Linux Guest "powered on" but not accessible

[bp5485]

I created a Linux Fedora 19 guest using WS 9.0.2 running on Win 7. The guest shows in the favorites list as "powered on". There is not a tab for the guest in ""My Computer." Nothing happens when I attempt to open the guest or double click it in the favorites list. When last in use, the guest appeared to crash (black screen, not responsive to keyboard/mouse). I powered off the guest but after waiting about 20 mins it did not completely power off. Since I could not close WS, I terminated it using Windows task manager at the end of the day. The files in the VM's directory appear to be there.  I'd appreciate any help or suggestions on how to get control of the guest and attempt to run it. Thanks in advance.

[WoodyZ · Accepted solution]

bp5485 wrote: Since I could not close WS, I terminated it using Windows task manager at the end of the day. The files in the VM's directory appear to be there.  I'd appreciate any help or suggestions on how to get control of the guest and attempt to run it. Thanks in advance.

Terminating the VMware Workstation GUI does not terminate the VM that might be running as the VM is the vmware-vmx process, one for each running VM.

If the vmware-vmx process is still running with VMware Workstation closed and once opened again you cannot take control of the VM then if you have remote login enabled you could ssh into the VM and properly shut it down.  Then try starting it normally in VMware Workstation.  If you have VMware Tools installed in the VM you might be able to use vmrun to initiate a proper shutdown.

If neither of those are an option then you may have no other choice but to manually terminate the vmware-vmx process.  However unfortunately it risks corrupting the virtual hard disk although that's what backups are for and you may have no other choice anyway.

[bp5485]

Thanks for responding. The workstation was not set up for remote access and is also using NAT.

How do I manually terminate it? There is no tab for it. When I rt click on it in the favorites list, the only option I have is "Open", and it has no apparent affect. The Power options are all grayed out. Thanks.

[RDPetruska]

You need to use Windows' Task Manager to kill the vmware-vmx.exe process.

[WoodyZ]

bp5485 wrote: The workstation was not set up for remote access and is also using NAT.

I'm not talking about VMware Workstation itself for ssh but the Guest OS, having it setup from within the Guest OS itself.

How do I manually terminate it? There is no tab for it. When I rt click on it in the favorites list, the only option I have is "Open", and it has no apparent affect. The Power options are all grayed out. Thanks.

The same way you would any process using Task Manager.

[bp5485]

Thanks. That worked. Was able to start guest again. Appears to be OK. Thanks again.