VMware 8 Ubuntu 11.10 install fails - no keyboard input and freeze

[SoftRite2011101]

This issue is a continuation of an issue I posted on 1/31/2012... I initially posted that I had a problem with file locking but that would up being a result of my having to kill VMware with the Windows task manager and the lck files/directories were dangling the next time I tried to run. I used to work Ubuntu 11.10 just fine but now the original install and a fresh install hangs the VMware host seeming to wait on keyboard input.

If I launch the VM XP 64, it works fine. If I try to launch the Ubuntu 11 VM, VMware hangs. If I am in this condition the XP 64 VM will not run and hangs also.

Attached is the log and a screen shot of the condition VMwaree is locked in. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Dennis

[RDPetruska]

Stupid question, but are you certain that you have clicked the mouse into the guest window so that the guest has focus (and therefore keyboard and mouse input)?  And, most of the time with *nix systems, when you type to enter a password, NO characters are shown, no cursor movement.

Other possibility - disable (if it's enabled) the enhanced keyboard for the VM.

[SoftRite2011101]

Yes, hit mouse focus many times. Enhanced keyboard is not loaded.

Whne it is sitting frozen. you cannot exit VMware in any way. You cannot close this Ubuntu instance. If you hit the "Power Down" option shown in my attached snaps, it then tells you it is busy and you are stuck forcing you to kill it with the Windows Task mananger. You cannot hit the normal "Red X" in the upper right corner... same message VMware is doing something (spinning) internally. See attached what you get (forever) when you try to exit.

Is there a way to open a support ticket to get some help on this, I am wasting many hours of my time. VMware is "Hung" and I cannot fix it....

[SoftRite2011101]

No help here? Guess I will try to re-install VMware... this is a real problem!

[SoftRite2011101]

Have re-installed VMware 8.02 with same results.. even though I instructed the un-installer to ignore settings and licence key, it still remembered my VM locations and last attempt to install Ubuntu 11.10... one would think it is not removing all sestting... which could be a problem.

Also whenever I start up VMware it display's (see attached) "missing drive" message. I have no idea why it is doing this and cannot find a way to remove/stop this behavior.

[continuum]

did you ever try an install of Ubuntu without using "easy install" ?
if not - try now

the missing drive probably points to a card reader ?
please post the vmware.log if you see it again

[SoftRite2011101]

Well, I tried the "non-easy" install but all I get is this black screen... it says "Install Ubuntu as you would on a physical computer" - right! Like, just exactly how do you do that? There is no prompt that works or GUI to work with!

Duh!

[continuum · Accepted solution]

you tried to boot from network in that screenshot
are you sure the ISO/CD is connected at boot ?
did you select CD as start option ?

[SoftRite2011101]

Hmmm... will try to do that. There is no CD, the image is on the network however. I get what you are saying... I will try again.

[continuum]

> the image is on the network however.

? - so you try a PXE-boot or what do you mean with image ?

[SoftRite2011101]

The iso image of Ubuntu is on a Mapped windows drive on a NAS drive on the network. I guess I could burn it to a CD and put it in the drive on the Host... is that what I should do now?

[continuum]

no - installing from ISO usually is faster than from slow old fashioned CDs

just make sure you set "connected at boot" and then hit ESC at the right time to select the CD-boot-option

if you add
bios.bootDelay = "7500"
to your config.ini or to the vmx-file

hitting ESC in time is much easier

[SoftRite2011101]

You are so smart! Could you please point me to some documentation where I could read up on all this?

Thanks

Dennis

[continuum]

visit my site http://sanbarrow.com
it has lots of stuff you will not find in the official documentation

[SoftRite2011101]

Am updating this and bumping it for others that may become stuck in this situation. I had to open and pay for a single incident to get support. After reviewing logs submitted, it wound up being the sound drivers in the Ubuntu 11.10 running on VMware. For some reason they lock up during initialization and the Ubuntu VM just sits there in a loop (or something). Removing the sound device thingie and keyboard input resumes and you can log in... however at the moment, there is now way to have sound. I hope they developers are working on it. If/when they come up with a solution, I will post it here.

Dennis

[Bernd_Nowak]

Thanks a lot for the information regarding the sound device problem!