Copy/paste and drag&drop not working in VMware machine with Ubuntu

Question

Suddenly copy/paste stopped working from/to Windows 8 host computer to/from ubuntu virtual machine. Ubuntu restart did not help. I tried command:

sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools

But got report I have newest version. Guest Isolation settings are enabled. What could be the scenario of fixing this problem?

Note that this is a known issue - there's an issued with shared files not working in a Linux VM, and it seems similar components of that don't work with VMware at this time. — Thomas Ward, Mar 19 '16 at 21:54
I noticed this problem has to do with me using a different window manager. VM shared clipboard works fine using gdm3, but when I switched to DWM shared desktop no longer worked — Max Coplan, Sep 20 '19 at 18:44

score 84 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 03 '17 at 16:27

84

I had the same problem and found that this can be fixed by executing the following commands:

sudo apt-get autoremove open-vm-tools
Install VMware Tools by following the usual method (Virtual Machine --> Reinstall VMWare Tools)
Reboot the VM
sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools-desktop
Reboot the VM, after the reboot copy/paste and drag/drop will work!

edited Mar 03 '17 at 16:27

George Udosen

36,677

answered Jan 21 '16 at 18:36

solution101

925

12

I found I didn't need to install VMware Tools. Doing an apt-get of open-vm-tools, then open-vm-tools-desktop, and then restarting worked for me. – Billy May 31 '16 at 20:36
3

Did not work for me on Ubuntu 14.04 64bit. – Forivin Jun 09 '16 at 07:21
4

Didn't work for me either on 16.04 64 bit (server) – Mahn Jul 10 '16 at 17:50
Working on Xubuntu 14.04 LTS desktop. Thanks! – RawwrBag Aug 01 '16 at 18:47
4

Removing open-vm-tools and rebooting destroyed my kernel and I had to reinstall the OS from scratch. – dionyziz Oct 14 '16 at 21:20
This worked I have ignored the error "script still running ... while rebooting – eomeroff Nov 21 '16 at 21:21
I had this copy/paste problem with a Windows VM (although only with copy/paste - the drag-and-drop of files worked) and this solution solved the problem. – Chris Dec 31 '16 at 00:16
This worked to get full screen functionality back for me. Answer by Charles Green worked to get copy-paste functionality back. – jmrah Feb 06 '17 at 13:49
1

Did nothing for me on Ubuntu 16.10 – Gudlaugur Egilsson May 17 '17 at 09:51
This worked for me using Ubuntu 18.10 – Nicolas Guérinet Jan 16 '19 at 09:38
Works flawlessly under Linux Mint 19.1 (July 2019) Thank you so much! – alejandrob Jul 19 '19 at 13:23
For me, it worked without having step #4 executed. – Jahan Zinedine Feb 10 '20 at 09:54
1
I just did
```
sudo apt-get autoremove open-vm-tools
reboot
sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools-desktop
```
any copy paste clipboard/files started to work
– Rohit Salecha Mar 15 '20 at 07:12
1

did not work on ubunto server 20 on vmware – Vikas Kandari Jun 01 '20 at 05:31
Works with Ubuntu 20.04 and VMWare workstation 16 pro – Damian Nov 07 '20 at 02:17
I just did "sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools-desktop" and restarted the guest. Copy-and-paste and drag-and-drop now work between host and guest! I have VMware Workstation 16 on Windows 10 host running Linux Mint 19.3 (Ubuntu 18) guest. – srgstm May 22 '21 at 11:48
Hi read the comment of @srgstm, but I have the same configuration of him (VMware Workstation 16 on Windows 10), but running Debian 11.x and it doesn't work. I tried also other suggestions here, but nothing. – Sixro Mar 02 '22 at 20:14
Not working in Ubuntu 20. Also there is no " Reinstall VMWare Tools" option for me in VMWARE – Black Oct 25 '22 at 13:37
No need to reboot, just run vmware-user. – domen Apr 03 '23 at 10:41

score 69 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 17 '21 at 12:13

69

I tried the approach suggested by solution101 above, but it didn't work for me. This is how I solved the problem:

Open Terminal
sudo apt install open-vm-tools-desktop
restart the guest operating system

This seems to have fixed the copy-and-paste issue for me.

edited Jun 17 '21 at 12:13

matigo

22,138
7
45
75

answered Sep 13 '16 at 10:21

218

799

This worked for me in Ubuntu 17.04 running on a macOS Sierra host - thanks! – Chris Kobrzak Sep 12 '17 at 15:30
Worked on Windows 7 / VMware Player - Ubuntu 16.04. Thanks. – S.. Apr 23 '18 at 12:11
3

Worked for Ubuntu 18.04. I had missed open-vm-tools-desktop. – johnthagen Jun 06 '18 at 15:22
7

you only need to do open-vm-tools-desktop because that installs open-vm-tools automagically – JREAM Jul 29 '18 at 19:45
@218, can u please update your answer per JREAM's comment ? thanks – killjoy Sep 27 '18 at 17:46
This worked for me with VMware Fusion Pro 12.2.3. Host OS: Mac OSX 11.7.2. Guest OS: Kali rolling. – Luke Sheppard Jan 07 '23 at 17:05
worked on ubuntu 20.04 – George Imerlishvili Jan 12 '24 at 14:29

score 16 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 29 '15 at 16:16

16

This is copied verbatim from a vmware community forum:

Go into VM / Settings / Options / Guest Isolation
UNCHECK bothcheckboxes (Enable drag and drop, Enable copy and paste) and click OK.
Shut down the guest, and shut down VMware Workstation
Reboot the host computer
Run VMware Workstation but do not launch the guest yet.
Go into VM / Settings / Options / Guest Isolation for the guest, and
CHECK both checkboxes
Power On the guest.

answered Oct 29 '15 at 16:16

Charles Green

21,339

2

I don't have this Guest Isolation option – Alaa M. Dec 18 '16 at 08:44
@AlaaM. Perhaps they have removed the feature? I no longer run VMWare, but instead am using KVM/QEMU for virtual machines. – Charles Green Dec 18 '16 at 14:05
Maybe. But it's ok looks like i just had to sudo nautilus and then i could drag and drop – Alaa M. Dec 18 '16 at 14:07
4

Did nothing for me on Ubuntu 16.10 – Gudlaugur Egilsson May 17 '17 at 09:52
I'm using ubuntu 17.04 32-bit. I just did step: 1,2,3,[no 4],5,6,7,8 ~ the paste works now – simomo Jul 27 '17 at 13:44
This worked for me using VMware Workstation 14 – Nov 23 '17 at 23:26
Guest Isolation is available on pro version (was called workstation). – Louis Go Sep 09 '21 at 02:51
There resulted in absolutely no working copy and paste. Stack Exchange's perfect record of never providing a single working solution to any problem I've ever had with linux stands unbroken! – John Smith Nov 10 '23 at 09:45
This worked for me on 1804. – uberdave Mar 27 '24 at 01:16

score 16 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 15 '16 at 03:48

16

The best and working solution is restarting your VMWare application (Workstation, Fusion, etc.), not the VM itself. (provided, of course, that you have installed the VMWare tools already.)

answered Feb 15 '16 at 03:48

technophyle

269

1

This simple answer is what worked for me. Thanks! – Dan Nissenbaum Jun 27 '17 at 17:34
1

I knew it had to be something simple! didnt even need to reboot my host. – n00b Dec 12 '17 at 01:40
In my case I also needed to restart the VMWare Workstation Server service (vmware-hostd.exe process). Just restarting VMWare application was not enough. – Alex Che Aug 31 '18 at 10:17
Restarting the guest machine, and VMware, and the machine VMware is running on accomplished... drum roll please... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO FIX THE PROBLEM! Why am I not even remotely surprised? – John Smith Nov 10 '23 at 09:46

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 21 '19 at 03:20

6

In my case, somehow the guest start-up job running the VMware User Agent was removed from my xfce session autostart. You need to run /usr/bin/vmware-user-suid-wrapper at login

answered Oct 21 '19 at 03:20

Tim Richardson

2,294
3
25
43

Same with KDE 5.25. It worked fine in KDE 5.24, but now this needs to be manually run at startup it seems. Unfortunately just running it via KDE's autostart doesn't seem to fix the issue. – Slbox Sep 28 '22 at 20:08
running /usr/bin/vmware-user-suid-wrapper worked for me after trying @Charles Green (worked for me before but not this time) – KING SABRI Apr 10 '23 at 23:16
Nope. Ran it, confirmed running, still no working copy & paste. – John Smith Nov 10 '23 at 09:47

score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 08 '16 at 19:36

4

You can't uncheck the checkboxes while the VM is running; they are disabled. If you do this when the VM is not running, there is no effect (VMWare Workstation 12 Pro).

answered Jan 08 '16 at 19:36

AdamC

140

Thanks! Someone on SE who actually knows something... and of course, nobody replies to it in five long years, because nobody knows how to actually fix this. – John Smith Nov 10 '23 at 09:47

Martin Zeitler · Answer 7 · 2022-02-23T21:47:32.223

3

I can see how old this post is, but I noticed something relevant; it wasn't even Ubuntu. Apparently "Shared folders" must be enabled prior to installing open-vm-tools - also had open-vm-tools-desktop already installed and nothing worked. Reinstalling both packages does the job, seemingly when shared folder were enabled; this works instantly. With apt-get:

sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools open-vm-tools-desktop --reinstall

Or with dnf:

sudo dnf reinstall open-vm-tools open-vm-tools-desktop

I'd assume that when enabling "shared folder" before the OS install, it should work out of the box.

edited Feb 23 '22 at 21:47

answered Feb 12 '22 at 10:30

Martin Zeitler

401

slight correction to command: "sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools open-vm-tools-desktop --reinstall". – Todd Feb 23 '22 at 18:02
1

@Todd Have corrected that; left the dnf syntax, because it may be useful. – Martin Zeitler Feb 23 '22 at 21:49
Fans of my almost 200 different comments pointing out "solutions" that don't work at all, and exactly 0 that do, will be not at all surprised to know that, surprise, this does not work at all. Still no copy & paste. – John Smith Nov 10 '23 at 09:50

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 26 '22 at 07:55

If you are using the VMware Remote Console or Vsphere Client, then it wont work by just installing VMware tools.

You need to follow the steps described here.

To resolve this issue, first install or upgrade the VMware tools for the Windows/Linux virtual machine(VM). For more information see Installing and upgrading VMware Tools in vSphere.

Click on Add Configuration Params three times to give three rows
Fill in the Name and Value fields as mentioned below:

Name:                                 Value:
isolation.tools.copy.disable          FALSE
isolation.tools.paste.disable         FALSE
isolation.tools.setGUIOptions.enable  TRUE

I don't see "Add Configuration Params" in that window. – Henno Nov 03 '22 at 14:19 — Henno, Nov 03 '22 at 14:19
Maybe you need to shutdown the VM first. – Black Nov 03 '22 at 14:37 — Black, Nov 03 '22 at 14:37

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jun 01 '21 at 15:47

0

In my case in addition to bidirectional button activation, I had to do following steps: On the terminal of guest virtual machine run:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y make gcc perl

Now on virtual machine's main menu go: "Devices" -> "Insert Guest Additions CD image" -> wait popup to appear -> follow up installation steps -> once it's done go reboot In my case it has resolved copy&paste issue

answered Jun 01 '21 at 15:47

Слава ЗСУ

209

1

Perfect. This is the only answer that worked. Thanks !!! – Zentag Jul 22 '21 at 22:07
No, no, and no. I already have the latest versions of those packages installed. This does... drum roll please... not work! Just like, apparently, literally 100% of the linux solutions on Stack Overflow, of which I have literally tried almost 200 at this point (I counted, it was 183 a few hours ago) with not so much as a single one of them ever solving the problem they claimed to solve. – John Smith Nov 10 '23 at 09:53

Copy/paste and drag&drop not working in VMware machine with Ubuntu

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