Hi,
I'm currently running a 64-bit Ubuntu 12.04 install, and am having problems getting VMware Player working from the command line. Specifically, I'm getting an "Error: Unknown error" when trying to invoke vmrun with the nogui option:
> vmrun -T player list
Total running VMs: 0
> vmrun -T player start /opt/Test/Test.vmx nogui
Error: Unknown error
The strange part is, running the above command without the "nogui" option works fine: the VMware Player window pops up and the VM starts normally. But I'd like to eventually move over to a server platform, and run VM commands on a headless machine (SSH access only), hence the need for using nogui.
Here's the logfile (/opt/Test/vmware.log) generated after vmrun -T player start /opt/Test/Test.vmx nogui was run:
2012-10-17T20:11:55.397Z| vmx| I120: Log for VMware Workstation pid=7284 version=8.0.0 build=build-812388 option=Release
2012-10-17T20:11:55.397Z| vmx| I120: The process is 64-bit.
2012-10-17T20:11:55.397Z| vmx| I120: Host codepage=UTF-8 encoding=UTF-8
2012-10-17T20:11:55.397Z| vmx| I120: Host is Linux 3.2.0-32-generic Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS
2012-10-17T20:11:55.395Z| vmx| I120: VTHREAD initialize main thread 0 "vmx" pid 7284
2012-10-17T20:11:55.395Z| vmx| I120: LOCALE en_US.UTF-8 -> NULL
2012-10-17T20:11:55.395Z| vmx| I120: Msg_SetLocaleEx: HostLocale=UTF-8 UserLocale=NULL
----------------------------Snip----------------------------
2012-10-17T20:11:55.464Z| vmx| I120: changing directory to /opt/Test/.
2012-10-17T20:11:55.464Z| vmx| I120: Config file: /opt/Test/Test.vmx
2012-10-17T20:11:55.464Z| vmx| I120: Vix: [7284 mainDispatch.c:3854]: VMAutomation_ReportPowerOpFinished: statevar=1, newAppState=1873, success=1 additionalError=0
2012-10-17T20:11:55.464Z| vmx| I120: Vix: [7284 mainDispatch.c:3854]: VMAutomation_ReportPowerOpFinished: statevar=2, newAppState=1878, success=1 additionalError=0
2012-10-17T20:11:55.892Z| vmx| I120: Vix: [7284 mainDispatch.c:5032]: VMAutomation: Received unrecognized command.
2012-10-17T20:11:55.892Z| vmx| I120: Vix: [7284 mainDispatch.c:4235]: VMAutomationProcessMessage: Postpone the command. VM not running (opcode 151)
----------------------------5 minutes of no log activity----------------------------
2012-10-17T20:16:55.474Z| vmx| I120: Startup idle check: VM was idle.
2012-10-17T20:16:55.475Z| vmx| I120: VMXInitialIdleTimeout: no more client connections. Exiting.
2012-10-17T20:16:55.475Z| vmx| I120: VMIOP: Exit
2012-10-17T20:16:55.475Z| vmx| I120: Vix: [7284 mainDispatch.c:859]: VMAutomation_LateShutdown()
2012-10-17T20:16:55.475Z| vmx| I120: Vix: [7284 mainDispatch.c:809]: VMAutomationCloseListenerSocket. Closing listener socket.
2012-10-17T20:16:55.476Z| vmx| I120: Flushing VMX VMDB connections
2012-10-17T20:16:55.478Z| vmx| I120: VMX exit (0).
For comparison, here's the logfile after the (successful) GUI version of the command (vmrun -T player start /opt/Test/Test.vmx) was run:
2012-10-17T20:07:34.471Z| vmx| I120: Log for VMware Player pid=6643 version=5.0.0 build=build-812388 option=Release
2012-10-17T20:07:34.471Z| vmx| I120: The process is 64-bit.
2012-10-17T20:07:34.471Z| vmx| I120: Host codepage=UTF-8 encoding=UTF-8
2012-10-17T20:07:34.471Z| vmx| I120: Host is Linux 3.2.0-32-generic Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS
2012-10-17T20:07:34.469Z| vmx| I120: VTHREAD initialize main thread 0 "vmx" pid 6643
2012-10-17T20:07:34.469Z| vmx| I120: LOCALE en_US.UTF-8 -> NULL
2012-10-17T20:07:34.469Z| vmx| I120: Msg_SetLocaleEx: HostLocale=UTF-8 UserLocale=NULL
----------------------------Snip----------------------------
2012-10-17T20:07:34.547Z| vmx| I120: changing directory to /opt/Test/.
2012-10-17T20:07:34.547Z| vmx| I120: Config file: /opt/Test/Test.vmx
2012-10-17T20:07:34.547Z| vmx| I120: Vix: [6643 mainDispatch.c:3854]: VMAutomation_ReportPowerOpFinished: statevar=1, newAppState=1873, success=1 additionalError=0
2012-10-17T20:07:34.547Z| vmx| I120: Vix: [6643 mainDispatch.c:3854]: VMAutomation_ReportPowerOpFinished: statevar=2, newAppState=1878, success=1 additionalError=0
2012-10-17T20:07:34.564Z| vmx| I120: VMXVmdbCbVmVmxExecState: Exec state change requested to state poweredOn without reset, soft, softOptionTimeout: 0.
2012-10-17T20:07:34.564Z| vmx| I120: Tools: sending 'OS_PowerOn' (state = 3) state change request
2012-10-17T20:07:34.564Z| vmx| I120: Tools: Delaying state change request to state 3.
2012-10-17T20:07:34.564Z| vmx| W110: PowerOn
2012-10-17T20:07:34.564Z| vmx| I120: VMX_PowerOn: VMX build 812388, UI build 812388----------------------------Snip----------------------------
Looks like the difference between the two is that nogui doesn't understand the 'OS_PowerOn' command, and thus never starts the VM, which leads to an idle timeout. Any suggestions on how to work around this? I'm using VMware Player 5.0.0 with VMware VIX 1.12.0, both of them the 64-bit versions.
For troubleshooting, I've tried downgrading both VMware Player and VMware VIX, with no results. Also followed the instructions in the VIX user manual. I've tried downgrading my OS to Ubuntu 10.04 64-bit, but the same problem persists.