VMware refuses to work anymore

lucmove · 11-04-2008, 09:08 AM

I have been running VMWare Server for 2 years on Slackware 11.0 and 12.0. I have been using version 1.0.7 build-108231 since its release week. It always worked.

Then I moved to Slackware 12.1 and VMWare Server still worked.

But I had so much headache with Slackware 12.1 and also what later proved to be an unrelated problem that I formatted my disk and reinstalled Slackware 12.1. After that, VMWare Server refused to work even though I reinstalled it from scratch. Whenever I ran it and clicked the "Connect" button in the "Connect to Host" dialog (local host selected as usual), that dialog would freeze, VMWare Server would freeze and I had to kill it. That happened as a regular user. As root, VMWare Server would connect, but freeze as soon as I tried to run any virtual machine.

I had several other problems with Slackware 12.1, to the point I was hating it already. I was almost considering going back to Windows! So I removed Slackware 12.1 and installed Slackware 12.0.

As soon as I installed Slackware 12.0, all my problems vanished except the one with VMWare! I will simply describe it all over again, this time in the present tense:

Whenever I run VMWare Server and click the "Connect" button in the "Connect to Host" dialog (local host selected as usual), the dialog freezes, VMWare Server freezes entirely and I have to kill it. That happens as a regular user. As root, VMWare Server will connect, but freeze as soon as I try to run any virtual machine.

Today I bit the dust and reinstalled Slackware 12 from scratch AGAIN. I didn't change anything in the new system. I just installed vmware-server as usual on the freshly installed system. And the problem REMAINS. I thought that maybe it something in my home dir, so I tried creating a new user, logging in as the new user and running VMWare. The problem REMAINS.

Can someone tell me how to fix this or at least how to debug the process and determine what is causing it?

TIA

dugan · 11-04-2008, 09:18 AM

The best I could do was search up this thread:
VMware-server and kernel 2.6.26.x - LinuxQuestions.org

lucmove · 11-04-2008, 09:33 AM

Thank you for your interest, but that thread discusses problems with the 2.6.26.x kernel series. I am running 2.6.21.5 and had 2.6.24.5 in Slack 12.1.

Moreover, I mention in my first post that VMWare worked on Slack 12 for a long time and even on Slack 12.1 for some time (almost one month).

The only useful thing about that thread is "how to install PAM on Slackware and run VMWare 2", which I don't want. I hate VMWare 2 and that horrible Web interface. I want my to find out why good old VMware server 1 suddenly refuses to work even on freshly installed Slackware, and get it working again. I was perfectly happy with it.

bgeddy · 11-04-2008, 12:26 PM

Have you tried running vmware from an X console to see if any errors are reported ? Or perhaps look in the UI log file which I believe defaults to a file in the /tmp/vmware-$USER directory where $USER is the current user ?

lucmove · 11-04-2008, 01:55 PM

What is an X console?

I wasn't aware of this log file. It might indeed be helpful:

/tmp/vmware-luc/ui-5118.log

Quote:

Nov 04 06:09:00: vmui| Log for VMware Server pid=5118 version=1.0.7 build=build-108231 option=Release
Nov 04 06:09:00: vmui| Using log file /tmp/vmware-luc/ui-5118.log
Nov 04 06:09:00: vmui| HAL04LoadHALLibraries: Could not dlopen libhal.so.0.
Nov 04 06:09:00: vmui| HAL05LoadHALLibraries: Could not dlopen libdbus-1.so.1 or libdbus-1.so.2.
Nov 04 06:09:00: vmui| SMBIOS: can't open /dev/mem
Nov 04 06:09:00: vmui| VmhsHostInfoPopulateSystem: Could not get information from smbios to populate VMDB.
Nov 04 06:09:00: vmui| HOSTINFO: Seeing AMD CPU, numCoresPerCPU 1 numThreadsPerCore 1.
Nov 04 06:09:00: vmui| HOSTINFO: This machine has 1 physical CPUS, 1 total cores, and 1 logical CPUs.
Nov 04 06:09:01: vmui| Dlg::GetButtonInfo(): Duplicate GTK icon/label pair: _Stop and _Stop
Nov 04 06:09:01: vmui| Dlg::GetButtonInfo(): Duplicate GTK icon/label pair: _Forward and _Forward
Nov 04 06:09:01: vmui| Dlg::GetButtonInfo(): Duplicate GTK icon/label pair: _Information and Information

Could not dlopen libhal.so.0 and could not dlopen libdbus-1.so.1 or libdbus-1.so.2. I have /usr/lib/libhal.so.1.0.0 and /usr/lib/libdbus-1.so.3.2.0.

Still weird, because I didn't have those exact files mentioned in the log file when VMware server was working. I know because I keep a very thorough catalog of every file in my machine with a script similar to updatedb.

But I am going to try symlinking those libs and see what happens as soon as I remove VMPlayer and reinstall VM server.

Thank you.

lucmove · 11-04-2008, 02:16 PM

Some of the errors are gone, but it still complains:

Quote:

Nov 04 18:15:08: vmui| Log for VMware Server pid=5857 version=1.0.7 build=build-108231 option=Release
Nov 04 18:15:08: vmui| Using log file /tmp/vmware-luc/ui-5857.log
Nov 04 18:15:08: vmui| HAL: Could not load hal_initialize.
Nov 04 18:15:08: vmui| HAL: Could not load dbus_connection_disconnect.
Nov 04 18:15:08: vmui| SMBIOS: can't open /dev/mem
Nov 04 18:15:08: vmui| VmhsHostInfoPopulateSystem: Could not get information from smbios to populate VMDB.
Nov 04 18:15:08: vmui| HOSTINFO: Seeing AMD CPU, numCoresPerCPU 1 numThreadsPerCore 1.
Nov 04 18:15:08: vmui| HOSTINFO: This machine has 1 physical CPUS, 1 total cores, and 1 logical CPUs.
Nov 04 18:15:09: vmui| Dlg::GetButtonInfo(): Duplicate GTK icon/label pair: _Stop and _Stop
Nov 04 18:15:09: vmui| Dlg::GetButtonInfo(): Duplicate GTK icon/label pair: _Forward and _Forward
Nov 04 18:15:09: vmui| Dlg::GetButtonInfo(): Duplicate GTK icon/label pair: _Information and Information

I don't know what else to do. I hope someone has some idea. :-(

niels.horn · 11-04-2008, 03:51 PM

Just checked my /tmp/vmware-niels/ui-*.log and I found these lines:

Code:

Nov 04 19:43:56: vmui| HAL04LoadHALLibraries: Could not dlopen libhal.so.0.
Nov 04 19:43:56: vmui| HAL05LoadHALLibraries: Could not dlopen libdbus-1.so.1 or libdbus-1.so.2.
Nov 04 19:43:57: vmui| SMBIOS: can't open /dev/mem
Nov 04 19:43:57: vmui| VmhsHostInfoPopulateSystem:  Could not get information from smbios to populate VMDB.

My VMware works perfectly so I guess we don't need to worry about them.

You might have a problem with GTK then?

Is your Slackware install a standard install, or have you changed / upgraded any packages from -current or other sources?

There is a problem (and a solution) for newer GTK versions, see the link in my signature.

bgeddy · 11-05-2008, 05:53 AM

Quote:

What is an X console?

Just run X (KDE,XFCE,Fluxbox or whatever) and open a terminal then enter vmware at the terminal. Sometimes this will report errors when trying to run stuff via the DE doesn't.

Unfortunately my log file has all the errors yours has and mine works fine. I was hoping something would jump out at you as I'm no expert with Vmware. It seems that lack of memory can cause a lock up but the only thing may have changed there is if you've altered the memory or swap file or something. I'm just guessing here though.

Incidentally I have had much success with VirtualBox although this is probably no consolation. Hope you can get this fixed..

lucmove · 11-05-2008, 06:05 AM

Yes, I have tried running it from Konsole. It doesn't output anything at all. It just freezes. I just wish there were a --debug switch or something.

I still haven't tried niels.horn's proposed solution of hacking GTK. I am really busy right now. I will try it, but I don't see how that could help since I didn't have to hack GTK in my previous Slackware installations.

VirtualBox doesn't work for me, it's too slow. Almost 10 minutes to boot Win 98 up. And it looks like crap because it doesn't have video drivers.

lucmove · 11-06-2008, 02:46 AM

So I followed niels.horn's script and compiled libX11. It took forever and felt like Gentoo.

Anyway. It didn't work. VMware still refuses to run and there is nothing different in the log file.

Woe is me.

niels.horn · 11-06-2008, 03:23 AM

Some questions to try to understand what's happening...

Do you have any other VMware products installed? (player, whatever...)

Is your Slackware install 100% standard? Like, have you skipped any package, installed some other non-slackware packages?

I have installed VMware server on several systems and never saw these problems

keefaz · 11-06-2008, 03:27 AM

Maybe try: 'gdb vmware', then type 'run' at the gdb> prompt, see where it stops, then eventually type: 'where'

lucmove · 11-06-2008, 04:06 AM

I can't seem to make it work.

Quote:

home$[504]~> gdb vmware
GNU gdb 6.6
Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are
welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain conditions.
Type "show copying" to see the conditions.
There is absolutely no warranty for GDB. Type "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "i486-slackware-linux"...
"/usr/bin/vmware": not in executable format: File format not recognized
(gdb) run
Starting program:
No executable file specified.
Use the "file" or "exec-file" command.
(gdb) quit
home$[505]~>
home$[505]~> ls /usr/bin/vmware
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 4570 2008-11-04 18:01 /usr/bin/vmware
home$[506]~>
home$[506]~>
home$[506]~> gdb /usr/bin/vmware
GNU gdb 6.6
Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are
welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain conditions.
Type "show copying" to see the conditions.
There is absolutely no warranty for GDB. Type "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "i486-slackware-linux"...
"/usr/bin/vmware": not in executable format: File format not recognized
(gdb) run
Starting program:
No executable file specified.
Use the "file" or "exec-file" command.
(gdb)
(gdb) run /usr/bin/vmware
Starting program: /usr/bin/vmware
No executable file specified.
Use the "file" or "exec-file" command.
(gdb)
(gdb)
(gdb) exec-file /usr/bin/vmware
"/usr/bin/vmware": not in executable format: File format not recognized
(gdb)
"/usr/bin/vmware": not in executable format: File format not recognized
(gdb)
"/usr/bin/vmware": not in executable format: File format not recognized
(gdb) file /usr/bin/vmware
"/usr/bin/vmware": not in executable format: File format not recognized
(gdb)
"/usr/bin/vmware": not in executable format: File format not recognized
(gdb)
"/usr/bin/vmware": not in executable format: File format not recognized
(gdb) quit

keefaz · 11-06-2008, 07:20 AM

I don't know vmware, sorry.
I did not think it was a shell script, now to debug the gtk executable lauched by this script, you have to search for it in the script
Maybe there is debug command in vmware script ?
try:

Code:

grep -i debug /usr/bin/vmware

bgeddy · 11-06-2008, 09:47 AM

Have you tried poking around one of the VMware forums ? You may have better luck there.. This is odd system behavior and I'd be interested in knowing what has caused it - I'm sure you would too !