Fedora9 guest wont boot - VM window repeatedly switching size at end of boot process where should display login screen

[Kev___]

Hi,

I made a Fedora 9 guest a few weeks ago and it has been working fine since today when I tried to boot. It goes through the boot process as normal displaying its progress, processes started etc. When it gets to the stage where it would normally display a login screen, the window repeatedly switches between the standard size (text mode) and the custom size defined within the guest OS.

Luckily I had a backup so I switched to the backup and re-did the work that I had done since making the backup. I just tried to boot again and I have the same problem again. Guest OS updates were applied before I last shut it down and I didnt re-run wmware-config-tools.pl. I'm not sure if that is related.

I'm running vmware-6.5 (build-118166) on windows XP sp3 (32-bit) . I have attached wmware.log.

Thanks,

Kevin

[An_tony]

I hit the same problem on two systems (OpenSUSE 11 and Fedora 9 64-bit hosts, Fedora9-32bit guest on each). The problem cropped up after applying Fedora updates to the guests. I don't know if it's the cause, but I noticed that a new vmmouse driver was included in the updates (xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse-12.6.1-1.fc9). When I try to start X manually with the startx command, I get a backtrace diagnostic containing vmmouse.drv.so, so suspect that the new vmmouse may relate.

I've got the guest to start by starting the guest in runlevel-3 (to keep GDM from trying to start) and commenting-out the vmmouse section in /etc/X11/xorg.conf (the InputDevice section and server layout reference), though this makes the mouse soft-grab quit working.

[Liz]

Chances are your update has either updated your kernel or your xwindows system.

if you can telnet/ssh into the guest, do so, rerun the tools setup and it should work out - or change it to the text only run level.

if you cant, then it was a kernel update and you need to go into single user mode on the box, change it to text only, reboot, run the tools setup again, and work through.

[Kev___]

I couldnt figure out how to fix it and I really needed to get on with my work so I switched back to Fedora8. If I hadnt already deleted theFedora9 VM I might have been able to retrieve my work, I'll have to redo it all now.

I hope this thread helps anyone else who has the same problem.

Cheers!

[sunnyliu2005]

I got this problem in Fedora 9 too!

I don't know what is the real solution here! This issue is not solved from my status!

I am sure it is came from to update xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse-12.6.1-1.fc9.i386 package.

From the log messages in /var/log/Xorg.0.log to see "signal 11" error!

Please give us some help to solve this probelm!

[sunnyliu2005]

To solve this probelm, it is to un-install xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse-12.6.1-1.fc9.i386.rpm and to go back to install xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse-12.5.0-1.fc9.i386.rpm.

You need some patience to wait for to go into tty1 console.

Step 1 : to power on your VM to boot Fedora 9.

Step 2 : wait for the Screen to be blinking. Let your keyboard to input the VM. To press Alt-F1 and to wait for to have chance to login tty1 console.

Step 3: cd /var/log, cat /dev/null > messages To drop all error log messages and to have disk space to do the following steps.

Step 4: yum erase xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse. That will remove two packages : xorg-x11-drivers-7.3-4.fc9 and xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse-12.6.1-1.fc9

Step 5: yum install xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse-12.5.0-1.fc9

Step 6: Need to make sure un-install and install sucessfully! to make sure /etc/X11/xorg.conf is your origin working config file! The better method is shutdown -P now. Don't suggest reboot now! Then power on your VM again!

That will solve this problem! Also, don't do any packages update untill Fedora 9 xorg packages to fix the problems!

[CharlieM]

Please be sure to update the xorg server too, not just the xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse!

Use xorg-x11-server-1.5.2-3.fc9, which should be in the repos now. Using the new vmmouse driver and the old xserver will give segfaults.

regards, ....... Charlie

[An_tony]

Confirmed. I just installed the updated xorg server and restored the new vmmouse driver in xorg.conf. Problem fixed. Apparently the new vmmouse escaped before the new xorg server it needed. New installs/updates should work without incident.