# Can't get vmware player to work

## Berticus

I used easyvmx to make me a vmx image of Windows XP Pro.  However, when I launch it, I get the following error: *Quote:*   

> Error while powering on: Failed to launch peer process

 Before I had the problem accessing /etc/vmware/locations.  I looked on the forums and chmod a+rx /etc/vmware, and that allowed me to run vmplayer.

----------

## RayDude

 *Berticus wrote:*   

> I used easyvmx to make me a vmx image of Windows XP Pro.  However, when I launch it, I get the following error: *Quote:*   Error while powering on: Failed to launch peer process Before I had the problem accessing /etc/vmware/locations.  I looked on the forums and chmod a+rx /etc/vmware, and that allowed me to run vmplayer.

 

Dumb question but do you have vmware-modules installed and configured?

Also, vmware has a program to convert to vm: http://www.vmware.com/download/converter/

I used that and it worked great.

Raydude

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## Berticus

Did you run it through wine?  Or would running it in my Windows OS be fine?

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## RayDude

 *Berticus wrote:*   

> Did you run it through wine?  Or would running it in my Windows OS be fine?

 

You run it in Windows and it makes the image for you, then transfer it to linux.

Raydude

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## HymnToLife

Or why not use VMware Server ? It's also free (as in beer), and lets you create your VMs.

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## bunder

are you in the vmware group?

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## Berticus

 *HymnToLife wrote:*   

> Or why not use VMware Server ? It's also free (as in beer), and lets you create your VMs.

 Tried it.  I'm in a 64 bit environment, and whenever I tried to install Windows, the vcpu would double fault, and crash everything.  The only thing that could respond, I think, was the mouse.  I remember not getting any response from my keyboard.  I posted in the here and the vmware forums about it, and was told to use vmware player instead.

 *bunder wrote:*   

> are you in the vmware group?

 yeah, and it still comes up with that error.

I booted into my Windows installation and installed vmware player.  I was able to install the OS in there, but networking didn't work.

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## RayDude

 *Berticus wrote:*   

>  *HymnToLife wrote:*   Or why not use VMware Server ? It's also free (as in beer), and lets you create your VMs. Tried it.  I'm in a 64 bit environment, and whenever I tried to install Windows, the vcpu would double fault, and crash everything.  The only thing that could respond, I think, was the mouse.  I remember not getting any response from my keyboard.  I posted in the here and the vmware forums about it, and was told to use vmware player instead.
> 
>  *bunder wrote:*   are you in the vmware group? yeah, and it still comes up with that error.
> 
> I booted into my Windows installation and installed vmware player.  I was able to install the OS in there, but networking didn't work.

 

Another tack:

1) What kernel are you running?

2) What processor do you have?

I've not seen the error message you are getting but I wonder:

1) If you have a recent processor have you made sure to enable its virtualization technology in the bios setup (it shouldn't be necessary for VMPLAYER to work though).

2) I think there are some features of the kernel that are required but I'm not sure what they are. Maybe you could post the top portion of your .config file so we can check for certain features?

Raydude

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## Berticus

```
$ uname -a

Linux lucilla 2.6.22-gentoo-r8 #2 SMP Sun Nov 4 07:09:55 EST 2007 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

$ cat /usr/src/linux/.config|more

CONFIG_X86_64=y

CONFIG_64BIT=y

CONFIG_X86=y

CONFIG_GENERIC_TIME=y

CONFIG_GENERIC_TIME_VSYSCALL=y

CONFIG_ZONE_DMA32=y

CONFIG_LOCKDEP_SUPPORT=y

CONFIG_STACKTRACE_SUPPORT=y

CONFIG_SEMAPHORE_SLEEPERS=y

CONFIG_MMU=y

CONFIG_ZONE_DMA=y

CONFIG_RWSEM_GENERIC_SPINLOCK=y

CONFIG_GENERIC_HWEIGHT=y

CONFIG_GENERIC_CALIBRATE_DELAY=y

CONFIG_X86_CMPXCHG=y

CONFIG_EARLY_PRINTK=y

CONFIG_GENERIC_ISA_DMA=y

CONFIG_GENERIC_IOMAP=y

CONFIG_ARCH_MAY_HAVE_PC_FDC=y

CONFIG_ARCH_POPULATES_NODE_MAP=y

CONFIG_DMI=y

CONFIG_AUDIT_ARCH=y

CONFIG_GENERIC_BUG=y

# CONFIG_ARCH_HAS_ILOG2_U32 is not set

# CONFIG_ARCH_HAS_ILOG2_U64 is not set

CONFIG_DEFCONFIG_LIST="/lib/modules/$UNAME_RELEASE/.config"

#

# Code maturity level options

#

CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL=y

CONFIG_LOCK_KERNEL=y

CONFIG_INIT_ENV_ARG_LIMIT=32

#

# General setup

#

CONFIG_LOCALVERSION=""

CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO=y

CONFIG_SWAP=y

CONFIG_SYSVIPC=y

# CONFIG_IPC_NS is not set

CONFIG_SYSVIPC_SYSCTL=y

CONFIG_POSIX_MQUEUE=y

# CONFIG_BSD_PROCESS_ACCT is not set

# CONFIG_TASKSTATS is not set

# CONFIG_UTS_NS is not set

# CONFIG_AUDIT is not set

CONFIG_IKCONFIG=y

CONFIG_IKCONFIG_PROC=y

CONFIG_LOG_BUF_SHIFT=18

# CONFIG_CPUSETS is not set

CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED=y

# CONFIG_RELAY is not set

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD=y

CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE=""

CONFIG_CC_OPTIMIZE_FOR_SIZE=y

CONFIG_SYSCTL=y

# CONFIG_EMBEDDED is not set

CONFIG_UID16=y

CONFIG_SYSCTL_SYSCALL=y

CONFIG_KALLSYMS=y

CONFIG_KALLSYMS_ALL=y

# CONFIG_KALLSYMS_EXTRA_PASS is not set

CONFIG_HOTPLUG=y

CONFIG_PRINTK=y

CONFIG_BUG=y

CONFIG_ELF_CORE=y

CONFIG_BASE_FULL=y

CONFIG_FUTEX=y

CONFIG_ANON_INODES=y

CONFIG_EPOLL=y

CONFIG_SIGNALFD=y

CONFIG_EVENTFD=y

CONFIG_SHMEM=y

CONFIG_VM_EVENT_COUNTERS=y

CONFIG_SLAB=y

# CONFIG_SLUB is not set

# CONFIG_SLOB is not set

CONFIG_RT_MUTEXES=y

# CONFIG_TINY_SHMEM is not set

CONFIG_BASE_SMALL=0

#

# Loadable module support

#

CONFIG_MODULES=y

CONFIG_MODULE_UNLOAD=y

CONFIG_MODULE_FORCE_UNLOAD=y

# CONFIG_MODVERSIONS is not set

# CONFIG_MODULE_SRCVERSION_ALL is not set

CONFIG_KMOD=y

CONFIG_STOP_MACHINE=y

#

# Block layer

#

CONFIG_BLOCK=y

# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IO_TRACE is not set

#

# IO Schedulers

#

CONFIG_IOSCHED_NOOP=y

# CONFIG_IOSCHED_AS is not set

CONFIG_IOSCHED_DEADLINE=y

CONFIG_IOSCHED_CFQ=y

# CONFIG_DEFAULT_AS is not set

# CONFIG_DEFAULT_DEADLINE is not set

CONFIG_DEFAULT_CFQ=y

# CONFIG_DEFAULT_NOOP is not set

CONFIG_DEFAULT_IOSCHED="cfq"

#

# Processor type and features

#

CONFIG_X86_PC=y

# CONFIG_X86_VSMP is not set

CONFIG_MK8=y

# CONFIG_MPSC is not set

# CONFIG_MCORE2 is not set

# CONFIG_GENERIC_CPU is not set

CONFIG_X86_L1_CACHE_BYTES=64

CONFIG_X86_L1_CACHE_SHIFT=6

CONFIG_X86_INTERNODE_CACHE_BYTES=64

CONFIG_X86_TSC=y

CONFIG_X86_GOOD_APIC=y

# CONFIG_MICROCODE is not set

CONFIG_X86_MSR=y

CONFIG_X86_CPUID=y

CONFIG_X86_IO_APIC=y

CONFIG_X86_LOCAL_APIC=y

CONFIG_MTRR=y

CONFIG_SMP=y

CONFIG_SCHED_SMT=y

CONFIG_SCHED_MC=y

# CONFIG_PREEMPT_NONE is not set

CONFIG_PREEMPT_VOLUNTARY=y

# CONFIG_PREEMPT is not set

CONFIG_PREEMPT_BKL=y

CONFIG_NUMA=y

CONFIG_K8_NUMA=y

CONFIG_NODES_SHIFT=6

CONFIG_X86_64_ACPI_NUMA=y

CONFIG_NUMA_EMU=y

CONFIG_ARCH_DISCONTIGMEM_ENABLE=y

CONFIG_ARCH_DISCONTIGMEM_DEFAULT=y

CONFIG_ARCH_SPARSEMEM_ENABLE=y

CONFIG_SELECT_MEMORY_MODEL=y

# CONFIG_FLATMEM_MANUAL is not set

CONFIG_DISCONTIGMEM_MANUAL=y

# CONFIG_SPARSEMEM_MANUAL is not set

CONFIG_DISCONTIGMEM=y

CONFIG_FLAT_NODE_MEM_MAP=y

CONFIG_NEED_MULTIPLE_NODES=y

# CONFIG_SPARSEMEM_STATIC is not set

CONFIG_SPLIT_PTLOCK_CPUS=4

CONFIG_MIGRATION=y

CONFIG_RESOURCES_64BIT=y

CONFIG_ZONE_DMA_FLAG=1

CONFIG_HAVE_ARCH_EARLY_PFN_TO_NID=y

CONFIG_OUT_OF_LINE_PFN_TO_PAGE=y

CONFIG_NR_CPUS=32

CONFIG_HOTPLUG_CPU=y

CONFIG_ARCH_ENABLE_MEMORY_HOTPLUG=y

CONFIG_HPET_TIMER=y

CONFIG_HPET_EMULATE_RTC=y

CONFIG_IOMMU=y

# CONFIG_CALGARY_IOMMU is not set

CONFIG_SWIOTLB=y

CONFIG_X86_MCE=y

# CONFIG_X86_MCE_INTEL is not set

CONFIG_X86_MCE_AMD=y

# CONFIG_KEXEC is not set

# CONFIG_CRASH_DUMP is not set

# CONFIG_RELOCATABLE is not set

CONFIG_PHYSICAL_START=0x200000

CONFIG_SECCOMP=y

# CONFIG_CC_STACKPROTECTOR is not set

# CONFIG_HZ_100 is not set

CONFIG_HZ_250=y

# CONFIG_HZ_300 is not set

# CONFIG_HZ_1000 is not set

CONFIG_HZ=250

CONFIG_K8_NB=y

CONFIG_GENERIC_HARDIRQS=y

CONFIG_GENERIC_IRQ_PROBE=y

CONFIG_ISA_DMA_API=y

CONFIG_GENERIC_PENDING_IRQ=y

#

# Power management options

#

CONFIG_PM=y

# CONFIG_PM_LEGACY is not set

# CONFIG_PM_DEBUG is not set

# CONFIG_PM_SYSFS_DEPRECATED is not set

CONFIG_SOFTWARE_SUSPEND=y

CONFIG_PM_STD_PARTITION=""

CONFIG_SUSPEND_SMP=y

#

# ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Support

#

CONFIG_ACPI=y

CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP=y

CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP_PROC_FS=y

CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP_PROC_SLEEP=y

CONFIG_ACPI_PROCFS=y

CONFIG_ACPI_AC=y

CONFIG_ACPI_BATTERY=y

CONFIG_ACPI_BUTTON=y

CONFIG_ACPI_FAN=y

# CONFIG_ACPI_DOCK is not set

CONFIG_ACPI_PROCESSOR=y

CONFIG_ACPI_HOTPLUG_CPU=y

CONFIG_ACPI_THERMAL=y

CONFIG_ACPI_NUMA=y

# CONFIG_ACPI_ASUS is not set

# CONFIG_ACPI_TOSHIBA is not set

CONFIG_ACPI_BLACKLIST_YEAR=0

# CONFIG_ACPI_DEBUG is not set

CONFIG_ACPI_EC=y

CONFIG_ACPI_POWER=y

CONFIG_ACPI_SYSTEM=y

CONFIG_X86_PM_TIMER=y

CONFIG_ACPI_CONTAINER=y

# CONFIG_ACPI_SBS is not set

#

# CPU Frequency scaling

#

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ=y

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_TABLE=y

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEBUG=y

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_STAT=y

# CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_STAT_DETAILS is not set

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_PERFORMANCE=y

# CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_USERSPACE is not set

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_PERFORMANCE=y

# CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_POWERSAVE is not set

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_USERSPACE=y

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_ONDEMAND=y

# CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_CONSERVATIVE is not set

#

# CPUFreq processor drivers

#

CONFIG_X86_POWERNOW_K8=y

CONFIG_X86_POWERNOW_K8_ACPI=y

# CONFIG_X86_SPEEDSTEP_CENTRINO is not set

CONFIG_X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ=y
```

I'm not sure how to setup virtualizaion for my processor.  My motherboard is the ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe, if that helps.

----------

## RayDude

 *Berticus wrote:*   

> I used easyvmx to make me a vmx image of Windows XP Pro.  However, when I launch it, I get the following error: *Quote:*   Error while powering on: Failed to launch peer process Before I had the problem accessing /etc/vmware/locations.  I looked on the forums and chmod a+rx /etc/vmware, and that allowed me to run vmplayer.

 

According to this site: http://communities.vmware.com/message/377446;jsessionid=478C887D127619646CD77C4883E243E5

That error message occurs when you haven't run the vmware processes.

What is the output of:

```
/etc/init.d/vmware status
```

If it says, "Stopped..."

Do this:

```
/etc/init.d/vmware start
```

If this complains about not being configured, you need to run this:

```
/opt/vmware/player/bin/vmware-config.pl
```

Then you need to configure your networking, etc.

There is a guide to do that. I think there's one at gentoo-wiki.com if not definitely at vmware.com.

Raydude

----------

## Berticus

I have vmware start up on boot, so as expected:

```
# /etc/init.d/vmware status

 * status: started
```

I followed the configuration instructions for vmware server at gentoo-wiki

----------

## Berticus

bump.  Would realllllly like virtualization to work here....

----------

## RayDude

Please bring me up to date.

What exactly are you trying to run?

What is the latest problem with error message?

By looking at the thread I can't be sure I know what you're having trouble with.

Raydude

----------

## Berticus

It's all the same...  I run vmware-player just fine, and it asks me to select an image.  I navigate to a WinXP image I made with easyvmx, but get the error: *Quote:*   

> Error while powering on: Failed to launch peer process

 I'm in a 64 bit environment.  Nothing has changed.

The only thing I really need from this is Microsoft Office.  I don't want to use codeweaver or wine.  I'm one of those people who like to keep my linux environment somewhat clean and feel like it's sort of "cheating."  I don't like rebooting just to get to Windows and use Microsoft Office.  I need MS Office because in certain instances, OOo2 just doesn't cut it, I think.  I suppose I could also get a laptop, and I kinda want one anyway.

----------

## RayDude

 *Berticus wrote:*   

> It's all the same...  I run vmware-player just fine, and it asks me to select an image.  I navigate to a WinXP image I made with easyvmx, but get the error: *Quote:*   Error while powering on: Failed to launch peer process I'm in a 64 bit environment.  Nothing has changed.
> 
> The only thing I really need from this is Microsoft Office.  I don't want to use codeweaver or wine.  I'm one of those people who like to keep my linux environment somewhat clean and feel like it's sort of "cheating."  I don't like rebooting just to get to Windows and use Microsoft Office.  I need MS Office because in certain instances, OOo2 just doesn't cut it, I think.  I suppose I could also get a laptop, and I kinda want one anyway.

 

Its probably a problem with the image. Can you install server and create a blank image and then install windows from scratch? All you need is a windows xp boot cd.

You'll need to install the latest vmware drivers but I believe vmplayer 2.0 can mount that for you automatically.

Raydude

----------

## Berticus

The reason I'm using vmware player is because I'm in a 64-bit environment, and the vcpu double faults when I try to install Windows.  Everything is fine up until it has to register some stuff, then everything except the mouse seems to freeze.

I thought the image was bad too, so then I booted into Windows, installed vmware player, and the image seemed fine there.  I was able to install Windows XP Pro into it.  The only thing that didn't work was networking, which I didn't investigate further.  Getting it to work in Linux was a more pressing issue.

Would it be better to just go with qemu?

----------

## trailnut

Maybe a required library is missing? 

ldd /path/to/vmwareplayer

----------

## Berticus

I installed vmware player through portage, and it yielded:

```
$ ldd /usr/bin/vmplayer

        Not a dynamic executable

```

----------

## bucknum

Just following up on this - I get double faults when trying to install windows myself.  I'm starting to work through it and this is where I am.  I'll follow up as I find stuff.

mn207 bin # ldd /opt/vmware/player/lib/bin/vmplayer | grep -i "not found"

        libexpat.so.0 => not found

        libstdc++.so.5 => not found

        libsigc-2.0.so.0 => not found

        libglibmm-2.4.so.1 => not found

        libglibmm_generate_extra_defs-2.4.so.1 => not found

        libatkmm-1.6.so.1 => not found

        libpangomm-1.4.so.1 => not found

        libgdkmm-2.4.so.1 => not found

        libgtkmm-2.4.so.1 => not found

        librsvg-2.so.2 => not found

        libview.so.2 => not found

        libsexy.so.1 => not found

        libsexymm.so.1 => not found

----------

## bucknum

Short answer is that the vmplayer script sets up all those libs to be found.  So that doesn't seem to be the problem.  Gonna try and get the error again.  Meanwhile, I'm setting up a chroot32 environment to get this up.  I have to have this working shortly as I've promised that I can switch to Gentoo at work and still get my stuff done.  That means I need a good windows install at hand.

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## bucknum

Chroot32ing one looks like too much work to get going.  Upgrading to 2 and loading virtualbox in the mean time.

----------

