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HenryK_09
Contributor
Contributor

Error "Unable to Connect to MKS" after upgrade to VMware Workstation 15.5.5

Hello,

I upgraded my workstation to latest version 15.5.5. Now I cannot connect to shared VMs on another VM Workstation (V12.9) anymore.

The following error message appears (image type forbidden?):

"Unable to connect to the MKS:

vim.fault.GenericVmConfigFault."

The log file of the remote VM indicates:

  • Failed to start server on WebSocket pipe, error 1: Asyncsocket error
  • Expiring webmks ticket ....

Can anyone help? Thank you in advance

69 Replies
james11112222
Contributor
Contributor

I believe that support are being a little disingenuous towards you.  What support are saying might be true but understand that for a customer like me, I purchased only a volume license for workstation pro without a support contract.  Which means I can't log a technical support request, which in turn means there is no complaint from me.

If this is the case for other folks here then yes, a problem exists that support is totally unaware of because no money is involved.

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dejanrodiger
Contributor
Contributor

And guys from VMWare who are monitoring this issue and this groups are actually not opening problem with support?

So, somebody would have to buy upgrade licence which comes with 30days support only (since this is taking over 3 months, question is if they would fix it in 30 days Smiley Happy ), which costs 150USD. OR new license which is 250USD

Or if we need better support, than you need to buy upgrade for 10 licenses or more, to be even eligible to buy basic 1 year support, which will cost you 2.019USD.

-- Dejan
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Max3141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I've confirmed that this is not just an Ubuntu problem.  It happened on my Debian machine.  I tested upgrading to 15.5.6 and it did the exact same thing as Ubuntu (Unable to connect to the MKS).

Ok, if you release an update to your program and it causes obvious problems for Debian (one of the biggest distro's in existence) how the HELL does that make it into production?  And why the hell wasn't this fixed like THE DAY that it happened?

At $250.00 per license times however many you've bought, I have a right to be pissed off.  Why is this issue not yet fixed!  Anyone from Vmware want to explain why this is ok -- after having thrown thousands of dollars into your company?

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dejanrodiger
Contributor
Contributor

I opened this discussion on V16 thread here:

Remote connection to VMWare on Linux not working

The guys from VMWare helping in Forums, don't have a clue, if the issue is even reported or worked on. :smileyshocked:

-- Dejan
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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I am a “guy from VMware” who you sent a DM to, and as I explained in my reply:

while I am a VMware employee and a VMTN moderator I have no connections into the support team for Workstation.

That is not the same as saying:

The guys from VMWare helping in Forums, don't have a clue, if the issue is even reported or worked on.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
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dejanrodiger
Contributor
Contributor

I never mentioned you, but my logic is this:

if you have no connections into the support team for Workstation

then

     you don't know if the issue is even reported or worked on

But, if you know if the issue is worked on, please, tells us, so that we know if this will be even fixed and in which time frame.

This is dragging for more than 3 months.

-- Dejan
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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

How many other VMware employees who post in the Workstation area did you exchange DMs with?

If it was only me, your comment "The guys from VMWare helping in Forums, don't have a clue, if the issue is even reported or worked on." is based on a sample size of 1 person who, as mentioned, was not the right person to be asking.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
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dejanrodiger
Contributor
Contributor

Could it be that bond network is the problem on server? Anybody without bond networks?

ServerLaptop
AMD EPYC 7402P 24-Core ProcessorIntel(R) Core(TM) i7-6820HQ CPU @ 2.70GHz

network

                description: Ethernet interface

                product: I210 Gigabit Network Connection

                vendor: Intel Corporation

                physical id: 0

                bus info: pci@0000:c4:00.0

                logical name: eno1

                version: 03

network

                description: Ethernet interface

                product: I210 Gigabit Network Connection

                vendor: Intel Corporation

                physical id: 0

                bus info: pci@0000:c5:00.0

                logical name: eno2

                version: 03

network

       description: Ethernet interface

       physical id: 1

       logical name: bond0

       serial: 00:25:90:bc:98:c1

       size: 1Gbit/s

network

             description: Ethernet interface

             product: Ethernet Connection (2) I219-LM

             vendor: Intel Corporation

             physical id: 1f.6

             bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.6

             logical name: enp0s31f6

             version: 31

V15.5.6 installsV15.5.6 installs

Tech Preview 20H2 doesn't install

vmnet error

Re: Doesn't install on Ubuntu 20.04 kernel 5.4.0-47

Tech Preview 20H2 installs and starts (no shared VMs support, so it doesn't help)
Remote connection from server to laptop works, I see remote shared VMsRemote connection from laptop to server doesn't work, crashes vmware-workstation-server service/daemon
5.4.0-47-generic5.4.0-47-generic
-- Dejan
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Max3141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Mine is not bonded.  My server(s) are essentially workstations with raid & eec running windows and my clients are all Linux.  I manage a fleet of Vmware workstation hosts all through (what used to be) a useful central remote management window.  But that's not a thing anymore -- unfortunately!

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Max3141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Ok, here's a question I think might help a lot of us if answered.

So, updating vmware causes the MKS remote problem.  So how do I un-update?  I've tried uninstalling 15.5.6 and starting with earlier versions of 15 but still experience the same error despite not having this problem before the upgrade.

So is there some way I can undo the damage done by the upgrade to 15.5.5/6 and just leave it at an older version - say 15.5.4?

I'd be fine with that if it would get the remote screen to work.

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dejanrodiger
Contributor
Contributor

Well, I think earlier versions (15.5.2) didn't had this problem, but I would have to downgrade OS and/or maybe just kernel. From Ubuntu 20.04 to 19.10 (not an option now)

V15.5.5 added support for Ubuntu 20.04. V15.5.2 wasn't able to compile kernel modules on 20.04.  I could try to install older kernel on 20.04 and try installing V15.5.2...

-- Dejan
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Max3141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Downgrading the whole OS and using the older version of course would work.  But it might break a lot of other things that are now for 20.04.  I was kind of hoping for something a little less dramatic.  I wonder if I got ahold of the the pre-compiled modules and just tried to insmod them manually.

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dejanrodiger
Contributor
Contributor

As I noticed. V16 was released and they removed Remote Management support:

Product Support Notices

  • Removal of Shared VM feature
    Shared virtual machines (Workstation as server) has reached end of life and been removed from VMware Workstation 16.
  • Removal of restricted virtual machines
    Restricted virtual machine has reached end of life and been removed from VMware Workstation 16.
-- Dejan
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Max3141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Wow, that's really atrocious!  The Shared VM's feature was pretty much *the only* thing I really cared about.  Our infrastructure is based on it.

Thank you for providing this text.  I was able to search it and found this link...

VMware Workstation 16 Pro Release Notes

I'm going right now to log into our company's financial software and put a block on vmware and red flag them to prevent us from spending any more money on vmware products going forward.  The red flag will contain the link above to make anyone looking to buy it aware.

I cannot allow people to buy vmware if the shared VM's are not working!

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dejanrodiger
Contributor
Contributor

Yes, this is the link from where I pasted.

In V15.5. they should still support it and fix it.

If they don't have Shared VM's, than it is the same as VirtualBox or VM Player, so why pay for it. They can just stop developing VMWare Workstation Pro...

Maybe they want us to go to Free Hypervisor. But with VM Workstation, we have full OS, on which we can run other stuff as well (i.e. docker) or software that requires for example NVidia drivers...

What is a vSphere Hypervisor? | Free Hypervisor | VMware

-- Dejan
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douglasids
Contributor
Contributor

Try this...

edit ~/.vmware/preferences on your HOST machine.

Add the below lines to the "preferences" file.

pref.preferWebMKS = "FALSE"

pref.preferWebRemoteDevice = "FALSE”

Restart host services.

Max3141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I just tried this but still get the error.  Note that I am using a windows host but trying to remote from a linux client, so I had to modify %APPDATA%\VMware\preferences.ini.

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dejanrodiger
Contributor
Contributor

I would expect preferences for Remote to be in /etc/vmware...

Preferences in ~/.vmware/preferences changed with no improvement, still crashed.

-- Dejan
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Max3141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I figured it out!

Don't modify ~/.vmware/preferences on the host, modify it on the client computer you are connecting from.  I had the thought when dejanrodlger said the ~/. vs /etc thing.

douglasids
Contributor
Contributor

I modified it on the host machine in the user directory that starts Workstation and it worked for me.  Possibly it just needs to be on either side of the connection.  My client workstation connection is unmodified.  But if it is working from the client side, I will also edit the file there.

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