Workstation 6 - run with nogui seems broken

[ashleigh_oz]

I've had the problem where I am using Workstation 6.0.2, I want to start the VM without the GUI.

I issue a command:

vmrun start <path to vmx> nogui

Note that if I leave the "nogui" option off it works fine. When nogui is present, the VM does not start. I get the following error:

Error: Command failed: The system returned an error. Communication with the virtual machine may have been interrupted

When I inspect the log file in C:\Documents and Settings\myname\Local Settings\Temp\vmware-, I see:

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snip follows

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Feb 26 17:14:19.020: app| Unable to get information about file "\messages\en\tip_list.vmsg": The system cannot find the path specified.

Feb 26 17:14:19.020: app|

Feb 26 17:14:19.020: app| Cannot load message dictionary "\messages\en\tip_list.vmsg".

Feb 26 17:14:19.099: app| DynaLink oleaut32.dll inaccessible?

Feb 26 17:14:19.099: app|

Feb 26 17:14:19.099: app| Failed to connect to WMI

...

Feb 26 17:14:19.584: app| VMHSVMCbPower: Setting state of VM /vm/#0dc1fc04c10e5301/ to powerOn with option default

Feb 26 17:14:19.584: app| VMHSVMExecVMX: Failed to launch the VMX process: The system cannot find the path specified

Feb 26 17:14:19.599: app| VMHSLaunchVM failed: Failed to launch peer process

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snip ends

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Use of Sysinternals FILEMON shows that it is trying to run the vmware-vmx process from c:\bin and it is (obviously) not being found.

There seems to be no registry or other setting to allow the search path for vmware-vmx to be set.

I have tried putting the path to VMware WS into the system PATH, i've tried adding VMWARE_BINDIR as an environment variable, all with no success.

Another giveaway is the error that appears in that log above "Cannot load message dictionary "\messages\en\tip_list.vmsg".

IT LOOKS LIKE SOME KIND OF PATH PREFIX IS MISSING.

I'm running this on Windows XP SP2, and I have the same behaviour on Windows 2000 Server.

I've logged a Support Request with VMWare, but I have no idea when, or if, there will be a reply.

Does anybody have a workaround, or a discovery that can overcome this?

(I can't use VMWare Server because it has no shared files support, so please don't suggest that.)

[continuum]

Have you tried with full paths in the cmd-line ?

[ashleigh_oz]

Tried:

- from inside the directory where the VMX file lives, full path to vmrun, relative path to VMX

- from inside the directory where vmrun lives, give full path to the VMX

Neither case works.

HAS ANYBODY EVER GOT THIS TO WORK ?

IF SO WHAT DID YOU DO ?

[KevinG]

Copy and paste the exact command line that you are using. We need to see the syntax, path...etc you are using

[ashleigh_oz]

Here are a series of commands and the errors they generate:

TRY 1: starting from c:\

C:\>"c:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmrun.exe" start "c:\Virtual_Macines\Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5\Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.vmx" nogui

Error: Command failed: The system returned an error. Communication with the virtual machine may have been interrupted

C:\>

TRY 2: starting from the location of the VMRUN executable:

C:\>cd "Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation"

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation>vmrun start "c:\Virtual_Machines\Red Hat Enerprise Linux 5\Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.vmx" nogui

Error: Command failed: The system returned an error. Communication with the virtual machine may have been interrupted

TRY 3:starting from the location of the VMWARE VMX executable:

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation>cd bin

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation\bin>..\vmrun start "c:\Virtual_Machines\Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5\Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.vmx" nogui

Error: Command failed: The system returned an error. Communication with the virtual machine may have been interrupted

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation\bin>

TRY 4: starting from the location of the VMX files:

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation\bin>cd "\Virtual_Machines\Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5"

C:\Virtual_Machines\Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5>"c:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmrun.exe" start "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.vmx" nogui

Error: Command failed: The system returned an error. Communication with the virtual machine may have been interrupted

C:\Virtual_Machines\Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5>

As you can see, none of these attempts works.

[ashleigh_oz]

Further information:

This was tried today using VMware Workstation 6.0.3 which I installed yesterday.

I have been doing upgrade installs on this machine, it first started with workstation 5 about 2 years ago, however, when I have installed workstation 6.0.3 I allowed it to do the automatic removal of the prior version, and then just accepted the default installation options.

The host machine is a dual Xeon 2.4 GHz, hyperthreading is turned off (so there are 2 physical processors with 2 GB RAM running Windows XP SP2 with all the current MS patches (automatic updates is turned on).

All normal GUI operation of VMWare Workstation works fine.

[ashleigh_oz]

A further update (against vmware ws 6.0.2, though):

I notice using Sysinternals Regmon that vmrun is looking for a registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\vmrun\InstallPath

And this path is not present in the registry.

All the other bits and pieces have an installpath, so I created one.

NOW, running the vmrun command with the nogui option still fails:

example command line:

C:\>"c:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmrun.exe" start "d:\XP Domain VPN\xpprodom.vmx" nogui

Error: Command failed: Unknown error

The failure is not the same as before, and now the log file contains different information, as shown below:

Mar 20 21:44:02.843: app| Log for Vix pid=252 version=3 build=build-59824 option=Release

Mar 20 21:44:02.843: app| Hostname=myhostname

Mar 20 21:44:02.843: app| Foundry Init: setting up global state (0 threads)

Mar 20 21:44:03.031: app| DynaLink oleaut32.dll inaccessible?

Mar 20 21:44:03.031: app|

Mar 20 21:44:03.031: app| Failed to connect to WMI

Mar 20 21:44:03.031: app| VmhsHostInfoPopulateSystem: Could not get model of host.

Mar 20 21:44:03.031: app| VmhsHostInfoPopulateSystem: Could not get vendor of host.

Mar 20 21:44:03.031: app| HOSTINFO: Seeing Intel CPU, numCoresPerCPU 2 numThreadsPerCore 1.

Mar 20 21:44:03.031: app| HOSTINFO: This machine has 1 physical CPUS, 2 total cores, and 2 logical CPUs.

Mar 20 21:44:03.171: app| Foundry Init: version 3, hostType 1, hostName (null), hostPort 0, options 0x210

Mar 20 21:44:03.171: app| CreateFile on pipe
.\pipe\d:\XP Domain VPN\xpprodom.vmx failed 2.

Mar 20 21:44:03.234: app| Reloading config state: d:\XP Domain VPN\xpprodom.vmx

Mar 20 21:44:03.312: app| VMHSVMCbPower: Setting state of VM /vm/#d6f571b417ffec1c/ to powerOn with option default

Mar 20 21:44:04.312: app| Mounting virtual machine paths on connection: /db/connection/#5d/, d:\XP Domain VPN\xpprodom.vmx

Mar 20 21:44:04.328: app| Mount VM completion for vm: d:\XP Domain VPN\xpprodom.vmx

Mar 20 21:44:04.328: app| Mount VM Complete: d:\XP Domain VPN\xpprodom.vmx, Return code: OK

Mar 20 21:44:04.468: app| Disconnect check in progress: d:\XP Domain VPN\xpprodom.vmx

Mar 20 21:44:04.609: app| Disconnect check in progress: d:\XP Domain VPN\xpprodom.vmx

Mar 20 21:44:04.703: app| VMX status has been set for vm: d:\XP Domain VPN\xpprodom.vmx

Mar 20 21:44:04.703: app| Disconnect check in progress: d:\XP Domain VPN\xpprodom.vmx

Mar 20 21:44:04.703: app| Unmounting the vm: d:\XP Domain VPN\xpprodom.vmx

Mar 20 21:44:04.703: app| Unmounting VM complete: d:\XP Domain VPN\xpprodom.vmx

Mar 20 21:44:04.718: app| Mount state values have changed: d:\XP Domain VPN\xpprodom.vmx

Mar 20 21:44:04.718: app| Reloading config state: d:\XP Domain VPN\xpprodom.vmx

So... still no joy but perhaps that missing registry entry gets a touch closer.

[ashleigh_oz]

Even more information:

The vmware.log file in the same folder as the VM has this at the very end of the file:

Mar 20 21:54:41.796: vmx|

Mar 20 21:54:41.796: vmx| -

---

Mar 20 21:54:41.828: vmx| hostCpuFeatures = 0x520001fa

Mar 20 21:54:41.828: vmx| hostNumPerfCounters = 2

Mar 20 21:54:41.906: vmx| WSSCAN: reserved mem (in MB) min=32 max=1920 recommended=1920

Mar 20 21:54:41.906: vmx| hostMem=2048 maxAllowedAll=-1 maxAllowedVM=8192

Mar 20 21:54:41.906: vmx| totOverhead=16

Mar 20 21:54:41.906: vmx| WSSCAN: used rec mem (in MB) 1920

Mar 20 21:54:41.906: vmx| WSSCAN: Overhead 175937 paged 13298 nonpaged 4096 maxFBSize

Mar 20 21:54:41.921: vmx| WSSCAN 1 1 375212 438172 491520 375212 50 0

Mar 20 21:54:41.921: vmx| Msg_Post: Error

Mar 20 21:54:41.921: vmx| http://msg.License.present.none Unable to find a license to run vmrun.

Mar 20 21:54:41.921: vmx| -

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Mar 20 21:54:41.921: vmx| LICENSE no valid one found

Mar 20 21:54:41.921: vmx| Module License power on failed.

Mar 20 21:54:41.921: vmx| VMX_PowerOn: ModuleTable_PowerOn = 0

Mar 20 21:54:42.156: vmx| vmdbPipe_Streams: Couldn't read

Mar 20 21:54:42.156: vmx| VMX idle exit

Mar 20 21:54:42.156: vmx| Flushing VMX VMDB connections

Mar 20 21:54:42.156: vmx| IPC_exit: disconnecting all threads

Mar 20 21:54:42.156: vmx| VMX exit (0).

so it appears that the VMX is not finding a license, but running the same thing WITH the gui it is fine.

[ashleigh_oz]

By crikey, it looks like I found how to get the NOGUI option to work.

(Note this is a blatant registry hack, and would appear to indicate that VMWARE have not quite got their product testing right before release.)

ANYHOW

It looks like vmrun with the nogui option wants to find a bunch of stuff under the registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\vmrun

And some of the stuff it expects is not there.

Specifically, it wants an InstallPath, and it wants the LICENSE for the installed VMWARE WORKSTATION.

This information exists in the registry, but its being looked up in the wrong place (when youomit the "nogui" option, it IS looked up in the correct place)

The information that it wants DOES exist here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware Workstation

So, what I did is

1. EXPORT from the registry the keys at and under "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware Workstation"

2. in the exported copy, delete all the stuff under the sub-key "Dormant", "License.ws.5.0" and "License.ws.6.0.200610"

3. There won't be much left, but in what is left, change the word "VMware Workstation" to "vmrun"

4. Merge this back into the registry. This is not easy because for some reason I can't add stuff under the key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\vmrun", so I renamed that to something handy "vmrun-old", then the merge worked fine.

Now I have 2 copies in the registry of my licensing information (bad) but at least the vmrun seems to have worked with the nogui option.

For information, the registry info that I merged in looks like this (note I have obscured the company name, user name, my license number, and a few other things, so this shows the principle rather than MY details!)

(NOTE - this crazy posting system has converted the standard registry syntax into some insane http: hyperlinked mess. I've spent the last 20 minutes trying to get it to display properly and given up in disgust.)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

http://HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\vmrun

"ProductCode"="{A3FF5CB2-FB35-4658-8751-9EDE1D65B3AA}"

"ProductVersion"="6.0.2.59824"

"InstallPath"="C:
Program Files
VMware
VMware Workstation"

http://HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\vmrun\Dormant

http://HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\vmrun\License.ws.6.0.200610

"StartFields"="Cpt, ProductID, LicenseVersion, LicenseType, Epoch"

"Cpt"="COPYRIGHT (c) VMware, Inc. 1999-2007"

"ProductID"="VMware Workstation for Win32"

"LicenseVersion"="6.0"

"LicenseType"="User"

"Epoch"="2006-10-1"

"Hash"="has is obscured"

"Serial"="this has been obscured"

"Name"="my-name"

"CompanyName"="my-companyl"

"LastModified"="2008-02-08 @ 00:33:22 UTC"

http://HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\vmrun\volatile

"UUIDHost"="i have obscure the UUID host as well"

Looking at the log files, it does appear that this HACK is imperfect because there are differences between the NOGUI options and the normal way of running it up. These are that some of the preferences are not being applied (eg total memory for all VM's running on the host), so whilst it works it might not deliver exactly what is expected.

Here's hoping VMware come out with a proper fix soon!

[bmor]

Hi ashleigh_oz,

I had the same problem with vmrun ... nogui and VMWare Workstation 6.0.5. I am very glad about your solution and did a very raw hack: I opened regedit, exported the whole [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware Workstation] branch. Then I edited the .reg file and changed all

VMware, Inc.\VMware Workstation

to

VMware, Inc.\vmrun

and imported the changed file.

Now vmrun ... nogui succeeds partially: The VMWare icon appears on the task bar and it says that my virtual machine is running. However, it waits booting until I open the VMWare GUI for a short time. Apparently you do not have that problem. Do you have any hint for me?

Thanks

Bernd