Noticeable typing lag in Linux VM terminals since v16.2 upgrade on Linux host

[ajgringo619]

Upgraded my EndeavourOS host to version 16.2 yesterday. Now I'm noticing a lag when typing in any VM terminal window - Arch, Ubuntu, openSUSE are experiencing the same thing. I'm using open-vm-tools, which has never been a problem before. I have not changed any settings on the VMs since their creations: 8GB RAM, 4GB vGPU, 8 vCPUs.

Anyone else seeing this? I haven't tried with my Windows 10 host yet (also on v16.2).

UPDATE: working great with Windows 10 (Home) host.

[mwb1100v]

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@ergunywrote:

We may have to open a support ticket.

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An upgrade supposedly "Includes 30 Days of complimentary email support".

Please do open a ticket!

I'm certainly not paying for an upgrade until this is fixed. VirtualBox is looking like it might be an option now that v7 includes USB3 support as part of the core offering - you no longer need the "Extension Pack" with the weird PUEL license.

[Aaron623]

Hi all,

I've been using VMWare Workstation Player for around 5 months now, and this typing lag started to affect me about a day ago. To help with solving this issues, here is what I have noticed:

System config: ASUS ROG Strix, I9 12900H (20 CPUs), 32GB, RTX-3070Ti (8GB) 2TB SSD
Running: Windows 11 (updated as of 9-Dec-22), GFX driver updated 9-Dec-22, using VMWare to run Ubuntu 22.04.
VMWare version 17 (although, I had a few times under 16 where this happened, but only for a day or so - very inconsistent!)

My biggest issues is with cursor movements. The initial hit of a cursor movement is slow to respond (200ms to 400ms or so?), then the cursor movement will continue to act on the buffered cursor movements. That is, the cursor keys are system buffered, but lagged into VMWare.
HERE IS THE INTERESTING PART: Whilst using 'vi', the cursor keys lag (as described) however, the 'h' 'j' 'k 'l' vi cursor-keys do NOT introduce a lag and no buffered key stroke is experienced.

I hope that this info helps to narrow down the issue!

Update - I now have serious keyboard everywhere. Without any updates, changes etc, I am now suddenly experiencing massive keyboard lag everywhere!

[tbn-mm]

Have the same issue. Windows 11 Host, Ubuntu 22 Guest.

Found two solutions:

1. Downgrade to 16.1.2

or

2. Use 1 core

[tbn-mm]

Found another fix for version 17.0, Windows 11 Host and Linux Guest:

Set "Number of processors" to 2 and "Number of cores per processor" to 4.
I don't know why and I'm not testing everything else. I have already wasted too much time to find this solution.

I have also disabled "Windows Hypervisor Platform" in Windows Features.

[davidjbaird]

Changing to 2 CPUs, 4 cores per CPU had some effect, although I still got noticeable lag and overrunning on up and down arrow key holds in text editors (sublime and IntelliJ - interestingly vscode does not seem to be affected by this problem).

Changing to 4 CPUs and 2 cores per CPU, however, seems to have fixed the problem for me (windows 11, Ubuntu 22.04 guest). I also have hyper-v disabled, although it was disabled before, so not sure if that is relevant.

[Bobe71]

Workstation Pro 17

Host: Windows 11 Pro (22H2)

Guest: Linux Mint 21.1 Vera (Hardware Compatibility 17.x)

Guest: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia (Hardware Compatibility 17.x)

HW i7-8700K with UHD 630 enabled, NVidia Quadro P2000, 32 GB RAM

Had very bad keyboard lags in sublime and other text/code editors.

in my vmx I forced 

mks.keyboardFilter = "require"

and added

keyboard.softAutorepeat = "FALSE"
keyboard.typematicMinDelay = "10"

and now everything looks to be ok.

No "buffering effect" keeping cursor keys pressed and normal keyboard typing responsiveness.

Hope this can help

[jehrens]

For me, the only thing that worked for Workstation Pro 17 on a Windows 11 host and a Parrot/Debian Testing guest (Kernel 6.0.0-2parrot1-amd64), was to disable Hyper-V as suggested in another thread. I had it enabled in order to use WSL2 (which I would like to continue to use, so this is not really a fix for me).

Disabling the feature got rid of all keyboard lagging/buffering no matter how many cores I have configured for the VM.

[tbn-mm]

Ok, lags are back after system restart.

[Rajesh-Detroja]

Currently, I resolved issued with following settings.

If I set processors or cores more than 2 then problem returns.

# Windows 11 (Host)
# VMWare Workstation Pro 17
# Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS (Guest)

[tempresidence]

According to my tests, the key factor that affects keyboard input responsiveness is whether hyper-v is enabled or not.

Enter "bcdedit" in CMD(as administrator) or PowerShell(as administrator) .find item hypervisorlaunchtype If displayed as follows: hypervisorlaunchtype auto. There will definitely be a delay in keyboard input.

Enter the following command in CMD(as administrator) or PowerShell (as administrator) at this time: bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

and restart your computer .You will find that the input delay has disappeared.

At this point, you are faced with a dilemma: either give up Hyper-V and WSL2 or give up VMware. It's up to you to decide.

[marbaa]

This is so, dissapointing that after so long time, there is not fix for it. I'm running Workstation 17 on Fedora with Nvidia GPU. Debian inside VM. And the lag is horrible. If I connect via VNC, typing is smooth.

If Workstation is running on Windows, no typing lag.

[workstationboi]

Hello,
Wherever i read - im refered to this thread.
Example:
https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Player/Ubuntu-keyboard-poor-performance-after-u...

So, i spend tons of hours trying to troubleshoot this and found no real solution.
I tried migrating everything over to Hyper-V where everything works perfectly, however, there is no resizeable windows so im back to VMWare Workstation 17.0.1.
My debian distros has this exact issue of i installed my PC (did not have the issue beforehand). Running on Windows 11  latest everything incld nvidia card.

So, if i pop this bad boy open in a console: glxgear , the input lag immediately disappear......
As soon as im about to type and edit text in the terminal i have a hotkey for it - this is ofc no solution, its rather messed up.

No vmx tweaks or acceleration attempts resolves this issue, no downgrading the vm or reinstalling vm workstation resolves it.
However, there was one setup that had a "somewhat functional" thing you could try. on compability mode for the vm to vm workstation 15.x and disable ehanced keyboard - when you are logged on to the system, try ctrl alt del, it will tell you you have to use another combination and look the screen anyways, when unlocking, i could actually move in the terminal with 3-5 signs delay (a lot better then 35-50 signs or endless lagg).


Soooo, anyone managed to solve this issue?

[goldeneye_007]

Thankfully I have not seen this issue in a long while but It does seem to be host/guest specific. So

if for instance in my case I had OpenSUSE 15.3 as a host and OpenSUSE 10.2 as a guest, the 10.2 guest

would be crazy laggy. Upgraded 10.2 guest to a newer release and it would go away. I have also seen Windows

guests (doesn't matter version) that would have these huge timeout/pauses (2 minutes sometimes). Updating

the host and it would go away sometimes, other times I would have to go in and adjust the CPU configuration. My new baseline

it to always match the two CPU settings in pairs for like 2 CPU 2 Core to get a 4 core.

One thing of note, and kind of what you are suggesting with the GLXGears

is that as long as there is a constant motion going on somewhere on the system, either guest or host, the lags

stop. Extremely frustrating and apparently never going to be addressed. It exists in ESX as well. A loaded Windows instance might have really odd errors with an installer, but if you constantly move the mouse, they go away. It's nuts.

[mwb1100v]

It has to be something VMware can address.  One thing that seems to be consistent though these reports is:

• VMware 16.1.2 or earlier - no problem
• VMware 16.2 or later  - problems occur (depending on various other factors: host/guest combo, video drivers installed, HyperV enabled, etc. etc)

The key is that there's something specific that happened in 16.2 that is the root cause for these problems.

As for me, I'm just sticking with 16.1.2 until I absolutely need something else.  And you can bet I'll be looking at VirtualBox before I look at VMware Workstation vWhatever.  Especially now that VirtualBox has GPLed the USB 2/3 virtualization instead of keeping it behind the weird PUEL license.

[goldeneye_007]

The only reason you don't see reports of earlier than 16.2 is because nobody is posting about earlier versions anymore.

 I've been using VMware since server 1. There has always been lag issues. I think it was just a tradeoff we accepted to

have other flexibilities.

Having said that, would I like to see it fixed? Sure.

I guess I should mention I am on 17.0.1 running on OpenSUSE 15.3 currently and not seeing lags.

Mostly using Windows guests. 8,10&11.

[happyuserbg]

I am experiencing a very annoying keyboard lag in Linux guests under VMware Workstation Pro 16.2.5 when Accelerate 3D graphics is enabled.

The host OS is Ubuntu 20.04.
The CPU is AMD Ryzen 5 1600X.
The GPU is AMD Radeon RX 580 with the latest amdgpu drivers (All-Open).

The lag goes away when I disable 3D acceleration, but I need that for some guests.
I've tried different Ubuntu versions for guest OS, but the issue is always there.
As others have pointed, while I move the mouse or when there is a running animation, the lag goes away.
I also have some Windows 7/10 guests and there is no such problem with them. Only in Windows 7, when the screen is locked, typing the password to unlock may have lag.

In my case it doesn't matter what is the CPU configuration of the guest - I've tried all combinations for processors and cores (1 1, 1 2, 1 4, 2 1, 2 2, 4 1) and the lag is still there.

I haven't tried Workstation 17.x but from what I read in this and other threads, I don't think that the issue will be resolved in the current version (7.0.1).

[mwb1100v]

This isn't just some small irritating lag - it's a lag that renders the VM unusable.

And like I said - the one thing that seems to be consistent in this thread is:

• update to 16.2 or later problems occur for some number of people
• roll back to v16.1.x - no problems

So there is something specific that occurred in changes made to 16.2 that are responsible.  If VMware can't fix it, they should at least provide some definitive guidance about workaround so people aren't left guessing by trial and error what the best approach is.

A data point such as "I've been running VMware since v3.2" isn't relevant.  What's relevant is: with v16.1.2 I have no problems, with v16.2 and later (changing nothing else) I have serious problems. And it appears I'm not the only one.

I acknowledge that the problem doesn't happen to everyone. If it did, you can bet it would be addressed pronto.  But the fact that it doesn't affect all configurations doesn't mean it shouldn't be addressed.  I can't force VMware to address it.  But if VMware doesn't want to address it, then I've already explained how I plan to deal with it.

[workstationboi]

 Its indeed weird and its definatly related to VM Workstation and the virtual driversets i belive (passing stuff through from host).
Beacuse if i rightclick and force connect the keyboard (USB 2.0) to the guest - the lag is gone (but then i cant use the keyboard on host) so its not a solution - i cant have 2 keyboards connected ieather.
My specific issue is not resolved with the 3D acceleration on or off - i have no use for it tho as i can run all GPU intensive apps in Windows (WSL) instead. But its super frustrating to have this lag, rendering the whole solution useless as previous poster mentioned.

I have no issues in virtual box or hyper-v btw.

Will try to reinstall VMWorkstation a few times starting with the installs i have 15.0, then 16.1.017, moving up to 17.0 and then 17.0.1 (as an update as i dont have the file for the last one).
Edit: note that my lagg issue is from fully updated Windows 11 Pro, all drivers for everything on my system is the latest and also Vm Workstation (17.0.1) - the issue was not present before i formated C:\ the other week (the only thing that has been released since then is updates to 7zip and powershell 7 ^^).

Anyone know if older versions are archived somewhere? 16.1.x as high as possible would be great.

[goldeneye_007]

Yah I get it. Not trying to argue a point. It's just been around so long that I don't think it's going to be fixed. The issue seems to be so random and the fixes so diverse not sure even VMware can sort it out. I am not really sure how important Workstation is to VMware in any case. It used to be really heavily developed but these days it's just incremental fixes and keeping up with the latest Windows OS. There used to be some really cool stuff in it almost Docker like where you could launch stuff under KDE and run apps without the Workstation window. I forget the version, maybe 9, but it disappeared. I hope you have some luck sorting your lag issues out. I would start with updating everything, host OS, VMware and guest. When I left 16.X I was having lag issues intermittently OS, but like I said I have not seen them with 17.X yet. Maybe it's worth a gamble?

[wila]

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@workstationboi wrote:

Anyone know if older versions are archived somewhere? 16.1.x as high as possible would be great.

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Try here:

https://customerconnect.vmware.com/en/downloads/details?downloadGroup=WKST-1612-LX&productId=1038&rP...

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Wil