VMWare - Permission error when attempting to create virtual machine?

SlowCoder · 05-26-2007, 05:26 PM

I've got a working VMWare installation. I've been able to install everything from XP to 2000 to distros of Linux fine, while in my testing phase. Love VMWare!

As I stated before I installed XP as a VM client. I backed up the files in the '/var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines/Microsoft Windows XP' directory, then removed the client from the server.

Now I want to restore the client. I'm trying to recreate the VM with the same settings as I used to install XP before. But I get the following error when it gets ready to build the virtual file system:

Code:

Unable to complete wizard: Unable to create a new virtual machine: No permission to perform this operation.

The structure of the /var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines directory is:

Code:

[/var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines] $ ls
Windows XP Professional
[/var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines] $ ls Windows\ XP\ Professional/
Windows XP Professional.vmsd  Windows XP Professional.vmx

showing that some of the files are newly created. Also, my user owns the "Windows XP Professional" directory and child files.

Why am I receiving this error?

P.S. I can create a new VM under a different name successfully. But this is not what I desire to do.

SlowCoder · 05-26-2007, 06:29 PM

Ok, I fixed it.

My solution: I decided that since it doesn't actually look like a permissions issue, I searched around for the VMWare config files. Though the actual VM files had been removed from the "Virtual Machines" directory, there was still a reference to that VM in the "/etc/vmware/vm-list" file. Removing the reference to that VM allowed me to recreate it.

Yay!