Bug 2440909

Summary: VMware virtual machine display resolution is indeterminate (FIX)
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Bruce Jerrick <bmj001>
Component: open-vm-toolsAssignee: Simone Caronni <negativo17>
Status: CLOSED ERRATA QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: 43CC: jwolfe, mrezanin, negativo17, ngompa13, ravindrakumar, rjones
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: Unspecified   
OS: Unspecified   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: open-vm-tools-13.1.0-2.fc44 open-vm-tools-13.1.0-2.fc43 Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2026-05-29 01:11:08 UTC Type: Bug
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Bruce Jerrick 2026-02-19 09:14:06 UTC
Description of problem:
The display resolution of a VMware virtual machine can be indeterminate,
 apparently depending in the order in which vmtoolsd finishes starting
 and the display manager starts.

Background:
/usr/bin/vmtoolsd provides an enhanced choice of display resolutions.
/usr/libexec/Xorg is started by the display manager. e.g. /usr/bin/lightdm .

Version-Release number of selected component:
open-vm-tools-13.0.10-2.fc43

How reproducible:
Seems roughly a 50/50 chance which resolution of the two mentioned below
 is used.

Steps to Reproduce:
(Perhaps not really needed, since the patch offered below seems quite
 logical.)
VMware should be in full screen mode.  My physical display is 16:10, so
 2048x1152 (16:9) has black bands top and bottom, whereas 2048x1280 fills
 the physical display.
On the virtual machine:
1. In System/Preferences/Hardware/Displays, choose 2048x1152 .
   (In my testing, this would mysteriously result in 2048x1280 for the
   current session, which is what I actually wanted, but that choice was
   not in the menu.)
2. Click "Apply" and accept the change.
3. Click "Apply system-wide".
4. Reboot the virtual machine and log in, repeatedly.

Actual results:
Resolution is sometimes 2048x1152, sometimes 2048x1280 .

Expected results:
Always 2048x1280 .

FIX:
This problem has all the earmarks of a race, and seems to be fixed by
 the following addition to /usr/lib/systemd/system/vmtoolsd.service :

        [Unit]
        Description=Service for virtual machines hosted on VMware
        Documentation=http://github.com/vmware/open-vm-tools
        ConditionVirtualization=vmware
        Requires=vgauthd.service
        After=vgauthd.service
Add >>> Before=display-manager.service

        [Service]
        ExecStart=/usr/bin/vmtoolsd
        TimeoutStopSec=5

        [Install]
        WantedBy=multi-user.target
        Also=vgauthd.service

That seems to ensure that the resolutions provided by vmtoolsd are available
 when the display manager starts.
I have not experienced the problem with this patched version.

Comment 1 Fedora Update System 2026-05-20 09:57:46 UTC
FEDORA-2026-5674adc0a5 (open-vm-tools-13.1.0-2.fc44) has been submitted as an update to Fedora 44.
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2026-5674adc0a5

Comment 2 Fedora Update System 2026-05-20 09:57:47 UTC
FEDORA-2026-d3f7081ad6 (open-vm-tools-13.1.0-2.fc43) has been submitted as an update to Fedora 43.
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2026-d3f7081ad6

Comment 3 Fedora Update System 2026-05-21 01:57:38 UTC
FEDORA-2026-d3f7081ad6 has been pushed to the Fedora 43 testing repository.
Soon you'll be able to install the update with the following command:
`sudo dnf upgrade --enablerepo=updates-testing --refresh --advisory=FEDORA-2026-d3f7081ad6`
You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2026-d3f7081ad6

See also https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for more information on how to test updates.

Comment 4 Fedora Update System 2026-05-21 02:34:13 UTC
FEDORA-2026-5674adc0a5 has been pushed to the Fedora 44 testing repository.
Soon you'll be able to install the update with the following command:
`sudo dnf upgrade --enablerepo=updates-testing --refresh --advisory=FEDORA-2026-5674adc0a5`
You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2026-5674adc0a5

See also https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for more information on how to test updates.

Comment 5 Fedora Update System 2026-05-29 01:11:08 UTC
FEDORA-2026-5674adc0a5 (open-vm-tools-13.1.0-2.fc44) has been pushed to the Fedora 44 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.

Comment 6 Fedora Update System 2026-05-29 01:26:39 UTC
FEDORA-2026-d3f7081ad6 (open-vm-tools-13.1.0-2.fc43) has been pushed to the Fedora 43 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.