Arch Linux "poweroff" always waits 90 seconds in VMware Player
2014-07
bfrgzju
I am running Arch Linux (installed from archlinux-2014.01.05-dual.iso) on VMware Player and have installed vmtoolsd (which belongs to open-vm-tools).
Now my problem is that, whenever I do poweroff or reboot, the system just leaves me with a black screen with only a cursor flashing at the top-left corner. If I don't do anything to it, the system will shutdown or reboot in one or two minutes.
I've searched Google for this problem. Some people suggest that I modify /usr/lib/systemd/system/vmtoolsd.service and that I add one line for KillSignal=SIGKILL or TimeoutStopSec=2. However, none of these works. Actually when I do systemctl stop vmtoolsd, it seems to stop quickly.
I guess maybe some other service is in the similar state as is discussed in those posts I see. Is there a workaround on this so that I can shutdown my virtual machine immediately and gracefully, or that I can figure out what is going on during poweroff is executing so that I can tell if any service is blocked?
Update March 4, 2014: I reinstalled Arch Linux and the problem is still there! Is that an issue of VMware? I use VMware Player 6 for Linux? How to display the details when the system is shutting down so that I may know where it gets stuck?
Update March 4, 2014: I used Arch Linux Live CD and similar problem happens with error message: A stop job is running for User Manager for 0. Then I thought this might be a bug which is reported here: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=70593 which is a bug of systemd and was fixed in update 209 or 210. I then did an update using pacman -Syu and the delay was gone. However, I think I have updated my Arch Linux last time when I have open-vm-tools installed (before I reinstall the entire system). Now I plan to install open-vm-tools again and see if the same error occurs.
pineapple
I have installed the most basic Arch Linux only with command line interface as guest OS on Windows using VMware. The problem is when I maximize the Vmware window, the Arch Linux console does not adjust to the full screen. How to do this without installing X window?
I also want to make copy-paste work to and fro from windows without installing X. Is it possible?
hbdgaf
I think you're looking for VM-Ware tools tar installer. Directions for installation are here: http://www.vmware.com/support/ws5/doc/ws_newguest_tools_linux.html
Basically, vmware tools gets you more resolutions supported. It is possible to install it without X, but I haven't tested it on arch. I had mixed results on debian derivatives.
edit:
a problem i had that you might be having is that vmware tools don't get loaded until after the screensize is determined. you could always just ssh in with putty...this solves both problems
Daniel B
As far as I'm aware, there's no way to change a KMS framebuffer's resolution after booting.
Also, copy/paste won't work. There's really no such thing without a clipboard, now is there. ;)
If you want all the shiny VM integration features, you'll have to install Xorg.