Using VMWare Server 2.0 Remote Console Add-on on OS/X

VMWare released the 2.0 server edition last month; so I installed it this week on my test server. This server is a Ubuntu 8.04.1 machine. I already had a VMWare server 1.x running and the upgrade went well.

Using Firefox 3.0.1 to admin the server also works very nice and in the same way as our ESX server. If I click on the Console tab under Firefox on Ubuntu it installs a Firefox add-on the first time. After that I have a standalone Remote Console.

But when I connect to the VMWare server from my Mac using Firefox I can use all the functions except the Remote Console Add-on. Firefox tries to install it but fails because the package isn't compatible with OS/X.

In the VMWare forums I read that there are rumors that VMWare is developing a native OS/X client, but in the mean time this is how I connect to the VMWare server from my Macbook Pro:

ssh -X -f -q $SERVERIP /home/nuil/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default/extensions/VMwareVMRC@vmware.com/plugins/vmware-vmrc -h "127.0.0.1:443"

where $SERVERIP is the IP address of the VMWare server and the xxxxxxxx is the profile id of your local Firefox on the Ubuntu server. On my configuration I use port 443, but on a default installation it is port 8333.

For this to work you must have X11 installed on your Mac.

Comments

[t]

When I attempt this, I get garbled video in the console window.. and an error regarding RANDR..

Xlib: extension "RANDR" missing on display "localhost:10.0".

any clue?

[Edwin van Nuil]

Are you using dual display (Xinerama)? And Ubuntu 8.10 ? There seems to be a bug in this combination (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-restricted-modules-2.6.22/+bug/157319).

[t]

I am using Ubuntu 8.10 -- but I'm using it in VMware, not using RANDR or Xinerama... I'll hafta try another distro, I don't usually use Ubuntu anyway.

[Seb]

I get a problem with this:

Failed to determine language-specific keyboard mapping. Please see the Web page "http://vmware.com/info?id=10" for more information.
Failed to initialize mouse-keyboard-screen control.

It's a shame there is no native OS X Console already. I'm using 8.04.1 server edition. Any thoughts?

[Tim Wood]

I added a little feedback and some configuration variables at the top. I found that it wanted the IP of the box running vmware server in place of the localhost IP (127.0.0.1). Assuming that's true generally, people should be able to just fill out the variables and have fun ... err do work.

#! /bin/bash

# ConnectToVMWare.sh
#
# A simple slightly configurable script to allow Mac Users to connect to
# VMWare server without going through vnc/fx/whatever

# From Edwin van Nuil (http://blog.vannuil.com/2008/10/using-vmware-se.html)
# With tweaks by Tim Wood (http://www.datawranglers.com)

SERVERIP=192.168.2.190
VMWAREPORT=8333
SERVERUSER=joeuser
PROFILEID=307utwyx

# We could check for $1 here
# if it's set, use it for SERVERIP
# Ditto $2 as user, $3 as profileid
# To be really fancy, we could use GAWK to split $1
# on : ... if there's a second paramter, use it as VMWAREPORT

echo "Is X11 running? [y|n]"
read X11_RUNNING
if [[ $X11_RUNNING == "n" ]]; then
echo "Start X11 and open this script in X11's xterm"
exit
fi

echo ""
echo "When asked, enter the root vmware password and click connect"
echo "Press return"
echo ""
read cont

ssh -X -f -q $SERVERIP /home/$SERVERUSER/.mozilla/firefox/$PROFILEID.default/extensions/VMwareVMRC@vmware.com/plugins/vmware-vmrc -h "$SERVERIP:$VMWAREPORT"

[byteworks]

What are the steps to do this:
1) sudo startx
2) ./startVMwareConsole.sh (the script above)

When I do "sudo startx" from one shell and then try to run the script from another shell nothing happens after seeing "Press Return". I tried opening a terminal from the X11 application menu but that causes a PAM error (see below). Any thoughts?

sudo startx
xauth: creating new authority file /Users/SomeUser/.serverauth.492

xinit: Detected Xquartz startup, setting file=X, argv[0]=/Applications/Utilities/X11.app/Contents/MacOS/X11
XQuartz starting:
X.org Release 7.2
X.Org X Server 1.3.0-apple10
Build Date: 20080213
TransformProcessType: Success
font_cache.sh: Scanning user font directories to generate X11 font caches
font_cache.sh: Updating FC cache
meta mod is 4
font_cache.sh: Done
login: PAM Error (line 400): Cannot make/remove an entry for the specified session

The "login: PAM Error" does not appear until I choose Applications -> X11 -> Terminal.

[byteworks]

I overlooked the obvious. I have VMWare Fusion and a XP image. I just connect to VMWare Server from a browser in XP running on Fusion on OS X. Let's see... that is how many layers?