Noticeable typing lag in Linux VM terminals since v16.2 upgrade on Linux host

[ajgringo619]

Upgraded my EndeavourOS host to version 16.2 yesterday. Now I'm noticing a lag when typing in any VM terminal window - Arch, Ubuntu, openSUSE are experiencing the same thing. I'm using open-vm-tools, which has never been a problem before. I have not changed any settings on the VMs since their creations: 8GB RAM, 4GB vGPU, 8 vCPUs.

 

Anyone else seeing this? I haven't tried with my Windows 10 host yet (also on v16.2).

 

UPDATE: working great with Windows 10 (Home) host.

[erguny]

I have the same issue since the last Workstation update. Replied on another thread too. It is very annoying and I couldn't find any solution yet.

[ajgringo619]

I just updated all of my VMs and verified that the issue still exists. However, it seems much worse on Debian/Fedora-based VMs; my Arch and openSUSE VMs don't seem to be affected. After trying both of them this morning, I found that these (2) releases - both rolling - are using the latest open-vm-tools client, version 11.3.5. While I did not see any related issues posted on the GitHub site, I'd be willing to bet that the v11.3.5 version fixes this issue.

[erguny]

It might be. My VMs which are affected all run the open-vm-tools version 11.2.5. 

[ajgringo619]

My worst offender is Fedora 34, which is running v11.3.0. I may try to build the latest client and see what happens.

[ajgringo619]

Should have tried this earlier...

I removed the open-vm-tools packages on my Ubuntu 20 VM and the problem remains; it actually may have been even worse.

[wila]

Hi,

Weird..

Have you tried turning 3D acceleration off?
Does that help?

Now the following might sound strange.. but I once had this issue a few years ago and it was ....

...

... DNS.

Typing anything in a terminal was pretty frustrating.
After setting the DNS server to 8.8.8.8 everything worked as it did before.

--
Wil

[ajgringo619]

The lag seems to be gone with disabling 3D acceleration; curious what changed with the new version of VMware Workstation. Also, this still doesn't explain why my Arch/openSUSE VMs are working as expected.

[erguny]

Yes, disabling 3D acceleration fixes the lag. But I don't think that should be the solution, I want to be able to use 3D acceleration. The issue seems to be with Debian based distros.

[wila]

Hi,

---

 wrote:
Also, this still doesn't explain why my Arch/openSUSE VMs are working as expected.

---

Not sure, but I would guess that there's a different vmwgfx driver?

I just looked over at https://github.com/vmware/open-vm-tools/issues and I'm not seeing this issue mentioned.
Perhaps a good idea to log it there.

edit:
Sorry, my bad, not had enough coffee yet, vmwgfx is a kernel module and thus it is part of the kernel.
Just did a few searches on it and the results of that are here: https://wiki.vi-toolkit.com/index.php?title=Vmwgfx

--
Wil

[ajgringo619]

While this may be related to kernel modules, (3) things still don't make any sense to me:

1. Why does the lag go away when the host is Windows (using the same VM, just a different .vmx)?
2. Why is the lag on Fedora as bad as Ubuntu, when Fedora is using the same kernel branch (5.14) as my working Arch/openSUSE VMs?
3. What changed between WS 16.1.2 and 16.2 to cause such an obvious problem?

[ajgringo619]

UPDATE: the "fix" of disabling 3D acceleration makes Fedora 35 even worse; the terminal is almost unusable.

[wila]

Hi,

Another thing to try....

What happens if you disable bluetooth under the usb settings?

--
Wil

[ajgringo619]

Bluetooth is already disabled.

[Jorn-H]

Have the same lag, and when searching around i found this :
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/game-ready-drivers/13/474099/496x-driver-performance-in-vmware-vm-is-unusable/

In my case it might be Nvidia Driver related.

[Jorn-H]

Nvidia driver 496.76 on the host computer seems to have fixed the problem with lag on my guest VMs

[forvm2765]

I am having the same issue, in a really extreme form on Fedora 34, Host is Windows 10 Professional though. 

I did not find any solution for it and it is so bad that simply working quick is not possible at all. I am a very quick writer but even upper and lowercase get completely mixed up as the shift key is registered way too late for. Never had these issues before Workstation 16.

Upgraded all the VMs to 16, installed latest open-vm-tools in Fedora. Nothing works. Aside from that the integration of copy/paste in login screen of Fedora seems completely broken, it simply does not work. It did with 15 without issues. Once I am logged in copy/paste works as it should. This is a massive disappointment, too, as I have to type 30 cryptic chars every time I reboot the VM

[forvm2765]

For me I also found out what it was in my case. And that is totally weird. If I switch the host (Windows 10) sound output to speakers while the VM is running, the GNOME terminal shell is not able to play the sound of the terminal bell correctly because it seems the sound output of the VM is messed up. This means that with every keystroke that would play the terminal bell the VM hiccups so bad that typing on the keyboard gets unusable. If I disable the terminal bell then in the GNOME terminal application typing and also autocomplete gets as fast as it can get.

So there is definitely an issue with that on a Windows 10 host to at least a Fedora VM, did not test other VMs until now with that.

[gautambhat]

I setup my sound card to the host soundcard and it became slightly better.

[posthum4n]

Another thing I've noticed is that the keyboard input lag in the VM guest is not happening as long as I'm moving the mouse.

[mwb1100v]

> the keyboard input lag in the VM guest is not happening as long as I'm moving the mouse

For me moving the mouse doesn't make the lag go away, but is does make it less severe.  No idea what that might mean though.

[bidimensional]

I confirm this. The bug is very easily reproducible: use the keyboard to go to the left of a long string in a terminal, and it will keep going. This is a serious bug that makes unusable the software, I am appalled it is still open since 2021. I have the latest Nvidia drivers as of today with RTX A5000.

[m4r1m4t]

For me disabling 3d acceleration didn't help. After downgrade to v16.1.2 everything is fine again.

[ajgringo619]

Since I started this post, I figured I should chime in with my current (working) situation. Due to other factors, mostly gaming-related, I downgraded my Nvidia drivers to the x470 branch. Although I still need to disable 3D-acceleration - left it on Linux Mint Cinnamon as I don't want to use fallback-mode - the terminal lagging has completely disappeared. My VMware Workstation version is 16.2.1-3, installed via the Arch package aur/vmware-workstation.

[thinker4ward]

How did you downgrade?

 

[mwb1100v]

> How did you downgrade?

Uninstall then install  16.1.2.  I think I rebooted in between.  I'm not sure it's necessary (and I don't even remember for certain if I did).

[continuum]

> I'm not sure it's necessary (and I don't even remember for certain if I did).
A reboot is highly recommended.
I suggest uninstall current version - reboot - cleanup registry manually - reboot.
Install previous version.

Ulli

[mwb1100v]

I solved the problem by reverting to VMware Workstation Pro v16.1.2

 

For completeness:

  - host is Windows 11, i7-8700, 48GB of RAM

  - guest is Linux Mint 20.3 (Ubuntu focal/20.04-based) w/8 processors & 16GB RAM allocated, or Mint 19.3 (Ubuntu  bionic/18.04-based) with 8 processors  & 22 GB of RAM allocated

  - turning off "Accelerate 3D graphics" didn't have an effect on the keyboard behavior.

  - the lagginess was far more evident with the cursor keys than other keys.  If the cursor keys behaved like the other keys, I probably would have chalked up the problem as being not enough horsepower on my machine

 

I had made the mistake of upgrading from Win10 to Win11 and VMware Workstation 16.1.2 to 16.2.2 more or less at the same time. Most of the time when I experienced the problem, I believed that the Win10->Win11 upgrade was responsible.  The Mint 19.3 VM had been running on Win10 for more than a year  The Mint 20.3 VM was created to see if a freshly installed VM would have the same problem (it did).

Nothing in the release notes for 16.2.x jump out as being related to this problem (note: I don't know if the problem also occurs in 16.2.0 or 16.2.1).

[gautambhat]

v16.2.2 has the same problem as v16.2.1. Removing of sound card did not make much of a difference. It still is annoying. When you downgraded it is by downgrading the vm comaptibility of the image or the whole of vmware workstation install?

[mwb1100v]

I downgraded from 16.2.2 to 16.1.2 (Win11 host) by:

  - stopping/suspending my VMs and closing the VMware application

  - uninstalled 16.2.2 (including the settings when the uninstaller asks about that)

  - rebooted (not sure if this is necessary)

  - installed 16.1.2

All's good now.

[pdihs]

Downgrade doesn't seem like a long-term viable option. Any input from VMware on this yet?

[gautambhat]

 I agree that this is not a solution. How can we raise it with VMware?

[wila]

HI,

Any of you guys using a NVidia GPU?

If so, try to use the nouveau driver instead of the driver from NVidia itself.

While on that boat, there's also this...

Starting with Workstation 16.2.0, Workstation has Vulkan renderer support and will use that by default, see https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workstation-Pro/16.2.0/rn/VMware-Workstation-1620-Pro-Release-Notes.html#What's%20New

There is a chance that your problems are due to this change, you can switch back to using X11, see https://wiki.vi-toolkit.com/index.php?title=Vmx_hacks#Linux_Host_-_switch_back_from_Vulkan_to_X11

good luck!

--
Wil

[gautambhat]

This lag is also present in Windows 10 hosts which I am using as of now. 

[wila]

Hi,

---

 wrote:

This lag is also present in Windows 10 hosts which I am using as of now. 

---

Ok, it was just a guess and figured it was worth a try.

re. "bring to the attention of VMware", for that I suggest to open a support ticket ( https://www.vmware.com/support/workstation )

--
Wil

[mwb1100v]

> for that I suggest to open a support ticket

I have no support contract, so VMware wants $50 to open a support incident.  If someone with this problem has a support incident to burn, that would be great.  But I'm OK with 16.1, so I'll live with that.

 

And just to be clear: my problem was using a Win11 host.  It seems like there's a good chance that the problem on Linux hosts is related, but who knows?

[louyo]

PMJI late: Thanks for the tip about Vulcan. Like all things 'nix, sometimes the opposite advice about drivers is true.

I was moving from a LMDE4 host to LMDE5 (installed on separate SSD, for test purposes). If I ran a Linux Debian VM, the system would lock up within 2 or 3 minutes. Only way out was BRS. I have a rather basic Quadro P620 card. I  was running the nouveau drivers, same as the LMDE4 system. I DDG'd the problem, tried different desktops, versions of WS, etc, wash, rinse, repeat. Still locked up.

I tried the latest NVIDIA drivers with no success. Reinstalling LMDE5, (which put it back to nouveau), I Installed nvidia-settings which installs the 460 level driver. I tested prior to updating the driver. That fixed the lock up problem, hasn't done that in over 2 weeks. Lag in a terminal was minimal if even there (hard to tell when the system keeps locking up) but I did the Vulcan vmx edit on that VM anyway to have a look.  I have a Mint 20.3 VM that has no lag, without any modifications.

I am back to running 16.2.3.  Staying  at NVIDIA 460.91.03. 

Sometimes dumb luck overcomes logic. 

 

[dingetje61]

Switching to X11 fixed the lag issue for me. W11 host, VMWare 16.2.4, RHEL7 client.

 

 

mks.enableX11Presentation=TRUE
mks.enableVulkanPresentation=FALSE

 

 

hmmm....no it didn't. The keyboard still gets stuck on the last keyboard entry and keeps repeating that keypress. What an annoying bug!

Downgrading to 16.1.2 resolves this issue, but then I loose suspending the VM (causes VMWare to crash) which is even more annoying.

[erguny]

I just upgraded to Workstation 17 with hopes of this resolving, but I still have the same lag while typing. I don't want to downgrade my drivers or Workstation. They have to resolve this already. We may have to open a support ticket.

[mwb1100v]

---

wrote:

We may have to open a support ticket.

---

An upgrade supposedly "Includes 30 Days of complimentary email support".

Please do open a ticket!

I'm certainly not paying for an upgrade until this is fixed. VirtualBox is looking like it might be an option now that v7 includes USB3 support as part of the core offering - you no longer need the "Extension Pack" with the weird PUEL license.

[dineshmeinwk]

Downgrading to VMware workstation 16.1.2 resolved the keyboard lagging issue. Perhaps something wrong with V16.2 and Windows 11.

[goldeneye_007]

I have Win 11 on 16.2.3 (linux host) and do not see a lag. Sometimes I will see a lag if I have Windows Updates waiting to be installed. No idea why but lagging typing is a key indicator that Windows updates are waiting.

Is it application specific? MS Word/Excel? or do you see it in programs outside of those?

Have you tried minimizing your VMware workstation and typing in a Linux app to see if the host is lagging?

 

[dineshmeinwk]

My setup was the other way around. I had a windows 11 host and Ubuntu 20.04 on Vmware 16.2.3.

For me, I didn't see any lag in the host, windows 11 environment. but almost all the applications in my Ubuntu VM had the typing lag (Terminal vi, text editor, IntelliJ IDEA, etc). Specifically, with the arrow keys, other keys seem to be working fine.  After downgrading to VMware 16.1.2, it was a night and day difference (zero lag. Definitely something was introduced in Vmware Workstation 16.2.3 that is not compatible with Windows 11 hosts).

[goldeneye_007]

I shut down the guest, ran updates for the Linux host, rebooted the host and restarted the VM and it went away.

[mwb1100v]

> ran updates for the Linux host

That's interesting.  I wonder what (if anything) this might mean for those of us seeing the problem on Win10/Win11 hosts?

 

[gsebas18]

I was running 16.2.3 on Windows 11 for a week or so after a new build and it worked perfectly, just yesterday I log into my Kali Vm and notice bad keyboard lag on all terminal, text editors and applications running. 

The best way to reproduce is by opening any text file and navigating with the arrow keys. Key repeats are unusable. Even after letting go of the key, the cursor kept moving for 1-2 seconds. Making me overshoot many times.

I can also confirm that if you move the mouse while using the directional arrows as per my example, the lag is gone.

Downgraded to 16.1.2 and lagging went away. However, it is not optimal due to issues with 16.1.2 in Windows 11 that were fixed on 16.2.2 regarding multiple cores:

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Pro/Workstation-16-1-2-Pro-under-Windows-11-host-Windows-guest-in-VM/m-p/2888722/highlight/true#M173563

The issue also persists in 16.2.2

See the gif below: You can see the text cursor being moved by the arrow keys while I move my mouse and you can see the text cursor changes behavior and keeps moving as soon as the mouse cursor disappears.

[louyo]

I had a Linux VM doing same, Windows 10 was OK. Difference was Video acceleration was off on W10. Turned it off on Linux VM and lag went away. For me, the lag was last character only. 

[gsebas18]

Time to go back to Windows 10 then ‍

[RDPetruska]

---

 wrote:

Time to go back to Windows 10 then ‍

---

I personally have yet to see ANY good valid reason to move to Windows 11!

[louyo]

Agree. I did install an insider version in a VM to test some software I created for a client.

Not much at being a pioneer.

Our production stuff is mostly on ESXi.

Lou

 

[goldeneye_007]

I think you are probably on to something. If messing with the acceleration is having a result, odds are it's a video driver problem.

I am not seeing a problem with Win11 as a guest under Linux if you are running 16.2.3 (which also fixes some USB issues present in 16.2.1). As for is Win11 worth it? If you have hardware that it will run on then yes. They have cleaned up a lot of the rough edges. I think it is my favorite Windows to date. If your hardware requires hacks and cheats to make it work, then no I wouldn't bother, ride Win10 like it's XP.

[gsebas18]

Now that I think about it. I did run into similar issues in which behavior stopped being laggy as soon as I moved the mouse around while doing the action. Under Windows 10 and VMware Workstation Pro 15.X but that time was the scroll wheel. Basically the scroll wheel would not work well unless I was moving my mouse constantly. I had to fix that by installing imwheel https://www.reddit.com/r/oscp/comments/s8tk71/better_mouse_scrolling_on_kali_running_on_vmware/

[bravo88]

for the acceleration related issue the only solution for me was to make the vulkan be forced to support my card 

mks.vk.allowUnsupportedDevices = "TRUE"

i also added this but not sure if the below is necessary  

mks.forceDiscreteGPU = "TRUE"

now i have great acceleration 16.2.3  

[ghostrider13]

Same lagging issue in terminal.

• Host: Ubuntu 22.04 Linux 5.15.0-27-generic
• GPU: NVidia RTX 3090 with 510.60.02 driver
• VMWare Workstation Pro 16.2.3 build-19376536
• Guest: Ubuntu 20.04 Linux 5.13.0-generic

Turning off 3d acceleration fixes the lag. Trying to force Vulkan by adding following to the vmx file doesn't help:

mks.vk.allowUnsupportedDevices = "TRUE"
mks.forceDiscreteGPU = "TRUE"

[MrG56]

Have you found a solution to this issue? It's driving me insane!

[dineshmeinwk]

I had to downgrade to 16.2.1

[posthum4n]

I'm running a hacky Python script in the guest VM which for me solves the key input delay in the Linux guest VM running on a Linux host, but does make the mouse wiggle slightly in the VM.

pip install pyautogui

 

# thanksvmware.py
import pyautogui
pyautogui.FAILSAFE = False

while 1 == 1:
    pyautogui.moveRel(1, 0, duration = 0)
    pyautogui.moveRel(-1, 0, duration = 0)

 

 

Also tried simulating keypresses (like media keys), but haven't found something that works better than this script. 

It's really incredibly sad VMWare is ignoring this, are they using their own software?

[CN_astro_usr_L]

The problem of direction key lagging (sometimes in paste ) still exists in VMware Workstation 16.2.4. Have anyone solved this issue?

[bahmanp]

I upgraded the VM itself also to be compatible with 16.2; the problem seems to be solved. Note that After upgrading the workstation to 16.2, you can see something like "Upgrade VM hardware" under the change/edit setting in the window right before turning on the VM that you should click, follow the steps, and in the last page choose version 16.2.

[andreaplanet]

I too had to downgrade to 16.2.1

Moving the mouse or running gxlgears makes the issue disappear temporarily. I need 3D acceleration.

I tried various hacks without luck.

 

 

 

[davidjbaird]

This is happening for me now - VM's are almost unusable because of keyboard lag that kicks in a few minutes after the VM has been started. I have tried downgrading to 16.2.1 and it hasn't fixed the problem. Has anyone heard from VMware about this? I am just about to try the Nvidia studio driver instead of the game-ready driver.

[Aaron623]

Hi all,

I've been using VMWare Workstation Player for around 5 months now, and this typing lag started to affect me about a day ago. To help with solving this issues, here is what I have noticed:

System config: ASUS ROG Strix, I9 12900H (20 CPUs), 32GB, RTX-3070Ti (8GB) 2TB SSD
Running: Windows 11 (updated as of 9-Dec-22), GFX driver updated 9-Dec-22, using VMWare to run Ubuntu 22.04.
VMWare version 17 (although, I had a few times under 16 where this happened, but only for a day or so - very inconsistent!)

My biggest issues is with cursor movements. The initial hit of a cursor movement is slow to respond (200ms to 400ms or so?), then the cursor movement will continue to act on the buffered cursor movements. That is, the cursor keys are system buffered, but lagged into VMWare.
HERE IS THE INTERESTING PART: Whilst using 'vi', the cursor keys lag (as described) however, the 'h' 'j' 'k 'l' vi cursor-keys do NOT introduce a lag and no buffered key stroke is experienced.

I hope that this info helps to narrow down the issue!

Update - I now have serious keyboard everywhere. Without any updates, changes etc, I am now suddenly experiencing massive keyboard lag everywhere!

[tbn-mm]

Have the same issue. Windows 11 Host, Ubuntu 22 Guest.

Found two solutions:

1. Downgrade to 16.1.2

or

2. Use 1 core

[tbn-mm]

Found another fix for version 17.0, Windows 11 Host and Linux Guest:

Set "Number of processors" to 2 and "Number of cores per processor" to 4.
I don't know why and I'm not testing everything else. I have already wasted too much time to find this solution.

I have also disabled "Windows Hypervisor Platform" in Windows Features.

[davidjbaird]

Changing to 2 CPUs, 4 cores per CPU had some effect, although I still got noticeable lag and overrunning on up and down arrow key holds in text editors (sublime and IntelliJ - interestingly vscode does not seem to be affected by this problem).

 

Changing to 4 CPUs and 2 cores per CPU, however, seems to have fixed the problem for me (windows 11, Ubuntu 22.04 guest). I also have hyper-v disabled, although it was disabled before, so not sure if that is relevant.

[Bobe71]

Workstation Pro 17

Host: Windows 11 Pro (22H2)

Guest: Linux Mint 21.1 Vera (Hardware Compatibility 17.x)

Guest: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia (Hardware Compatibility 17.x)

HW i7-8700K with UHD 630 enabled, NVidia Quadro P2000, 32 GB RAM

Had very bad keyboard lags in sublime and other text/code editors.

in my vmx I forced 

mks.keyboardFilter = "require"

and added

keyboard.softAutorepeat = "FALSE"
keyboard.typematicMinDelay = "10"

and now everything looks to be ok.

No "buffering effect" keeping cursor keys pressed and normal keyboard typing responsiveness.

Hope this can help

 

[Bobe71]

I reply to myself...

After a recent hardware update, the keyboard lagging came back in a very bad way making the guest
useless unless giving the machine a dedicated keyboard....
I tried other ways to get rid of the problem and what worked for me now, was doing what  suggested.
It is not a great deal to disable Hyper-V, but well, I don't need it so I disabled it.

There are several ways to disable Hyper-V (https://www.nakivo.com/blog/uninstalling-or-disabling-hyper-v-in-windows-10/)

What I did was

from the Windows Features panel (searched for "turn windows features on or off")
I disabled
- Hyper-V
- Virtual Machine Platform
- windows Hypervisor Platform

 

then from, a powershell console with administrator priviledge, ran

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

then rebooted the host.

Check, from a terminal console (cmd or powershell), run the command "systeminfo" and at the bottom end
you should read something like

Hyper-V Requirements: VM Monitor Mode Extensions: Yes
Virtualization Enabled In Firmware: Yes
Second Level Address Translation: Yes
Data Execution Prevention Available: Yes

Now, before starting my VM, I re-enabled "Virtualize Intel-VT-xEPT or AMD-V/RVI" from the Processor Settings.

 

The keyboard now works well.

 

System Infos

Workstation Pro 17.0.2
Host: Windows 11 Pro (22H2 Build 22621.1702)
Guest: Linux Mint 21.1 Vera (Hardware Compatibility 17.x)

 

Again, hope this can be helpful for someone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gregothemax]

I've had the same issues with 16, upgraded to 17.0.2 and still the same.  I followed what you did and the issues seems resolved.  Thanks a lot.

 

[jehrens]

For me, the only thing that worked for Workstation Pro 17 on a Windows 11 host and a Parrot/Debian Testing guest (Kernel 6.0.0-2parrot1-amd64), was to disable Hyper-V as suggested in another thread. I had it enabled in order to use WSL2 (which I would like to continue to use, so this is not really a fix for me).

Disabling the feature got rid of all keyboard lagging/buffering no matter how many cores I have configured for the VM.

[tbn-mm]

Ok, lags are back after system restart.

[Rajesh-Detroja]

Currently, I resolved issued with following settings.

If I set processors or cores more than 2 then problem returns.

# Windows 11 (Host)
# VMWare Workstation Pro 17
# Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS (Guest)

[tempresidence]

According to my tests, the key factor that affects keyboard input responsiveness is whether hyper-v is enabled or not.

Enter "bcdedit" in CMD(as administrator) or PowerShell(as administrator) .find item hypervisorlaunchtype If displayed as follows: hypervisorlaunchtype auto. There will definitely be a delay in keyboard input.

Enter the following command in CMD(as administrator) or PowerShell (as administrator) at this time: bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

and restart your computer .You will find that the input delay has disappeared.

At this point, you are faced with a dilemma: either give up Hyper-V and WSL2 or give up VMware. It's up to you to decide.

[marbaa]

This is so, dissapointing that after so long time, there is not fix for it. I'm running Workstation 17 on Fedora with Nvidia GPU. Debian inside VM. And the lag is horrible. If I connect via VNC, typing is smooth.

 

If Workstation is running on Windows, no typing lag.

[workstationboi]

Hello,
Wherever i read - im refered to this thread.
Example:
https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Player/Ubuntu-keyboard-poor-performance-after-upgrade-to-16-2-0-build/td-p/2874265

So, i spend tons of hours trying to troubleshoot this and found no real solution.
I tried migrating everything over to Hyper-V where everything works perfectly, however, there is no resizeable windows so im back to VMWare Workstation 17.0.1.
My debian distros has this exact issue of i installed my PC (did not have the issue beforehand). Running on Windows 11  latest everything incld nvidia card.

So, if i pop this bad boy open in a console: glxgear , the input lag immediately disappear......
As soon as im about to type and edit text in the terminal i have a hotkey for it - this is ofc no solution, its rather messed up.

No vmx tweaks or acceleration attempts resolves this issue, no downgrading the vm or reinstalling vm workstation resolves it.
However, there was one setup that had a "somewhat functional" thing you could try. on compability mode for the vm to vm workstation 15.x and disable ehanced keyboard - when you are logged on to the system, try ctrl alt del, it will tell you you have to use another combination and look the screen anyways, when unlocking, i could actually move in the terminal with 3-5 signs delay (a lot better then 35-50 signs or endless lagg).


Soooo, anyone managed to solve this issue?

[goldeneye_007]

Thankfully I have not seen this issue in a long while but It does seem to be host/guest specific. So

if for instance in my case I had OpenSUSE 15.3 as a host and OpenSUSE 10.2 as a guest, the 10.2 guest

would be crazy laggy. Upgraded 10.2 guest to a newer release and it would go away. I have also seen Windows

guests (doesn't matter version) that would have these huge timeout/pauses (2 minutes sometimes). Updating

the host and it would go away sometimes, other times I would have to go in and adjust the CPU configuration. My new baseline

it to always match the two CPU settings in pairs for like 2 CPU 2 Core to get a 4 core.

One thing of note, and kind of what you are suggesting with the GLXGears

is that as long as there is a constant motion going on somewhere on the system, either guest or host, the lags

stop. Extremely frustrating and apparently never going to be addressed. It exists in ESX as well. A loaded Windows instance might have really odd errors with an installer, but if you constantly move the mouse, they go away. It's nuts.

[mwb1100v]

It has to be something VMware can address.  One thing that seems to be consistent though these reports is:

• VMware 16.1.2 or earlier - no problem
• VMware 16.2 or later  - problems occur (depending on various other factors: host/guest combo, video drivers installed, HyperV enabled, etc. etc)

The key is that there's something specific that happened in 16.2 that is the root cause for these problems.

As for me, I'm just sticking with 16.1.2 until I absolutely need something else.  And you can bet I'll be looking at VirtualBox before I look at VMware Workstation vWhatever.  Especially now that VirtualBox has GPLed the USB 2/3 virtualization instead of keeping it behind the weird PUEL license.

[goldeneye_007]

The only reason you don't see reports of earlier than 16.2 is because nobody is posting about earlier versions anymore.

 I've been using VMware since server 1. There has always been lag issues. I think it was just a tradeoff we accepted to

have other flexibilities.

Having said that, would I like to see it fixed? Sure.

I guess I should mention I am on 17.0.1 running on OpenSUSE 15.3 currently and not seeing lags.

Mostly using Windows guests. 8,10&11.

 

 

[happyuserbg]

I am experiencing a very annoying keyboard lag in Linux guests under VMware Workstation Pro 16.2.5 when Accelerate 3D graphics is enabled.

The host OS is Ubuntu 20.04.
The CPU is AMD Ryzen 5 1600X.
The GPU is AMD Radeon RX 580 with the latest amdgpu drivers (All-Open).

The lag goes away when I disable 3D acceleration, but I need that for some guests.
I've tried different Ubuntu versions for guest OS, but the issue is always there.
As others have pointed, while I move the mouse or when there is a running animation, the lag goes away.
I also have some Windows 7/10 guests and there is no such problem with them. Only in Windows 7, when the screen is locked, typing the password to unlock may have lag.

In my case it doesn't matter what is the CPU configuration of the guest - I've tried all combinations for processors and cores (1 1, 1 2, 1 4, 2 1, 2 2, 4 1) and the lag is still there.

I haven't tried Workstation 17.x but from what I read in this and other threads, I don't think that the issue will be resolved in the current version (7.0.1).

[mwb1100v]

This isn't just some small irritating lag - it's a lag that renders the VM unusable.

And like I said - the one thing that seems to be consistent in this thread is:

• update to 16.2 or later problems occur for some number of people
• roll back to v16.1.x - no problems

So there is something specific that occurred in changes made to 16.2 that are responsible.  If VMware can't fix it, they should at least provide some definitive guidance about workaround so people aren't left guessing by trial and error what the best approach is.

A data point such as "I've been running VMware since v3.2" isn't relevant.  What's relevant is: with v16.1.2 I have no problems, with v16.2 and later (changing nothing else) I have serious problems. And it appears I'm not the only one.

I acknowledge that the problem doesn't happen to everyone. If it did, you can bet it would be addressed pronto.  But the fact that it doesn't affect all configurations doesn't mean it shouldn't be addressed.  I can't force VMware to address it.  But if VMware doesn't want to address it, then I've already explained how I plan to deal with it.

[workstationboi]

 Its indeed weird and its definatly related to VM Workstation and the virtual driversets i belive (passing stuff through from host).
Beacuse if i rightclick and force connect the keyboard (USB 2.0) to the guest - the lag is gone (but then i cant use the keyboard on host) so its not a solution - i cant have 2 keyboards connected ieather.
My specific issue is not resolved with the 3D acceleration on or off - i have no use for it tho as i can run all GPU intensive apps in Windows (WSL) instead. But its super frustrating to have this lag, rendering the whole solution useless as previous poster mentioned.

I have no issues in virtual box or hyper-v btw.

Will try to reinstall VMWorkstation a few times starting with the installs i have 15.0, then 16.1.017, moving up to 17.0 and then 17.0.1 (as an update as i dont have the file for the last one).
Edit: note that my lagg issue is from fully updated Windows 11 Pro, all drivers for everything on my system is the latest and also Vm Workstation (17.0.1) - the issue was not present before i formated C:\ the other week (the only thing that has been released since then is updates to 7zip and powershell 7 ^^).

Anyone know if older versions are archived somewhere? 16.1.x as high as possible would be great.

[wila]

---

 wrote:

Anyone know if older versions are archived somewhere? 16.1.x as high as possible would be great.

---

Try here:

https://customerconnect.vmware.com/en/downloads/details?downloadGroup=WKST-1612-LX&productId=1038&rPId=55778

--

Wil

[workstationboi]

Thank you, good stuff - i saw your reply to late tho but i saved it for next time .
And for those looking for windows binaries: https://customerconnect.vmware.com/downloads/details?downloadGroup=WKST-1612-WIN&productId=1038&rPId=98571

I managed to resolve my lagg input by uninstalling 17.0.1 -> reboot -> Install "16.1.0 build-17198959", while installing i added the Hypervisor support and enhanced keyboard drivers. Now its smooth, no lagg, superresponsive terminals and textinputs from keyboard :).

[wila]

---

 wrote:

I managed to resolve my lagg input by uninstalling 17.0.1 -> reboot -> Install "16.1.0 build-17198959", while installing i added the Hypervisor support and enhanced keyboard drivers. Now its smooth, no lagg, superresponsive terminals and textinputs from keyboard :).

---

Glad to hear you got it to work as expected.

One note.. I advise against installing the enhanced keyboard drivers for almost everyone. They only solve a very specific use case and I highly doubt that it addresses the "laggy keyboard" issue. They tend to generated more issues than solving them.

See: https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Pro/What-exactly-is-the-quot-Enhanced-Keyboard-Driver-quot-for/td-p/2244259

for what it actually does.

--
Wil

[workstationboi]

Im back with another issue that is directly linked to these versions.
When i reverted back to 16.1.2, i have no lagg in any of my ubuntu/debian vm's - everything works great - untill i try to install and boot a Windows 10,11 distrubution. Im unable to. I have a Intel 13900k and no matter what i do, the Windows 10,11 VM's will not boot unless i put them on 1 core 1 cpu in version 16.1.2 or below. Above this version, the Windows 10,11 dists works perfectly with as many cores as i like.

So, im now forced to upgrade to latest so i can run the windows dists. But forced to uninstall and install 16.1.2 as soon as i want to use the Linux dists.

its truly messed up.

I have to migrade to another platform, but after spending much on these licenses - and time - it feels like a massive letdown.

edit: note that windows server works fine in all versions....

[goldeneye_007]

I would suggest opening a ticket with VMware.

[goldeneye_007]

Yah I get it. Not trying to argue a point. It's just been around so long that I don't think it's going to be fixed. The issue seems to be so random and the fixes so diverse not sure even VMware can sort it out. I am not really sure how important Workstation is to VMware in any case. It used to be really heavily developed but these days it's just incremental fixes and keeping up with the latest Windows OS. There used to be some really cool stuff in it almost Docker like where you could launch stuff under KDE and run apps without the Workstation window. I forget the version, maybe 9, but it disappeared. I hope you have some luck sorting your lag issues out. I would start with updating everything, host OS, VMware and guest. When I left 16.X I was having lag issues intermittently OS, but like I said I have not seen them with 17.X yet. Maybe it's worth a gamble?

[goldeneye_007]

Yes. A lot of people have seen the problem.

The issue is there is no clear consistent fix that works for all scenarios.

If you have success in coming up with a solution, post back what worked

for you. Aggregating 'fixes' that can be tried in this thread is about the best resource for

those with this problem.

 

[marbaa]

I just randomly find out. When I'm on login screen - currently tested Alma 9.1 XFCE which is using sddm, the typing is instant. When it log me in to the desktop, then the typing lag is back. Weird.

[kasumi1]

It's literally 2 years since the issue pops up. No one from VMWare is willing to fix this fatal issue?

[aiv00]

I have had the same issue and have tried many of the fixes from this thread.

I was chasing up any leads I could think of for this and long story short, I came across this article:

https://www.makeuseof.com/windows-11-disable-vbs/

I tried it and I don't seem to be having any issues any more. So could the issue be due to Windows 11 new Virtualization-Based Security?

While I may have been able to remedy my situation. It doesn't seem to me to be the ideal solution as I use my kali vm for ctfs which are typically considered to be hostile environments. The extra security that VBS supposedly provides seems desirable in my situation.

Perhaps someone smarter than I could try to replicate my "fix" to validate the suggestion

[davidjbaird]

Unfortunately, this did not work for me. This problem comes and goes without apparent rhyme or reason, and can be extremely frustrating. I use these virtual machines for software development, and this issue makes text editors or IDEs practically unusable.

[Mbkennel]

I have finally found a combination which mitigates the problem.

Number of processors/core per processor:  2/2, or 4/1

add highres=off to linux kernel command line (/etc/default/grub)

 

Host: Windows 11 Enterprise

Guest: Ubuntu MATE 22.04

I suspect it is a subtle CPU scheduling/processor affinity/cpu sleep state sleeping problem.

[Mbkennel]

Self update:

I found a somewhat better mitigation:  on the kernel boot parameters, add 'cpuidle.governor=teo'.

run update-grub after editing /etc/default/grub

check that the change is active took by 'cat /proc/cmdline'

As others have mentioned set VM config to 2 processors, 2 cores per proc.

[gausebeck]

I haven't seen anyone else explicitly confirm that 16.1.2 fixes this problem with Win11 and Hyper-V enabled, but it did for me.

I'm running Win11 as the host with Hyper-V enabled (I also use WSL2), and typing lag in my Ubuntu guest was making it pretty unusable.  Disabling 3D acceleration didn't help, but downgrading from Workstation 17 -> 16.1.2 fixed it, with Hyper-V still enabled.

In addition to the helpful link to the 16.1.2 installer above, I also needed to use vCenter Converter to convert my VM since the configuration from Workstation 17 was incompatible with 16.1.2.

[mwb1100v]

Yeah, at some point earlier in the thread it was verified that the problem began with 16.2 (at least for Linux guests on Win10/Win11 hosts). 

 

I tried Workstation v17 when it first came out and the problem was still there.  I'd bet that it's not fixed in 17.1 either.

 

Looks like I'm on 16.1.2 until it breaks for a newer processor or host/guest system I need.  At that point I'll probably move to VirtualBox now that they've GPL'ed the USB 2/3 support.

[kasumi1]

Since this issue haven't been solved for ~3 years, I decided to purchase a new license and then file a ticket. Here is their response:

 

We are glad to hear that after changing to 1 Vcpu and 1 core, the problem disappeared.

As a temporary workaround, we recommend continuing with this configuration until our team can thoroughly investigate the issue. Rest assured, we have already initiated an internal investigation to identify and resolve the root cause of the problem.

We will keep you updated with the progress of the issue and if any additional information is required we will get in touch with you.

 

[posthum4n]

What a farce!

I'm sorry to say they won't get back at you...

[JMA100]

Since I like Vmware player a lot, I decided to do some testing with the latest Technology Preview version of Workstation/Player.  I happen to have a spare PC right now, so I did the following tests:

I did a clean install of the following operating systems for the HOST:
CentOS 7
Ubuntu 18.04
Ubuntu 22.04

And tried the following Guest Operating Systems:
CentOS 7
Ubuntu 18.04
Ubuntu 22.04

In all combinations, the slow typing problem was observed.

[goldeneye_007]

Out of curiosity what desktop are you running on the guests?

KDE/XFCE/GNOME/None?

 

Try opening an SSH connection to one of the guests and see if it lags in the terminal.

 

 

[JMA100]

The typing lag appears to be everywhere when running the GUI as long as there's not too much happening in the background.  For example, I see the problem on the login screen when typing my username and password.  I see the problem in the terminal and in a text editor.

When testing CentOS7 host and guest, I used Gnome.
When testing Ubuntu, I used Mate for all versions.

No lag if you ssh into the box.  No lag if you drop out of X and go local console.

BTW, if you login, open a terminal, and run glxgears, the lag is gone.  If you stop glxgears, the lag is back.

 

[goldeneye_007]

I've had a suspicion for awhile that it is a video driver problem. The fact that when glx gears runs it goes away dovetails with my observation that you can reduce lag by constantly moving the mouse which tells me it is an interrupt issue. I wonder if there is a video mode that can dumb it down enough to where the lag goes away? Like maybe running -nomodeset at boot time? Or perhaps reducing/increasing or matching to the host the video resolution of the guest? Just guessing at this point since its been awhile since I have run into the issue and don't have time at the moment to run tests.

[tbn-mm]

That's what I'm doing now:

Start glxgears,
set Always on Top (no effect if not visible),
minimize to about 1 pixel.

Lag is gone. Costs a little bit of energy.

 

Here is a script, that can be placed at the end of ~/.profile

 

 

 

#!/bin/bash
# Name of this file must be "fixLag.sh" and chmod +x fixLag.sh
# Place it at ~/.profile for autostart after login.
# Run once: sudo apt-get install mesa-utils wmctrl
fixLagCount=$(pgrep fixLag | wc -l)
if [ $fixLagCount == 2 ]; then
  DISPLAY=:0 sleep 10 && pgrep glxgears || nohup glxgears -geometry 1x1+0+0 > /dev/null &
  nohup sleep 15 && wmctrl -r "glxgears" -b add,above &
fi

 

The script takes about 20 until fully started up. Requires also "Accelerate 3D graphics" in VMware settings

 

 

 

 Tested on Ubuntu 22.04

[goldeneye_007]

Fairly certain at this point that it is a virtual video driver issue. Maybe it is polling for a power saving feature. Anyone played around with disabling power management features? The fact you can ssh into a machine indicates that there must be an advanced function in the desktop environments that is triggering it.

[JMA100]

Using the nvidia control panel, I switched to performance mode and validated I was in a higher clock state for both the gpu and its memory.  It had no effect inside the virtual machine.

Goldeneye_007 - I'm not sure if you caught some of the earlier discussion - if you turn off GPU acceleration, then there's no lag in the GUI.  It appears to be specific to running with the "Accelerate 3d graphics" option on.  I do agree with you that it's related to the 3d accelerated code path in the vmware svga driver. 

I'm guessing it's interrupt related.  (I think someone else suggested that earlier in the discussion.)

[vmwareuser11321]

Got the same issue. Looking at the log file, I see thousands of entries like these:

---

2023-09-29T13:09:15.244Z In(05) vcpu-0 VIDE: (0x170) Unexpected IN for cmd 0xa3 len 2
2023-09-29T13:09:15.244Z In(05) vcpu-0 VIDE: (0x170) Unexpected IN for cmd 0xa3 len 2
2023-09-29T13:09:15.244Z In(05) vcpu-0 VIDE: (0x170) Unexpected IN for cmd 0xa3 len 2
2023-09-29T13:09:15.244Z In(05) vcpu-0 VIDE: (0x170) Unexpected IN for cmd 0xa3 len 2

---

Does anyone else also have these entries?

[omglolwtf1337]

Disabling VBS (Memory Integrity) in Windows completely fixed the issue for me. Guide how to make it - https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-disable-vbs-windows-11/

VMWare 17.5

Host: Windows 11

Tested on 2 guests - ubuntu and debian based. 

[kasumi1]

Hi thread,

I submitted a ticket to VMWare and they finally came up with a solution today, which seems to be working perfectly on my machine:

Add these to your .vmx:

keyboard.allowBothIRQs = "FALSE"
keyboard.vusb.enable = "TRUE"

And restart the VM. This works for me with VMware 17.5.0 and Kali rolling (KDE, Wayland).

[davidjbaird]

So far I've applied these settings to 4 different Ubuntu-based (ubuntu and Mint) VMs on two different hosts (all of which exhibited the same symptoms), and so far it all seems to be working. I have also reconfigured my VMs to use more cores (16 on a 24-core host), enabled 3d graphics acceleration and reversed other mitigations that I had tried in the past, and everything still works as it should. So fingers crossed this is the magic sauce for this particular problem. Thanks so much for posting!

 

[goldeneye_007]

Well it only took two years for the answer if it's a true solution.

Absolutely shameful it took this long to get a result.

[marbaa]

Maan, that sloved problem on my computer also. Very cool.

 

Host: Fedora 38 KDE Wayland NVIDIA GPU

Guest: Ubuntu 22

edit: well, it worked just while. I made some OS packages update, vmware asked for compiling new kernel modules, and lag is back there, despite those two parameters are present in .vmx...

[mwb1100v]

I only needed to add the following to solve the problem:

 keyboard.vusb.enable = "TRUE"

Thanks!

That setting tells the VM to use a virtual USB keyboard instead of PS2.  I don't know what the keyboard.allowBothIRQs setting does, but it seems I don't need it.

VMware Workstation 16.2.5 (don't think I'll bother with 17.x)
Host: Win 11
Guest: Linux Mint 20.3 (Ubuntu 20.04)

 

[Samuel Holzer]

I tried just about every fix in this thread except for disabling VBS (required by my organization) and nothing was working for me. The issue did resolved for me when running `glxgears` as others had mentioned. This is not a very viable solution.

But the following was the only thing that resolved the issue for me. Add the following setting to the `.vmx` file. Thank you for your help:

 keyboard.vusb.enable = "TRUE"

For reference, here are my versions:

VMWare Workstation PRO: 16.2.5
Host: Windows 11 24H2 (26100.2314)
Guest: Ubuntu 24.04.1

[JMA100]

I tried the settings and no change for me, the keyboard lag is still there.

I google searched those settings - and they are discussed in this topic:
https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Pro/Workstation-17-5-0-enhanced-keyboard-driver-problem/td-p/2991913

Seems to be a fix for a recent keyboard problem in VMware 17.5.0 where the keyboard stops working all together.  I'm glad I haven't ran into that one.

[davidjbaird]

Sorry to hear you didn't have any luck with those settings. I still have not experienced keyboard lag in any of my VMs (Workstation 16.2.5 Pro) since applying them, so they have certainly had an effect for me. There are at least 4 other threads on this forum that talk about this kind of problem, so there may be more than one root cause. Perhaps some of the proposed solutions in those threads might work for you.

[JMA100]

Since I'm still having the issue, I did another experiment.  I downloaded the ISO installs of ubuntu 23.10, kubuntu 23.10, xfce 23.10, manjoro gnome (latest), & manjoro KDE (latest.)

It turns out, you don't have to install the OS to experience the issue.  Just boot up the ISO and rather than clicking on install now, click on try OS without installing.  Open a shell and type something.  Installing open-vm-tools-desktop does not change the behaviour. 

My host environment is Ubuntu Mate 22.04. I created a VM with vmware player 17.5.1, have 3d acceleration turned on and gave the machine 18 GB of ram.  I made no adjustments to the vmx file, everything vanilla.    I'm able to duplicate the issue on ubuntu 23.10, xfce 23.10, and manjoro gnome.  The issue is not present on kubuntu 23.10 & manjoro KDE.

Not what I expected, but good that it's easily replicable.  Any ideas?