VMware Memory Problem.


Winuser

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I'm trying to run Linux Mint 20.2 in VMware and I have to set the memory in the VM below 2GBs or Linux Mint will not boot. I get this error.

Mint20.2.jpg
Is there a setting I need to change. It was working OK when I had the memory in the VM set to 4GB. Rebooting didn't help.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Canary Channel
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    PowerSpec B746
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-10700K
    Motherboard
    ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming 4/ax
    Memory
    16GB (8GB PC4-19200 DDR4 SDRAM x2)
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 TI
    Sound Card
    Realtek Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung SAM0A87 Samsung SAM0D32
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    NVMe WDC WDS100T2B0C-00PXH0 1TB
    Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB
    PSU
    750 Watts (62.5A)
    Case
    PowerSpec/Lian Li ATX 205
    Keyboard
    Logitech K270
    Mouse
    Logitech M185
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge and Firefox
    Antivirus
    ESET Internet Security
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Canary Channel
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    PowerSpec G156
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-8400 CPU @ 2.80GHz
    Motherboard
    AsusTeK Prime B360M-S
    Memory
    16 MB DDR 4-2666
    Monitor(s) Displays
    23" Speptre HDMI 75Hz
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 970 EVO 500GB NVMe
    Mouse
    Logitek M185
    Keyboard
    Logitek K270
    Browser
    Firefox, Edge and Edge Canary
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
Need more info e.g.

How much RAM do you have?

What have you set for VMs.

Are you using dynamic RAM?

You really need 16 GB RAM to comfortably run VMS, leaving around 8GB for Host.

If only 8 GB, I would set VM to max 4 GB. You shoukd also have pagefiling set to automatic.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro + others in VHDs
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Vivobook 14
    CPU
    I7
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    N/A
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Optane NVME SSD, 1 TB NVME SSD
    PSU
    Yep, got one
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wired
    Internet Speed
    72 Mb/s :-(
    Browser
    Edge mostly
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0
My laptop has 8 GBs of ram. I have only went as high as 4GBs for the VM. This use to work without a problem. I think the problem started with one of the Windows 11 updates. I rarely use the VM so I don't know when this problem started.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Canary Channel
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    PowerSpec B746
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-10700K
    Motherboard
    ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming 4/ax
    Memory
    16GB (8GB PC4-19200 DDR4 SDRAM x2)
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 TI
    Sound Card
    Realtek Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung SAM0A87 Samsung SAM0D32
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    NVMe WDC WDS100T2B0C-00PXH0 1TB
    Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB
    PSU
    750 Watts (62.5A)
    Case
    PowerSpec/Lian Li ATX 205
    Keyboard
    Logitech K270
    Mouse
    Logitech M185
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge and Firefox
    Antivirus
    ESET Internet Security
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Canary Channel
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    PowerSpec G156
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-8400 CPU @ 2.80GHz
    Motherboard
    AsusTeK Prime B360M-S
    Memory
    16 MB DDR 4-2666
    Monitor(s) Displays
    23" Speptre HDMI 75Hz
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 970 EVO 500GB NVMe
    Mouse
    Logitek M185
    Keyboard
    Logitek K270
    Browser
    Firefox, Edge and Edge Canary
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
My laptop has 8 GBs of ram. I have only went as high as 4GBs for the VM. This use to work without a problem. I think the problem started with one of the Windows 11 updates. I rarely use the VM so I don't know when this problem started.
I did some tests a while back and contrary to popular perception, modern Linux distros really needed around 5 GB to run without excess paging but that was Ubuntu in enhanced mode. Sure you can use lite versions which will run in less than 2 GB but they are not really that user orientated.

In other tests, I found W10 often used less memory than W8/W7. In part memory compression helps, but in the end it is just more memory efficient. I can still run it on my 1 GB tablet albeit sedately.

Now I know how to get sound on Ubuntu in a HyperV VM, I only use HyperV now. I tend to use fixed memory assignment rather than dynamic memory, mainly as it was a bit flakey at one time but I admit I have not tried dynamic memory for a while.

As HyperV is a type one hypervisor, it does not consume so much memory overhead as well.

So although I cannot directly answer re. VMWare as I have not used it for a while, I am guessing there is a dynamic memory setting which may help, as it will use as much as it needs and if not enough, it will page.

However, as I said 8GB is barely enough to run VMs. I added 4GB to my old laptop taking it to 12GB (couldn't afford 8 GB at the time) and it made a big difference, with VMs on HyperV running fine in regards to memory usage.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro + others in VHDs
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Vivobook 14
    CPU
    I7
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    N/A
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Optane NVME SSD, 1 TB NVME SSD
    PSU
    Yep, got one
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wired
    Internet Speed
    72 Mb/s :-(
    Browser
    Edge mostly
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0
I'm also not using VMWare nowadays but it seems the host consumes or reserves more memory than before where it leaves the Workstation VM with less available.
Giving 4GB out of total of 8GB to VM is on the edge and maybe risky. Depending on usage on the host, a few browser tabs would already fill quite some memory in parallel with the VM running...

You could try this in the VM settings:
Code:
vmmon.disableHostParameters = "TRUE"

Others have reported it works with 8GB on host.

 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Intel NUC
    CPU
    i3 8109U
    Motherboard
    Intel
    Memory
    16GB DDR4 @2400
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655
    Sound Card
    Intel / Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG-32ML600M
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Intel SSD 250GB + Samsung QVO SSD 1TB
    PSU
    Adapter
    Cooling
    The usual NUC airflow
    Keyboard
    Logitech Orion G610
    Mouse
    SteelSeries Rival 100 Red
    Internet Speed
    Good enough
    Browser
    Chromium, Edge, Firefox
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
  • Operating System
    CentOS 9 Stream / Alma / Rocky / Fedora
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    TOSHIBA
    CPU
    Intel i7 4800MQ
    Motherboard
    TOSHIBA
    Memory
    32GB DDR3 @1600
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA Quadro K2100M
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Built-in
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
To my surprise I can set the memory to 4GBs again. I can't explain why because I didn't make any changes.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Canary Channel
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    PowerSpec B746
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-10700K
    Motherboard
    ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming 4/ax
    Memory
    16GB (8GB PC4-19200 DDR4 SDRAM x2)
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 TI
    Sound Card
    Realtek Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung SAM0A87 Samsung SAM0D32
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    NVMe WDC WDS100T2B0C-00PXH0 1TB
    Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB
    PSU
    750 Watts (62.5A)
    Case
    PowerSpec/Lian Li ATX 205
    Keyboard
    Logitech K270
    Mouse
    Logitech M185
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge and Firefox
    Antivirus
    ESET Internet Security
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Canary Channel
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    PowerSpec G156
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-8400 CPU @ 2.80GHz
    Motherboard
    AsusTeK Prime B360M-S
    Memory
    16 MB DDR 4-2666
    Monitor(s) Displays
    23" Speptre HDMI 75Hz
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 970 EVO 500GB NVMe
    Mouse
    Logitek M185
    Keyboard
    Logitek K270
    Browser
    Firefox, Edge and Edge Canary
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
My guess remains the variable memory allocation the host reserves and the fact that you are on the max reasonable limit given to the VM (4 out of 8GB).

Have you tested with the tweak I mentioned?
If not, this is still unsolved as there is no guarantee the issue won't start again.

Fingers crossed this remains up and running for you.
🤞
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Intel NUC
    CPU
    i3 8109U
    Motherboard
    Intel
    Memory
    16GB DDR4 @2400
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655
    Sound Card
    Intel / Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG-32ML600M
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Intel SSD 250GB + Samsung QVO SSD 1TB
    PSU
    Adapter
    Cooling
    The usual NUC airflow
    Keyboard
    Logitech Orion G610
    Mouse
    SteelSeries Rival 100 Red
    Internet Speed
    Good enough
    Browser
    Chromium, Edge, Firefox
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
  • Operating System
    CentOS 9 Stream / Alma / Rocky / Fedora
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    TOSHIBA
    CPU
    Intel i7 4800MQ
    Motherboard
    TOSHIBA
    Memory
    32GB DDR3 @1600
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA Quadro K2100M
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Built-in
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080

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