open-vm-tools does not work under wayland for VMWare Workstation 12.5 or older

[Jack Peterson]

At first I thought this bug was caused with the recent changes in open-vm-tools 10.1.10; however, after restoring my VM to the snapshot that had 17.04 and re-performing the dist-upgrade with open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop held at 10.1.5 I am experiencing the same issue where VMWare Workstation no longer can interact with display resolution detection of the host monitor(s). Multiple monitor support is also lost in the update process.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.12.0-11.12-generic 4.12.5
Uname: Linux 4.12.0-11-generic x86_64
.tmp.unity_support_test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.20.6-0ubuntu6
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Mon Aug 21 17:09:59 2017
DistUpgraded: 2017-08-07 09:05:02,559 DEBUG found components: {'artful-updates': {'multiverse', 'restricted', 'universe', 'main'}, 'artful': {'multiverse', 'restricted', 'universe', 'main'}, 'artful-security': {'multiverse', 'restricted', 'universe', 'main'}}
DistroCodename: artful
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 virtualbox, 5.1.26, 4.10.0-30-generic, x86_64: installed
 virtualbox, 5.1.26, 4.12.0-11-generic, x86_64: installed
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 VMware SVGA II Adapter [15ad:0405] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: VMware SVGA II Adapter [15ad:0405]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-11-30 (264 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.10 "Yakkety Yak" - Release amd64 (20161012.2)
Lsusb: Error: command ['lsusb'] failed with exit code 1:
MachineType: VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.12.0-11-generic root=UUID=dd284488-2aa1-430d-a510-0527b909f561 ro find_preseed=/preseed.cfg auto noprompt priority=critical locale=en_US quiet
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to artful on 2017-08-07 (14 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 07/02/2015
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD
dmi.bios.version: 6.00
dmi.board.name: 440BX Desktop Reference Platform
dmi.board.vendor: Intel Corporation
dmi.board.version: None
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: No Enclosure
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologiesLTD:bvr6.00:bd07/02/2015:svnVMware,Inc.:pnVMwareVirtualPlatform:pvrNone:rvnIntelCorporation:rn440BXDesktopReferencePlatform:rvrNone:cvnNoEnclosure:ct1:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: VMware Virtual Platform
dmi.product.version: None
dmi.sys.vendor: VMware, Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.13.1+17.10.20170720-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.82-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 17.2.0~rc4-0ubuntu3
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 17.2.0~rc4-0ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.19.3-1ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.10.5-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.9.0-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20170309-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.15-2
xserver.bootTime: Mon Aug 21 16:27:55 2017
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.devices:
 input Power Button KEYBOARD, id 6
 input AT Translated Set 2 keyboard KEYBOARD, id 7
 input VirtualPS/2 VMware VMMouse MOUSE, id 8
 input VirtualPS/2 VMware VMMouse MOUSE, id 9
xserver.errors:

xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.outputs: Output Virtual2 Virtual3 Virtual4 Virtual5 Virtual6 Virtual7 Virtual8
xserver.version: 2:1.19.3-1ubuntu1.1
xserver.video_driver: vmware

[Jack Peterson (jack-peterson)]

additional information about when one doesn't hold the package back (note the error from VMWare Workstation 12.5).

Same thing happens even if the open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop are held at 10.1.5.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Thanks for your report.

From the bug report your'e using a wayland session, could you try with x11 (with the system fully up to date, select a user on the greeter, click on a cog and select 'ubuntu on xorg') and tell us if it fails too.

Thanks for your help.

[Jack Peterson (jack-peterson)]

I can confirm that using X11 as you suggested instead of Wayland is a viable workaround and that both multi-monitor support and resolution re-scaling work when moving VMWare Workstation around.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Thank you for confirming it is an issue specific to wayland. I'm retargeting the bug report.

Don't hesitate to file any new bug you may find.

[Alexander Vinbæk Strand (alexstrand7-o)]

This bug still exist in Ubuntu 22.04, and now it looks like that Xorg is not there on 22.04.. so screen resolution is now wrong both on earlier installed guest and in current daily iso.. please fix..

Uploading log files, if that can help find out what's wrong..

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Thanks for the ping on this old case Alexander!

Can you confirm that this is what you see on 22.04 with the there recent 2:11.3.5-1ubuntu4 version of open-vm-tools?

I have subscribed John Wolfe who looks after open-vm-tools from VMwares side and might have more details.

Further I added a bug task for "wayland" so that the Desktop team can have a look as well.

[Paride Legovini (paride)]

Hello Alexander, note that Xorg is available in Jammy both as the native graphical session and via xwayland. On this bug report: could you please elaborate more on what exactly happens? In particular could you guide us into reproducing the problem on a clean Jammy install, making clear "what should happen" and "what actually happens" when facing the problem?

As we're waiting for more information here I'm marking this bug report as Incomplete.

Thanks!

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

The wayland package shouldn't be assigned here unless there's a bug in the protocol itself.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Screen resolution mis-detection typically points to video driver issues, which in this case is vmware:

 xserver.video_driver: vmware

For the original bug report, looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware_Workstation, VMWare appears to have gotten Wayland protocol support in version 15.0.0, so presumably wayland was not supported by the driver prior to that, and this bug indicates an earlier version was in use (comment #2 suggests version 10 or 12 were tested with the original report). IOW I think the original issue is a wontfix since wayland wasn't supported with vmware originally.

Alexander, invalid video resolution is kind of a generic symptom that can have many different causes. In your case, it sounds like you're running X.org rather than Wayland, and from your logs the vmware driver loaded ok but X was unable to access the underlying framebuffer device, so fell back to default VESA mode resolutions. So, you have some problem unrelated to this bug except by symptom; I'd suggest if you're still having trouble please consult support channels to diagnose, and if you narrow down to a specific reproducible open-vm-tools issue, please file a new bug report with steps to reproduce and all detailed logs and config files.

[ 65.360] (II) vmware: driver for VMware SVGA: vmware0405, vmware0710
[ 65.360] (II) modesetting: Driver for Modesetting Kernel Drivers: kms
[ 65.361] (II) FBDEV: driver for framebuffer: fbdev
[ 65.361] (II) VESA: driver for VESA chipsets: vesa
[ 65.361] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for modesetting
[ 65.361] (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory
[ 65.361] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for fbdev
[ 65.361] (II) Loading sub module "fbdevhw"
[ 65.361] (II) LoadModule: "fbdevhw"
[ 65.361] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libfbdevhw.so
[ 65.361] (II) Module fbdevhw: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[ 65.361] compiled for 1.20.14, module version = 0.0.2
[ 65.361] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 24.1
[ 65.361] (EE) open /dev/fb0: No such file or directory
[ 65.361] (II) vmware(0): Creating default Display subsection in Screen section
 "Default Screen Section" for depth/fbbpp 24/32
[ 65.551] (EE) vmware(0): Failed to open drm.

[8cipactli (ijbgreen)]

This issue is present also in VMware Workstation 16 Pro 16.2.3 build-19376536. My Host machine Ubuntu 20.04.5 and the guest Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS. When i use session on Wayland it fail to use multiple monitors, when switch presents lags and deformations over windows titles.