Windows 7 Beta & vmware tools

blnichols · ‎01-13-2009

I downloaded and succesfully installed windows 7 beta in a VM over the weekend. When I went to install vmware tools, the vm crashed and had to be restored. Has anyone else seen this occur? I suspect the video portion of vmware tools however I havent had a chance to fully troubleshoot the issue.

Jasemccarty · ‎01-13-2009

What guest type is the Windows 7 VM setup to be?

I've seen success as setting the guest OS type to Windows 2008, and others have seen success with Windows Vista...

Also, what build of Windows 7? x86 or x64?

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

_{Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct}

Jase McCarty - @jasemccarty

blnichols · ‎01-13-2009

The guest is set up as Vista and is 32 bit.

asatoran · ‎01-13-2009

I just installed Windows7-32bit. My setup: VMWare Workstation 6.5-118166, Virtual machine as Vista guest OS, Windows7 build 7000.0.081212 (Just downloaded on Monday 01/12.) Installed VMWare Tool and so far so good.

Jasemccarty · ‎01-13-2009

I don't recall if I had the same issue or not... x64 went off without a hitch in WS6.5.

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

_{Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct}

Jase McCarty - @jasemccarty

funtaff · ‎01-14-2009

Related but not exactly on topic - I have Windows 7 64-bit installed in a VM under VMware Fusion. It actually installed with basic support for switching the mouse in and out, and then I installed the tools with no issues. However, the display isn't accelerated like it would be for 2008 or XP, so I'm looking to see if anyone else has figured that out.

polysulfide · ‎01-14-2009

I have VMware Workstation 6.5.0-118166 running on Windows XP Pro 32-bit

Installed Windows 7 Beta 32-bit Build 7000 as a guest.

I was impressed at the VMware mouse compatability even during setup. After installing VMware tools for Vista and rebooting, I lost all keyboard and mouse functionality and had to do a restore point roll-back.

funtaff · ‎01-14-2009

Interesting, I installed the VMware tools for Vista on VMware Fusion 2 (as opposed to WS 6.5) and did not lose mouse or keyboard. I basically just got the control panel, no change in mouse (already worked) or display (still unaccelerated).

polysulfide · ‎01-14-2009

I'd love to get acceleration working, its sort of ridiculous that spider solitaire can lag a beefy VM.

K-MaC · ‎01-14-2009

Hello Polysulfide, have you tried increasing the vram assigned to your W7 vm? I have mine at 64mb and the game is still quite slow. Although that could be that I am connecting to the VM via RDP with 10mbps wireless card. ?:|

Cheers

Kevin

Cheers Kevin

CRoth2 · ‎01-15-2009

@asatoran: after running the VMTools install and being configured...have you tried updating your System Rating? My VM is rated a 1.0 right now because of crappy video rating. When I try and rerun it or refresh the score I get stuck at Tuner Media Decoding something or other. Then need to force quit.

funtaff · ‎01-15-2009

I tried the same thing, and the system rating refresh got stuck at the same point.

CRoth2 · ‎01-15-2009

Glad to hear it is not just me, but that also means there is one less person with a viable resolution or workaround.

Edit: removed auto signature from replying by BlackBerry

hdokes · ‎02-18-2009

I recently installed windows 7 on vm server 2.0 and loaded vm tools afterwards and thus far I have had no issues regarding the BSOD. I have had occasional complete freezes of the guest however I can't necessarily attribute that to vm tools.

The only other issue I have experienced thus far is the inability to read USB flash memory within the windows 7 vm guest. I get an error on the mass storage device driver any time I try to connect it.

asatoran · ‎02-18-2009

@asatoran: after running the VMTools install and being configured...have you tried updating your System Rating? My VM is rated a 1.0 right now because of crappy video rating. When I try and rerun it or refresh the score I get stuck at Tuner Media Decoding something or other. Then need to force quit.

You will never get a rating greater than one. For the video to get 2 or better, it has to be able to handle Aero. The virtual video card cannot do the proper version of the pixel shader to support Aero. But I assume this is no small task, as VMWare has not released any virtual video card update for the entire time Vista has been available. So for the moment, you have a non-Aero virtual video card, which means you will always have a video rating of 1, thus an overall rating of 1.

glush · ‎02-22-2009

Did you get a resolution to your problem? I have exactly the same problem. Win 7 eventually installed after 3 attempts as a VM in Fusion. I set it to Vista but tried Win 2008 Server as well. Left 3D acceleration off, gave it 1 CPU and 1GB of RAM. Works ok albeit the graphics support is limited and does some werid glitchy things like leaving a white space where a window was aftre it has been moved. As soon as I install VMWare Tools I get a blue screen on start up. I suspect it is the VMWare SVGA driver causing it but can't find any solution. I have spoken to lots of people who say they have installed without any problems. What VMWare platform are you using? Workstation or Fusion?

CRoth2 · ‎02-23-2009

No. Apparently from what everyone is saying, we are screwed and it can't be done in VMware's current state.

blnichols · ‎02-23-2009

Had no issues installing the beta or in running it. The only issue came about when trying to install vmware tools. Did not get bsod but video would come up weird. Did a restore and it works fine without the tools.

djflux · ‎05-06-2009

I'm experiencing similar problems - OS installs fine, tools install fine, however the VM occasionally completely locks up and I have to reset it. I've disabled 3d acceleration by editing the VMX as follows:

mks.enable3d = "FALSE"

No change. I've also disconnected the sound adapter. Only been running for about 15 minutes so I can't really tell if that's changed anything.

Here's my setup

Host - Fedora 10 - all updates as of 20090506
VMware Server 2.0.0
Guest - Windows 7 RC Build 7100

VMware - care to point us to some "beta" tools to test on Windows 7? I'm sure you'll find plenty of people happy to beta test for you

JarrettCampbell · ‎05-18-2009

I have tested both 32 and 64 bersions of Win7 as VM's on ESX3.5 both set as VISTA Guests and I experienced the same Video issues in both cases after installing VMWare tools. Video freezes at startup and I get a series of frozen colored lines.

I also have not spent much time troubleshooting this....

-Jarrett

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Windows 7 Beta & vmware tools