[SOLVED] Vmware: 'the virtual machine is busy'

ELWisty · 2010-11-06 09:25:54

Ok, I've tried googling for this high and low, to no avail.

I've VMware Player 3.1.2 running in Arch 64 bit + Openbox, with kernel 2.6.36 (from testing repo). I was able to patch vmplayer for the kernel but trying to run the Windows guest I get 'the virtual machine is busy'.

All I've found on the net is that the problem can be solved by deleting '/etc/vmware/not_configured', but since no such file is present on my computer, that isn't very helpful.

Anyone else with a similar problem?

Last edited by ELWisty (2010-11-08 21:33:59)

manmachine · 2010-11-06 11:48:01

Just guessing but i would try
1. exit player and rerun it
2. exit vm player and try with vmware workstation and see if that fixes it
3. check for .lck (lock) files lingering in the virtual machine directory

not necessarily in that order.

maybe you didn't cleanly shut down the vm last time.

ELWisty · 2010-11-06 12:07:30

manmachine wrote:

Just guessing but i would try
1. exit player and rerun it
2. exit vm player and try with vmware workstation and see if that fixes it
3. check for .lck (lock) files lingering in the virtual machine directory

Have tried 1 and 3 to no avail. Not yet workstation, so let's see about that...

ELWisty · 2010-11-06 12:11:17

...or not. I see I have already used the 3 day free trial, and wouldn't want to pay 187 dollars just to see if it works.

manmachine · 2010-11-06 12:41:22

Well 2 more things you could try
1. run a 'ps axf' and make 100% sure that there no 'vmware-vmx' processes. If there are, kill them or reboot.

Did this happen right after you installed vmware+kernel modules? Did you reboot? Useful to see if the all modules load properly on boot and also fixes things if (1) is the culprit.

2. Failing all you could also try this: In workstation locate and open your vm but instead of turning it on, clone it. (Vm -> Clone). You can remove the old vm later.

Point is the only time i had a similar problem, was when exiting xorg or rebooting and forgetting to turn off my VMs. But unfortunately i don't remember if that's the exact error message that would pop-up.

Edit: there is also a logfile in the vm directory you could check if any error messages are printed there.

Last edited by manmachine (2010-11-06 12:49:41)

ELWisty · 2010-11-06 13:02:14

manmachine wrote:

Well 2 more things you could try
1. run a 'ps axf' and make 100% sure that there no 'vmware-vmx' processes. If there are, kill them or reboot.

No, no vmware-vmx process running.

Did this happen right after you installed vmware+kernel modules? Did you reboot? Useful to see if the all modules load properly on boot and also fixes things if (1) is the culprit.

Well, I had vmware player installed prior to updating the kernel to 2.6.36. I then ran the patch which allowed me to install the modules but the 'virtual machine is busy' problem appeared. I reinstalled vmware player, rebooted, no change. Yes, all modules are properly loaded as far as I can see.

2. Failing all you could also try this: In workstation locate and open your vm but instead of turning it on, clone it. (Vm -> Clone). You can remove the old vm later.

Alas, there is no such option in VMware Player.

Edit: there is also a logfile in the vm directory you could check if any error messages are printed there.

Yes, checked that earlier on, no error messages.

Clearly the problem is to do with the 2.6.36 kernel as it appeared with the update. It might be that as of now the only thing to do to get this working is to roll back to 2.6.35?

manmachine · 2010-11-06 13:26:32

ELWisty wrote:

2. Failing all you could also try this: In workstation locate and open your vm but instead of turning it on, clone it. (Vm -> Clone). You can remove the old vm later.
Alas, there is no such option in VMware Player.

That's an option in workstation only, not player. Though if the kernel update is the problem i doubt it would help.

Clearly the problem is to do with the 2.6.36 kernel as it appeared with the update. It might be that as of now the only thing to do to get this working is to roll back to 2.6.35?

I'm still running 2.6.35.
Usually when you upgrade your kernel (+kernel-headers) what happens is this:
When you reboot and run vmware/player it will detect that the vmware modules are built with an older kernel and will automatically rebuilt them and load them. I've never had this fail. While i had to use the patch described in the wiki the very first time i installed vmware, i'm not sure this is a step that needs to be repeated on subsequent kernel upgrages. I think i already upgraded my kernel once before and didn't have to repeat the patch procedure. The sources may already be present+patched and they are just recompiled for the new kernel. Again my memory may be failing me though. You will probably need to re-apply the patch when upgrading to a newer version of Vmware though (Unless this is fixed in newer versions of course).

Consider rolling back to 2.6.35 then it may be the problem after all.
I suppose i should upgrade to 2.6.36 myself sometime soon

Last edited by manmachine (2010-11-06 13:29:57)

ELWisty · 2010-11-06 13:35:21

Yes, the main reason I did upgrade to 2.6.36 was that I have an iPhone with iOS 4.1, and USB tethering was supposed to work in 2.6.36 (but doesn't). So it didn't do not particular good as of now!

Thanks for the help on this!

ELWisty · 2010-11-08 21:33:32

Ah, installing the guest machine again has done the trick.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-11-06 09:25:54

[SOLVED] Vmware: 'the virtual machine is busy'

#2 2010-11-06 11:48:01

Re: [SOLVED] Vmware: 'the virtual machine is busy'

#3 2010-11-06 12:07:30

Re: [SOLVED] Vmware: 'the virtual machine is busy'

#4 2010-11-06 12:11:17

Re: [SOLVED] Vmware: 'the virtual machine is busy'

#5 2010-11-06 12:41:22

Re: [SOLVED] Vmware: 'the virtual machine is busy'

#6 2010-11-06 13:02:14

Re: [SOLVED] Vmware: 'the virtual machine is busy'

#7 2010-11-06 13:26:32

Re: [SOLVED] Vmware: 'the virtual machine is busy'

#8 2010-11-06 13:35:21

Re: [SOLVED] Vmware: 'the virtual machine is busy'

#9 2010-11-08 21:33:32

Re: [SOLVED] Vmware: 'the virtual machine is busy'

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