the empty quarter » vmware

VMware Player in Lucid Lynx

martin — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:42:07 +0000

As always after a kernel update, VMware Player 2.5.xx asks to be recompiled after upgrading to Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid). However during the compilation I got errors about virtual network device, even after trying to recompile several times including from command line.

After struggling for some time, I thought I would check on the VMware website whether there is a new version of the software; and indeed VMware Player is now in version 3. After installing it (by downloading and running the .bundle file) everything works fine in Lucid. As a side note, the compilation dialogue does not come up and the look and feel of the Player is also quite different.

VMware Player mouse issues in Karmic

martin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:43:12 +0000

VMware Player experiences mouse capture problems when run under Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic host. Inside the guest window, the mouse pointer works fine in a top-left rectangle of the window (640×480 pixels?) but outside of this area the mouse pointer switches its focus to the host. Add the following line to the file /etc/vmware/bootstrap to fix it:

export VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=yes

Important note: VMware code needs to be recompiled each time the Linux kernel is updated and this entry may prevent it from compiling successfully. The additional line should be removed or commented out prior to building VMware Player and then put back in back again.

For a discussion see this thread on Ubuntu forums.

Stop system beep in VMware Player

martin — Mon, 25 May 2009 13:41:52 +0000

Here’s how to stop the annoying beep (system bell) in VMware Player. These steps were tested with VMware Player 2.5 running a Debian Lenny server (guest) under Windows XP Professional (host).

Open the following file in Notepad: C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\VMware\preferences.ini (the drive might be different depending on your setup).
Add the following line at the end and save:
mks.noBeep = "TRUE"
Open the virtual machine’s VMX configuration file in Notepad.
Add the following line (same as above) at the end and save:
mks.noBeep = "TRUE"
Launch VMware Player and run the virtual machine – the beep should be gone!