Enable 3D HW acceleration on VMWare Workstation 10 on Ubuntu 14.04

Question

I am trying to enable hardware accelerated 3D graphics in a Win 8.1 VM in VMware Workstation 10.0.3 on Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS (Trusty Tahr) to play the game Smite smoothly. I have checked that the HW acceleration works in Ubuntu:

$ /usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p
OpenGL vendor string:   Intel Open Source Technology Center
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Haswell Mobile 
OpenGL version string:  3.0 Mesa 10.2.2

Not software rendered:    yes
Not blacklisted:          yes
GLX fbconfig:             yes
GLX texture from pixmap:  yes
GL npot or rect textures: yes
GL vertex program:        yes
GL fragment program:      yes
GL vertex buffer object:  yes
GL framebuffer object:    yes
GL version is 1.4+:       yes

Unity 3D supported:       yes

In VMware Workstation, on the VM under "Virtual Machine Settings" -> "Display" -> "Accelerate 3D Graphics" is checked.

Screenshot

But while booting the VM, it says "No 3D support is available from the host".

Screenshot

How comes VMware does not detect HW 3D acceleration? How can I fix this?

Thanks!

You will need to enable 3D support in VMware: https://www.vmware.com/support/ws55/doc/ws_vidsound_d3d_enabling_vm.html — MadMike, Oct 16 '14 at 16:56
@madmike, I think I did this correctly -- see the first screenshot. But thanks for the in-depth link! — Siemen, Oct 17 '14 at 08:19

score 91 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 30 '15 at 09:14

91

Edit the file ~/.vmware/preferences and look for a line that starts with mks.gl.allowBlacklistedDrivers, if it is not present - you can add it into the file.

This should be changed to mks.gl.allowBlacklistedDrivers = "TRUE" (note the double quotes around TRUE)

edited Nov 30 '15 at 09:14

Community

1

answered Oct 16 '14 at 15:47

Charles Green

21,909

Thanks, @charles-green - that seems to work. The game is down ATM, but the VM boots up without complaining about missing 3D support. – Siemen Oct 17 '14 at 08:20
Works here, too. Thx! – binaryanomaly Feb 12 '15 at 19:12
7

Just wanted to note that this also works in Workstation 11. By default, the mks.gl.allowBlacklistedDrivers parameter is not present in the preferences file, but adding it does work. Thanks. – Apr 03 '15 at 22:15
Not work in vmware 10 – momo2047 Apr 06 '15 at 15:37
@WHK Does your hardware support 3D, and do you have appropriate drivers loaded in the host operating system? – Charles Green Apr 06 '15 at 21:19
5

Work in VMware Workstation 12. – Guicara Nov 30 '15 at 22:30
4

Same is needed for the free vmware-player – Treviño Apr 19 '16 at 18:24
VMWare Workstation 12 - works. – Lilian A. Moraru Oct 15 '16 at 09:31
Thanks! Works great with VMWare Player 12, Ubuntu 15.04, and Intel HD 4600 Graphics! – Maxwell175 Feb 01 '17 at 16:11
This worked great for getting my VM to boot with accelerated graphics on a system that has the Nvidia "Optimus" technology that dynamically switches between Intel and Nvidia graphics. – dragon788 Feb 28 '17 at 02:30
This caused my VM to crash upon booting into a graphical environment. Workstation 12. – Status3543 Mar 09 '17 at 16:44
+1 for putting it in ~/.vmware/preferences instead of the VMX file. That way the setting is scoped to the host with the "bad" video driver and not to the individual VM. – Sam Hanes Sep 22 '17 at 08:15
3

Works in VMware Workstation 14.1 – shadowbq Feb 07 '18 at 15:34
3

Worked for VMware Player 14.1.1 on Fedora 27 – Frederick Taylor Mar 18 '18 at 06:48
Works on Workstation 14.1.2 on Ubuntu 18.0.4 – nickjb Jun 13 '18 at 11:15
Works on Workstation 15.0.2 build-10952284 on Arch, too. – sohnryang Jan 14 '19 at 15:05
Should use mks.gl.allowBlacklistedDrivers = "TRUE" – sohnryang Jan 14 '19 at 15:06
worked like a charm in 2019 on VM Workstation with Win10 guest on Linux Host – Arpit Bhakta Mar 08 '19 at 06:48
Worked in workstation 16.0.0 on Ubuntu 20.10 – Avery Freeman Oct 22 '20 at 22:16
I can confirm it works on Ubuntu 22.04.01 and VMWare Workstation 16 Player – StackMaster Oct 10 '22 at 20:47
@StackMaster Thanks - it's been 6 years, and it's good to know this still works. – Charles Green Oct 10 '22 at 22:45
It's worth asking if this expose a vm an additional security risk? Or increment the surface of attack one can use to potentially escalate from the virtual machine? – user3450548 Mar 11 '24 at 16:58
@user3450548 My understanding (and I may well be incorrect) is that blacklisting a driver or module is done primarily to prevent that module from interfering with the system in some unwanted manner. Not that it may be a security problem, but that it may not play well with others. – Charles Green Mar 12 '24 at 00:01
@CharlesGreen are you talking about the guest system or the host system? – user3450548 Mar 12 '24 at 08:17
@user3450548 The setting is one for the host system, allowing the host system to utilize the drivers within VMWare. I should point out that not long after this was written, in 2015, I ceased using VMWare and moved to QEMU – Charles Green Mar 13 '24 at 03:33

score 18 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 04 '15 at 08:16

18

Add mks.gl.allowBlacklistedDrivers = "TRUE" in the .vmx file.

It has worked for Linux Mint Cinnamon as host with kernel 3.16 and Debian 8.2 Cinnamon as guest.

edited Dec 04 '15 at 08:16

answered Dec 03 '15 at 21:45

Amandeep Dhindsa

181

+1 for likely relevant answer. While this forum post in 2013 seems to agree, this Ask Ubuntu post indicates it is not always the case. This depends on video driver support too. – Dec 04 '15 at 04:09
I didn't have a Preferences file so I modified the VMX on Workstation 12. Worked like a charm. – Drewdin May 05 '16 at 02:00
Note for those migrating XP guests from VirtualBox to VMWare Workstation 12 Player Linux 64-bit following a Sysprep process - adding this option to my .vmx file fixed an issue where the mouse pointer was stuck in a single place on the screen and couldn't move. After adding this line the mouse was working again. – Pabru Jun 04 '16 at 00:22

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 14 '19 at 06:51

If you are using dual graphics cards, the warning implies that the independent graphics card is not available for VMware. Setting mks.gl.allowBlacklistedDrivers indeed solves the problem, but a better way to solve this is to run VMware via:

optirun /usr/bin/vmware

Or, for convenience, you can change your .desktop file and use /usr/bin/optirun /usr/bin/vmware %U as the command.

This solution provides better performance.

See https://www.tiger2doudou.com/doku.php?id=linux:tools:virtualize:vmware_3d_hw_acceleration_with_bumblebee

Enable 3D HW acceleration on VMWare Workstation 10 on Ubuntu 14.04

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