Mint 12 'fallsback' under VMware [SOLVED]

[horsham]

Hi all

After running every Mint release since 8 via VMware [Player] I have hit my first problem.

Mint 12 will only run in Fallback mode - yet with the same virtual machine settings I have no problem running Ubuntu 11.10 with the full Gnome 3 etc.

Has anybody managed to get the full Mint 12 experience with VMware player?

Thanks....

[jeinor]

I had the same problem when I tried an earlier version (or perhaps a 12 alpha/beta). Havent tried with the new version of Vmware though. What vmware version are you using?

[mmindenhall]

I am seeing the same issue with VMware Workstation 8.01 (latest).

[horsham]

Thanks for the feedback.

I am using the latest version of VMware PLAYER (haven't tried it on Worksation).

It's a shame because this is a bit of a 'deal breaker' for me at the moment.

I love Linux but for practicable reasons my main workstation is a high-power Windows 7 machine which I also run several virtual machine on.

One of the reasons I settled on Mint in the first place was that it was the first one I could install via VMware on several different machines and would run full screen 'out of the box'.

I hope this one can be resolved, this whole Gnome 3 / Unity thing has made me rethink and I find I am currently using my own customised Lubuntu (LXDE) as my first choice 'virtual' Linux.

[remoulder]

You should look on the vmware forums for support with their products

[mmindenhall]

You should look on the vmware forums for support with their products

Hi remoulder. This seems more like a Linux Mint issue. Other Linux distros (including Ubuntu 11.10) are running fine in VMware with the "full" experience. It is only LM12 that runs in fallback mode, with no apparent workaround (so far).

Also, from the Tips and Tricks page, it sounds like custom integration was done to ensure the full experience with VirtualBox. Could the same be done for VMware? At the very least, it would be great if someone could trace through the problem so we know exactly why we're getting fallback mode. Then we could try VMware support forums to see if they can suggest a workaround.

[horsham]

That was my thinking.

My guess is for whatever reason LM12 can't 'see' the video acceleration in VMware - yet Ubuntu can?

My only question was "Has anybody managed to get the full Mint 12 experience with VMware player?"

This seemed to be the logical place to post that question which has been confirmed by the useful replies I have received

[sbrown23]

That was my thinking.

My guess is for whatever reason LM12 can't 'see' the video acceleration in VMware - yet Ubuntu can?

My only question was "Has anybody managed to get the full Mint 12 experience with VMware player?"

This seemed to be the logical place to post that question which has been confirmed by the useful replies I have received

Same experience here with VMWare player 4.01 on Win7 x64. I got the exact same response from remoulder. I have not been able to work around the "fallback" state for the graphics driver yet. Host system: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400, 6GB RAM, ATI Radeon 4670 video card, latest drivers installed. Tried installing VMWare Tools prior to updating the Mint install, also tried installing after Mint install fully updated.

I had started a separate post on this topic here: viewtopic.php?f=90&t=87384

[ferri]

That was my thinking.

My guess is for whatever reason LM12 can't 'see' the video acceleration in VMware - yet Ubuntu can?

LM 12 with Gnome 3 needs graphical acceleration and Ubuntu Unity too.
But in vmware virtual you see unity 2D instead of original 3D. Unity 2D is very similar original Unity 3D but it does not need acceleration.

[horsham]

That was my thinking.

My guess is for whatever reason LM12 can't 'see' the video acceleration in VMware - yet Ubuntu can?

LM 12 with Gnome 3 needs graphical acceleration and Ubuntu Unity too.
But in vmware virtual you see unity 2D instead of original 3D. Unity 2D is very similar original Unity 3D but it does not need acceleration.

Thanks for this you are correct. I had assumed Ubuntu was running with 3D acceleration but on closer inspection it wasn't.

I have now successfully installed [the full accelerated] Mint 12 on Windows 7 using VirtualBox so remoulder is correct that this is a VMware issue

You should look on the vmware forums for support with their products

Many Thanks for all your replies.

[mmindenhall]

VMware has announced experimental 3D acceleration support, but there have been problems reported getting it to work with LM12. If anyone gets this to work, please post instructions in these forums.

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/343121

[mmindenhall]

I downloaded the LM13 release candidate (Cinnamon edition) last night, and booted the install iso in the VMWare Workstation 2012 Technology Preview. It boots into Cinnamon instead of fallback, so it appears that this issue is solved with this combination.