Notes on VMware Workstation 4,
Build 19414
Build 19414 is a release build of VMware Workstation 4.
New in Version 4.5.3
This release addresses a security vulnerability that has been discovered in Workstation. VMware believes that the vulnerability is very serious, and recommends that users install the Workstation 4.5.3 update or disable NAT networking. For more information, see the following Knowledge Base articles:
New in Version 4.5.2
VMware Virtual Disk Manager
You can create, manage and modify virtual disk files from the command line
or within scripts with the VMware Virtual Disk Manager utility. For more
information, see Using VMware Virtual
Disk Manager.
Experimental support for 64-bit host computers
This means you can install this release of VMware Workstation on a 64-bit
host computer that uses an AMD64 Opteron, Athlon 64 or Intel IA-32e CPU.
Virtual machines you create on these hosts have 32-bit CPUs and can run
32-bit guest operating systems.
Experimental support for Solaris guest operating systems
This means you may install the x86 platform edition of Solaris 9 and of
Solaris 10 beta as guest operating systems in this release of VMware
Workstation. VMware Tools is not available for Solaris. If you want to
run the guest operating system's X server, you may do so in 16 colors.
Support for SUSE LINUX 9.1 guests
This means you may run SUSE LINUX 9.1 as a guest operating system in this
release of VMware Workstation.
Enhanced VPN support over NAT
VMware Workstation now supports PPTP over NAT.
New in Version 4.5.1
Updates to the EULA
The End User License Agreement in version 4.5.1 reflects support policies
for customers who acquired version 4.5.1 as an upgrade to a previous
version of VMware Workstation.
Updates to resolve several reported problems
Updates in version 4.5.1 include the following:
- A more reliable SCSI implementation that makes it easier to move
virtual machines created on other VMware products to Workstation. The
updated SCSI implementation also provides improved support for Oracle's
OCFS file system in a virtual machine.
- Additional improvements in support for Linux guest operating systems using kernels in
the 2.6 series.
- Support for Windows 95 guest operating systems on host computers with
high-speed processors -- such as Pentium 4 processors with speeds of 3GHz
and higher.
New in Version 4.5
Increased memory size for virtual machines
This means you can create individual virtual machines with up to 3,600MB
of memory and use up to 4GB of memory for all running virtual machines.
Experimental support for Longhorn
This means you can install and run beta versions of the next version of
Windows, code-named Longhorn. Because Longhorn is still in the beta stage
of development, you should expect it to install and run more slowly than
other guest operating systems.
Improved support for guests using Linux kernels in the 2.6 series
This means better performance for virtual machines running manually
installed 2.6 kernels and also for virtual machines using some of the
later releases of Red Hat Linux 9, which incorporate some components from
the 2.6 kernel.
Support for PXE
This means that if you use a preboot execution environment (commonly known
as PXE) to boot and install operating systems into new virtual machines,
you can do so without any add-on software.
Tip of the day
A pop-up tip introduces you to a key feature of VMware Workstation each
time you launch the program. You can turn the tips off if you prefer not
to see them.
USB device installation for nonadministrators
Any user on a Windows host can connect USB devices for use in a virtual
machine. You no longer need administrative privileges on the host to
connect a USB device to a virtual machine.
Automatic check for product updates
VMware Workstation now checks automatically to see if updates for the
product are available. You can adjust the interval between the automatic
checks or turn off automatic checking.
New Operating System Support
Version 4.5 provides support for the following additional
operating systems:
- Novell NetWare 5.1, 6 and 6.5
- SUSE LINUX 9.0
New in Version 4.0.5
This release introduces internationalization of the shared folders
and drag and drop features. These features now support localized guest
operating systems, including locales such as Japanese that use double-byte
characters.
In this release, VMware Tools for Windows guests uses less memory than in
previous releases.
Note: Version 4.0.5 is the first public release since version
4.0.2.
New in Version 4.0.2
This release fixes a security vulnerability in VMware Workstation 4.0.1
(for Linux systems) build 5289 and earlier releases. By manipulating
symbolic links, a non-root user could delete files in any directory. VMware
Workstation (for Windows operating systems) does not have this
vulnerability. For details, see this knowledge base article.
New in Version 4.0.1
New operating systems supported
Version 4.0.1 provides support for the following recently released
operating systems:
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003
- Red Hat Linux 9
- SuSE Linux 8.2
- FreeBSD 4.8
Shared Folders in a Windows guest use UNC path names
In version 4.0.1, with the latest version of VMware Tools installed,
Windows guest operating systems identify shared folders using a UNC path.
For details, see this
discussion of shared folders.
Updating to Version 4.5
If you are updating to version 4.5 from a previous version of
Workstation 4, the process is simple.
- On a Windows host, uninstall the previous version using the Add/Remove
Programs control panel. When prompted, leave your existing license in place.
Then install version 4.5 using the update installer that you downloaded from
the VMware Web site.
- On a Linux host, no special steps are needed to uninstall the previous
version. Install version 4.5 using the update installer that you downloaded
from the VMware Web site.
- Virtual machines created under previous versions of Workstation 4
should run with no problems under version 4.5. However, we recommend
that you update VMware Tools to the version included in Workstation 4.5.
Follow these instructions to
install VMware Tools.
If you are upgrading from an earlier version of VMware Workstation, please
read the notes on steps to take
before you upgrade.
Known Issues
Special steps needed to install VMware Tools in Longhorn build 4074
guest.
Beta build 4074 of the Windows operating system code-named Longhorn uses
a new method to install drivers. As a result, warning messages appear at
several stages during installation of VMware Tools in a Longhorn 4074
guest operating system. Sometimes these messages are hidden. The driver
installation appears to hang. However, if you press Alt-Tab, you can
bring the warning message to the foreground. There are two types of
messages.
- A message that says the driver is not Authenticode signed.
When you see one of these messages, click Install Now to continue
installing VMware Tools.
- A message that says the driver package is not compatible with
Longhorn. When you see one of these messages, click Cancel to
continue installing VMware Tools.
You may also see a message asking you to restart before the VMware Tools
installer has finished. Do not restart the guest operating system at
that time. Wait until the Installation Wizard Completed screen appears,
click Finish, then restart the guest operating system when you
are prompted to do so.
Longhorn build 4074 guest must use vmxnet network adapter.
The AMD Ethernet card driver included with beta build 4074 of the
Windows operating system code-named Longhorn does not work correctly. To
use networking in a Longhorn 4074 guest operating system, you must switch
to the vmxnet network adapter. A driver for this adapter is included in
VMware Tools.
Linux host: Choose VM > Settings, select
Network Adapter, then select vmxnet as the virtual
device to use. You must install VMware Tools after changing the virtual
network adapter.
Windows host: Use a text editor such as Notepad to edit the
configuration (.vmx) file for your Longhorn 4074 virtual
machine. Add the following line:
Ethernet[n].virtualDev = "vmxnet"
Replace [n] with the number of the Ethernet adapter. The
first Ethernet adapter is number 0, so the line for that adapter is
Ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet"
Include a line for each Ethernet adapter configured for the virtual
machine. You may install VMware Tools either before or after
changing the virtual network adapter.
64-bit Red Hat Linux shows error message on launch.
When Workstation starts on a Red Hat Linux 64-bit host, an error
message appears. The text is similar to the following:
Gtk-WARNING **: unable to locate loadable module in module_path:
"libbluecurve.so"
For information on why this message appears and what you can do to
eliminate the warning, see the VMware knowledge base article at
www.vmware.com/support/kb/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1313
Special setup needed for USB on a SUSE LINUX 9.1 host.
Because of changes in the proc file system in SUSE LINUX 9.1, you must
take some special steps on the host operating system if you want to use
USB devices in virtual machines. Enter the following commands at the
command line of the host operating system. If your host operating system
cleans out entries in /tmp when the system is restarted, you
must rerun the commands after a system restart. In that case, you may
prefer to save the commands as a shell script. Or you may prefer to
substitute a different directory in place of /tmp.
mkdir /tmp/usb
(cd /proc/bus/usb; for a in *; do ln -s /proc/bus/usb/$a /tmp/usb/$a; done)
ln -s /proc/bus/usb/devices_please-use-sysfs-instead /tmp/usb/devices
Then use a text editor to add the following line to the Workstation
configuration file (/etc/vmware/config):
usb.generic.devfsPath = "/tmp/usb"
Special setup needed for shared folders in a SUSE LINUX 9.1
guest.
Because SUSE Linux 9.1 uses SELinux enhancements by default, shared
folders do not work with a default installation of SUSE Linux 9.1.
Workarounds are described in the VMware knowledge base article at www.vmware.com/support/kb/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1327.
Parallel port not available to virtual machine on 64-bit Opteron
host with Windows XP host operating system.
On a 64-bit Opteron host running a 64-bit Windows XP host operating
system, the host computer's parallel port may not be correctly
recognized by the host operating system. As a result, the parallel port
is not available to a virtual machine running on that host. If you try
to add a parallel port using the Add Hardware Wizard, the drop-down menu
of available ports is blank. This is a host system issue and there is no
known workaround.
If you are installing a Linux guest operating system, we recommend
that you use the text mode installer.
Some graphical mode Linux installers do not work properly in this release
of Workstation.
If you are installing Workstation 4 on a SuSE Linux 8.2 host that has
been updated, force the configuration program to compile the VMware
modules.
If you are installing VMware Workstation 4 on a SuSE Linux 8.2 host and
have applied updates to the host operating system, you may see an error
message when you try to start a virtual machine. The message may include
the phrase "unable to reserve memory" or "could not lock ... memory" or
"NOT_IMPLEMENTED F (785):681."
The approach SuSE Linux 8.2 uses for minor updates does not change the
kernel version number. As a result, when you install and configure
Workstation, it uses kernel modules that are not appropriate for your
running kernel.
To resolve the problem, you need to rerun the Workstation configuration
program with a switch that forces it to compile kernel modules appropriate
for your running kernel. To do so, as root, run the following command:
vmware-config.pl --compile