vmware-vmx process hung on Fedora 29 graphical boot

[khale]

I'm running VMware Fusion version 11.0.2 (10952296) on:

• macOS Mojave 10.14.3 (18D109)
• MacBook Pro 13inch, 2018
• Fedora 29 guest

This setup was working just fine until I pulled the latest kernel (4.20.12-200.fc29.x86_64). Fedora gets stuck late in the graphical boot process (with the fedora icon progress meter halfway filled up) and pegs the CPU. Fortunately, I can get around the hang by removing the rhgb option in the kernel command line in grub.

The concerning thing, however, is that when it does hang, I try to reboot or shutdown the VM from the fusion menu, and the operation never succeeds. I can't retry the operation as then the menu items are grayed out. The only way to get around it is to kill the vmware-vmx process directly. The shutdown/reboot then proceeds.

[RickShu]

Hi khale,

I'm unable to reproduce your issue in house, does it persist if you turn off the 3D acceleration?

Also, when the menu items are all grayed out, you can hold the Alt key then click Virtual Machine menu, the Power Off menu item should be enabled.

Regards,

-Rick

[cowiean]

I'm having the same issue. Fedora 29 guest, VMware Fusion 10, occurring since regular upgrade from Linux kernel 4.20.8-200.fc29.x86_64 (choosing that kernel from grub at boot allows the system to complete startup, as does the rescue image. Boot hang occurs with 4.20.{11,12,13} When the hang occurs, the only way to stop the machine from turning into a jet engine is to sudo pkill -f vmware. Next time it happens I'll try just the vmware-vmx process.

AfC

[RickShu]

Hi cowiean,

I've just upgraded my Fedora 29 VM kernel version to 4.20.13-200.fc29.x86_64 via sudo dnf update and I did not see any issue while startup.

My setup as below:

• macOS Mojave 10.14.4 (18E194d)
• MacBook Pro 15 inch, 2018
• Fedora 29 guest Kernel version: 4.20.13-200.fc29.x86_64

Are there any additional settings I missed?

Regards,

-Rick

[cowiean]

So I (and the original poster, I infer) am running full screen graphical so as to run a GNOME Desktop. So maybe the problem is related to the graphics subsystem. I'll "turn it off" (if you can say how to do that) as a diagnostic, but the point is to have HiDPI graphics running properly [can't stand Mac OS X, running Linux full screen is the reason I'm using VMware in the first place] so we'll want to figure that out if we can.

There's every possibility this isn't VMware Fusion's fault, but ideally a minor kernel upgrade wouldn't have caused such an abrupt change in behaviour. I'm certainly willing to help diagnose. Which graphics setting in the VM config do you want changed?

AfC

[khale]

I'll add that I have nested virtualization, IOMMU support, and full resolution retina support enabled. I will give it a shot without graphics accel. enabled.

[ltosolini]

I am having exact same problem!

Problem persists with latest kernel: 4.20.13-200.fc29.x86_64

I tried to disable 3D acceleration, remove sharing, sound card, camera at no availability

The only way I can get the vm to boot is to edit the kernel parameter and adding 'single'

Very nasty workaround, but only way I found so far.

Need urgent support on this issue.

Luca.

[khale]

Confirmed to persist with 3D graphics acceleration disabled

[ltosolini]

@vmware

This issue is very serious making recent linux distributions unusable.

Is there any ticket open or plan to fix it?

Thanks,

Luca.

[Linuxmail]

hi,

also for me the same. Had before the Vmware Fusion 8 pro. I decided to upgrade  to 11 pro but it does not change the behavior. System is MacOS 10.14.2.  VM is a Fedora 29 with latest kernel update. I think, its getting worst, since I installed the vmware-tools to get a faster desktop. It was a bit "slaggy" ...

cu denny

[luisr]

Hi,

Not sure if this should be reported here or in Fedora forums but I'm having the same issue, but only when I try to power on o reboot the vm while in the vm window is in full screen mode (little green button on upper left of the window).

I managed to gather some info on my VM through SSH see below, I tried using systemctl to try to see the status on jobs but only received time out every time I tried

From last image, it looks like Plymouthd is hogging one of the virtual cores while trying to start,.

NOTE: For those having trouble to shutdown the vm: remember that if shut open the "Virtual Machine" menu and then hold the Option/Alt button the options "Restart" and "Shut Down" will change to "Reset" and "Power Off" which are forced on the VM (in other words, vm fusion will not try to use the VM ACPI to carry those operations, but please don't quote me on that)

See here: Forcing a virtual machine to power off in VMware Fusion https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1006215

[cowiean]

The trick of using Alt to get "Power Off" is quite interesting, but neither that nor killing vmware-vmx only is sufficient here; we have to pkill -f vmware (ie *all* the VMware processes) and then restart VMware manually to restore things.

Linux kernel 5.0.x was recently released, it still doesn't work. I have to manually select 4.20.8 at boot time or the system hangs.

AfC

[tonyschmidt]

I removed all traces of rhgb from the grub.cfg file and all kernels seem to boot and shutdown smoothly now without issue.

[asaba_gitlab]

Same issue with OS X 10.14.4, VMware Fusion 10.1.6, and just upgraded the VM to Fedora 29, 5.0.5-200 today.

Removing `rhgb` has allowed the VM to boot correctly.

[hermidalc]

I have the exact same issue on VMware Workstation Pro 15.0.4 for Windows on Fedora 29 or 30 x86_64 guest running kernel 5.0.x

For me the problem didn’t come from a kernel update.  The VMX hanging at boot started happening exactly when plymouth (graphical boot) upgraded from 0.9.4-1 to 0.9.4-2 on Fedora 29.  I went back a snapshot to revert the plymouth update and everything was working again.  I excluded plymouth updates on F29 and there have been multiple new kernel versions since then and no problems so doubt it’s the kernel.

For Fedora 30 after a new installation process finishes and you reboot for the first time you get the exact same VMX hang. I’m pretty sure the plymouth version on a newly installed F30 is 0.9.4-2 or newer. Something changed with plymouth that VMware doesn’t like because I haven’t seen anyone having this issue on non-VM Fedora 29 and 30 installs.

https://www.spinics.net/lists/fedora-package-announce/msg258041.html

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1652279

When I remove rhgb from grub it works as well.

But VMware team - I hope you are able to get to the bottom of the issue so that graphical boot could be enabled again in future.

[hermidalc]

Is there a VMware bugzilla ticket filed for this?

[thellstrom]

There is a vmwgfx kernel driver component and a plymouth component to this issue.

I've filed a plymouth bug is at

1707307 – Plymouth spins forever while booting on vmware

The vmwgfx driver updates will be available as stable kernel / distro updates in a couple of weeks.

/Thomas