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Department of Computer Science

Technical Services and Support

Running VMPlayer on CS Linux Machine

Running VMPlayer on CS Linux Machine

By Hanz Makmur Jan 2020 • Modified Aug 29, 2024

Deprecation Notice: As of July 2025, we will no longer provide VMPlayer on our system. Please see Running Virtual Machine using KVM. 

To enable users to learn how to set up and manage their operating system, we have made vmplayer available on all iLab Desktop Machines. (Note: Running vmplayer on iLabGPU servers is not currently supported.) 

Note: You can also run VMPlayer on your personal computer for free. See  VMware Software for info on how to download the software.

 
System Requirements
VMPlayer, by default,  needs fast storage for better performance. VMPlayer is also not compatible with network storage and causes unpredictable crashes.
 
Depending on the size of the VMs you create, they also need lots of space. For this reason, every iLab machine is set up with local SSD storage, allowing users to store large data with fast access.
 
Notes: Data stored in this local storage does not count against the user disk quota.  Local storage is not backed up and is wiped at the end/start of every semester without warning.
 
Running VMplayer

To run vmplayer, the user needs to use a GUI-based desktop. This can be done by sitting in front of the machine and running X2Go or  Microsoft Remote Desktop client to connect to any iLab Desktop machines from home. Once connected, open a terminal window and type :

vmplayer

For the first time run, vmplayer prepares your account to use local storage. This means you must use the same machine you created a VM on the next time.
 
Note: If VMplayer asks for the license and root password, you likely did not run vmplayer from the terminal. Please run it from the terminal.
 
Creating a New Virtual Machine.
 
Click on the Create a New Virtual Machine option to create a new virtual machine.   In the install window,  the user can download an ISO image by clicking Use ISO Image and then the Browse button. In this example, we will  install Ubuntu 18.4.3, available at
  /common/system/iso/ubuntu-18.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso
 

In the same iso folder, there is also a more recent Ubuntu 22.04 LTS /common/system/iso/ubuntu-22.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso and /common/system/iso/netboot.xyz.iso file, which allows you to use different OS and download on the fly. See details about what OS is available in URL: netboot.xyz/faq

After ISO selection, click Next until you see Customize Hardware. Click on this button to adjust memory and CPU. Disk size, etc.

We recommend a maximum of 8GB of memory, 25GB of disk, which should give you about 16GB of space to play with, and 2 CPUs for your VM.  Click the Close and Finish button when done.

On Installation, skip the VMware Tool by clicking the Remind Me Later button. When the installation is done, your VM will automatically run.   Don’t forget to edit the VM  and remove the ISO image once you no longer need it.

Note: If you are installing a VM, Vmplayer will ask you to install VMWare tools. Skip this. This is not required and may fail during your VM installation.

Moving your Existing VMs to the Local Disk

This section is for existing users who have already stored VMs in their home directory. Skip this if you never run vmplayer before.

Some compatibility issues cause machines to crash during/after using vmplayer. We have narrowed this down to a problem related to NFS mounted home directory. To avoid this, store your VM on a local disk. Everyone can use Each iLab machine with fast local SSD-based storage /freespace/local/your_netid  disk.

Note:  you must use the same machine to do your work, and the local disk is not backed up. Data stored in a local disk does not count against your quota.

If you already have your VMs stored in your home directory, here is how you move it to the local disk.

#make a directory in /freespace/local under your netid
mkdir /freespace/local/$USER
#move your existing vmware folder to /freespace/local
mv ~/vmware /freespace/local/$USER
#create a soft link (alias) for the VMware folder so the player knows where the VMware folder is moved to.
ln -s /freespace/local/$USER/vmware
Possible issues
  1. Key mapping has been a long-time issues with VMPlayer. A solution recommended by VMWare is to create and add a line in ~/.vmware/config  file that says: xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = "TRUE"
    This can also be done by typing the following  in the terminal window:
    echo 'xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = "TRUE"' >> ~/.vmware/config
  2. If you have weirdness with ‘<‘ character when you use it with the Right but not with Left ,  map Right key to Left key by adding this line in ~/.vmware/config that says: xkeymap.keycode.62 = 0xffe1
    This can be also done by typing the following  in terminal window:
    echo 'xkeymap.keycode.62 = 0xffe1'>> ~/.vmware/config

    Please note that keysym ‘0xffe1‘ may be different for your keyboard. You can get this keysym when pressing Left  key when running xev in a terminal.
  3. If you  continue to have issues with other keys, please see VMWare and the fubar keyboard effect blog for more other options.

Reminder:  Please SHUTDOWN the VM when you are not using it. All iLab machines are subject to enforced limitations.