Workstation 10 - Cannot install VMware Tools 3D support for Debian 7.1 or for Linux Mint (based on Debian), Gnome3 does not run

[vm_George]

After installing VMware Workstation 10 I was hoping to run Gnome 3 under Debian 7.1 in VMware Workstation, however when installing VMware Tools, I am getting the error message "/usr/bin/xrandr: Failed to get size for output default".

Before running VMware Tools for the first time, you need to configure it by

invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl". Do you want

this program to invoke the command for you now? [yes]

Initializing...

/usr/bin/xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default

Making sure services for VMware Tools are stopped.

Stopping Thinprint services in the virtual machine:

   Stopping Virtual Printing daemon:                                   done

Stopping VMware Tools services in the virtual machine:

   Guest operating system daemon:                                      done

   VMware User Agent (vmware-user):                                    done

   Blocking file system:                                               done

   Unmounting HGFS shares:                                             done

   Guest filesystem driver:                                            done

   VM communication interface socket family:                           done

   VM communication interface:                                         done

and then I get the message:

Detected X server version 1.12.4

Distribution provided drivers for Xorg X server are used.

Skipping X configuration because X drivers are not included.

Can someone please let me know how to get VMware Tools to install its 3D video driver?

And it would be good if Workstation 10 actually support Debian and Linux Mint correctly, that is installing VMware tools actually installed.

[vm_George]

I found these sites, it might mean something to someone;

 http://blog.breadncup.com/2011/02/26/vmware-tool-patch-for-linux-kernel-2-6-3738/

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installing_Arch_Linux_in_VMware#VMware_tools_versus_Open-VM-Too...

[vm_George]

Maybe someone knows what this means and how to resolve it "Set up a minimal debian gnome (don't bother trying to install vmware tools - you cannot do so as the header files are missing from the debian repository!)"

[wjwj]

Yes, VMware Tools package doesn't include 3D driver on linux.

Typically, the 3D driver is included in Linux distro. As for the installation component, etc, please take a look at this page VMware guest GL driver.

[vm_George]

Hi WjWj,

I visited (www.mesa3d.org/vmware-guest.html) but it did not have instructions for Debian.

I attempted to follow the Ubuntu instructions and had many error messages along the way, ending in a failed attempt to install 3D video drivers.

Just wish that either VMware or Debian support VMware Tools 3D Graphics, nicely without having to "make" anything.

Maybe this means something to someone?

apt-get install git-core

apt-get install automake libtool libpthread-stubs0-dev

apt-get install xserver-xorg-dev x11proto-xinerama-dev libx11-xcb-dev

apt-get install libxcb-glx0-dev libxrender-dev

# apt-get build-dep libgl1-mesa-dri libxcb-glx0-dev

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree      

Reading state information... Done

E: You must put some 'source' URIs in your sources.list

======================================

configure.ac:39: error: must install xorg-macros 1.8 or later before running autoconf/autogen

configure.ac:39: the top level

autom4te: /usr/bin/m4 failed with exit status: 1

aclocal: /usr/bin/autom4te failed with exit status: 1

autoreconf: aclocal failed with exit status: 1

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

Libraries have been installed in:

   /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers

make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/gkirkham/svga3d/xf86-video-vmware'

tucpc08 xf86-video-vmware # rm /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx.ko*

rm: cannot remove `/lib/modules/3.2.0-4-amd64/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx.ko*': No such file or directory

tucpc08 xf86-video-vmware

make -C /lib/modules/3.2.0-4-amd64/source O=/lib/modules/3.2.0-4-amd64/build SUBDIRS=`/bin/pwd` DRMSRCDIR=`/bin/pwd` modules_install

make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.2.0-4-common'

  INSTALL /home/gkirkham/svga3d/vmwgfx/vmwgfx.ko

  DEPMOD  3.2.0-4-amd64

Warning: you may need to install module-init-tools

See http://www.codemonkey.org.uk/docs/post-halloween-2.6.txt

make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.2.0-4-common'

but module-init-tools was already installed at newest version

# depmod -ae

WARNING: -e needs -E or -F

http://www.mesa3d.org/vmware-guest.html

[vm_George]

Hi,

I was able to successfully get 3D working under Debian 7 guest VM on VMware Workstation 10 using  VMware guest GL driver

www.mesa3d.org/vmware-guest.html

Though I did have to change;

sudo rm /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx.ko*

to

rm /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx/vmwgfx.ko*

and it did report that it wanted to install a lot more packages when I ran;

sudo apt-get build-dep libgl1-mesa-dri libxcb-glx0-dev

Reading state information... Done

Picking 'mesa' as source package instead of 'libgl1-mesa-dri'

Picking 'libxcb' as source package instead of 'libxcb-glx0-dev'

The following NEW packages will be installed:

Picking 'mesa' as source package instead of 'libgl1-mesa-dri'

Picking 'libxcb' as source package instead of 'libxcb-glx0-dev'

The following NEW packages will be installed:

  bison check dctrl-tools debhelper diffstat doxygen flex gettext graphviz html2text intltool-debian libbison-dev libcdt4 libcgraph5 libdrm-dev

  libexpat1-dev libffi-dev libgettextpo0 libgraph4 libgvc5 libgvpr1 libkms1 libllvm2.9 libpathplan4 libudev-dev libwayland-dev libwayland0

  libxcb-dri2-0-dev libxcb-render0-dev libxcb-shape0-dev libxcb-xfixes0 libxcb-xfixes0-dev libxdamage-dev libxdot4 libxext-dev libxfixes-dev

  libxxf86vm-dev llvm-2.9 llvm-2.9-dev llvm-2.9-runtime pkg-config po-debconf python-xcbgen quilt x11proto-damage-dev x11proto-fixes-dev

  x11proto-gl-dev x11proto-xf86vidmode-dev xcb-proto xsltproc xutils-dev

0 upgraded, 51 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Need to get 31.1 MB of archives.

After this operation, 91.6 MB of additional disk space will be used.

Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y

[vm_George]

Sadly I don't thing I was successful, Linux Mint does not display the correct message and reports that 3D is not working, then Debian 7 also reports the wrong screen driver, that is it does not say "SVGA3D", but says "llvmpipe"

What the instructions suggest should be said;

OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.

OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on SVGA3D; build: RELEASE;

OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 8.0

What my attempt on Linux Mint VM says;

# glxinfo | grep OpenGL

OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.

OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 0x209)

OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 8.0.4

OpenGL shading language version string: 1.20

OpenGL extensions:

If anyone has working suggestions, please let me know.

[VruceMayne]

I don't believe Debian 7.1 contains one of the libraries needed for vmwgfx to accelerate OpenGL.  libxatracker.so  On my Ubuntu 12.10 VM is resides in /usr/lib.

With that said I don't know if having that library would completely solve your problem.  My Ubuntu 12.10 VM is also using kernel version 3.5.0-39 and I believe that Debian 7.1 ships with 3.2.0-XX.

Good Luck