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Nazgulled
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Arch Linux Guest Crashes/Freezes Windows Vista Host - PLEASE HELP!

Hi,

I just installed Arch Linux in VMware Workstation 6.5 and after the first boot just right after the installation (meaning, nothing else but the base system was installed/configured) I can barely use the virtual machien without having the host freezing. I'm just there, in the console and it freezes everything without me doing nothing. Most of the times, I just type "reboot" and it freezes the host machine. Other times, I could type other things, like "ls", or "cd <dir>" and then "cd ..", and after a few seconds, boom, host freezes.

By freezes I mean I have to press the power off button for a few seconds to turn off the computer and reboot (laptop, no reset button).

I've been searching google for the past hours and couldn't find the cause and/or solution for the problem, this is driving me nuts. I installed VirtualBox just to test if the same thing happened and it didn't, it works fine on VirtualBox, but due to other issues, I can't swap to VirtualBox at the moment.

Please, somone, help me out fix this issue in VMware, I can't understand why it crashes the host system, there's no reason for that to happen...

Message was edited by: oreeh

Reason: removed the emoticon from the subject

Oliver Reeh

VMware Communities User Moderator

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Scissor
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

I updated my previous post, please take a look at it..

You have 17 previous posts. I don't know which one you updated. Smiley Happy

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Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Would you be willing to attach the output of the System Information utility when run on your Host? That will allow me to see all installed software, drivers, hardware information for your laptop?

To do so, click Start -> Run -> type: msinfo32

This should bring up the System Information utility. Then choose File -> Save and save the output to a .NFO file and attach it to a reply.

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Nazgulled
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I was refering to this:

Updated the wired adapter drivers (there are no updated version for the wireless one), disable the "offload" settings, I even disabled all network adapters (including VMware virtual ones), removed the network adapters from the VM, completetly disabled the network in the guest machine this time at another reinstall (didn't see the "starting network" message at boot). The problem still persists... Maybe this means the problem is not about the network?System information attached...

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Virtuoso
Virtuoso

On another track, since you still get a hang even without a Network Adapter defined for your Guest, perhaps some other component is causing the hang. On your Guest, try removing the Network Adapters, Sound Card, Floppy Drive. Under the virtual Display settings, uncheck "Accelerate 3D Graphics (DirectX 9.0c)". Then boot Arch Linux and see if it still cause you problems.

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Virtuoso
Virtuoso

For some reason I can't read your .NFO file. Perhaps try zipping it and then reattaching it?

On a side note, I was successfully able to boot the Arch Linux ISO as a Guest on my system. I selected "Boot Arch Linux Live CD" and was then able to log in as root. I then ran through the setup program, selecting the defaults for everything. After install the system rebooted. After rebooting I was able to log in as root and poke around. Typing "reboot" after logging in rebooted the Guest. No problems on the Host.

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Nazgulled
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On another track, since you still get a hang even without a Network Adapter defined for your Guest, perhaps some other component is causing the hang. On your Guest, try removing the Network Adapters, Sound Card, Floppy Drive. Under the virtual Display settings, uncheck "Accelerate 3D Graphics (DirectX 9.0c)". Then boot Arch Linux and see if it still cause you problems.

Still nothing... Smiley Sad

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Nazgulled
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Here it is...

There's definitely something wrong on my computer that's not able to communicate very well with VMware, but I don't know what else to test to try and find out the problem... There's no way I'm ever gonna fix this if I can't find what's causing it...

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Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Well I quickly looked through the text configuration you uploaded. It looks like you are running the latest NIC drivers for both your wired and wireless connections.

I do notice that you have VirtualBox installed on the Host. I don't know if Virtual Box and VMware Workstation can co-exist on the same Host at the same time... perhaps someone else on here knows for sure.

What Antivirus are you running on your Host? Any 3rd party firewalls or other security software? Any VPN software installed?

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Nazgulled
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Damn, I replied through my mobile but it didn't work for some reason...

VirtualBox is not the issue. The host was freezing long before I installed VirtualBox, actually, I only installed VirtualBox because of the problem I was having on VMware, to see if the same thing happened...

I'm running ESET NOD32 v3 and no firewalls at all, not even the default Windows Firewall one (service disabled). And no VPN software, VNC client though, but it probably doesn't matter... Also, related to networking and such, I use SecureW2 to authentication myself on my university's wireless network.

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Nazgulled
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I don't know what just happened but now it's working... I'm trying to make it crash but I can't, dunno if this is a good thing...

It seems that continuum's solution (ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000") fixes the problem. Which is weird cause I tried it before (when he said it for the first time) and it crashed back than. Maybe the updated drivers have anything to do with it? If so, how come? I mean, I updated the wired network adapter drivers and I'm not even using it, it's turned on, but I'm connected through wireless... What do you think about?

If this indeed fixed problem, my question now is, how much does it differ to use this different virtual device instead of the default AMD one?

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Virtuoso
Virtuoso

VirtualBox is not the issue. The host was freezing long before I installed VirtualBox, actually, I only installed VirtualBox because of the problem I was having on VMware, to see if the same thing happened...

ok

I'm running ESET NOD32 v3 and no firewalls at all, not even the default Windows Firewall one (service disabled).

Can you try uninstalling NOD32 to see if that resolves the problem?

Not directly related to your situation, but here are some posts with people having problems with NOD32 v3 and VMware. Apparently NOD32 v4 has additional support for VMware Bridged networking.

Also, related to networking and such, I use SecureW2 to authentication myself on my university's wireless network.

I can't find any reported problems with SecureW2 and vmware, so that's ok...

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Virtuoso
Virtuoso

If this indeed fixed problem, my question now is, how much does it differ to use this different virtual device instead of the default AMD one?

using e1000 as the virtual Ethernet adapter is fine as long as your Linux distribution includes a driver for it. You won't notice much, if any, difference performance-wise.

Congrats on getting things working!

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Nazgulled
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Let's hope it's really fixed... That's what I'm afraid of, if I lose too much time configuring everything only to find out that the problem is not gone... I hope not.

I'm doing another clean install and let's hope everything works fine now, I will mark the appropriate answers as correct and helpful if the problem is really fixed.

Thank you both, for now...

Also, thanks for that links about NOD32, though one of them is about the Internet Security thing and I'm only using the Anti-Virus... I would like to read more about version 4 and the bridge improvements cause I have a feeling I'll be needing bridge mode instead of NAT (new help topic coming up), but I can't find much thing about this new version 😕

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Nazgulled
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I'm getting desperate, it's not working again...

Like I've said, I did another clean install and the first time I tried it, it crashed. Then, I tried the previous one (the one that was working, I did not delete it) and it worked, compared both vmx files, did a few changes, not sure exactly what cause everything was barely the same, only the order was different, and it worked... for a few minutes. I was able to change grub settings, play around in the console when I decided to update the system and for that, I need to export the http_proxy variable to connect to the internet, when I was typing the "export" command, boom, crashed... Smiley Sad It took more than the previous times, but it crashed anyway...

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Nazgulled
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Still not working and I don't know what else to do...

Now it's even worse... Where in the past I would simply log in into my account in the Linux guest, type a few chars and/or just type "reboot" and it crashed the system, now, that doesn't happen. But it's still crashing nevertheless... It seems random because I type and type and nothing happens and then, all of the sudden, boom, it crashes... I enabled the full debug log but there's nothing there, I noticed the minute that the system crashed, looked at the log and there's nothing in the log for that minute.

I don't know how else can I debug this and find the problem to fix it. It's very frustrating, I need my system working ASAP and I don't know what else to do...

I could try to uninstall the AV but how can that help? I mean, I disable all it's services and it's startup entries, how can the AV still have any effect on VM? And besides, I can't even crash the system as I could before by just typing "reboot", I don't know how can I test if uninstalling the VM worked...

I'm really desperate, any more ideas people?

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Nazgulled
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I just uninstalled ESET NOD32 but it didn't help, the system still crashed...

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Nazgulled
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Please help me out... someone...

I'm sorry I have to bmp this thread but I really need this fixed as soon as possible.

I had a few problems with VirtualBox but it's running better now, I didn't want to swap to VirtualBox but I'll have to if I can't fix this VMware problem... Smiley Sad

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Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Well, all the easy stuff I can think of has already been tried.

My guess is that there is either hardware or software conflict that is causing this problem for you. If I was in your situation, I would consider rebuilding the laptop from scratch. Install Vista SP1 first, then install latest Windows Updates, then install VMware Workstation 6.5.1 before anything else.

It would be easier if you had a spare hard drive -- maybe use this as an excuse to buy a faster larger hard drive? Smiley Happy

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Nazgulled
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I'm too busy at the moment to waste time rebuilding the system from scratch, I simply don't have the time for it... Too many university projects and studding to do, I'm out of time as it is... And buying a new driver for the laptop is out of the question, the one I have now is not the one that came with the laptop and I don't even have the money for a new one at the moment.

I have an external HDD that I'm not using and I might do a full image backup of the disk and then do what you said just to see if it works, but I'll have to restore the system back. But even if it works, that would mean I had to install software by software and test VMware to see if it crashes and since I use lots of software, that would a real pain...

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Nazgulled
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This is what I don't understand...

VMware + Gentoo = Works, been using it for years...

VMware + Arch = freezes

VirtualBox + Arch = Works just fine

How can this be? If Gentoo works on VMware, why doesn't Arch?

Basically, this can be rounded up to: There's some software/hardware issue with my computer and VMware, making ArchLinux crash the host for some reason.

I don't understand this and I have no way to debug the problem, the logs never show anything that leads to the freezes, this sucks...

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