vmware player 15 display problem with windows guest

[TS20]

I have a virtual machine with windows XP operating system. The vm was created on Version 12 and runs perfectly on vmware player 12.

Starting this vm in vmware player 15 for linux (ubuntu 18.04, elementary hera) always results in a scrambled display. Other vm's with windows 10 run smooth.

When starting this vm in vmware player 15 for windows (windows 10) everything is fine.

Any ideas what could cause the scrambled display on linux ?

The corresponding log is attached. The log always ends with "Destination resource 13 unsupported".

TS

[RaSystemlord]

Perhaps you just have in VM Display configuration Accelerate 3D graphics enabled. Turn it off.

As such, this is not a Linux problem, but an issue in hardware that you have for graphics on Linux and how it is supported with the Linux driver. If you need this acceleration (in 3D design), changing Linux host driver to a closed proprietary driver, might give you better support.

[TS20]

Thanks for your reply,

i thought so before myself and 3D acceleration is turned off on the windows XP guest. On the other hand with an windows 10 guest 3d acceleration runs perfectly. The linux host has integrated intel graphics for which there is no closed propretary driver, i think.

TS

[RaSystemlord]

OK, I hope somebody can analyze your log file.

You could try to reinstall VMware Tools on XP, but I think you have already tried that.

[darksidemaze]

I saw a post online the other day which may be relevant. It was a ticket and/or a blog post someone had created complaining about/to the Ubuntu maintainers not using one of the compiler switches properly which was causing problem for a number of apps.I think it was graphics related. If I get time I'll get my Win10 Activity History downloaded and try and track down the website and post the weblink back on here to see if its relevant for your situation.

FYI there has been changes in Windows handling graphics which I dont think is relevant in your situation because Linux is your host, but ... FYI...

XPDM vs. WDDM - Win32 apps | Microsoft Docs

Windows Display Driver Model - Wikipedia

This might also be useful if you want to flick some switches.?.

Ubuntu 20.04 Makes Picking The Right Graphics Driver (Mostly) Less Confusing (forbes.com)

Graphics driver check Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa - LinuxConfig.org

I dont use Linux as I prefer the AI built into Windows which has been around since XP, at least thats when I noticed it, making the GUI more productive, this AI is little known in the windows world and is definitely missing from the *nix GUI's, when I've tested them.

[TS20]

Thanks for your suggestions,

i do not think graphics configuration on the ubuntu host is wrong, because the windows 10 guest runs perfectly even with 3d accelerated graphics.

The problem might be more likely in the differences between graphics handling in windows XP and windows 10. But what to configure in vmware or the host or even windows XP itself to make guests windows XP graphics run ?

TS

[RaSystemlord]

I just tried this on a relatively clean Ubuntu 20.04.1 installation with VMware Player 16.1. I don't have Ubuntu 18.04 available now, but I wouldn't expect it to make a difference anyway.

There is nothing wrong with XP SP3 graphics (with not the latest XP patches, I suppose ... who would have them anyway on an old computer). I don't see what could be wrong. The settings are pretty standard in XP, also "high color" is selected in display properties.

You could try to turn off graphically demanding theme in XP, if you use one.

Is your XP perhaps created from a physical computer? That might result in something else than VMware standard graphics being used.

EDIT: Edited for clearer wording.

[TS20]

still no success on vmware player 15 ... I think the problem is not with ubuntu or vmware, but with the configuration of the windows XP guest. I dindn't setup the guest myself and it might be created from a physical computer. The display settings in windows XP checked on player 12 seem to be ok, the vmware graphics adapter is used and the standard theme.

[RaSystemlord]

If this is something that is corrected in later versions of VMware Player, I wouldn't know.

Perhaps you could try out? Also 16.1. works the same, which is the version I used for testing.

[TS20]

I found a solution, finally. It is a problem with Elementary OS or even Ubuntu and vmplayer 15. You have to start vmplayer as root or with "GTK_CSD=0 vmplayer".

Anyway thanks for your help.

[darksidemaze]

Running GTK+ Applications: GTK+ 3 Reference Manual (gnome.org)

GTK_CSD.  The default value of this environment variable is 1. If changed to 0, this disables the default use of client-side decorations on GTK+ windows, thus making the window manager responsible for drawing the decorations of windows that do not have a custom titlebar widget. CSD is always used for windows with a custom titlebar widget set, as the WM should not draw another titlebar or other decorations around the custom one.