Arch Linux

symon

Member

Registered: 2014-06-25

Posts: 18

Cannot get vmware netcfg to start with gnome

Hello everyone,
I am basically trying to get vmware workstation working on my arch linux machine. This involves the so called "Virtual Network Editor" (used for portforwarding and so on).
VMWare workstation itself works quite nice and somehow out of the box. Tha major problem is: the virtual network editor has to be run with administrative (root or sudo) rights. Additionally it uses X. And thats somehow a problem.
When I run it normally it pops up a password window and then dissapears. Output is:

symon@jijwdlndo ~ % vmware-netcfg 

(vmware-gksu:23146): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "adwaita",

(vmware-gksu:23146): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "adwaita",
/usr/share/themes/Arc-Darker/gtk-2.0/main.rc:1090: error: unexpected identifier `direction', expected character `}'
/usr/share/themes/Arc-Darker/gtk-2.0/apps.rc:91: error: unexpected identifier `direction', expected character `}'

(vmware-gksu:23146): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "murrine",

(vmware-gksu:23146): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "murrine",

(vmware-gksu:23146): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "murrine",

(vmware-gksu:23146): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "murrine",

(vmware-gksu:23146): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "murrine",

(vmware-gksu:23146): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "murrine",

(vmware-gksu:23146): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "murrine",

(vmware-gksu:23146): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "murrine",
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module": libcanberra-gtk-module.so: Kann die Shared-Object-Datei nicht öffnen: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden
Error copying '/home/symon/.Xauthority' to '/tmp/libgksu-idmpsh': Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden
Warning: Graphical applications may not function properly.
No protocol specified

(vmware-netcfg:23157): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :1

I tried to use gksu:

symon@jijwdlndo ~ % gksu vmware-netcfg                                                                                                                                                                                           :(
/usr/bin/xauth:  file /home/symon/.Xauthority does not exist
/usr/bin/xauth:  file /home/symon/.Xauthority does not exist
No protocol specified

(vmware-netcfg:23195): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :1

Same thing with gksudo states:

Cannot copy user's Xauthorization file.

And if I just touch the file, it just gives the old 'cannot open display :1'.

I'm not really sure what to do now. Thanks for your help.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,772

Re: Cannot get vmware netcfg to start with gnome

Any chance you are running Wayland and not X ?  Hint: Are you using Gnome?

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symon

Member

Registered: 2014-06-25

Posts: 18

Re: Cannot get vmware netcfg to start with gnome

Yes I am using Gnome. Anyway I thought I would have switched back to X using /etc/gdm/custom.conf.
(That actually was the first thing I tried)

Edit: It would be nice to have it working with Wayland btw.

Last edited by symon (2016-12-06 09:28:19)

tom0000

Member

Registered: 2015-02-03

Posts: 5

Re: Cannot get vmware netcfg to start with gnome

One ridiculous way to get vmware-netcfg to run is to start a separate X server alongside your wayland desktop just for this app.

switch from wayland to a console (e.g. Ctrl+Alt+F3)
log in and run (as root)

/usr/bin/Xorg :1 vt5 &

It will move you to this new (and blank) X server, so switch back to the console with Ctrl+Alt+F3 and run:

DISPLAY=:1 vmware-netcfg

it shouldn't crash and will be drawn to the new X on vt5.
switch to that (Ctrl+Alt+F5) and you should be able to interact with it. there will be no window decorations, etc, as there's no window manager at all.
when you save and exit netcfg, you'll still have to kill the Xorg. switch back to the root console (Ctrl+Alt+F3) for that.
mine was pretty stubborn (ignored SIGINT and SIGTERM) so I KILLed it:

kill -9 %1

I know it's ugly, but got the job done, and I didn't even have to log out of my desktop session!
For some reason I had to run this app, not even change anything, and save before any vmnet devices would work.

why is this product the industry standard again??

Last edited by tom0000 (2017-01-18 20:17:56)