Serious problem with VMWare Workstation compatibility

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labm0nkey

8 discussion posts

Hello, recently I ran into a problem in VMWare workstation which turned out to be somehow related to display fusion. After installing latest beta 4.2.0 v6 (Im 100% sure that this is the exact version causing the problem because all versions before it including 4.2.0 v5 were not causing any problems) I am unable to run any virtual machines and I get an error in VMWare "Cannot find a valid peer process to connect to" (which is of course not related to your team). After googling I didnt find any solution but there is a note from VMWare team:

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This issue occurs when you are running VMware Workstation and another organizations virtualization at the same time. Running Workstation and another organizations virtualization software simultaneously on the same system is not supported.

VMware recommends uninstalling the other virtualization software to allow Workstation to operate without errors.

So I turned off display fusion (the only software that have changed recently) and magically VMWare started working. I don't know what has been changed in display fusion but it has to be fixed if anybody wants to use both applications at same time (like me).

Oct 22, 2012 • #1

Which version of VMware Workstation are you running? I'm on 9.0.0 build-812388 and everything seems to work fine with DisplayFusion 4.2 Beta 6.

Could you also try rolling back to 4.2 Beta 5, or 4.1 to see if the same issue still occurs? If it doesn't, please try reinstalling 4.2 Beta 6 to make sure the issue still occurs and we'll continue troubleshooting from there.

Thanks!

Oct 22, 2012 (modified Oct 22, 2012) • #2

labm0nkey

8 discussion posts

The problem first occured when I had VMWare 8 (propably latest update) then I upgraded to 9 (same build as yours) to see if this will fix the problem but it didn't.
I have downgraded to 4.1 and it works fine then updated to beta 4.2 v6 and problem occured again. So the fix for now is to use 4.1 but all future updates will obviously fail.
Looks like the problem is realted to something in 4.2 v6 but It's hard to say what is so differend in my PC that you can't reproduce the problem. I tried many things in VMWare and error was always showing up so It's just as VMWare team written that display fusion is blocking virtualization.

Oct 22, 2012 • #3

Wow, that's really strange! We have multiple machines here running VMware Workstation and 4.2 Beta 6, and all seem to work great. Could you attach a copy of the info from the DisplayFusion Settings > Troubleshooting tab?

Thanks!

Oct 22, 2012 • #4

If you could also do the following, that would be awesome:

Send me the .vmx file (VM configuration) from one of the affected VMs
Try creating a new VM with default settings in Workstation 9 to see if the same issue occurs

Thanks!

Oct 22, 2012 (modified Oct 22, 2012) • #5

labm0nkey

8 discussion posts

About VMs - All are just not working. Even the new ones I created right now or copies I have on other drive. I totally reinstalled vmware with default options. I just can't run anything in VMWare so I think those files wouldn't change a thing.

I would attach a log file in this post but i can't... I choose it and save and nothing happens

• Attachment [protected]: log.txt [55,746 bytes]

Oct 22, 2012 (modified Oct 22, 2012) • #6

Attachments seem to be working for me as well... can you email the Troubleshooting info to me at support@displayfusion.com?

Thanks!

Oct 22, 2012 • #7

labm0nkey

8 discussion posts

ok now it works here u go

• Attachment [protected]: log.txt [55,746 bytes]

Oct 22, 2012 • #8

Awesome, thanks!

Could you try disabling the Application Hooks in the DisplayFusion Advanced Settings, then restart your machine and try to power on a VM again? If it works, try re-enabling the Hooks and restarting again to confirm that it's the Hooks that break it?

I realize it's a tedious troubleshooting process, but since we can't reproduce the issue here, we'll have to rely on you to help troubleshoot if you don't mind

Oct 22, 2012 • #9

labm0nkey

8 discussion posts

How to check if hooks are correctyl disabled? All i found is this troubleshooting log:
----- Hook Manager ---------------
Hooks Running: False
Notify GUID: 9e8d5ad2-696b-4168-966b-b7530bfcd206
API Force Disabled: False
Hook Loaded: CBT: NULL
Hook Loaded: KeyboardLL: NULL

Anyway disabling application hooks didnt work but I tried to mess around and it turns out that if I run vmware from native windows start menu everything works fine! So the problem is when vmware is executed from displayfusion taskbar pinned item shortcut on my third monitor (turning on/off "force application to run on monitor it was run" doesn't change a thing).

Oct 22, 2012 (modified Oct 22, 2012) • #10

Can you give this new version a try and see if you have the same issues with the launching? This new version handles the taskbar shortcuts differently and should work with VMware Workstation. Thanks!

Removed the attachment, using test builds is not recommended.

Oct 22, 2012 (modified Oct 23, 2012) • #11

labm0nkey

8 discussion posts

attachment is protected and i can't download. You can send me it at paw3k@o2.pl

Oct 22, 2012 • #12

Sorry about that, it should be unprotected now.

Oct 22, 2012 • #13

labm0nkey

8 discussion posts

Reinstalled and restarted PC. The error is still thrown.

Oct 22, 2012 (modified Oct 22, 2012) • #14

Are you launching VMware from a taskbar shortcut on the DisplayFusion Taskbar, or from the custom DisplayFusion replacement Start Menu. The custom Start Menu looks like the attached image.

• Attachment: taskbar-alt-startmenu.jpg [45,548 bytes]

taskbar-alt-startmenu.jpg

Oct 23, 2012 (modified Oct 23, 2012) • #15

Can you give this new build a try? It's still labelled as version 4.2.0, but it has a newer build time (8:45pm GMT-5). If this build still doesn't work, can you open the Advanced Settings window and enable the setting called "General: Force Process to be Launched Internally"? Set this setting to "Processes will bypass the external launcher". You don't need to restart DisplayFusion after changing this setting. I'm very hopeful that this new build (attached) will fix the problem without the need for the Advanced Setting.

Removed the attachment, using test builds is not recommended.

Oct 23, 2012 (modified Oct 23, 2012) • #16

labm0nkey

8 discussion posts

By start menu I mean the native windows one (overally shortcut on desktop or start menu not in DF), I'm not using DF start menu.
This new build works! VMware runs virtual machines without any problem but I have to note that this setting "General: Force Process to be Launched Internally" makes vmware throw error again. So overally this new version with "General: Force Process to be Launched Internally" turned off (default value) works without any problem.

Oct 23, 2012 • #17

That's excellent! Thanks for working with us to get this issue sorted out.

You can keep using that build, we will be releasing that exact build as version 4.2 later today. Thanks!

Oct 23, 2012 • #18