Problem: Ubuntu 12.10 guest on WS 9.0.2 on Win 7 x64 host

[StuartV]

My laptop is a Dell Precision M6400 (quad-core CPU, 16GB RAM, 1.5TB HDD). My base (host) OS is Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.

I've been running VMWare Workstation since the 7.0 days. I've had 9.0 for a while and upgraded to 9.0.1 as soon as it came out. Then I upgraded to 9.0.2 yesterday. Up until yesterday, I have only run Windows as a guest OS in my VMs. Generally, with no problem (other than the crap multi-monitor support...).

After I updated to 9.0.2 yesterday, I decided to setup a new VM with Ubuntu as the guest OS. I downloaded the ISO of Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit and installed that. I gave it 1 CPU w/1 core, 2GB RAM, and 80GB HDD. WS recognized the ISO and did the "easy install".

- Ubuntu came up and ran and I got logged in. But, it kept telling me I had lost my Ethernet connection and that I was now offline. The VM was set for Bridged networking and my Internet access was still fine from the host OS and from the other VM I had running at the same time (a Windows VM). It was trying to download some language packs and couldn't, because I was "offline". I did a Restart on Ubuntu (from it's menu). When it rebooted, it came up, displayed the Ubuntu splash screen for a few seconds, then went to a black screen with "[ OK ]" in white, displayed in the top right corner. I could hit Enter and see a cursor advancing a line at a time down the screen (once for each time I pressed Enter). But, it would go no further. I did a Reset in the VM menu and still got the same results.

- I deleted the VM and did a new one from scratch, using the same process and parameters. It came up and again had problems with the ethernet connection. I found that I could go into the Ubuntu Network settings applet and it would show the Wired connection as turned Off. I could turn it back on and it would work for a few minutes and then turn itself back off. Doing this, it got through updating language packs and so forth. After about an hour, while I was surfing the Ubuntu forums, trying to figure out what was going on, it magically stabilized and then seemed to be okay.

- Once it seemed stable, I tried to enable Shared Folders in the VM settings, to have access to stuff on my host OS hard drive. When I tried, WS said that I need to have VMWare Tools installed to do that. So, in WS, I did VM/Reinstall VMWare Tools (yes, it said Reinstall, even though the earlier message implied that they were not installed already). That started a process in Ubuntu where I followed the instructions to run in the install script, then let it automatically start the configuration script. I got part way through yesterday afternoon, then let it sit until this morning, when I finished responding to the prompts from the config script (where I accepted all defaults) and let it finish running. That all seemed to complete successfully. At the end of the config script, it displayed a message saying that, for my new settings to take effect, I needed to do one of three things. One of the options was restarting my X session. Whatever. I decided to just go ahead and reboot the whole Ubuntu VM.

- When I rebooted the Ubuntu VM, it did the same thing my very first Ubuntu VM did. It displayed a Ubuntu splash screen for a few seconds, then went to a black screen with "[ OK ]" in white, at the top left, and was hung. Again, I'm at a spot where the VM seems to be dead, with nothing I can do with it except delete it and start over.

Help?

[StuartV]

Okay, something is definitely jacked up here. I completely deleted my Ubuntu VM and started over from scratch.

This time, I did not do the "easy install". I chose the option for "install OS later", then set the virtual CD to load the Ubuntu ISO, then powered the VM on.

It booted up and I went through the Ubuntu install process. I selected the option to download updates during the install. It did all that, including downloading updates and came up. I put in my username, the machine name, etc.. It finished and said I needed to reboot for the install to complete.

I clicked Restart Now and it shut down and started to boot. It hung with the Ubuntu splash screen displayed and one dot (of the 5 that normally show under the word ubuntu on the splash screen) showing. I let it sit for over 20 minutes. Nothing changed. I clicked with my mouse into the VM and then hit Enter a couple of times. All of a sudden it rebooted and booted all the way up and let me login.

As soon as I got logged in, Ubuntu displayed the message Wired network - Disconnected. You are now offline.

And in the time it took me to type all that, I just looked again, and now it shows that I'm online.

Now to try installing VMware Tools. This time, the VM menu says "Install", not "Reinstall".

[StuartV]

Before installing VMware Tools, I tried doing a Restart on Ubuntu a couple of times, just to make sure it will Restart okay and not give me the black screen hang, like it was before. It did Restart just fine.

Along the way, I have noticed (in all cases, since yesterday), during the boot process, it flashes a couple of messages that say something about a piix4 (?) and a message that "Host SMBus controller not enabled" or something like that.

I don't know if that has any significance here.

And the first time I restarted Ubuntu, just now, after I logged in, it displayed an error dialog about not finding or being able to mount (or something) fd0. I don't have a floppy drive in my laptop.

The second time I restarted, I logged in and it did not display an error dialog about fd0.

NOW to install VMware Tools....

[StuartV]

The VMware Tools install seemed to work fine. I took all defaults, including having it automatically run the config at the end. When that finished, it said one of the things I should do is start vmware-user manually. So, I did, and this is what happened:

stuartv@ubuntu-x64:~/Desktop/vmware-tools-distrib$ /usr/bin/vmware-user
stuartv@ubuntu-x64:~/Desktop/vmware-tools-distrib$ /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib/libstdc++.so.6/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.9' not found (required by /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libproxy.so.1)
Failed to load module: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gio/modules/libgiolibproxy.so

I don't know if that's bad or not. When I ran vmware-user, my screen did finally auto resize to fill my laptop screen.

Now that VMware Tools is installed, I did a restart on Ubuntu annnnnddd... it shutdown, started booting, displayed the Ubuntu splash, flashed the message about the SMBus controller (mentioned earlier), displayed the Ubuntu splash again, and now it has hung on a black screen with a blinking cursor in the upper left.

I went to the VM menu and did Restart Guest. It seemed to go through a "normal" shutdown. It displayed some messages including:

acpid: exiting

speech-dispatcher something-or-other

* Asking all remaining processes to terminate...    [OK]

* Killing all remaing processes...        [fail]

Then rebooted, and did the same thing all over again. I did Restart Guest again. Same thing.

I did Restart Guest a third time and it booted up and let me login.

So I'm back to exactly where I was before, after doing the easy install. It won't Restart successfully unless I do Restart Guest two times after the first boot hangs. On the third boot attempt, it comes up.

I conclude that the current VMware Tools has a problem with Ubuntu 12.10 (at least).

[mfelker]

1)  I neve use "Easy Install" on Linux guest - and you should lnot    either (I know you tried lthe "I will install the OS later" at least  once.  BUT

2)  On  aa Windows host i fyou sspecify the Guest OS as Ubuntu it will take you through a long llsi screens in which   it displays what lit thinks are the defaults you should use.  I'm nearly positive that  the  connection type  will be NAT. l Did you modify this  to Bridged? 

3) That  said  I don't know if Ubuntu  12.10 is "offically" supported by  WS 9.0.2. 

4) Gven that however, you might try to install Ubuntu  12.04 LTS (the latest version which includes all  updates   - but run aptitude upldate anyway) Now perhaps you  conncection  problems  will  be  resolved whether you use NAT or Bridged.  If so use 'update-manager -d' and upldate to Ubuntu   12.10.  Its  worth a try anyway.

[Matthias_Breuer]

I got the same problem with Ubuntu 12.10 Desktop on ESXi 4.1. On the same host are running three Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Server vm's without any problem.

[StuartV]

Martin Felker wrote:

2)  On  aa Windows host i fyou sspecify the Guest OS as Ubuntu it will take you through a long llsi screens in which   it displays what lit thinks are the defaults you should use.  I'm nearly positive that  the  connection type  will be NAT. l Did you modify this  to Bridged? 

I always used Bridged networking.

[StuartV]

I would say that I am disappointed that my original post is 6 days old and I've still gotten no response from any VMware official, or any pointer to official VMware info on this subject. But, to be disappointed, I would have had to have higher expectations and this is actually perfectly consistent with my previous attempts to get info from VMware here.

[StuartV]

Thank you, mfelker and Matthias for your posts.

[WoodyZ]

StuartV wrote: I would say that I am disappointed that my original post is 6 days old and I've still gotten no response from any VMware official,

This forum is not official VMware Support and while some VMware employees do participate nonetheless it is more the exception, not the rule and if you want an official response then you need to file a support request.   Obviously VMware tends to reply to the more glaring issues however they're only going to circumvent the revenue stream of paid support but so much and that's to be expected.

or any pointer to official VMware info on this subject.

Have you searched the VMware KB?  If there is anything official it will be there, not necessarily here as these forums are primarily and predominantly User to User not VMware Support to User.

[StuartV]

WoodyZ wrote:

This forum is not official VMware Support and while some VMware employees do participate nonetheless it is more the exception, not the rule and if you want an official response then you need to file a support request.   Obviously VMware tends to reply to the more glaring issues however they're only going to circumvent the revenue stream of paid support but so much and that's to be expected.

I understand that. I run the technical side of a software company. I am familiar with supporting one's software. If I were paying for support, I would expect a prompt response, with either, "here's the instructions on how to solve your problem", or "we're aware of the issue and it will be fixed in 9.0.3, which is expected to release on x/y/2013." And maybe even, "here's a hotfix you can try, which may resolve your issue.

For free, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect an official response within a week that at least acknowledges there is a problem.

WoodyZ wrote:

Have you searched the VMware KB? If there is anything official it will be there, not necessarily here as these forums are primarily and predominantly User to User not VMware Support to User.

Yes. I searched the category of VMware Workstation for "ubuntu 12.10" and had 0 results. I searched for just ubuntu and got 57 results - none of which appear to be related to what I have going on.

Further, the VMware Compatibility Guide says Ubuntu 12.10 is supported. Instructions are provided for how to install it, and they don't specify anything special - except for one thing. It says to use the LSI SCSI controller, instead of BusLogic. I don't remember which I picked - I just took the default. But, now that I have an existing Ubuntu VM, I don't see any way to find out which one I did pick - which also seems to me to be a problem. Editing the VM Settings don't tell me. However, in creating a new one from scratch, I see that the default is LSI and that BusLogic is greyed out as a choice, for 64-bit guest OS's.

So, as far as I can tell, I installed 12.10 exactly as described in the instructions, and it has problems. Which have now been confirmed by Matthias. I would HOPE that VMware would both use and acknowledge this free, external QA they're getting of their product. Should I pay them just to find and report problems in their software to them?!

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=software&testConfig=16&produ...

http://partnerweb.vmware.com/GOSIG/Ubuntu_12_10.html

[mfelker]

Can I assume you    have tried a Google search?  I've got  to assume you  have being in the postition you hold with your company.  Many people do  ttaht  first and then  come here. If so try, try again  with different search terms.  You  may ignore your own post as it will surely appear.  I've  found that 99% of the  times if you  have a technical problem somebody  else in  virtualization land (indded computer land as a whole)  has the problem  as   well - and may  have found it.

Good luck