Hints for solving issues with VMware Server

This section contains some helping hints for issues with VMware Server 1.0.x on Linux.

VMware Server with 64-bit guest systems on Intel Core 2 Duo

You like to run a 64-bit (Linux) guest system on a 64-bit Linux host system with one or more Intel Xeon processor(s) (Core 2 Duo). When you start up the guest a message will pop up with the message

"This CPU is VT-capable, but VT is not enabled (check your BIOS settings)"

or when booting up a Linux system (like Ubuntu) you get a kernel error

"this is not an amd64 host".

That means, that VT should be activated in the BIOS:

Check if your processor is one of the supported processors for 64bit support on VMware guests:

VMware KB

Activate the VT support in the machines BIOS (at my server with the following steps):

-> Security options menu
--> OS security
--> Intel Virtualization Technology (some models) (enable/disable).
    Changing this setting requires turning the computer off and then
    back on.

Turning the computer off means, that you have to remove all power cords physically. A simple reboot with the remote management board or by SSH does not have the same effect.

Crashes of guest system directly after power on

Every time you start up your guest system in your VMware Console the guest disappears just after power-on the guest and also before you can see the virtual BIOS progress bar of the VMware guest.

Have a look to the directory of the VMware guest system and have a look for a core file or/and some debugging hints in the log file.

In my case I have had a core file of 'vmware-vmx' and those entries in the log file:

 15:01:12 PM serial0: Unable to read from serial port "/dev/ttyS0": 
 Resource temporarily unavailable.


 VMware Server unrecoverable error: (vcpu-0) NOT_IMPLEMENTED 
 /build/mts/release/bora-28343/pompeii2005/bora/devices/serial/serialRxFifo.c:237 
 bugNr=26944 
 A log file is available in "/scratch/Virtual Machines/Ubuntu64/vmware.log". 
 A core file is available in "/scratch/Virtual Machines/Ubuntu64)/core". 


 Please request support and include the contents of the log file and core file. 
 To collect files to submit to VMware support, run vm-support. 
 We will respond on the basis of your support entitlement.

In our case we have had configured in a virtual host a serial connection to the physical serial port (/dev/ttyS0) of the server to communicate with the connected UPS device.
But by mistake we have also configured in the /etc/inittab that getty will logging the boot process of the host system which is using the same physical device.
```
 /etc/inittab
 ...
 # Example how to put a getty on a serial line (for a terminal)
 T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 9600 vt100
 ...
```

Hints for solving issues with VMware Server

VMware Server with 64-bit guest systems on Intel Core 2 Duo

Crashes of guest system directly after power on

Related Documents