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GT500org
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DirectX 11 and VMware Tools for Workstation 16?

I just upgraded from VMware Workstation 15.5 to 16, and there was no update to VMware Tools with it (it's still using version 11.0.6 build 15940789 which only supports up to DirectX 10.1). When I select in VMware Workstation preferences to "Download All Components Now" it tells me "All downloadable components are up to date", and when I select to check for software updates it tells me "There are no software updates available at this time."

Since it looks like a version of VMware Tools that includes DirectX 11 support wasn't included with the release of VMware Workstation 16, may I ask when we should expect an updated version of VMware Tools that includes Direct X 11 support?

To verify the version of DirectX that VMware Tools supported I opened dxdiag (the DirectX Diagnostic Tool) by executing it in the Run dialog, then switched to the "Display" tab and checked the Direct3D DDI and Feature Levels under "Drivers". As you can see in the following screenshot, the highest level of DirectX support for the driver is 10.1.

pastedImage_1.png

Now with a video driver that supports newer versions of DirectX, it would look something like the following screenshot (note that the driver in this example supports DirectX 12, and I won't expect to see that in VMware Workstation until it is formally announced).

pastedImage_0.png

46 Replies
bonnie201110141
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For those who ran into this issue, will you please collect support data from Help > Support > Collect Support Data and attach it here? Thanks a lot!

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GT500org
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File attached.

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bonnie201110141
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Thank you very much GT500org!

Can you confirm one more thing? Can you please find the windows.iso from Workstation installation directory (by default C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation), mount it and find manifest.txt and check monolithic.version in this file? Thanks a lot!

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GT500org
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I manually downloaded a newer version of windows.iso to install the latest VMware Tools in my VM's. Fortunately I did keep a backup copy of the windows.iso that was in the VMware Workstation folder after installing 16.0, and this is the line you're looking for from manifest.txt:

monolithic.version = "11.0.6"

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bonnie201110141
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Thanks GT500org!

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tasmaniac
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I am having the same problem with 2 different Ubuntu 20.04.1 hosts running Windows 10 64b clients.

VMWare tools is version 11.1.5

Both were upgraded from 15.x (whatever the latest version is).

Neither client recognizes DX11 as being installed.

Support dumps are 85MB+ thus too large to upload.

Now for the weirder part.  If I turn of 3d acceleration, the current DirectX shows up.

Performance is, lets say, lacking if I do that.  But it works.

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GT500org
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tasmaniac if you read the release info, you'll notice that DirectX 11 isn't supported on Linux hosts. Only on Windows hosts that already have support for DirectX 11.

On Linux hosts I would believe VMware Workstation 16 only supports up to DirectX 10.1.

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tomba4
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Same here: after upgrade from 15.5 to 16.0 I'm stuck with the old Tools version (monolithic.version = "11.0.6" from the windows.iso)

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tasmaniac
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Oops.  Missed that part.

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bonnie201110141
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Vmware Tools 11.1.5 is the correct version in Workstation 16.0. And DX11 is supported on Linux host with NVIDIA GPU. Please see

VMware Workstation 16 Pro Release Notes

bonnie201110141
VMware Employee
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For the old tools issue, we are still investigating it. From logs provided by GT500org, the installed indeed skipped to replace the tools iso fies (windows.iso, linux.iso, etc from WS installation directory) because it detects that those iso files were modified. Can somebody let us know if you ever maybe used CDS to update those iso files? Thanks a lot!

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bonnie201110141
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The workaround is uninstall WS and install it again.

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GT500org
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I hadn't made any changes/edits to the .iso files in the VMware Workstation folder. To my knowledge they were last modified when they were updated to 11.0.6 by VMware Workstation 15.

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bonnie201110141
VMware Employee
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Thanks for your help! We can reproduce the issue now. We are working on it.

agolde
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It seems to be a problem of the installer.

I just upgraded from v15.x to v16 and the windows.iso wasn't replaced with the new windows.iso which is larger now.

One funny strange thing:

I tried to upgrade the tools in 2 Windows 10 VMs without success. Even uninstalling etc doesn't help because of the old windows.iso.

On a third vm, the tools were updated to 11.1.5 ???

Uninstalling the App and installing it again was successful.

Regards

Alex

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Elkor
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Have the same issue.

I manually downloaded the files and replaced them in the directory as previously advised.

Please note, the floppy files inside the Windows archive seem to have a different name, while the installed ones have an underline after the pvscsi name, the downloaded ones have a dash.

Before I downloaded them, I checked in the Workstation Preferences -> Updates if there are new components available, the result was No.

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peter6464
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I'm having this exact same issue with vmware player under ubuntu 20.04.

I installed VMware-Player-15.5.6-16341506.x86_64.bundle yesterday, then realized I could upgrade to VMware-Player-16.0.0-16894299.x86_64.bundle today so upgraded.

After upgrading any attempt to update the tools resulted in an error.

From File -> Player Preferences -> Download All Components gives the following error

```

There were one or more problems downloading components:

VMware Tools for Windows 95, 98, Me, and NT:

Could not find component on update server. Contact VMware Support or your system administrator.

VMware Tools for Windows 2000, XP, and Server 2003:

Could not find component on update server. Contact VMware Support or your system administrator.

VMware Tools for Windows Vista or later:

Could not find component on update server. Contact VMware Support or your system administrator.

VMware Tools for legacy Linux:

Could not find component on update server. Contact VMware Support or your system administrator.

VMware Tools for Linux:

Could not find component on update server. Contact VMware Support or your system administrator.

VMware Tools for Solaris:

Could not find component on update server. Contact VMware Support or your system administrator.

VMware Tools for Netware:

Could not find component on update server. Contact VMware Support or your system administrator

```

I am not using any proxy and connecting directly.

The update server under connection settings is set to "https://softwareupdate<dot>vmware.com/cds"  (with the <dot> as a .)

Visiting that URL however shows a bunch of errors for all the related links.

For example "index.xml" just contains "Not Found"

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling VMWare 16 entirely including removing preferences but I still run into the issue.

It would appear that something is just wrong with V16 in my case, or the update servers.

I realize I'm using VMWare Player (the free version) and not VMWare Workstation, but if someone from VMWare could also look into the issue with VMWare Player as well I'de appreciate it.

I'de really like to get DirectX11 working, and for some reason using stand alone driver disks doesn't appear to be working either. (maybe an unrelated issue...)

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
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See this thread: "Download all components now" button in VMware Player 16 preferences not working

Note also the naming convention you used:

1. There is no such thing as VMware Player, or VMware 16 - the product is Workstation Player

2. Workstation Player is only free for non-commercial use, those using it in other contexts pay for their license


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peter6464
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Just to follow-up to my last comment it looks like the CDS repository is working but it is missing the vmware tools for 16.0.0, as you can see the latest one is 15.5.6

CDS Repository - /var/www/public/stage/session-110/cds/vmw-desktop/player

Also regarding it not working when I installed using the downloaded CD image. I was able to get it working if I installed vmware tools on a fresh windows 7 image.

If I attempted to install the new vmware tools on a windows 7 image with an older vmware tools installed from vmware 15.5.6, then I couldn't get directx 11 to work.

This isn't related to the issue of the broken CDS repository though as far as I can tell, it is probably just something wrong with the vmware tools installer such that it doesn't update the video drivers properly on windows 7 or something.

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peter6464
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Thanks for the link to this other thread explaining the issue with the update tools being broken for vmware player 16.

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