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    [SOLVED] VMware in Kubuntu

    Hi again,

    Running Kubuntu Trusty 64bit on a test machine, installed VMware Player (the free-beer player) and moved a winXP guest from another disk to test it out (XP Pro 32-bit). This same host runs fine in the same version of the player under gnome.

    VM-player is 6.0.2 (the latest available currently)
    Gnome environment is Raring 64bit
    Kubuntu Trusty 64bit

    The guest runs fine, with some issues:

    1. The VMware "bar" at the top of the screen, when in full-screen, does not react to mouse-clicks at all. I can use alt-f for the File menu etc., but only when I point at it with the mouse. Incidentally, the mouse cursor looks like a Windows mouse cursor when on the desktop, but switches appearance to the default KDE mouse cursor as soon as I point anywhere on the VM bar.

    I can easily get around it using ctrl+alt+enter to switch in and out of full screen. When not in full screen, there is a VMWare menu, which lets me do anything, except of course, minimize the bar when in full screen. And as expected, the arrangement of shortcuts on the desktop is completely changed every time I switch out of full screen.

    2. The Windows Taskbar initially doesn't show. If I open an app, say the Windows Calculator, then mimimize it, the Windows Taskbar shows. But the problem is not to get it to show, the problem is that it won't react at all to any mouse clicks. And again, when pointing at the Windows task bar, the mouse cursor changes appearance and switches to the default KDE mouse cursor.

    Again, I can get around that, put a shortcut to "cmd" on the desktop and run all the control-panel or Administative tools commands from a command-line.

    It's an annoyance, no biggie, but I'd like to see if it can be resolved.

    Has anyone seen anything like this?

    Addendum:

    I installed virtualbox, with its attendant dkms package. This would not let me open up the existing VM guest (which has dkms files), but I was able to create a new VM under virtualbox, and point at the main dkms file created by vmware. However, it resulted in "error loading operating system" when I tried to start the guest in virtualbox. Just for grins, I tried to re-open the same guest in vmware-player, which now results in the same error message. No biggie, I have backups.

    I probably don't understand vrtualbox yet, so you can ignore this last part about virtualbox, I offer it only as more possible help for troubleshooting.

    Thanks in advance
    Last edited by r_avital; May 04, 2014, 06:08 PM. Reason: remove signature

    #2
    Well, Son of a B...asketball!

    Mystery solved.

    I mentioned above that moving the mouse around, pointing at the bottom of the Windows Guest screen, the mouse cursor changed appearance, from the default Windows appearance to the KDE mouse shape. I just noticed, that it also did that when I got to the left edge of the screen, and curiously enough, only when I got as close to the left edge as the width of a panel I have in the host.

    So, for grins, I moved the panel, in KDE, which was hidden, to the right of the screen, and went back to the WinXP guest, and the mouse kept its default Windows appearance when I got to the left edge.

    Hmmm... Back to the KDE host, take the hidden bottom panel to a different edge, then back to the WinXP guest, and wouldn't you know it, the windows taskbar shows up when I point at it, I can launch apps from shortcuts on the taskbar, everything is normal.

    So there's something in the implementation of panels on the KDE plasma desktop that interferes with this functionality on the guest, EVEN if the KDE panel is hidden.

    Okay, the plasma desktop is nice, but I'm not married to it.

    Is there another kind of KDE desktop, non-plasma, that I can install and test with? THIS would help me a lot. I'll mark this solved if I can test successfully with a non-plasma environment -- forgive my ignorance, I don't even know if there is such a thing.

    THANKS!
    Last edited by r_avital; May 09, 2014, 09:49 PM. Reason: typo

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      #3
      Who would have thunk!

      Happy to report; The problem was happening only when the host had the Oxygen White Cursor theme. Switched it to DMZ-White, problem gone.

      Hopefully that will help someone someday.

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