VMware Workstation 12 Player - Guest Ubuntu doesn't finish booting up

[yoonj4]

Sometimes when I try to boot up my guest Ubuntu OS, it'll freeze at this point:

It doesn't happen all the time maybe something like 50% of the time. I'm wondering why it's happening though. The host OS is Windows 7. I'm pretty new to this so I probably don't know all the details I'm supposed to include in these kinds of posts so if anyone wants to point me in the right direction I'd really appreciate that.

 

[Ketchup]

The next time you boot it, look and see what should be following "Mount Network filesystem." That should give you a hint as to what it is failing on.

Grepping the boot log may also show you what it is failing on.

This thread may help you:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1568706

 

[yoonj4]

Thanks for the help, Ketchup.

I just tried rebooting it and it stopped at the same spot. Interestingly enough, "Starting Restore Sound Card State" failed this time although I'm not sure it necessarily has anything to do with my current problem. I'll probably just reboot it again later to see if I can get past it.

As for the boot log you mentioned, it that a log that VMware produces or is that from Ubuntu? I'm wondering if there's a way to check for the source of the problem outside of Ubuntu in case I can't get past this point.

 

[Ketchup]

There is always the vmware.log in the root folder of the vm. Word of warning though: in my experience, this file will declare errors where none necessarily exist (it could just be due to the configuration of your specific vm), so tread lightly here.

The logs mentioned in the article linked would all be in the ubuntu OS.

 

[yoonj4]

I think checking out vmware.log might be a necessity because I'm not having much luck booting it up. Do you know where the root folder of the vm is? I actually have no idea where it's supposed to be.

 

[Ketchup]

Then select your vm and go to options, and it will tell you there. I believe it goes to my documents/virtual machines by default. You could always run a search for *.vmdk.

 

[yoonj4]

So I managed to find the log file. Problem is, I couldn't find anything in there about any errors. Here's the link to a copy I'm storing in Google Drive:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw-AiT2ThDgIZERfeW1qMEQzbUk/view?usp=sharing

 

[John Connor]

I've been having an issue myself with VMware Workstation and Ubuntu Server LTS. It boots then says there's a kernel panic. At first boot it said the guest OS disabled the CPU!

I have yet to mess around with this more, but seeing this post made me think of that and it makes me wonder if VMware even works right with Ubuntu.

Edit- I'm using Win 7 64 as well.

 

[Ketchup]

I am not incredibly surprised that the log in Windows is not giving you anything useful. Remember that a VM is like a separate computer, so the logs from the OS you run is going to keep it's logs within that machine. I was thinking of some problems with virtual hardware possibly reporting some issues to that application, but I didn't see anything in your log (not saying that there is something in there I could have tried.)

One other thing I can thing is to go back to VMware Player (say, version 7) and see if you have a better experience (as it may work better with the older virtual hardware):
http://filehippo.com/download_vmware_player/61760/

 

[yoonj4]

I'm considering trying the older VMware Player but my one concern is that it would affect my vm in some way. I do have some work on there and I'd rather not have to do everything from scratch. Do you know if downgrading to an older version will maintain my vm as is or will there be some affect on that?

 

[Ketchup]

I'm considering trying the older VMware Player but my one concern is that it would affect my vm in some way. I do have some work on there and I'd rather not have to do everything from scratch. Do you know if downgrading to an older version will maintain my vm as is or will there be some affect on that?

I see - in that case, here's a thought - install another OS on that virtual machine. Effectively making it a dual boot machine. You could also add another drive to the VM and do the same. Then you can just pull your data off and put it in a safe spot.

Lesson to be learned here: always back up. I don't have much of anything that isn't backed up, and especially not on a VM. Unless it is a machine that is crucial (to me or others), running into issues like this would cause me to just nuke it if I couldn't get it fixed within an hour or so. IMO, that is one of the great things about a VM. Easy to remove and re-build.

Also, just a note as I may have not been clear. I wouldn't bother doing anything more than a test boot, if even that much, with your ubuntu vm on the older software. Why? I wouldn't expect it to do anything better than it's doing right now (It would be a nice surprise though). Older software may, however, do well on a new machine.

 

[yoonj4]

Welp, it looks like I'm just gonna have to spin up a different vm. I haven't successfully booted it this entire week so I haven't been able to try any of the suggestions I've gotten and given John's post I don't think my luck will improve.

Luckily, starting over shouldn't be too bad. I made the vm in the first place to help me learn Ruby on Rails so there isn't anything too important on there. The hardest part would just be getting my environment set up again honestly.

With all that said, I still have two other questions. First, is there a way to "back up" all of the environmental set up work? I'd rather not have to try to remember everything I did to set it up in the first place everytime something like this happens. Obviously, I wouldn't be able to use it now since I can't even boot up the Ubuntu machine but it would be nice to be able to do something like this in case of future crashes.

Lastly, are there any other OS's people recommend instead of Ubuntu? That vm really was just something I spun up to play with RoR so my only "requirement" is that it's something I could continue to do RoR development in.

 

[John Connor]

There are other VMs too that I think of it. Virtual box is one you might want to try. I may try that as well in my case.

 

[yoonj4]

Looks like VirtualBox works (at least for now). I'm a little wary since VMware Player worked at first too but at least I have a working Ubuntu vm. Thanks for the recommendation John.

 

[Ketchup]

Looks like VirtualBox works (at least for now). I'm a little wary since VMware Player worked at first too but at least I have a working Ubuntu vm. Thanks for the recommendation John.

Glad you have something working. I will still try adding another work OS to your original VM so you can get the data off. There are other options if you don't want to do that.

Safe mode comes to mind - can you get to the grub menu during startup? Here is a video on how to do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYiTJtYmmzg

 

[yoonj4]

I can access the grub menu on startup but when I pick failsafeX I get a popup saying "The system is running in low-graphics mode". It says my screen, graphics card, and input device settings couldn't be detected and I had to configure it myself. Hitting OK takes me to a screen with four options:

- Run in low-graphics mode for just one sessions
- Reconfigure graphics
- Troubleshoot the error
- Exit to console login

"Run in low-graphics mode" is the one that is selected by default and I can't select the others for some reason. Hitting OK on this leads to a progress bar saying "Stand by one minute while the display restarts" but waiting doesn't appear to do anything. Hitting OK again just takes me back to the Recovery Menu.

 

[lxskllr]

If you're still fooling with this, you could try enabling nomodeset in the grub menu. Don't remember exactly where/how.

I use VirtualBox for my vms. Dunno that it's better than vmware, but it's given me no problems. At work, I've used a 2kpro vm on Xubuntu for two years now without issue.

 

[yoonj4]

I just tried enabling nomodeset and it didn't seem to do anything. I'm still running into the same problem.