Workstation 15.5.6 missing fonts

[shaferc1]

I have installed VMware Workstation Pro 15.6.6 on a CentOs 7.8 server and when I go to open it up there is clearly a font package missing.  Any help woul be appreciated.

CPUs: 2

RAM: 8G

[root@cent7-test ~]# vmware-installer -l

Product Name         Product Version

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

vmware-workstation   15.5.6.16341506

[root@cent7-test ~]#

[root@cent7-test ~]# vmware-installer -t

Component Name                 Component Long Name                               Component Version

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

vmware-installer               VMware Installer                                  3.0.0.16341506

vmware-player-setup            VMware Player Setup                               15.5.6.16341506

vmware-usbarbitrator           VMware USB Arbitrator                             19.5.0.16341506

vmware-network-editor          VMware Network Editor                             15.5.6.16341506

vmware-vmx                     VMware VMX                                        15.5.6.16341506

vmware-virtual-printer         VMware Virtual Printer                            1.0.16341506

vmware-tools-linuxPreGlibc25   VMware Tools for legacy Linux                     11.0.6.16341506

vmware-tools-linux             VMware Tools for Linux                            11.0.6.16341506

vmware-tools-netware           VMware Tools for NetWare                          11.0.6.16341506

vmware-tools-solaris           VMware Tools for Solaris                          11.0.6.16341506

vmware-tools-winPre2k          VMware Tools for Windows 95, 98, Me and NT        11.0.6.16341506

vmware-tools-winPreVista       VMware Tools for Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 11.0.6.16341506

vmware-tools-windows           VMware Tools for Windows Vista or later           11.0.6.16341506

vmware-player-app              VMware Player Application                         15.5.6.16341506

vmware-ovftool                 VMware OVF Tool component for Linux               4.4.0.16341506

vmware-network-editor-ui       VMware Network Editor User Interface              15.5.6.16341506

vmware-workstation-server      VMware Workstation Server                         15.5.6.16341506

vmware-vix-core                VMware VIX Core Library                           1.17.0.16341506

vmware-vix-lib-Workstation1500 VMware VIX Workstation-15.0.0 Library             1.17.0.16341506

vmware-vprobe                  VMware VProbes component for Linux                15.5.6.16341506

vmware-workstation             VMware Workstation                                15.5.6.16341506

I corrected the VMware Workstation version. Sorry.

Also, I've attached the list of installed packages on the linux host.

[scott28tt]

The most recent version of CentOS supported as the host is 7.6, as mentioned here: VMware Knowledge Base

I checked the release notes for the minor versions since 15.5 and there’s no mention of CentOS.

Not saying this is the reason you are having a problem, not saying it isn’t fixable, but worth knowing.

[shaferc1]

Thanks scott28tt​, I noticed that as well and am going to put a pin in that for later reference if nothing else works. 

[dariusd]

It looks like you are using X11 forwarding and XQuartz to display the Workstation UI on your Mac... Is that correct?  If so, you may need to wrangle the X11 font configuration on your Mac so that XQuartz has access to the fonts that the Workstation UI wants to use.  To be honest I have never figured out how font handling works on X11, and it's been 15+ years since I last used XQuartz... so I am not going to be much use with direct instructions on how to achieve this.

Personally, I would probably just enable a VNC server on the CentOS host and use a VNC client on the Mac to connect to the VNC service on the CentOS host, but I appreciate there could be many reasons that might not meet your needs.  I just mention it because it might be an easier solution than wrangling X11 fonts...

--

Darius

[shaferc1 · Accepted solution]

UPDATE: I have figured out that it's one (or more) of the many packages that is within installing GNOME and GDM:

yum groupinstall "GNOME Desktop"

yum install gdm gcc kernel-devel

Both via the GUI and in X11 (once you set the display properly), workstation loads up with all of the fonts visible.  I would rather prefer to have no GUI installed but this will suffice for what I need.