I’ve had a lot of people ask me about this lately, so I figured I’d write a quicky on how to fix this problem.
Problem Behavior:
A virtual machine was built in VMware Workstation on Microsoft Windows. The person then FTP’d the machine to a Linux based VMware Server instance so that the image could be run in a central location. After logging into the VMware Console for the server box, they boot the newly transferred virtual machine, but there is nothing on the interface. The box boots fine, they can see it come up on the network, the MUI shows the box up and running and serving requests but each time the machine is connected to through the console it just displays a blank screen.
Solution:
The problem comes with permissions error on the Linux OS. In order to see the machine through the console the vmx file must be executable for the user you’re starting it as. The machine has no problem being bootable because it is readable, but in order to view it it must also be executable.
How to fix it:
Log into your Linux based VMware Server machine and find the directory where the virtual machine you are starting is located at. Find the .vmx file and chmod it so that it’s executable i.e. chmod 755 myvm.vmx
Thats it. Reboot the machine, reconnect through the VMware Console and you’re good to go. This one stumped me for a while the fix time I came across it.
Wow, thanks a million! I had done the exact steps you listed there and had the same problem. I NEVER would’ve figured this out if I hadn’t found your post!
Thanks so much for this info. It worked perfectly!
Matt,
Thanks very much for sharing this one. TOTALLY solves the issue (for me anyway).
Yep works, thanks.
You rule!
I got this to work by right clicking on the .vmx file (ubuntu 7.10) and changing the permissions from read only to read and write. I would have never thought about the permissions until I read it here! Thanks!
THANK YOU!!!! 🙂 This was making me crazy.