[SOLVED]Problem running VMware on userlevel

[opentaka]

workarounds:
Running as user
- chown -R youruser /etc/vmware
for non-security-picky guys.

For /dev/vmmon problem
I edited /opt/vmware/workstation/bin/vmware-config.pl
vi /opt/vmware/workstation/bin/vmware-config.pl
look for

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 if (-e '/dev/.devfs' || -e '/dev/.udev.tdb' || -e '/dev/.udevdb' ) {
    # Either the devfs" or "udev" filesystem is mounted on the "/dev" directory,
    # so the "/dev/vmmon" block device file is magically created/removed when the
    # "vmmon" module is loaded/unloaded (was bug 15571 and 72114)
  } else 
  {
    configure_dev('/dev/vmmon', 10, 165, 1);
  }
}

change it too

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 # if (-e '/dev/.devfs' || -e '/dev/.udev.tdb' || -e '/dev/.udevdb' ) {
    # Either the devfs" or "udev" filesystem is mounted on the "/dev" directory,
    # so the "/dev/vmmon" block device file is magically created/removed when the
    # "vmmon" module is loaded/unloaded (was bug 15571 and 72114)
#  } else 
  {
    configure_dev('/dev/vmmon', 10, 165, 1);
  }
}

reconfigure, and /dev/vmmon should be there.

------------------------------------------------------------

Hello, I am unable to run vmware as user, but root.
here is what you get when you run from user level

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> vmware
/usr/bin/vmware: line 85: /etc/vmware/locations: Permission denied
/usr/bin/vmware: line 177: /lib/wrapper-gtk24.sh: No such file or directory
/usr/bin/vmware: line 177: exec: /lib/wrapper-gtk24.sh: cannot execute: No such file or directory

yes, that user belongs to vmware group.

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> groups 
wheel audio video games portage vmware users

weird thing is, /etc/vmware/locations semes to have right permission for it.

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-rw-r--r--  1 root vmware 101571 Jan  5 12:48 /etc/vmware/locations

vmware version

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* app-emulation/vmware-workstation 
     Available versions:  *3.2.1.2242-r7 4.5.3.19414 5.5.1.19175
     Installed:           5.5.1.19175
     Homepage:            http://www.vmware.com/products/desktop/ws_features.html
     Description:         Emulate a complete PC on your PC without the usual performance overhead of most emulators

emerge info

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Portage 2.0.53 (default-linux/amd64/2005.1, gcc-3.4.4, glibc-2.3.5-r2, 2.6.14.2 x86_64)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.14.2 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3000+
Gentoo Base System version 1.6.13
dev-lang/python:     2.3.5, 2.4.2
sys-apps/sandbox:    1.2.12
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.59-r6
sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r1
sys-devel/binutils:  2.16.1
sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.20
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.11-r2
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=k8 -O2 -pipe -msse3"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"
CXXFLAGS="-march=k8 -O2 -pipe -msse3"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoconfig distlocks sandbox sfperms strict"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://mirror.averse.net/pub/gentoo http://mirror.averse.net/pub/gentoo/ ftp://gentoo.mirrors.scphost.com/pub/mirrors/gentoo/ http://mirror.gentoo.gr.jp http://gentoo.scphost.com ftp://ftp.isu.edu.tw/pub/Linux/Gentoo"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="amd64 X alsa audiofile avi bitmap-fonts bzip2 cjk crypt cups encode exif expat foomaticdb gif glut gpm gtk gtk2 imagemagick imlib jpeg lcms lzw lzw-tiff mng mp3 mpeg ncurses nls ogg opengl oss pam pcre pdflib perl png python qt quicktime readline sdl spell ssl tcpd tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts udev usb userlocales vorbis xine xml2 xpm xv zlib userland_GNU kernel_linux elibc_glibc"
Unset:  ASFLAGS, CTARGET, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS, MAKEOPTS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY

anyideas on this?

thanks.

[troebel]

Same problem here, for now I always run vmware as root.
Other ideas?

[ToddH_]

Hi antiwmac,

vmware has forums too that have been helpful to me in the past. I'm trying to get upgraded to 5.5 myself and all hell has broken loose on my system (for reasons not germane to this thread).

I ran the older 5.x version in user mode and had to do a couple of things:

change some permissions on a vmx file somewhere.

$ ls -l /opt/vmware/lib/bin/vmware-vmx
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 3636940 Sep 7 13:59 /opt/vmware/lib/bin/vmware-vmx

Then to get printing working from a windows guest to my parallel port i needed other stuff.
chgrp lp /dev/parport0 And there was also a trio of modules that need to be running (in my case at least), that may or maynot be applicable to you. parport parport_pc and ppdev. The first two I have made autoload modules in my kernel and ppdev i explicitly add to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 but something took that out at point. I'm not sure.

Also, make sure vmware services are running
# /etc/init.d/vmware start

Edit: And if you're running a virtual machine in physical disk mode, you might need to look a the permissions/groups of the disk in question.


I wish I had a better answer for you, but here are some things to look at at least. It is possible to run as a lowly user in the right groups.

[opentaka]

hi ToddH_, thanks for you post but changing permissions of them can be a workaround, but not a solution.
I'll try to look in to vmware forums, thanks.

[opentaka]

ok, i've found a workaround for this,
this probably ideal for only one user who uses vmware.

just
chown youruser'sname /etc/vmware

instead of just changing /etc/vmware/location it self, changing the dir's permission did.

[opentaka]

ok, it's workaround for starting up, but not for booting up the guest OS, i get

Failed to connect to peer process

and none of the previously posted solution in this forum worked, let me know if you guys have any idea on this.
thanks.

[troebel]

Well, since it's all about permissions here, I assume you've already checked the permissions on the guest OS diskfile?
It might still be in /root/vmware/yourvirtualmachine/yourvirtualdisk.file, which, of course, your user can't access.

EDIT: For some reason, it's working now. I changed the owner and the group of the folder you mentioned and its subfolders and files, then changed it back to root/vmware, and everything seems fine:)

[opentaka]

ok, got out of that problem, but seems like I can not *boot* the guest even with root, even with fresh config, fresh merged, fresh config-pl brahbrahbrah.
these are the errors I face now:

1st:

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Could not open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory.
Please make sure that the kernel module `vmmon' is loaded.

click OK

then

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Failed to initialize monitor device.

click OK
then

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Unable to change virtual machine power state: Cannot find a valid peer process to connect to.

then

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Failed to reply to the dialog: Pipe: Read failed

click ok then it comes back to the main menu.

yes, vmmon module is loaded,

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Module                  Size  Used by
vmnet                  46616  3 
vmmon                 148620  0 

and init scripts are started.

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/etc/init.d/vmware status
 * status:  started

but there is no /dev/vmmon. it is not created with fresh configs with all the vmware related stuff deleted.

let me know if you guys have any suggestions for this.

one more step and this can be solved

[opentaka]

SOLVED!
will edit the 1st topic with workarounds.

[opentaka]

hm, now the network won't work,
(as in http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-39 ... ight-.html)

starting to giving me headaches

[ToddH_]

ok, it's workaround for starting up, but not for booting up the guest OS, i get

Failed to connect to peer process

and none of the previously posted solution in this forum worked, let me know if you guys have any idea on this.
thanks.

For what it's worth, when I've seen failed to connect to peer process in teh past, it's ben because vmware services were not up.

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/etc/init.d/vmware start   

Addressed it.


Vmware is always such a pain i nthe butt for me too. Such is the cost of us using a non-supported host OS I guess.

[ToddH_]

Finally got this upgrade from vmware-workstation 5.something to 5.5.1.19175 installed after a load of lots of sad problems with emerge thanks to a tilde!

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*  app-emulation/vmware-workstation
      Latest version available: 5.5.1.19175
      Latest version installed: 5.5.1.19175

After emerging that, I ran vmware-config.pl as root. I did not hand edit this file at all (counter to the suggestion at the top of the thread). I too got the dreaded Failed to connect to peer process error when trying fire up my win2k physical partition.

From /tmp/vmware-USERID/ui-PID.log

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Jan 10 21:40:43: vmui| VMHSLaunchVM failed: Failed to connect to peer process

Here's all I had to do to fix it, luckily:

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sudo /etc/init.d/vmware restart  #probably wasn't necessary as vmware-config.pl did this too
sudo chown lp /dev/parport0  # my guest OS uses it for printing, lp has to be disabled though
sudo chmod o+rx /opt/vmware/workstation/lib/bin/vmware-vmx  # the cannot connect to peer error ended after i did this

Other random permissions stuff, fyi

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~ $ groups  # from my local user non-root id 
disk lp wheel audio cdrom cdrw users

-rwxr-xr-x  1 ME users 1493 Jan 10 22:10 /home/ME/vmware/Windows 2000 Professional/Windows 2000 Professional.vmx
-rws--xr-x  1 root vmware 4183128 Jan 10 20:12 /opt/vmware/workstation/lib/bin/vmware-vmx

 ~ $ ls -l /dev/hdb  #windows lives on this physical partition, running in physical disk access mode
brw-rw----  1 root disk 3, 64 Jan  9 15:08 /dev/hdb

~ $ ls -l /dev/hdd /dev/hdc /dev/cdrom /dev/dvd  # optical drives I use in windows guest periodically
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root       3 Jan  9 15:08 /dev/cdrom -> hdc
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root       3 Jan  9 15:08 /dev/dvd -> hdd
brw-rw----  1 root cdrom 22,  0 Jan  9 15:08 /dev/hdc
brw-rw----  1 root cdrom 22, 64 Jan  9 15:08 /dev/hdd

~ $ ls -l /etc/vmware/*
-rw-rw-r--  1 root vmware    353 Jan 10 20:53 /etc/vmware/config
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root vmware  15523 Jan 10 20:12 /etc/vmware/installer.sh
-rw-r--r--  1 root vmware 267460 Jan 10 20:53 /etc/vmware/locations

/etc/vmware/init.d:
total 20
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware   104 Jan 10 20:53 rc0.d
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware    72 Sep  7 13:59 rc1.d
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware   136 Jan 10 20:53 rc2.d
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware   136 Jan 10 20:53 rc3.d
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware    72 Sep  7 13:59 rc4.d
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware   136 Jan 10 20:53 rc5.d
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware   104 Jan 10 20:53 rc6.d
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root vmware 20214 Jan 10 20:12 vmware

/etc/vmware/vmnet1:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware 144 Jan 10 21:33 dhcpd

/etc/vmware/vmnet8:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware 144 Jan 10 21:33 dhcpd
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware  72 Jan 10 20:52 nat

And it seems to be relatively happy again.

[Pandor]

...

Other random permissions stuff, fyi

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~ $ groups  # from my local user non-root id 
disk lp wheel audio cdrom cdrw users

-rwxr-xr-x  1 ME users 1493 Jan 10 22:10 /home/ME/vmware/Windows 2000 Professional/Windows 2000 Professional.vmx
-rws--xr-x  1 root vmware 4183128 Jan 10 20:12 /opt/vmware/workstation/lib/bin/vmware-vmx

 ~ $ ls -l /dev/hdb  #windows lives on this physical partition, running in physical disk access mode
brw-rw----  1 root disk 3, 64 Jan  9 15:08 /dev/hdb

~ $ ls -l /dev/hdd /dev/hdc /dev/cdrom /dev/dvd  # optical drives I use in windows guest periodically
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root       3 Jan  9 15:08 /dev/cdrom -> hdc
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root       3 Jan  9 15:08 /dev/dvd -> hdd
brw-rw----  1 root cdrom 22,  0 Jan  9 15:08 /dev/hdc
brw-rw----  1 root cdrom 22, 64 Jan  9 15:08 /dev/hdd

~ $ ls -l /etc/vmware/*
-rw-rw-r--  1 root vmware    353 Jan 10 20:53 /etc/vmware/config
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root vmware  15523 Jan 10 20:12 /etc/vmware/installer.sh
-rw-r--r--  1 root vmware 267460 Jan 10 20:53 /etc/vmware/locations

/etc/vmware/init.d:
total 20
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware   104 Jan 10 20:53 rc0.d
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware    72 Sep  7 13:59 rc1.d
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware   136 Jan 10 20:53 rc2.d
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware   136 Jan 10 20:53 rc3.d
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware    72 Sep  7 13:59 rc4.d
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware   136 Jan 10 20:53 rc5.d
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware   104 Jan 10 20:53 rc6.d
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root vmware 20214 Jan 10 20:12 vmware

/etc/vmware/vmnet1:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware 144 Jan 10 21:33 dhcpd

/etc/vmware/vmnet8:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware 144 Jan 10 21:33 dhcpd
drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware  72 Jan 10 20:52 nat

And it seems to be relatively happy again.

So, you're not in the vmware group?
that could explain the permission problems..

as for setting up parport, i would create a udev rule:

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#cat /etc/udev/rules.d/10-udev.rules
SUBSYSTEM="ppdev", GROUP="lp"

then just add yourself to the lp group.

[troebel]

Great workaround on the /dev/vmmon problem, antiwmac!!
Though I'd like to add something to it, for just adding the 2 # did not work for me. Being tired (time to go to bed), I didn't notice my configscript was just a little bit different (version?).
I used

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 # if (-e '/dev/.devfs' || -e '/dev/.udev.tdb' || -e '/dev/.udevdb' ) {
    # Either the devfs" or "udev" filesystem is mounted on the "/dev" directory,
    # so the "/dev/vmmon" block device file is magically created/removed when the
    # "vmmon" module is loaded/unloaded (was bug 15571 and 72114)
#  } else {
    configure_dev('/dev/vmmon', 10, 165, 1);
#  }
}

I had to comment out an extra "}", because there was no new line between "else" and "{", resulting in an unusable script.
I don't know if it is just my script or they changed it in a newer version. I use 5.5.1.19175.
Thanks for pointing me into the right direction everything works flawless now.

[semson]

thanks antiwmac, it works

[opentaka]

Great workaround on the /dev/vmmon problem, antiwmac!!
Though I'd like to add something to it, for just adding the 2 # did not work for me. Being tired (time to go to bed), I didn't notice my configscript was just a little bit different (version?).
I used
--
I had to comment out an extra "}", because there was no new line between "else" and "{", resulting in an unusable script.
I don't know if it is just my script or they changed it in a newer version. I use 5.5.1.19175.
Thanks for pointing me into the right direction everything works flawless now.

cool, thanks for your code.