vmware
Display not automatically adjusted with vmware tools installed
There seems to be a RACE condition where open-vm-tools will start before the display manager, causing the resolution to not automatically adjust for displays.
On Ubuntu 18.04.02 the following works to fix the issue:
Add:
After=display-manager.service
Under line 8 in /lib/systemd/system/open-vm-tools.service
Maybe the source code can be updated to include this fix by default?
https://communities.vmware.com/thread/599479
-Zach
@zwelch12 what exact version of the open-vm-tools package do you have installed? You can find out with dpkg -l open-vm-tools.
The .service file is not part of the open-vm-tools project, but of the Ubuntu package, so the bug should be filed at Ubuntu/Canonical. Make sure that you have the latest version installed, the issue may have been fixed already.
I have the same kind of problem on Debian 9.9 and 10. I don't know if it is a race condition or not. On fresh installs of Debian 9.9 and 10 open-vm-tools will not resize the screen. I tried the solution offered for Ubuntu but it didn't help. I am using VMWare Workstation 15 with the latest updates. I can provide any log you might need. Thank you!
I have exactly the same issue with Manjaro 19.02 using 11.0.1. Using VMWare 15 -latest.
If I run
systemctl restart vmtoolsd
After logging in to the GUI, it will then resize if I maximize or minimize the VMWare client first.
@ak1dd provided a helpful solution, while the linked VMWare community thread ends with more details with Github PR / commit and an existing open-vm-tools issue.
The issue is a race condition loading the vmwgfx kernel module. I chimed in here about it summarizing all of what I read.
If you have systemd, you should be able to add a config to explicitly load the module if your distro package of open-vm-tools does not do such for you. Add this to the VM guest:
echo vmwgfx | sudo tee /etc/modules-load.d/vmware.conf
Now when it boots it should ensure that it loads before the vmtoolsd.service does. If it still doesn't, you could follow extra advice from my linked comment.
