VMWare Player only runs with root privileges

[Lorenzo J. Lucchini]

Running 'vmplayer' as a normal user does not start the VMWare Player. The same goes for the "VMWare Player" entry in my applications menu.

Running 'sudo vmplayer', however, succeeds. I do not believe this behavior is intended, since README.Debian does not mention the need for superuser privileges to launch the program.

This happens in Kubuntu Dapper and Edgy.

Some warnings are reported when I run 'vmplayer', but those same warnings appear with 'sudo vmplayer'. Also, 'sh -x /usr/bin/vmplayer' and 'sh -x /usr/bin/vmplayer' both result in the exact same output.

The warnings I get (though I do not believe them to be related to this problem) are:

/usr/lib/vmware-player/bin/vmplayer: /usr/lib/vmware-player/lib/libpng12.so.0/libpng12.so.0: no version information available (required by /usr/lib/libcairo.so.2)
(vmplayer:10279): Gtk-WARNING **: /usr/lib/vmware-player/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version `GCC_4.2.0' not found (required by /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6)

[Alex Sutcliffe (alex.sutcliffe)]

Fo what it's worth, I don't experience this problem on edgy. Is the problem ongoing for you?

Alex

[Lorenzo J. Lucchini (ljl)]

Yes, the problem remains. I'll add that the strace outputs of "vmplayer" and "sudo vmplayer" are identical (though I don't think that's particularly interesting, given that /usr/bin/vmware is just a shell script).

I'd be glad to give strace or gdb output, if pointed to a way to attach them to the process that is or should be relevant.

[Jibril Hambel (slackrat)]

same problem here, without any errors at all however. Vmplayer broke a couple of days ago and wouldnt run until i followed the notes on earlier Bug #47792 report... Note that the initial install of vmplayer ran fine, but broke a few days ago after an update. (libpng update perhaps? using adept updater)...after reinstalls and making the changes specified in the AM bug report...it now runs only as sudo.

Changes were detailed in bug47792 and required sym links to stop vmplayer from accessing two libpng libs......no idea how to get it running as non root (sudo)....

advise

No errors print out however. When vmplayer runs it asked if i want to update ....i havent so far.

[Jibril Hambel (slackrat)]

NB: this is on an up to date dapper system

[Jibril Hambel (slackrat)]

further digging led to a large number of pages detailing group and ownership problems with vmplayer/ ware ; implying this is a known vmware bug....among the more interesting

http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?do_Details=1&ID=2175

chmod-ing vmware directories did not change the root only status of vmplayer...hope this helps.

[Bruno de Oliveira Abinader (brunoabinader)]

I can confirm this problem too on my Dell D600 Laptop with Ubuntu Edgy (upgraded from Dapper).

[VMware Build Team (vmware-builds)]

This may be a duplicate of #64727. Can you please give a ls -l ~/.vmware output.

[Jibril Hambel (slackrat)]

sorry for the delay, ive removed vmplayer and will be trying to
reinstall soon, will post output should i run into the same
problems......

cheers

On 3/17/07, VMware Build Team <email address hidden> wrote:
> This may be a duplicate of #64727. Can you please give a ls -l
> ~/.vmware output.
>
> ** Changed in: vmware-player (Ubuntu)
> Status: Unconfirmed => Needs Info
>
> --
> VMWare Player only runs with root privileges
> https://launchpad.net/bugs/67460
>

[VMware Build Team (vmware-builds)]

Please post if you don't have any problems either as the bug needs to be closed if it's not reproducible.

[Jibril Hambel (slackrat)]

Installed vmplayer again, from synaptic, after an upgrade to kernel
2.6.15-28....along with required kernel modules pkgs.......running
from user it produces this error:

/usr/lib/vmware-player/bin/vmplayer:
/usr/lib/vmware-player/lib/libpng12.so.0/libpng12.so.0: no version
information available (required by /usr/lib/libcairo.so.2)

When run as sudo, again, the same error, but vmplayer starts up, as
before....the libpng searches led to a dep hell of sorts, all of which
depended upon the following:

Depends: libc6 (=2.3.6-0ubuntu20) but 2.3.6-0ubuntu20.4 is to be installed...

running dapper, the available version that runs as sudo atm is 1.01
vmplayer.....direct from synapitcs pkg list.

On 4/4/07, VMware Build Team <email address hidden> wrote:
> Please post if you don't have any problems either as the bug needs to be
> closed if it's not reproducible.
>
> --
> VMWare Player only runs with root privileges
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/67460
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[Jan Ischebeck (siesel)]

Same error with feisty.

[acacha (sergi-tur)]

I've same problem. It seems that the problem is on file permissions:

ls -la /home/sergi/.vmware/preferences
-rw------- 1 root root 2158 2007-05-02 15:09 /home/sergi/.vmware/preferences

I solved the problem with:

 sudo chown sergi:sergi ~/.vmware/preferences

Be careful dont Cut&Paste without changing sergi to your specific user!

I supose that the source of the problem is executing

 sudo vmplayer

As far as I Known, sudo don't change the $HOME variable, then if we changes preferences the file becomes a root file. The solution is not executing vmplayer with sudo or:

 sudo -H vmplayer

[Trevor (launchpad-trevorcreech)]

Thanks, that was the fix for me!
sudo chown username:username ~/.vmware/preferences

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for vmware-player (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Javier Marcon (javiermarcon)]

After making the chown, vmplayer starts but generates a core dump when triying to open a virtual machine.