• VMware Server on Ubuntu

The vmware-server-2 web interface can be rather annoying to use. fortunately, the VMware Infrastructure Client can be used to talk to vmware-server instead. The installer for this is actually provided with the vmware-server installation, but does not seem to be linked anywhere from the web interface. To get a copy for yourself, visit https://vmware.sihnon.net:8333/client\VMware-viclient.exe, where <tt>vmware.sihnon.net</tt> is the hostname of your machine.

If the vmware host agent service wont start on Vista and issues the error:

The VMware Host Agent service terminated with service-specific error 4294967295 (0xFFFFFFFF).

Then it is highly likely that the file <tt>c:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Server\hostd\datastores.xml</tt> file has become corrupt. Check and remove it, then copy the datastores.xml.original file in its place and the service should start up.

On Ubuntu, edit the syslog configuration, <tt>/etc/syslog.conf</tt»

# Replace this… *.*;auth,authpriv.none -/var/log/syslog # … with this *.*;auth,authpriv.none;kern.!=debug -/var/log/syslog

Alternatively, add <tt>;kern.!=debug</tt> to the end of the first half of the line. This will remove kernel debug messages from syslog.

Only members of the vmware admin group may log into vmware. This user is set by the <tt>vmware-config</tt> script at install time, and defaults to <tt>vmware</tt> on gentoo. Ensure that your user appears in this group with: <code bash> getent group vmware </code>

If certain keys such as the arrow keys and page up/down don't work, then vmware console has picked up the wrong keyboard map. To fix it, run the following command, and restart the console: <code bash> echo "xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true" >> ~/.vmware/config </code>

• http://www.travisjbailey.com:81/weblog/index.php?itemid=882 - Original article for the datastore corruption fix
• http://www.linuxscrew.com/2008/12/19/vmware-server-console-keyboard-problem-in-ubuntu-intrepid-ibex/ - Original article for the console keyboard fix