Hello,
Recently all my guest VMs have started to have a weird mouse flicker. This happens even when in the install page for Ubuntu or PopOS, and continues to happen on a fresh install after installing open-vm-tools-desktop.
It didn't use to happen (about a month ago). Curious if anyone has any suggestions on what might be wrong here. I have tried "optimize" for games but while that setting seems to solve the flicker, the input gets really sluggish and unusable. It seems to be a VMware problem though since it happens on any guest (at least Debian based guests that I've tried)
PS: I tried to screen record this but oddly enough the behaviour doesn't appear in the screen recording. What this actually looks like is whenever you are moving the mouse the mouse disappears, when you stop moving or slow down it appears again. So as you move your mouse around you observe flickering as the mouse appears and disappears.
Thanks!
@hahakiki2010 @mks.dx11.disableFlips=TRUE has no effect. Still flickering
In the Ubuntu guest, I created a new "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" text file that disables the "HWcursor" option and it works, no more mouse cursor flickering!
--- FILE : /etc/X11/xorg.conf ---
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection
Section "Device"
### Available Driver options are:-
### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz",
### <percent>: "<f>%"
### [arg]: arg optional
Option "HWcursor" "off" # [<bool>]
#Option "Xinerama" # [<bool>]
#Option "StaticXinerama" # <str>
#Option "GuiLayout" # <str>
#Option "AddDefaultMode" # [<bool>]
#Option "RenderAccel" # [<bool>]
#Option "DRI" # [<bool>]
#Option "DirectPresents" # [<bool>]
#Option "HWPresents" # [<bool>]
#Option "RenderCheck" # [<bool>]
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "vmware"
BusID "PCI:0:15:0"
EndSection
For me and probably everybody it happened after update of nvidia drivers in december. U can try to downgrade video driver and this flickering disappears. It's stange thing. When u moving mouse display does not redrawing but it's not problem with cpu utilization or 3d acceliration. It's pure problem of nvidia driver and vmware compatability. Can't understand how to fix this. Sometimes disabling nvidia expirience overlay helps sometimes not.
Can u explain some? I added this config and now it's 2 mouse pointer at screen) What is wrong?
Same here, fresh install
Host:
Intel Core i7 6700K + RTX 2080 (driver 461.09)
Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit (Build 19042.746) 10.0.19042
VMware® Workstation 16 Player
16.1.0 build-17198959
Guest:
Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
Gnome 3.36.8 using X11
Graphics (seen from Ubuntu) : SVGA3D; build: RELEASE; LLVM;
Tools :
apt list --installed | grep "\-vm"
open-vm-tools-desktop/focal-updates,now 2:11.1.5-1~ubuntu20.04.2 amd64 [installed]
open-vm-tools/focal-updates,now 2:11.1.5-1~ubuntu20.04.2 amd64 [installed]
xserver-xorg-video-vmware/focal,now 1:13.3.0-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
FYI, the flickering issue with Fedora KDE is already fixed and is available in Mesa 20.2.3 or later.
Hey guys, I have the same issue on Ubuntu 20.04.2 guest with Windows 10 after updating my NVIDIA graphics driver.
Restarting the host seems to fix the issue for some hours, but then it appears again out of no where.
Section "Device"
Option "HWcursor" "True"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "vmware"
BusID "PCI:0:15:0"
EndSection
This works. The mouse then keeps flickering but only very rarely
Problem not in flickering itself. Problem is in lagging rendering frames. It prevent screen redrawing when mouse move and flickering.
Have you tried to disable nvidia overlay or deactivate settings in NVIDIA Control Panel -> 3D Settings?
it has no effect. Sometimes it works normal, sometimes not. But it work 100% good if I downgrade nvidia drivers for pre december version.
Ok my Workaround is now to use the xorg.conf with:
Option "HWcursor" "False"
Problem is that you then have two mouse pointers. I created a invisible mouse theme for ubuntu:
https://github.com/gysi/ubuntu-invis-cursor-theme
Using that you only have one mouse pointer.
The only problem I have is that the mouse pointer always stays the same... but for now I can live with it.
UPDATE: The issue persists, even after the NVidia graphics driver update. It just took a few hours for it to show up again.
Surprisingly enough, updating my NVidia graphics driver to the latest version (released Feb. 10, 2021; version 461.40) fixed the issue for me, without any of the other suggested fixes in this thread!
My version of VMWare and nVidia driver:
UPDATE AGAIN: Looks like the issue is resolved for me. Either through the latest Workstation update (16.1.2 build-17966106) or NVidia graphics driver version (Version 466.77).
I recently updated VMware and my nVidia driver (see versions below). I removed the HWcursor "off" option in the "xorg.conf" and used my virtual machine for about a week. With the latest nVidia driver (and/or the latest VMware Player), it would appear that the problem is fixed!
Updated my NVIDIA Drivers to : 461.40 (from 461.09 which was failing)
Problem fixed !
@mmassico
I already had these exact versions. My Problem still persists 😕
I think the problem appears together with the following settings in the vmx file:
mouse.vusb.enable = "TRUE"
mouse.vusb.useBasicMouse = "FALSE"
usb.generic.allowHID = "TRUE"
I have the problem and I have only the integrated video card Intel Iris Xe Graphics with driver version 27.20.100.9168.
Vmware 16.1.0 build-17198959
Windows 10 x64 20H2 (build 19042.804)
I also have the following settings in my vmx file:
mouse.vusb.enable = "TRUE"
mouse.vusb.useBasicMouse = "FALSE"
usb.generic.allowHID = "TRUE"
With the latest nVidia drivers, I was able to reproduce the mouse cursor problem after one week. 😕
Since I'm facing the same issue with Kubuntu (plasma) 20.10, I want to thank you for the help, it works better but still have problem:
desktop background vanish and turn into black .. pieces of desktop are around .. it sucks.
I'm running:
I've disabled the hardware cursor, and it didn't resolve the issue. The mouse flickers whenever it moves 1 pixel or further. Fast movements across the screen practically render the cursor invisible which hints at it having a delay before redrawing the cursor in the new position.
Reducing the host monitor refresh rates to 60hz each doesn't resolve the flickering.