Black screen when trying to log into RHEL Server from vSphere

Latest response

A few users, including myself, have been working in various RHEL VMs from vSphere. We get pulled away and then go back to what we are doing and there is a black screen that greets us. We are not able to resume control of that screen from vSphere. We often have to ssh in from a console and kill -15 session id number to free it up.

Looking thru /var/log/messages, it appears the culprate might be the following:

~~~
Jul 28 12:15:37 ameda4aisrx0236 gconfd (user-id-23386): GConf server is not in use, shutting down.
Jul 28 12:16:59 ameda4aisrx0236 gconfd (user-id-25871): starting (version 2.14.0), pid 25871 user 'dgfuqua'
Jul 28 12:16:59 ameda4aisrx0236 gconfd (user-id-25871): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory" to a read-only configuration source at position 0
Jul 28 12:16:59 ameda4aisrx0236 gconfd (user-id-25871): Resolved address "xml:readwrite:/home/dgfuqua/.gconf" to a writable configuration source at position 1
Jul 28 12:16:59 ameda4aisrx0236 gconfd (user-id-25871): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults" to a read-only configuration source at position 2
Jul 28 12:17:00 ameda4aisrx0236 pcscd: winscard.c:304:SCardConnect() Reader E-Gate 0 0 Not Found
Jul 28 12:17:00 ameda4aisrx0236 gconfd (user-id-25871): Resolved address "xml:readwrite:/home/dgfuqua/.gconf" to a writable configuration source at position 0
Jul 28 12:17:01 ameda4aisrx0236 vmusr[25940]: [ warning] [Gtk] gtk_disable_setlocale() must be called before gtk_init()
Jul 28 12:17:01 ameda4aisrx0236 vmusr[25940]: [ warning] [Gtk] Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "clearlooks",
~~~

This server is fully patched, and other then the warnings for the last two lines, that is it.

A search on Google to didn't find any solution.

Responses

Is this using the vSphere console?

Are the latest vmware-tools installed?
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1018392

Yes, it is using the vSphere console, however I believe we are behind in downloading them vSphere.

thanks

The culprit is probably the vSphere console (did you discuss this with VMware support?) - I saw this happen in the old fat client and even in the new one. A workaround (or solution if you want) was to close the console window and open it again.

There are basically two ways how to access the Linux console - you may use ssh if you work in CLi only. If you ned the X window support, there are solutions like VNC or X2go (NX) which allows you to access the GUI.

//Zdenek

Just confirmed we have the latest and greatest VMWare Tools installed for our RHEL Servers.

Looks like VMWare is recommending the following:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=749640

But are you really working directly in the vSphere console? No offense, but I can hard imagine using that thing for daily work.

//Zdenek

Yes, we use vSphere console for our test/development systems/network only. That environment is not yet mature enough.

Close

Welcome! Check out the Getting Started with Red Hat page for quick tours and guides for common tasks.