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S_Chad_Gall
Contributor
Contributor

Blank console screen linux server

New to this....so please help!

I am trying to console to Linux server thru ESXi and all I get is a blank screen.  There is nowhere to login.  I can ssh to the server and the database is fine.  I'm not a linux expert, so any help is appreciated!!  ThankYou!

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

Make sure you click into the Window

then try

ALT + F1 , ALT + F2 ....
one of those combinations may give you another login shell


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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S_Chad_Gall
Contributor
Contributor

That didn't do anything.  I tried in console app ad web console.

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rjcware2020
Contributor
Contributor

I have a Blank console screen as well.  I have tried several different things like adding a floppy disk that is not there, migrating the VM to 14.x, turning off the 3D option in the display, coping the VM onto the desktop machine again after stopping the old version and removing all its files, reinstalling Workstation Pro, and doing a repair to Workstation pro.  I have had success for one startup of the VM but not the second time.  The VM I have trouble with is a 12.x virtual machine.  I have a desktop unit and a laptop that both are running VMware workstation 14 Pro 14.1.7 build, with two independent licenses.  Both computers are running Window 10, 64-bit.  My laptop can run the virtual machine with no issues.  My desktop will run it once and then on the second power up of the VM it freezes with the black screen.

Other virtual machines are running on both systems without an issue.

When I have a boot that freezes I get the VMware logo on the screen with the squared racetrack.  I get a prompt for the USB devices but I don't see the VMWare logo with the progress bar and I don't get to the GRUB launcher to launch the Linux instance.  I cannot turn off the VM.  When I reboot my system the VM is still running once I am powered up (with a black screen).  I have looked at the vmware.log in the directory of the VM and compared it to other launches and it seems to stop when I get close to the PCIbridge and SVGA launch.

In order to stop the VM, I am booting into safe mode and then rebooting in normal mode and the VM is no longer running once I power up.  I then repair Workstation and it will run once again.  Not a sustainable solution.

Any ideas if there are some files that I can clear or something I have not tried?

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

What happens if you use the "boot into firmware" launch-option ?


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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rjcware2020
Contributor
Contributor

I sorry if I did not mention this, but I am not running this in the esxiappliance.  The virtual machine advanced settings has a firmware type but only allows BIOS.  I cannot select UEFI.  Thank you for the suggestion.

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

I did not suggest to switch the firmware - just boot into it so that you can select the correct boot0device.


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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rjcware2020
Contributor
Contributor

Sorry continuum that I did not understand where you were going with the request.  And I have to admit I am still not sure, because I did not see and option for what you are saying.  I did look further and on the menu bar for VMware Workstation there is a play button that has a pull down to Power On to firmware which I have tried and I ended up in the same spot with the black screen.

What were you thinking it should give me?

Thank you

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rjcware2020
Contributor
Contributor

A colleague and I worked on this issue for two hours the other day.  We removed unnecessary sound cards, change processor configurations, change memory, etc...  We still had problems.  He changed something that helped us and that was I was shutting down windows and he did just a reset of windows.  When windows came back up there was no Virtual machine running in the background.  This did speed up our debugging efforts.

In the long run we were not able to figure out how this instance of the virtual machine would run once and then on the second try lock up in a black screen.  He had me download a copy of the vm that he had running on esxiappliance onto my machine, after deleting the old image of the vm we were working on.  That downloaded image of the vm works with no problems.

Thank you for the help you contributed to solving this issue.  This is what we had to do to get this running.

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