Workstation 11 and serious sound issues

[fabio_brizzolla]

I recently upgraded from WS10 to WS11 and my Windows VMs had an considerable decrease in sound quality. The sound was distorted and not clear in my Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 64-bit system.

I have found the KB http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2012007 with instructions to change the Sound/Speaker setting from 16-bit@44100 to 24-bit@44100.

But doing this Workstation 11 crashes and VM is suddenly powered off...

An error message is shown saying: "VMware Workstation unrecoverable error: (vcpu-0) vcpu-0| I120+ Unexpected signal: 11"

And the log file shows this:

2015-02-13T08:26:24.523-02:00| vcpu-3| I120: Stream 7FAC7C02A8C0 creating

2015-02-13T08:26:24.525-02:00| vthread-15| I120: Stream 7FAC7C02A8C0 ready

2015-02-13T08:26:24.533-02:00| vcpu-0| I120: SoundPulseStartStream: Starting/resuming Pulseaudio sound stream 7FAC7C02A8C0.

2015-02-13T08:26:24.621-02:00| vcpu-3| I120: SoundPulseStopAbortStream: Stopping Pulseaudio sound stream 7FAC7C02A8C0

2015-02-13T08:26:24.639-02:00| vthread-15| I120: SoundPulseStreamDrainCompleteCB: Pulse stream 7FAC7C02A8C0 drained/flushed

2015-02-13T08:26:24.639-02:00| vthread-15| I120: SoundPulseStreamDrainCompleteCB: Pulse stream 7FAC7C02A8C0 disconnected

2015-02-13T08:26:39.774-02:00| vmx| A115: ConfigDB: Setting unity.wasCapable = "FALSE"

2015-02-13T08:26:39.822-02:00| vmx| I120: GuestRpc: Got error for connection 6:Remote connection failure

2015-02-13T08:26:39.843-02:00| vmx| I120: GuestRpc: Got error for connection 7:Remote connection failure

2015-02-13T08:26:39.843-02:00| vcpu-0| I120: GuestRpc: Channel 1, unable to send an rpc.

2015-02-13T08:26:39.843-02:00| vcpu-0| I120: GuestRpc: Reinitializing Channel 1(toolbox-dnd)

2015-02-13T08:26:39.968-02:00| vcpu-1| I120: Stream 7FAC84018810 creating

2015-02-13T08:26:39.971-02:00| vthread-15| I120: Stream 7FAC84018810 ready

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| W110: Caught signal 11 -- tid 4171 (addr 0)

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| I120: SIGNAL: rip 0x0 rsp 0x7faca3110bf8 rbp 0x4

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| I120: SIGNAL: rax 0x0 rbx 0x3babe88 rcx 0x18 rdx 0xc9b860 rsi 0x7faca3110ca0 rdi 0x7fac98010e50

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| I120:         r8 0x39a52a8 r9 0x3958fd0 r10 0x0 r11 0x3246 r12 0x164 r13 0x7fad36d71ec0 r14 0x384b3a0 r15 0x7fad36d71ec0

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| I120: SIGNAL: stack 7FACA3110BF8 : 0x0000000000738a2d 0x00007fad36dd4568

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| I120: SIGNAL: stack 7FACA3110C08 : 0x00007fad36dd4578 0x0000000436cfe018

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| I120: SIGNAL: stack 7FACA3110C18 : 0x0000000003ba7930 0x0000000003ba7930

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| I120: SIGNAL: stack 7FACA3110C28 : 0x00007fad36d3c3c0 0x0000000000000004

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| I120: SIGNAL: stack 7FACA3110C38 : 0x000000040068cdff 0x00007fad36d71ec0

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| I120: SIGNAL: stack 7FACA3110C48 : 0x00007fac84005c20 0x00000000013cd400

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| I120: SIGNAL: stack 7FACA3110C58 : 0x0000000001606740 0x00007fad36d3c3c0

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| I120: SIGNAL: stack 7FACA3110C68 : 0xffffffffffffffff 0x00007fad36d2af00

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| I120: Backtrace:

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| I120: Backtrace[0] 00007faca3110520 rip=00000000004f306e rbx=00000000004f2e40 rbp=0000000000000000 r12=00007faca3111650 r13=00007faca3110c78 r14=00007faca3110c78 r15=000000000000000b

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| I120: Backtrace[1] 00007faca3110550 rip=0000000000462c89 rbx=000000000000000b rbp=0000000000000004 r12=00007faca3111650 r13=00007faca3110c78 r14=00007faca3110c78 r15=000000000000000b

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| I120: Backtrace[2] 00007faca3110640 rip=00007fad3653f340 rbx=0000000003babe88 rbp=0000000000000004 r12=0000000000000164 r13=00007fad36d71ec0 r14=000000000384b3a0 r15=00007fad36d71ec0

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| I120: Backtrace[3] 00007faca3110bf8 rip=0000000000000000 rbx=0000000003babe88 rbp=0000000000000004 r12=0000000000000164 r13=00007fad36d71ec0 r14=000000000384b3a0 r15=00007fad36d71ec0

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| I120: SymBacktrace[0] 00007faca3110520 rip=00000000004f306e in function (null) in object /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx loaded at 0000000000400000

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.007]| vcpu-0| I120: SymBacktrace[1] 00007faca3110550 rip=0000000000462c89 in function (null) in object /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx loaded at 0000000000400000

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.008]| vcpu-0| I120: SymBacktrace[2] 00007faca3110640 rip=00007fad3653f340 in function (null) in object /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 loaded at 00007fad3652f000

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.008]| vcpu-0| I120: SymBacktrace[3] 00007faca3110bf8 rip=0000000000000000

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.008]| vcpu-0| I120: Unexpected signal: 11.

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.008]| vcpu-0| W110:

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.008]| vcpu-0| W110+ The core dump limit is set to ZERO; no core dump should be expected

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.015]| vcpu-0| W110: Child process 4201 failed to dump core (status 0x6).

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.015]| vcpu-0| W110: Writing monitor corefile "/home/fabio/VMware_VMs/Desktop7/vmmcores.gz"

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.018]| vcpu-0| W110: Dumping core for vcpu-0

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.018]| vcpu-0| I120: Beginning monitor coredump

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.552]| vcpu-0| I120: End monitor coredump

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.018]| vcpu-0| I120: Beginning monitor coredump

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.552]| vcpu-0| I120: End monitor coredump

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.552]| vcpu-0| W110: Dumping core for vcpu-1

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+0.552]| vcpu-0| I120: Beginning monitor coredump

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+1.078]| vcpu-0| I120: End monitor coredump

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+1.078]| vcpu-0| W110: Dumping core for vcpu-2

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+1.078]| vcpu-0| I120: Beginning monitor coredump

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+1.600]| vcpu-0| I120: End monitor coredump

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+1.600]| vcpu-0| W110: Dumping core for vcpu-3

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+1.600]| vcpu-0| I120: Beginning monitor coredump

2015-02-13T08:26:39-02:00[+2.128]| vcpu-0| I120: End monitor coredump

2015-02-13T08:26:42.518-02:00| mks| W110: Panic in progress... ungrabbing

2015-02-13T08:26:42.518-02:00| mks| I120: MKS: Release starting (panic).

2015-02-13T08:26:42.521-02:00| mks| I120: MKS: Release finished (panic).

2015-02-13T08:26:42.526-02:00| mks| W110: Panic in progress... ungrabbing

2015-02-13T08:26:42.526-02:00| mks| I120: MKS: Release starting (panic).

2015-02-13T08:26:42.526-02:00| mks| I120: MKS: Release finished (panic).

2015-02-13T08:26:42-02:00[+0.316]| vcpu-0| I120: Coredump encountered overflow 3817:3817 (635 duplicates)

2015-02-13T08:26:42-02:00[+0.643]| vcpu-0| I120: Backtrace:

2015-02-13T08:26:42-02:00[+0.643]| vcpu-0| I120: Backtrace[0] 00007faca3110020 rip=00000000004f306e rbx=00000000004f2e40 rbp=0000000000000000 r12=0000000000000001 r13=00007faca3110c78 r14=00007faca3110c78 r15=000000000000000b

2015-02-13T08:26:42-02:00[+0.643]| vcpu-0| I120: Backtrace[1] 00007faca3110050 rip=00000000004ce229 rbx=00007faca3110070 rbp=00000000014c4260 r12=0000000000000001 r13=00007faca3110c78 r14=00007faca3110c78 r15=000000000000000b

2015-02-13T08:26:42-02:00[+0.643]| vcpu-0| I120: Backtrace[2] 00007faca3110550 rip=0000000000462cd8 rbx=000000000000000b rbp=00007faca3110580 r12=00007faca3111650 r13=00007faca3110c78 r14=00007faca3110c78 r15=000000000000000b

2015-02-13T08:26:42-02:00[+0.643]| vcpu-0| I120: Backtrace[3] 00007faca3110640 rip=00007fad3653f340 rbx=0000000003babe88 rbp=0000000000000004 r12=0000000000000164 r13=00007fad36d71ec0 r14=000000000384b3a0 r15=00007fad36d71ec0

2015-02-13T08:26:42-02:00[+0.643]| vcpu-0| I120: Backtrace[4] 00007faca3110bf8 rip=0000000000000000 rbx=0000000003babe88 rbp=0000000000000004 r12=0000000000000164 r13=00007fad36d71ec0 r14=000000000384b3a0 r15=00007fad36d71ec0

2015-02-13T08:26:42-02:00[+0.643]| vcpu-0| I120: SymBacktrace[0] 00007faca3110020 rip=00000000004f306e in function (null) in object /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx loaded at 0000000000400000

2015-02-13T08:26:42-02:00[+0.643]| vcpu-0| I120: SymBacktrace[1] 00007faca3110050 rip=00000000004ce229 in function (null) in object /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx loaded at 0000000000400000

2015-02-13T08:26:42-02:00[+0.643]| vcpu-0| I120: SymBacktrace[2] 00007faca3110550 rip=0000000000462cd8 in function (null) in object /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx loaded at 0000000000400000

2015-02-13T08:26:42-02:00[+0.643]| vcpu-0| I120: SymBacktrace[3] 00007faca3110640 rip=00007fad3653f340 in function (null) in object /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 loaded at 00007fad3652f000

2015-02-13T08:26:42-02:00[+0.643]| vcpu-0| I120: SymBacktrace[4] 00007faca3110bf8 rip=0000000000000000

2015-02-13T08:26:42-02:00[+0.643]| vcpu-0| I120: Msg_Post: Error

Anymore else having this issues?

Regards,

[VE9GJ]

I also upgraded from WS 10 to WS 11 and I am experiencing the exact same problem.  Same poor sound in Win7 guest and same crash and log entries if I try the 16-bit@44100 to 24-bit@44100 speaker change.

Host is 64bit Ubuntu/Lubuntu 14.10 and problem guest is 64bit Win7 (Pro).  Sound works perfect in Linux guests. (Lubuntu 64bit 14.10)

Sound is essential to my WS use so if no fix is available I will have to revert to WS 10

TIA

Glenn

[VE9GJ]

A workaround that seemed to work for me is to use  http://sourceforge.net/projects/vmtweaker/  and then change the sound device from hdaudio to es1371

[orazio77]

hello, even after I upgraded from 10 to 11 audio workstation has undergone a drastic drop in quality even often only hear a whistle, I could not fix it, and I had to go back to my workstation 10. host system kubuntu is 14:04 Lts and the problem occurs mainly with guest windows. solutions?

[fabio_brizzolla]

1) Shutdown de Virtual Machine and remove it from Inventory

2) Open the .VMX file and delete the following line:

sound.virtualDev = "hdaudio"

This was sugested by VMware Support and It worked for me.