debian 9 "stretch" full-screen un-reliable results

[buckmaster]

Running debian 9, kernel 4.9.0-5-amd64, kde plasma 5.8.6, workstation version 14.1.1, Nvidia graphics 4.4.nvidia 340.102

If I run a VM in normal display mode there is no issues.  However when switching to full-screen mode all kind of odd things occur; menu button will not open after a while, on it's own it switches from full-screen back to normal mode.  Hitting control alt enter to force window mode causes really odd behavior in windows when it resizes.

Right now I run in normal mode so I can use the desktop without issues, not ideal though because I desire full-screen with 2 monitors.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Tom

[buckmaster]

Just to add; when running in normal window mode after running the VM, shutting down the VM, then VMware Workstation will not close?

Also, I've noticed when running the VM in window mode after a while the tools menu becomes un-responsive.  I actually have to shut the VM down to have access to the tools menu bar.

Argh!

Tom

[buckmaster]

Doesn't seem Workstation 14 runs very well with Linux, see many issues in the forums. 

Anyone have any ideas regarding this issue?

Thanks

[wila]

Hi,

Are you using open-vm-tools ?

The vmware tools that is bundled with debian is the recommended package to use. That way you don't have to compile kernel modules and it basically "just works", at least it does for me on VMware Fusion.

Did you also install open-vm-tools-desktop ?

--

Wil

[buckmaster]

Using the vmware-tools that came with Workstation 14 Linux.  Workstation 14 installed without any issues.  Just running VM's the interface acts really flaky. 

[wila]

Hi,

Then uninstall that and use open-vm-tools.

Eg after uninstall, run:

sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools
sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools-desktop

When you installed the vmware tools that came with Workstation it should have told you that "the recommended way was to use open-vm-tools".

Unless you have a specific reason not to use the recommended way, you're just inflicting pain on yourself.

There have been times in the past where using the vmware tools that was bundled with the distribution had some issues, some features did not work well and as not every distribution fixed issues by upgrading to a vmware-tools that had the issues fixed it was sometimes needed to run the vmware tools that came with VMware Workstation.

AFAIK with debian 9 it works best to use open-vm-tools

edit: WAIT....

You are trying to say that your HOST is running debian 9.

My reply was only relevant for running debian 9 guests, sorry it was not clear to me that you were talking about using debian 9 as host.

For a debian host, currently Workstation only officially supports it up to debian 9.1

Supported host operating systems for Workstation Pro 12.x and 14.x (2129859)

In these type of cases it might be the nvidia driver. If you're on the latest version, then try one before it.

--

Wil