Sound Card for Guest - No Longer Going Grey at Guest Boot

[vmQuint]

Apparently you guys fixed the sound card problem in Win 7, vmWks 804, with Linux VMs.

All my Linux VMs can now boot up with the sound.

thanks

[vmQuint]

Okay, I see what happened.  You guys did not fix it.  I was watching videos on that machine while I was upgrading the vmTools on all six Linux VMs, so I connected a Bluetooth headset for watching the videos.  Each Linux VM booted with sound after the upgrade of Tools not because of a new version of tools but because of the BT headset.

System spec:

i5-2500

Gigabyte mobo

win 7 64-bit

vmware workstation 804

Realtek HD

4 different Linux distros, all give the same error (below)

8 gigs ram

I didn't want to have to have the BT headset connected all the time, obviously. 

I tried:

a plug-in headset.  NOPE, the Linux VMs still boot without sound. 

disabling the sound from the 2 video cards.  NOPE.

disabling the digital entries from Realtek.  NOPE.

changing the default device for sound or communications in conrol panel.  NOPE and NOPE

plugging in a headset with a microphone plug.  IT WORKED. The linux VMs boot with sound !?!

But I don't want that physical headset plugged in all the time either, because I can't hear system sounds over the speakers.

So I tried plugging a non-mic headset plug into the mic jack (yes, green into red, not normal).  IT WORKED. 

Wondering if it's the physical plug or the electrical recognition of a microphone,

I dug around and found a little stereo-to-mono adapter and plugged it into the mic jack.  IT WORKED.

So it just needs something in the plug.  I bet a matchstick would work.

So, bottom line, my system needs some sort of mic to boot the Linux VMs with sound.   It can be a software mic, like with the BT headset, or it can be something (anything) plugged into the mic jack. 

Without this 'mic', Linux VMs stumble upon boot and disconnect the sound, while XP boots fine.  But after boot up, you can just re-'connect' the Linux sound device and it works fine.  It seems that vmware Workstation should be able to abstract the mic or non-mic better.  The Linux error that appears is:

The default sound device cannot be opened:

A device ID has been used that is out of range for your system.

Sound will be disconnected.

So the next question would be, what is the device ID and why is it out of range for Linux and not for XP?

The four distros:

OpenSUSE

Mageia

Ubuntu

Xubuntu

Though it doesn't seem to matter, they all give the same error, and same behaviour.

[MaxMartin]

If you have RealTek speakers, look within the RealTek HD Audio Manager.  Select the yellow folder near the analog panel, and make sure "Disable front panel jack detection" is selected.  This fixed the problem for me.

Apparently RealTeks detection blocks the linux virtual machine from accessing the resource, and causes the error.

[vmQuint]

Hi, thanks for your post.

Yep, I have the Realtek HD Audio Manager for the audio on the motherboard.

I saw that option but didn't even try it because I thought it would probably make the front jacks unusable.  Now that you bring it to light again, I could see how it wouldn't.  Does it?  Can you still use the jacks in the front for a mic and headset if you disable that?  I could try it, but for the sake of future searchers ...

I bought a "smartphone to computer" adapter/splitter so I could use my smartphone headset on the computer for VOIP calls.  I'm used to leaving that plugged in, but I'm still curious if disabling that option is a total fix.

Personally, I think these software authors get annoying by trying to do too much for us. I've always hated that "you plugged a device into the jack", and wondered why they felt it necessary to do that.

[MaxMartin]

The jacks still work.  I have not had any issues once the RealTek option was disabled.  And yes I agree that two much autoconfiguration is a great annoyance.

[vmQuint]

nice to know! thanks MaxMartin

[rneedham88]

I have two Linux distro's, both didn't have sound working.

I went into my Realtek Audio Manager and clicked on Connector Settings and then set  "Disable auto popup dialog, when device has been plugged in".

Now my Ubuntu works with sound

As per Mint I had to go into Sound settings ---> Hardware, then I set the profile for Analog Stereo Output... And now the sound in Mint works.

[mperathoner]

For me, this solution does not work . I have a German  Windows and therefore also a German Realtek Audio Manager, where I could not find an Option as You have mentioned it before. I tried to disable the Option in "Extended Setting", but it had absolutely no effect. When powering up Mint 16, I still have the same error messages

[yepei]

I install VMWare player on Windows 7, the guest host is Ubuntu15.10, I met the same problem.

I enabled the "Stereo Mix" as recording device because I don't have mic. After this, I reconnect the source card in VMWare Player menu, then it work:

Good luck!

[Borkar2000]

Thanks yepei for this solution. You made my day! It solved this problem which annoyed me for so many months (years).

Best.

[Rachata_k]

Realtek High Definition Audio
Follow him it work.

Thank you.

[mark_v]

Hi,

I've had the same problem recently when trying VMware player with Ubuntu systems. As poster above said it was related to the RealTek sound manager. As with some of the other posts above I didn't have the option of disable the front panel. So started playing around with the other settings.

The realtek sound manager was automatically making changes as different jack sockets were plugged in so I made the following changes:

Device Advanced Settings (cog icon top let):

Playback Device: Changed to - "Make front and rear output devices playback two different audio streams simultaneously"

Recoding Device: Changed to - "Make front and rear output devices playback two different audio streams simultaneously"

Connector Settings (Spanner Icon Bottom right hand corner)

Select: Disable Auto pop dialog, when device is plugged in.

VMware guest Settings:

Sound Card: Auto Detect

Once I'd done this the audio started working immediately. I'm not entirely sure which of the RealTek settings actually fixed it, but at least I've found a working solution to the problem.

Regards,

Mark

[PaulRoma]

Mark_V good detective work. I'm on VM Pro 14.  My sound UI very different but the same gist.  Select setting that separate the front and back jacks on the Host control panel for sound.  I could now check the connected button.  And I selected the radio button that specified the host sound card.  I was able to OK close the dialogbox without the device out of range error.  the sound now came through my headphones plugged into the back of my host computer.  Did not need to restart guest Ubuntu.

[cf8]

"Disable front panel jack detection" in Realtek HD Audio Manager worked for me! (2022)