vmware workstation VGA display driver not working..... workstation for linux

[Tester man]

Hi vmware specialists and people,

This is my first post on this community, so forgive me if I make some rule violation

to put my question here in case  it would not be the right place for it.

This is a local laptops installations issue, not a vmware server parc  cloud version, that is high above me.

In fact, I wouldn't know where else to post this, since broadcom knows all the answers for vmware and 

I can't find any suitable forum for modest users.

Here we go:

Host Situation:  17.5.2 build-23775571 for linux., vmwaretools 12.4.0

laptop os: recently linux fedora42, kernel 15.3 

(Yes I know it is an pretty new kernel , but this problem also occured on a Debian like with  kernel 11.x which I tried first.)

So what is happening, the vmware workstation 17.5.2 product was installed. The vmware modules are updated and installed.

I created a windows 10, x64 , enterprise  vmware machine.

Network ok, Sceen ok, installation vmware tools works, however,  ONLY!...if I skip VGA display driver.

At the moment I forget to deslect vga driver in vmware tools custom installation settings, the VGA driver will be installed and that means,

my vmware machine crashes up completely, and also corrupts the linux session. Only solution is to reboot the host machine...

Technically the vmware tools installation succeeds,  but it leaves me with a mozaic weird in all colors vmware guest display totally unusable or controllable.

To avoid this unconvenient scenario, the only option is to install vmware tools and choose custom settings and from there deselect

VGA display driver in the menu. Then, the vmware tools installation installs all other needs and I have a working windows 10 guest. 

Trying other windows 10 version, doesn't change anything, always the same issue. Not to mention I have tried earlier with windows 11 different versions,

for which the same problem occurs....  So, my question is....what do I need to do to get vga driver installed for a windows guest while running

vmware for linux on a modern workstation linux host?  

Please do not ask me to install 17.6.3, I know it is the newest product, but I tried this at first and also from there, the error also occures.

In attempt, to pass some vmware module incompatibility (another issue) I tried an older product version. Didn't change anything for VGA display driver....

Any hints or help appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Dirk.

My laptops specs:

Graphics:

  Device-1: Intel Meteor Lake-P [Intel Arc Graphics] driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: Shinetech USB2.0 FHD UVC WebCam driver: uvcvideo type: USB
  Display: wayland server: X.Org v: 24.1.8 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.8
    compositor: gnome-shell v: 48.2 driver: dri: iris gpu: i915
    resolution: 3840x2400~120Hz
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 vendor: intel mesa v: 25.0.7 renderer: Mesa Intel Arc
    Graphics (MTL)
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.313 drivers: intel,llvmpipe surfaces: N/A
  API: EGL Message: EGL data requires eglinfo. Check --recommends.
  Info: Tools: api: glxinfo,vulkaninfo x11: xdriinfo, xdpyinfo, xprop,

Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: ASUS Zenbook 14 UX3405MA_UX3405MA
    v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: UX3405MA v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: UX3405MA.308 date: 07/23/2024

[RaSystemlord]

It's possible that I haven't hit exactly the same cases, but ...

1.
I have never fiddled with VGA drivers. And I don't bother installing VMware Tools in quick tests, because they are not really needed for most things. I have a large number of VMs under Win 10. I have heavy applications running under Win 11 Pro, as of late. Probably no Tools installation in all of them - still OpenGL works just OK. See my Performance Tests, Win 11 VM seems ALWAYS to be very slow (relatively speaking) on any Host, including Kubuntu (kernel 11.x). I do have a second 32" screen and thus the graphics drivers work just fine (I have RTX in both of my environments and also less-powerful ones in both).

2. 

Kubuntu 24.04.02 with kernel 11.x was a bit difficult to install, but I got it done with tweaks - see a rather recent thread of mine, where the interesting part is in the end.

However, no VGA fiddling. I haven't run these OpenGL applications under Kubuntu, but I trust that they would work.

3.

As for kernel 15.x - I don't know. Fedora, I don't know, but you did mention Debian (similar to Kubuntu) and kernel 11.x (like in Kubuntu 24.04.2). Perhaps you want to revisit your tests.

[Tester man]

Hi RaSystemlord, thanks for taking time to write this extended and informing answer in attempt to help.

I will consider. Some questions left behind; if vmware-tools have no function, why are they supplied by broadcom on vmware linux hosts? I assumed a correct working vmware tools vga driver could decrease the cpu usage on the host system. In fact this was the most important reason to use it. 
Also 3d graphics could improve, however, I had no plans for photoshop, autocad, games stuff like that. I can live without it.  For testing I ran a 15 year old game on a windows 10 guest, in top (shell application called top) CPU rose to 150% , I don'r know how that is possible, but it said 150%...) I chose 2 cpu's and 12 cores in the vmware host options and vinked on simulation for  VT-x . The response of the guest is good, just the laptop need to work for graphics. For office like applicstions the CPU's  keeps with 10%.

Some other questions rose:  

-What is the best lite windows version for vmware guests?

Revisit tests? Why would I do that?  On a debian system I have found this VGA criver corrputed the gnome desktop. Same for Popos and Fedora. 

I tried on this debian system kernel 11.x .Same situation with the vmware tools VGA driver, this kernel should be supported, but for me it didn't. 

It seems an incompatibility at a third party side (Broadcom).  I decided to try out fedora. And gave up on the vga driver thing. 

SO ,far it works. There is no solution, only a workaround like you do in your machines.

[RaSystemlord]

Tester man:

My level is 17.5.2 - I haven't realized any need to update.

0.
As stated before, I don't know about these VGA drivers since I have not needed to fiddle with them at any time. It may be a hardware incompatibility or something else, I don't know.

My tests are not with Zenbook, but Asus Rog Strix workstation or laptop.

1.
I didn't say that VMware Tools are not doing anything - I just haven't usually found any use for them in basic use - or with Windows, they have installed without any problems and thus haven't needed to think about them. Perhaps on Win computers with heavy OpenGL use, I do have them.

2.
As for 150% of CPU - either an error of some kind (Windows doesn't really always know what VMware does) OR Asus Motherboards do over-clocking even in a standard mode ... although 150% feels too much for that.

3.

In my tests, Win 11 VM gives a bad performance. Windows Server (tried now 2022) is much better. Server isn't expensive if you know where to buy.
I will perhaps later check what Win 10 client does in comparison to Win 11 client (with the same computer).

4.
Revisiting tests: You didn't specify which combination you actually had. If you tested Debian with 11.x kernel it might have been close to what I have tested. However, I use Kubuntu (24.04.2 with 11.x kernel), which does have a different graphics environment compared to Ubuntu. On the guest side, I use regularly also Ubuntu Studio.

[Morc001]

On Linux, 100% CPU usage means 1 core is utilized to 100%. If you have 12 cores, CPU utilization can be 1200% if all cores are maxed out by a single process. Try some CPU stress test utility to see, like Prime95. 100% usage has nothing to do with CPU frequencies.

Also VMWare Tools was never and will never be for the host on any kind of host operating system. It's for the guests to (better) support the virtual hardware VMWare is presenting to the guests, and host-guest integration, like copy-paste. VMWare provided the tools themselves, but on Linux now you have open-vm-tools, which is a collections of support drivers/tools not only for VMWare but XEN and QEMU as well if I'm not mistaken.

Use a Home version of Windows in my opinion, as that has less features enabled, than Pro. Servers may also be bloated out of the box. If you don't care about updating, you could try something like Tiny Windows or some script/application that stips out unnecessary services/applications.

[RaSystemlord]

Thanks for the discussion and clarifications.

1.
Yes, I forgot to mention the Open-tools for Linux. They have been recommended here over VMware versions.

2.
Copy/paste works without those Tools. I was referring also to the nick "tester man" - in testing you might not need them. However, whether drag or copy/paste ACTUALLY works and how it works, depends on many things with Tools or no-Tools.

In some versions, VMware windows-sizing "automatic-controls", did not work without Tools. I don't remember what the host/guest -combination was ... I had to play with the actual resolution of the VM to get things done.

If Tools really have a meaning in terms of CPU performance, I would like to hear a comment on that.

3.

In my Win 11 case - Task Manager shows the CPU load in terms of the Cores that you got to the VM. With 4 Cores in VM, you can load it 100%, but with 24 cores on Host the load is nowhere near 100%. But it depends - if you get Host swapping/paging, then you DO put load on Host beyond that. Well, if you can get it to swap - nowadays VMware does not allow all kinds of memory allocations for the Guest.

So, with Windows CPU load seems to be OK - I don't know what a certain version of Linux shows.

4.
There is no such thing as "bloated-Windows-server-by default". It is also much smaller on disk.

Server does not have much of anything by default - you need to give it Roles and thus you have a good control for it.

Server with capabilities for/with SQL Server, Domain Controller, DNS, DHCP, IIS, File Server - seems a lot lighter than Windows 11 Pro by default. (With the above I did not mean that SQL Server would have been installed and running, just capabilities for installing and running it). None of the above are there by default and you probably only need the Role for File Services.

5.
As for Home and Pro ... there may be a good point there.

I'm always using Pro, because of professional work, without checking what the requirement is now. However, I got performance results just yesterday that a Win Pro 11 VM seems to run quicker when some (complicated in terms of Windows architecture) applications are uninstalled. I mean, those applications were just sitting there without doing anything, but STILL slowing down the system considerably.

I guess Windows 11 Pro development has achieved now the same thing as with XP - which got slower and slower with EVERY application that was installed there. Some of my collegues re-installed Windows XP every 6 months because of that. Some said that it was because of Registry handling which was extremely slow. In Vista/Windows 7 that was corrected. Microsoft has the tendency of introducing old bugs in new versions and this might be it.

Too burdensome to test, but Home could be actually faster because of the thing mentioned above.

[Morc001]

First of all I tried to reply to Tester man's message, but the forum does not indicate after you post which post is was a response to.

VMWare Tools is about host-guest integration package. I always install it. Besides display resolution auto change in guest, focus grabbing/release did not work without it. Windows 11 must have some drivers in it by default as some of these featuers work even in a bare Windows 11 guest. Guest performance depends, in my opinion, on drivers installed by the Tools package, or inlcuded in the kernel. A virtual hardwave (patavirt SCSI, vmnet Ethernet) must be faster than an emulated storage or network adapter.

Secondly Tester man wrote that he saw the 150% in the top command, which is a Linux command, and on Linux the CPU usage is shown differently to Windows. On Windows 100% CPU means all cores are at 100%, while on Linux 100% means on core is running at 100% or the core utuliized by the process add up to 100% utilization, equivalent of 100% on 1 CPU core. This is not dependent on the distro or kernel version, this has always worked like this as far as I know.

Pro has more features enabled by default, that's why Home is more lightweight, although the difference may not be big/noticable. Server, I thought, has more features enabled than Home, maybe not more, than Pro. The difference in install size may not be indicative of the difference in service/features running.

[RaSystemlord]

Morc001: Yes, this thing messes up the timeline and thus it is sometimes difficult to understand the reply ... for instance, because the question has been modified before the answer arrives and thus the answer seems incorrect.

Thanks for clarification on Linux CPU measurement.

In my tests, Server 2022 was considerably faster than Win 11 Pro as a VM - start time, which you really can notice with VMware, has always been more lightweight than workstation-windows.. At first, it doesn't do much - you have to install Roles into it, if you want it to work, like as an application server, database server or even file server. Win 11 Pro does all of those by default ... as long as you install .Net.whatever.or.all.of.them.

[Tester man]

Thanks to you all for creative thinking and attempts to help out. 

I didn't know there was something called open vmware tools. where to download those? Will those solve VGA driver incompatibility issues like mine? You would expect broadcom to solve that in their supplied tools no?  Your technical information is very interesting and indeed I could try a server os or windows 11 home. As you confirm windows 11 is not not easy. Would windows 10 home run better?  I prefer windows enterprise versions (coming also with pro options) because they allow me to block telemetry and other microsoft spy functions in group policies or regedit. However, my use of windows guests is only limited. I could live without advanced options.  For now, I will accept no vmware tools VGA and experiment with open vmware tools on a new guest machine. 

[RaSystemlord]

Tester man: As for the performance question:

I was now able to test Win 10 Host against Win 11 Host - only running on those hosts, the same computer. They did not show a significant difference. That was on Rog Strix Ryzen, 3.5 years old. As I might have mentioned, Win 11 seem to be an unstable Distro - depending on how much software has been installed, the performance changes. I mean software that is just installed and doing nothing is slowing down the system.

So, getting reliable results would be case by case and should be repeated with many different parameters - a huge job.

Anyway, Microsoft announcement that Win 11 is 2.3 faster than Win 10 - is evidently complete nonsense. 3 year old computers - if that is the change interval of the computer - SHOULD be about 2.3 times faster without changing OS.

Win 10 cannot be recommended, if you need Internet connection, because its support starts to end and is perhaps low priority anyways. Running VM in NAT, in a subnet, helps somewhat. Obviously, there are many ways to protect your Win 10 VM.

[Morc001]

@Tester man I read your original post and realized I was suggesting Open VM tools for nothing. VMWare Tools/Open VM tools is for the guest OS and I'm not aware of Open VM tools to exist for Windows. To me this sounds more like a host VGA driver problem than a VMWare problem. I also see that you use Wayland. Here in other threads people complain about VMWare's lack of Wayland support, so your problem could all be down to that. If I recall correctly one Broadcom employee on another thread confirmed problems with Wayland. Wait for the next VMWare Workstation release and try that.

[Tester man]

Hi Marc, Systemlord and others.  Well there it is then, I will wait.. But, are you sure the 'new' vmware version will support wayland?  If I see the problems people have with vmmon en vmnet modules for newer kernels (You'll need to be handy with github and compiling) it seems that linux users always need to create their own compatibility to use the product.  About Wayland specific,  many linux distro's use it nowadays. I tried latest version 17.6.3 earlier, no success with it. Same symptoms, After, I tried this older version 17.5.2 which i use now, to see if that would change anything. It is al the same result. As long as I do not attempt to install VMware tools' VGA driver, the systeem keeps running. 

Windows 10 can not be recommended? And windows 11 doesn'r run stable? There is not much option then left Systemlord. Well, Of course, You could restore a corrupted windows 11 client machine vmx folder after is start to act weird, by copy and restore from an earlier  backup location.    The benefit of vmware is that purpose isn't it?  I keep simply use windows 10 for now. Also LTSC versions could have longer support. Up to 2030 or so. However, there could be a practical issue to get it, if you want the official way. Sometimes there are ebay offers available. Like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=windows+10+LTSC&_sacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_odkw=windows+10+2022+LTSC&_osacat=0

 

 

[Technogeezer]

Weighing in here:

There are no "open VM tools" for Windows guests. They're still proprietary and provided by VMware/broadcom. Open-vm-tools is an open source implementation of the features provided by traditional VMware Tools and made available for Linux distribution to include in their offerings. Most do - and you should be using them in a Linux guest.

Broadcom also provides open source versions of the VMware virtual video and network adapters for Linux guests. Those have been donated to the Linux kernel sources and are a standard part of almost all Linux distributions. 

For Windows, the VMware virtual video and network adapters  are found out-of-the-box on pretty much all currently supported Windows versions. They're made avaiable through Windows Update and are updated along with Windows. They will be installed without having to install VMware Tools.

VMware Tools should be installed in a Windows guest, especially if you're running Windows "client" such as Windows 10 or 11. They provide a variety of features including copy/paste/drag/drop (drag/drop has its problems with a Linux host running Wayland, but that's another story), shared folder, auto-fit of resolution on window sizing).. and there are probably others that I missed. Either use the ones that are bundled with Workstation, or download the latest versions from Broadcom (for bug fixes and security fixes).

Running VMware Workstation on a Windows host has its own set of issues - mostly around Microsoft's expanding use of virtualization features (Virtualization based security for example) that require Hyper-V components that block the use of the traditional VMware hypervisor instead of the Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor. No end of performance and missing features. There's probably blame on both Microsoft and Broadcom for these issues. Removing Hyper-V on a Windows host completely to get around these issues is not easy (especially with Windows 11 24H2) but can be done - search the forum for how to do it. 

However running Linux as the host for Workstation has its own challenges. Yes, we don't have to deal with Hyper-V. But we do have to be aware of:

• Kernel modules continually are an issue whenever the Linux kernel is updated. The modules need to be validated that they compile.  The Linux kernel developers will change things without notice that break the compilation of the VMware kernel modules. There's a constant battle to keep those modules working with new kernels. Many times those issues get fixed in a new Workstation release, but until that happens  third-party patches to the module sources (e.g. those that are published by mkubecek and others) have to be applied that enable those modules to compile under the newest kernels. (Workstation 15 would absolutely require kernel module patches to run on latest kernels).
• The Mesa 3D graphics libraries are a mess. Workstation relies on both host and guest for 3D acceleration. But lately too many changes have happened with those libraries that break things in host and guest operating systems.
• Similarly host graphics drivers are a mess as well. There's a long laundry list of issues with the lates nVidia drivers and AMD drivers causing issues with Linux in general. Windows doesn't seem to get those problems because they get more attention from both of those vendors.

As far as Windows 10 vs 11 for guest operating system and things being unstable - that's not been my experience. Both versions seem to run well under Workstation with a Linux host. Just don't expect great gaming performance in a VM (that's more a limitation of the Vmware graphics support than the Windows operating system). 

------------------------------
- Paul (technogeezer)
vExpert 2025
------------------------------

[RaSystemlord]

Tester man: There was a great post by Technogeezer about the background of things. I have some other things in mind. Everything has its plusses and minuses - a mix of things could be the solution.

Summary: As such, I wouldn't use a normal office computer for virtualization. We always had a self-built workstation for demanding tasks. A selection of Host OS's is not a problem - hardware is not expensive in relation to everything else. This concept will allow to use components, like graphic cards, that actually work. You can have a reliable 4 TB external SSD M.2 PCI-e (like Asus Rog Arion) and run VMs from a Windows Host and Linux Host - alternating between them. NTFS is working nowadays (and used to work a way past) with both. Thus, you do not need to carry the Host computer around, just the small disk drive. You can also make copies of VMs, if requires, it only take 15 minutes (or so) to copy (providing that you have USB 3.2 Gen 2 everywhere, and with dedicated virtualization computers you always have).

As a Host:
Windows 11 - my experience is limited, but I wouldn't say it is particularly unstable in VMware. It's nature is to be unstable. It seems to stop working for a minute without any reason and it carries all the same burdens as Win 10 (like when dragging a file over left-hand-side "drives" and stopping everything for a minute). Then they are introducing ridiculous, ridiculous as benefits, tpm's and vbs's, concepts to hide the failing infra of the software or to mess with consumers.

The performance seems to be dependent on how much software is installed - not sure when this happened. Certainly the worst of the bunch (at their times of releases in relation to normal requirements), XP had that. Win 7 not so much - now it is back. I mean, software that doesn't do anything, but is just installed.

When we combine those two: forcing customers to update their computers, is not illogical for Microsoft, because then they can hide how much slower their Win 11 has become.

As a Host - there is the reverse trickle-down-effect: Everybody seems to be satisfied, despite of obvious short-comings, because everybody has the same problems. So, be happy.

Windows 10 - I have ran A LOT of VMware under Win10/Ryzen/ROG Strix with 17.5.2 and 17.5. earlier versions - some of which pretty complicated (3 VM computer arrangements and all that). There were no real VMware-specific-problems. Problems, sure, Feature Upgrades break things which are REALLY difficult to spot and know with complicated software, this file dragging problem that drives me crazy, not releasing USB disks/sticks at times ... and all that ... but nothing VMware specific. So, be happy - everything is good: It is worse than the previous version but better than the next version - so, everything's good with that. (sarcasm alert)

Linux: I have had my fair share of Ubuntu and Kubuntu experience over the years. The nature of Linux is to be a stable Distro, because it is built right. The OS, kernel, does not break or stop working at all, GUI might. Ubuntu Distro's became ridiculous at some point when the software company lost interest with end users, but Kubuntu is pretty good. It has features that Windows users still do not even understand how good they are. As a VMware platform very good and faster than Windows (see my performance tests).

It is really ridiculous that Linux-users need to get VMware working in Linux and distribute the instructions. Typically, if a software company says that "we are supporting Linux", should make sure that it can be installed on Linux. Now, this is not the case. Of course, it can be explained that it is difficult - yeah right, average linux-hacker is more competent than a major software company ... some might buy this, but I don't. They are just lazy or incompetent running a software business.
Once you get Linux working, it should be good - well, you have the same problem ahead, if you update the kernel. However, with Linux, you actually DO KNOW what you are updating/upgrading and thus, you can skip the update.

As for graphics systems - that may be a bit stuffer. However, the same applies here. A software company should know where the VMware works and where not - give instructions, patches, or "do not install there"-instructions.

I haven't had to fiddle with new Linux versions (after 24.04.2) and don't know what this Wayland business is about. Maybe somebody would like to comment if Kubuntu (KDE-Plasma-something) is affected? If not, there is no problem with Ubuntu and related - you should use Kubuntu anyway (or perhaps Ubuntu Studio, which has something else (XFCE) and perhaps some options incorporated). There may also be other alternatives, I don't know them all.
---
As Guest (VM)
Win 10 - no problems. Except slow.
Win 11 - really slow compared to Linux - talking about over 100% difference. However, you might not have a choice and thus this is not a problem, just a limitation with Microsoft architecture.
Linux - really fast compared to Win 11. Not sure what this Wayland talk was about. Are we talking about Guest or Host or both?

For normal operations, you do not need 3D support - based on Forum talks, it seems that it is always required - it is not. Well, Win-OS's are primitive and do not use it for nothing. Maybe some linuxes can use it and there the requirement rises. Real 3D applications obviously use 3D hardware - there are many different libraries (DirectX, OpenGL versions and such). In the past, there was no problem to use 3D hardware from a Windows VM for OpenGL - in some systems it worked better on Linux host than on Windows host. It might be that Linux is now struggling with some libraries - however, do not assume it to be universally true.

Windows graphics drivers are also a mess, if you require something specific, like DaVinci Resolve to work. Win 11 drivers do not. There used to be: Windows drivers, latest stable drivers from the manufacturer, latest stable drivers from the community, latest chip manufacturer drivers, latest tested alpha drivers ... and use your mind to create a matrix of the things mentioned above. In the past, you needed to select the correct version from the Matrix - quite a lot of testing involved if the software company did not provide real instructions. Perhaps, now it is simpler - just use nVidia latest stable drivers and it works.