an observation about suspending VMware-VMX Linux process

[matthewls]

I usually run a Windows XP-64 virtual machine on a Linux host as a single window, but yesterday started using it in unity mode, which does not have a "pause" function. So, thinking to cool off the machine while I didn't use the VM, I used the process manager to stop the VMware-VMX thread. This worked!

I was quite pleased with the result…until a message appeared that unity mode was no longer available. I tried resuming the process and restart the machine, but it would show the window, which then disappeared. I assumed that I had somehow killed some key hooks between the virtual machine and Linux, but no! (or maybe yes). After I closed and restarted the VMware process (leaving the VMware-VMX process alone), there was the virtual machine in its former state, working away.

So this leads to my question. If I want to pause a virtual machine running in unity mode, what lyrics processes do I have to suspend to prevent confusion? I assume that if I suspend both the VMware-VMX and the VMware processes, then everything should be fine. Is that true?

Or, to put it another way, what would it take to implement pausing a virtual machine running in unity mode?

Cheers,

Matthew

[vanRijn]

Hey there. Really good question. We don't currently support a Paused VM in Unity mode. By the way, did you know you can pause the VM from the Workstation UI itself via (control+shift+p) or use the menu/toolbar button)? But anyway, you're right in that if you pause a VM while it's in Unity mode, it will get kicked out. We're hoping to support Pause + Unity at some point in the future, but for right now, there's just no way.

[matthewls]

Thanks for the reply. I do use the ctrl-shft-p in non-unity modes.