VMware X-server graphics

I mentioned in a post about Solaris that graphics in VMware are one big mess, and I’ve encountered similar pictures when installing some Linux distributions.

When I initially tried to install the VMware tools that contain special drivers, it asked me to install a compiler and compile things with the current kernel. Personally I think that’s just ridiculous, so I ended up not installing anything.

However, what I failed to notice was the fact that the display driver didn’t need any fancy compiling, it just needs you to run the config and enter your favourite resolution. So to get those graphics right, you need to run your /usr/bin/VMware-config-tools.pl and answer no to everytime the tool wants to compile something, and at the end after a dozen questions you’ll see a question about display resolution. Confirm your resolution and continue till the tool finishes. Then simply ctrl+backspace on your X environment console and voila the graphics are fine.