gpm mouse cursor mis-positioned in vncviewer console

[John Lumby]

When running my guest vm (linux amd-64) in the vncviewer started by vEMan,
I find that in the linux console, the gpm cursor is mis-positioned. In fact, for any movement of the real mouse, the gpm cursor slowly drifts down and to the right until it reaches the bottom right of the virtual tty and then stays there.

Running gpm in debug mode shows that the input events for mouse movement are always positive deltas regardless of real mouse movement. E.g. I move the mouse to the left, the x delta should be negative. but gpm gets a positive and moves cursor to the right.

If I start the console by running vmplayer, this does not happen - the event deltas are positive or negative correctly.

Note this is not an absolute pointer and I am not running vmtools. I tried changing a few options in the .vmx but nothing made any difference; and anway it is correct when run in vmplayer.

Has anyone else seen this? Any ideas? It makes the gpm support useless and so mouse itself useless in the guest console which is a shame.

[secure diversITy]

Hi John,

well that's a Linux+VNC problem but I will try to give some hints regarding that:

According to:
http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~bdarlt/xen-user/node128.html

Could you try that:

PS/2 mouse over the PS/2 port.
This is the default mouse that works perfectly well under SDL. Under
VNC the guest cursor will get out of sync with the VNC pointer. When
this happens you can re-synchronize the guest cursor to the VNC pointer
by holding down the left-ctl and left-alt keys together. While these
keys are down VNC pointer motions will not be reported to the guest so
that the VNC pointer can be moved to a place where it is possible to
move the guest cursor again.

Also at least tightvnc has some options which can be used regarding mouse pointer updates:

-nocursorshape
or/and
-x11cursor

What VNC viewer is installed on your system?

If you want to try those commandline options you can simply start your vEMan console session to the remote VM - let it open - and then check your local process list and search there for your ESX servers name (smthg like "ps aux |grep myesxserver")

It should show you at least the VNC command currently used.
Copy the whole command (including Port number) and then extend the command to one of the above options (or similar - depends on your VNC viewer) and try to play around with the options. This is completeley independend from vEMan at this point - it's simply VNC only.

If another option works for you let me know and I will check if that interfers with the current mode and if I can add that in the next version.

Thanks
Thomas

[John Lumby]

Thanks Thomas.

I should have said that this same vncviewer does not experience that problem I described when used to bring up console of similar VM running on my own machine (same linux) under VirtualBox VboxHeadless.

Also, the problems you describe are not the same as the one I described.
I am familiar with the "cursor-out-of-sync" problem and can work with that (and yes it happens in my VBoxHeadless console). But the problem with the ESX console when displayed by vEMan/vncviewer is much worse and no way to overcome it - the cursor cannot be made to go anywhere that I want, it simply heads for bottom right and stays there.

Really all I wanted to know is if anyone else (e.g. you) can say whether you do or do not see same problem as me, then maybe I can find out what is different.

But you have given me one idea of what is different - the vncserver.
It seems that on my ESX server, this is the process that is listening for the vncviewer :

/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmkload_app64 --sched.group=host/user/pool10 /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx -ssched.group=host/user/pool10 -# name=VMware ESX;version=4.1.0;buildnumber=348481;licensename=VMware ESX Server;licenseversion=4.0 build-348481; -@ pipe=/tmp/vmhsdaemon-0/vmx656b1a6bc76cc1f9; <vmx_file_path></vmx_file_path>

Assuming you are implying you don't see same problem, can you tell me what command is listening for vnc connection on your ESX?

John

[secure diversITy]

Hi John,

You're right I have no problems using the VNC console like you described.
Btw: Do you use ESX or the free ESXi?

For sure I can give you the command but unfortunately (well for me not) I'm in vacation right now and
so I can check that earliest in 10 days when I'll be back.

Maybe someone of the other users can provide you this info in the meantime?!
Hello to everybody ;o)

Cu
Thomas

[John Lumby]

My ESX server is ESX V4 (for version number, build number etc see the command I posted in my previous) and I think ESXi is V5, right? So this is not ESXi.

No rush, enjoy your vacation!

[secure diversITy]

Hi John,

according to:

/usr/sbin/esxcli network connection list |grep "590"

tcp    0       0       10.1.8.7:5907    192.168.10.9:49153  ESTABLISHED  2951858   
tcp    0       0       0.0.0.0:5907       0.0.0.0:0           LISTEN       2943663   
tcp    0       0       0.0.0.0:5900       0.0.0.0:0           LISTEN       13803     
tcp    0       0       0.0.0.0:5901       0.0.0.0:0           LISTEN       13802     

I get this result when filtering out the "ESTABLISHED" connection (I have opened a VNC session):

mks:myVM /bin/vmx -ssched.group=host/user/pool0 -# name=VMware ESX;version=4.1.0;buildnumber=582267;licensename=VMware ESX Server;licenseversion=4.0 build-582267; -@ pipe=/tmp/vmhsdaemon-0/vmx6f054d97c284931a; /vmfs/volumes/4b177b9e-8e47c74b-c3b3-001b214ad5e8/myVM

Regarding the question ESX or ESXi pls see here:

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1023990

You're right that beginning with v5 ESX is not available anymore but ESXi only but for v4 you have the choice to use ESX or ESXi.

What I see is that I have at least a higher patch level than you but I can't believe that this encounters the problem.

Can you please provide your vncviewer name and version? I use tightvncviewer but you may use another kind of vnc viewer? If possible you could try nevertheless another vncviewer than you use at the moment..

Thanks
Thomas