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COREstorm
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Workstation 9 - No 3D Acceleration to Guest - Ubuntu 12.04 Host - Nvidia Card

Ok, I've been going at this for some time.

Current Installation: Fresh install of Ubuntu 12.04

Video card: Nvidia Optimus GT540M

VMware: Workstation 9. (Unbuntu 12.04 is the HOST)

(Brief history: tried to get 3D support working under Workstation 8, using numerous nvidia drivers (every step you can find online), upgraded to Workstation 9 and retried all the steps. Reinstalled Ubuntu.);

Current status: Currently using Bumblebee. 3D WORKS on Ubuntu. I have glxinfo returning YES for 3D support and glxspheres working.

Since No nvidia drivers are installed, Vmware Workstation WILL NOT recognize the video card, and thus will not enable 3D support for the Windows 7 VM. - This is the problem we need to solve.

I have tried to uninstall Bumblebee and install Nvidia drivers and suffered from the 640x480 issue, with the Nvidia Settings not detecting a proper x configuration.

So the issue is currently: VMware will not recognize the video card properly since Bumblebee is installed. The 3D support will ONLY (so far) work using Bumblebee.

Let the delimma begin. This is currently a Vmware issue, although could quickly become another Ubuntu 12.04 issue if I have to go down the path of many drivers.

(Yes, I spent 9 hours trying to install every version of the Nvidia drivers everyone "suggested" with zero luck and many issues.)

112 Replies
ninjacoding
Contributor
Contributor

The posters above have some good points.

Were you able to run any game in windows?

I'm not able to test this because I'm using Debian.

For ubuntu users with a launchpad account, can you contact Stefan Glasenhardt and ask him for some help on this?

Maybe he's more knowledgeable on this matter.

To see his email you need a lauchpad account: https://launchpad.net/~glasen

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Xxx1983
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My Dell Laptop Is not special .... i think may be mine is not working as well , may be its skipping the notification ......

If its not working for anyone thats its not working for me to ......

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ninjacoding
Contributor
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If you're able to run a game -- any game that uses directx will do -- then you have it activated and working.

If the VM crashes, then you're on the same boat as the rest of us.

Please let us know your results.

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ChandraSystem
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As I said above, I've done an fresh installation: Ubuntu 12.04 x64; Intel graphics driver from the repository of Stefan Glasenhardt; xorg.conf modified and

VMware Workstation 9.

The result was the same error in each guest (Ubuntu 12.04, Windows 7 x32 and Windows 7 x64): "Hardware graphics acceleration is not available" and "No 3D support is available from the host".

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DJJo14
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Contributor

somebody already posted it.

You are running on a laptop right. the new laptops got 2 video cards on board, a intel and nvidia. to use the nvidia card you have to install the nvidia drivers but it only sees the intel one. you need to install Bumblebee, so you can switch between video card.

this is how it did this on my dell 15z when you installed it you have to run it vmware with

optirun

and it wil use you nvidia card with drivers.

good luck.

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Xxx1983
Contributor
Contributor

no aero in windows 7 " just install windows 7 for you guys "

Not Working , But no Notification as i have in past

may be it will work on 12.10 cauzz of optimus included by nvidia in it .... phoronix news ..

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

By the way it was working awsome in windows 7 , i had Ubuntu 12.04 in vm ......but only problem is defragmentation , cauzz i used to test a lot & it was going slow slow & slow 

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ChandraSystem
Contributor
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DJJo14, running the program with the optirun option does not mean that VMware run the guest with graphics acceleration.  It would be nice ... but that is not how it works. Smiley Wink

Apparently, VMware decides which card used during the installation process (the installation process of VMware Workstation, of course).

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ninjacoding
Contributor
Contributor

ChandraSystem wrote:

DJJo14, running the program with the optirun option does not mean that VMware run the guest with graphics acceleration.  It would be nice ... but that is not how it works. Smiley Wink

Apparently, VMware decides which card used during the installation process (the installation process of VMware Workstation, of course).

My guess would be vmware was bitchy and decides not to use nvidia GPU, even when started with optirun.

But if what you're saying is true (is it? or were you just guessing?), then what will happen if you install Workstation with optirun?

optirun VMware-Workstation-Full-9.0.0-812388.x86_64.bundle

Anyone tried it?

BTW, it would be NICE for vmware techies to comment on this whole issue... *sigh*

Is this something that is being worked on? Will it be fixed in 9.0.1 ?

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ninjacoding
Contributor
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I found a curious thing

If you start /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware from command line and then check out the processes:

ps aux | grep -e "/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware$"

You get one vmware process.

However if you run: optirun  /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware

and then check out the processes, you get:

optirun /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware

/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware

Two different processes!

It's weird why vmware forks itself.

BTW, has any vmware employee comment on this whole optimus issue?

Has any (unfortunate) user that bought their broken vm ws 9 got any support?

I'm thinking, in case it's possible, to buy WS 8. At least that one works.

But I'm not sure if WS 8 will work with kernel 3.5.

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ChandraSystem
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Has any (unfortunate) user that bought their broken vm ws 9 got any support?

ninjacoding, I'm waiting for the Support Request answer since 29 September (when you buy VMware Workstation, you have one month of free technical support).

The first suggestion from the SR was that I installed the Restricted Drivers in Ubuntu, but my window "Additional
Drivers" is empty and says "No proprietary drivers are in use on this system". Moreover, I knew to do that, without help from anyone :smileyangry: (the problem goes far beyond that.).

I told them that the problem was not the "Additional Drivers", but the nVIDIA Optimus/Intel graphics card combo... and I'm still waiting for an answer :smileyconfused:.  I can see the "status" of my Support Request is still "open".

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ninjacoding
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ChandraSystem wrote:

Has any (unfortunate) user that bought their broken vm ws 9 got any support?

ninjacoding, I'm waiting for the Support Request answer since 29 September (when you buy VMware Workstation, you have one month of free technical support).

The first suggestion from the SR was that I installed the Restricted Drivers in Ubuntu, but my window "Additional
Drivers" is empty and says "No proprietary drivers are in use on this system". Moreover, I knew to do that, without help from anyone :smileyangry: (the problem goes far beyond that.).

I told them that the problem was not the "Additional Drivers", but the nVIDIA Optimus/Intel graphics card combo... and I'm still waiting for an answer :smileyconfused:.  I can see the "status" of my Support Request is still "open".

That really sucks Smiley Sad

It seems they don't care at all.

They are just giving out the typical customer support, when this is no typical problem at all.

This needs to be adressed -- and feedbacked to the forum community -- by an engineer responsible for the 3D initialization.

The worst part is that we don't know if the dev team is working to have this problem fixed or not.

Is this something we should expect to be fixed in 9.0.1 or will this be broken forever?

And I can't just understand why no VM employee comments on this subject that is affecting several users.

Should I wait for them to fix WS 9? Or should I go ahead and buy WS 8? But then I'll have to pay more (or a whole license) when/if the WS 9 problem is fixed.

*sigh*

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ChandraSystem
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This needs to be adressed -- and feedbacked to the forum community -- by an engineer responsible for the 3D initialization.

The worst part is that we don't know if the dev team is working to have this problem fixed or not.

Is this something we should expect to be fixed in 9.0.1 or will this be broken forever?

And I can't just understand why no VM employee comments on this subject that is affecting several users.

ninjacoding, the 29 September I sent to the Support Request a link to this thread. I wanted them to understand that it is a problem that affects many people: this thread has now over 4000 views! It is the most viewed thread in the VMware forums.

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Emulez
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If you start /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware from command line and then check out the processes:

ps aux | grep -e "/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware$"

You get one vmware process.

However if you run: optirun  /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware

and then check out the processes, you get:

optirun /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware

/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware

Two different processes!

It's weird why vmware forks itself.

That's beacause optirun isn't the vmware process, it just opens the program passed as an argument on another X server, and sends it to the one you run it from. So the "optirun /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware" command isn't vmware at all, it's more like a proxy between X servers.

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TJet18
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No solutions for us yet huh?...Smiley Sad

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Emulez
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Has anyone actually tried running the installer with optirun? I can't right now.

Apparently the rendering is done by vmware's modules, so running vmware player/workstation with optirun doesn't matter as it's only rendering the window with the nvidia card. But I think running the installer with optirun won't matter either, because it probably checks for video cards in /sys (or somewhere like that) directly, instead of querying the X server for which one it is using.

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ninjacoding
Contributor
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I no longer have WS 9 installed so I can't test it.

But for those with it installed, can you try this? : 

$ optirun bash
$ optirun vmware

Another interesting thing is that for nvidia-settings to work you have to run it like this:

optirun nvidia-settings -c :8

The -c is an option of nvidia-settings.

It makes me wonder if VM could implement a similar mechanism.

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dskinner
Contributor
Contributor

Lost in the sea to waves that be

overturning the whales and shales to see

that no resolution be found for you or me

my god how I wish this would settle, oh please?

vmware? anyone?

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TJet18
Contributor
Contributor

Ok...upgraded my host O/S from Ubuntu 12.04 to 12.10.

Re-installed everything including VMware Workstation 9......and.....same bloody issue!! :smileyangry:

No 3D for my VM's Smiley Sad

What a load of cr@p....getting frustrated with VMware....

Anyone else have a different/better outcome??

Thanks.

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dskinner
Contributor
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I figured I'd try installing vmware tools 8.8.4 with WS9 b/c, I dunno, I want it to work. Got older version of tools going but same issue. dxdiag shows D2D and D3D enabled, try to run system rating to enable aero as a test and boom.

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TJet18
Contributor
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Ok...so 9.0.1 was just released.

Has anyone tried the latest and greatest VMware WS 9.0.1 with any success?

I have since moved on to Windows 8 Pro and have not tried Ubuntu 12.10 and Workstation 9.0.1

Windows 8 Pro is great...but I miss my Ubuntu....Smiley Sad

Anyone??

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