgfs-only'
The filesystem driver (vmhgfs module) is used only for the shared folder
feature. The rest of the software provided by VMware Tools is designed to work
independently of this feature.
I then tried xubuntu 13.10, everything seems to work from the surface, but when I am trying to access the Shared Folders, I found it to be extremely slow, or not working at all:
$ time dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=1M count=33
33+0 records in
33+0 records out
34603008 bytes (35 MB) copied, 0.59162 s, 58.5 MB/s
real 0m0.601s
user 0m0.000s
sys 0m0.602s
$ time dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=1M count=100
100+0 records in
100+0 records out
104857600 bytes (105 MB) copied, 4.12474 s, 25.4 MB/s
real 0m4.155s
user 0m0.000s
sys 0m4.148s
$ time dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=1M count=300
Hangup
real 1m24.837s
user 0m0.000s
sys 0m1.428s
$ time dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=1M count=100
Hangup
real 2m1.934s
user 0m0.000s
sys 0m1.411s
$ time dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=1M count=33
33+0 records in
33+0 records out
34603008 bytes (35 MB) copied, 0.572458 s, 60.4 MB/s
real 0m0.588s
user 0m0.000s
sys 0m0.587s
$ time dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=1M count=100
Hangup
real 1m21.987s
user 0m0.000s
sys 0m1.353s
$ time dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=1M count=100
Hangup
real 2m58.326s
user 0m0.000s
sys 0m1.430s
Basically, it only works when file is under 33M, and normally not working if file is over 100M. I had (luckily) once had a 332M dd worked, and speed become 7x slower:
$ time dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=1M count=332
332+0 records in
332+0 records out
348127232 bytes (348 MB) copied, 45.1659 s, 7.7 MB/s
real 0m45.219s
user 0m0.006s
sys 0m6.027s
My network is bridged network:
So, how can I make everything works as expected, or which version of Ubuntu will work as client under Win8 host and have the Shared Folders working fine?
EDIT: in case somebody asks, NO, I don't have VirtualBox running while I'm using VMware Player.
Thanks
The latest version of Ubuntu officially supported under VMware Workstation 10 and VMware Player 6 is: Ubuntu 13.10.
You posted in the VMware Player forum so assuming thst the product you're using... What was the last thing I said in my first reply in this thread! "Also review the Release Notes for the VMware Product you're using for updated info that may not yet be in the compatibility guide."! 
From the VMware Player 6.0 Release Notes:
- New Operating System Support
Support for Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 Enterprise, Windows Server 2012 R2, Ubuntu 13.10 and the latest Fedora, CentOS, Red Hat and OpenSUSE releases.