Parallels Tools support for Fedora 17 and 18?

D

Doug from Boulder

Bit poster
I have been use Fedora 17-64 with Parallels 8. I did a yum update and Parallels said that the Tools needed to updated. When I updated the Tools, there was a failure with the installation, components were missing etc. The failed attempt of the Tools installation corrupted the copy of FC17. Luckily I had a backup of the VM image.

I then created a VM with FC18-64. FC18 ran with no problems. When I tried to install Parallels Tools, I got a similar failure to FC17 except the FC18 was not corrupted. Here is the log of the install:

Start installation or upgrade of Guest Tools
new version of parallels tools
Installed Guest Tools were not found
Perform installation into the /usr/lib/parallels-tools directory
cat: /usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods/../version: No such file or directory
Start installation of prl_eth kernel module
awk: fatal: cannot open file `/lib/modules/3.7.6-201.fc18.x86_64/build/include/linux/version.h' for reading (No such file or directory)
/bin/sh: line 0: [: -ge: unary operator expected
make: Entering directory `/usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods'
cd prl_eth/pvmnet && make
awk: fatal: cannot open file `/lib/modules/3.7.6-201.fc18.x86_64/build/include/linux/version.h' for reading (No such file or directory)
/bin/sh: line 0: [: -ge: unary operator expected
/bin/sh: line 0: [: too many arguments
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods/prl_eth/pvmnet'
Makefile:41: *** Unsupported kernel version in /lib/modules/3.7.6-201.fc18.x86_64/build. Stop.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods/prl_eth/pvmnet'
make: *** [installme] Error 2
make: Leaving directory `/usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods'
Error: could not build kernel modules
Error: failed to install kernel modules
2013-02-15T14:21:28-0700: execCmd: ./install --install [143]
2013-02-15T14:21:28-0700: Error: An error occurred when installing Parallels Tools. Please go to /var/log/parallels-tools-install.log for more information.
2013-02-15T14:22:06-0700: Exiting with code 1


My question is when will the new FC17/18 kernels be supported?
 
Shared folders not working

I can't access Mac folders from the Fedora guest OS. The Tools install failed like it did for Doug (above)
 
Hi guys,

We're aware of the issue. Stay tuned and keep your Parallels Desktop updated! The fix will be released in one of the next builds.
 
How long does a fix release normally take? Really like Fedora 18 to be able to get the correct resolutions on my rMBP 15 and docking with Thunderbolt Display and performance be better.
 
Yum Update to Fedora 17 64bit

I did a routine yum update to one of my Fedora 17 64 bit machines yesterday and ended up with a VM that wouldn't boot, I managed to get it to login at least at run level 3 so I could use it with lots of messing about, however I'm still left with a system that is stuck in limbo until an update to the Parallels Tools is made available to support the current Kernel, from the log file I ascertained the following:

Makefile:41: *** Unsupported kernel version in /lib/modules/3.7.9-101.fc17.x86_64/build. Stop.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods/prl_eth/pvmnet'
make: *** [installme] Error 2
make: Leaving directory `/usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods'
Error: could not build kernel modules
Error: failed to install kernel modules

The question is, how best do I get the system back to a basic usable state where the Display Manager won't hang on startup and how will I upgrade the Parallels Tools to a working version once it's made available?

I think as a general comment here I would add that it would be nice to get an email to highlight these potential problems, having a backup is of course the best solution but it would be nice if you told your users of these types of issues to save many hours of frustration towards an otherwise invaluable tool.
 
Unsupported kernel modules in Fedora 17 (3.7.9-101)

I assume you'll be making available a "how to" describing how to recover the broken OS?
 
Hi,

Is there some workarounds the issues in Fedora 18? I got around the "version.h" problem but after that there are some other compiling errors related to pvmnet_pci_init and pvmnet_pci_remove.

Thanks,
Daniel
 
Since kernel 3.6.x (about 6 months ago!) the Parallels Tools are incompatible with Fedora 17 and they never have been compatible with Fedora 18. It seems like this issue has a VERY low priority. :(
 
Which Fedora distro will install in Parallel Tools?

Since kernel 3.6.x support seems not to be worked on my question is:

Down to which Fedora distro I have to downgrade until Parallel Toolls will work, e.g. which is the largest kernel version which is supported?

I have a Fedora 18 with kernel 3.8.3 up and running nicely. The only issue is that without coherence mode it is not very convenicnce to work with Linux under Fedora.

Regards
Dietrich
 
Disappointing

Also growing disappointed with Linux guest support. Not everyone with Parallels only virtualizes Windows 8....
 
The list of supported guest operating systems can be found on page 119 of the User Guide.
Our development is constantly working to support new Linux distros - we are posting updates on the forum once new builds and versions of Parallels Desktop are released.
 
Still unsolved. Underlaying problem:version.h missing in kernel headers of Fedora 18

Dear Andrew,

thank your for your answer. On page 119 it is written that Fedora 17 is supported which is obviously not the case, at least for the Parallel tools and Fedora 17. That's what I read in the
contributions above.

The technical issue is that the kernel headers don't have the version.h file in /lib/modules/3.7.2-201.fc18.x86_64/build/include/linux/. Therefore, the script is not able to get the right path to fetch the other header files. I tried to
follow the solution which fixes the issue as it works for VMware Fusion, which is by copping the version.h file to the sources, e.g.:
cp /usr/include/linux/version.h /lib/modules/3.7.2-201.fc18.x86_64/build/include/linux/
See the the thread https://ask.fedoraproject.org/question/8219/vmware-player-f18-kernel-headers/ which solves the issue for Fedora 18 on combination with
VMware Fusion Tools. I'm wondering if this might be a starting point to solve the problem for Parallels Tools and Fedora 17/18. I had a look at the ./install script but I didn't manage to adopt it accordingly and ended up with the same problems like Daniel Rodrigue described.

The thread was opened more than 2 months ago and it woule be great if this issue could be prioritized. I'm looking forward to use Fedora 18 in one of the next versions, but hoping for support in one of the next builds.

Regards
Dietrich
 
My hack to Fedora 18.. may work on 17 also.. is to install Fedora as normal, but before you do any updates add this to your /etc/yum.conf:

exclude=kernel*

Now you can update your system as usual, and then install the Parallel Tools. This has worked for me so far and I'm happy sitting at 3.6.10-4.fc18.x86_64 until the parallels team fixes this in next update.

Important to note.. that if you've updated your system, you can not downgrade kernel (at least I haven't figured out how). Yum will complain about a bunch of dependencies if you do. So you have to do a clean install.

Hope this helps.. I'm a little disappointed with this as well.. it's giving a negative impression in my mind of Parallels with Linux guests. I'm still hoping Parallels team comes through and give them a chance. I can appreciate there are challenges when a distro aggressively updates the kernel. Or the kernel developers put a surprise or two in that breaks the tools. I'm sure its frustrating from development side of Parallels as well.

Parallels team if you could at least throw us a bone with a beta version of the tools :) Some of us advanced users wouldn't mind helping test and providing feedback :)
 
Dear BooleanVariable,

thanks for your answer. For me 3.6.10-4.fc18.x86_64 would be good enough and I think as well that with some bits and pieces of information this should be solvable. I tried it the way you suggested:

a.) Installed Fedora from the Image
b.) modified /etc/yum.conf
c.) Tried to install gcc and kernel-headers

I did not manage to install the gcc and hernel-headers which I need for Parallel tools further on. The reason is that I cannot find the 3.6.10-4.fc18.x86_64 kernel-headers (or other rpm files which look such as kernel-sources ...) in the distribution used by yum.

Regards
Dietrich


Regards
Dietrich
 
I think I missed a couple things.. here's revised instructions..

1) install from Live Media (that is snapshotted in time of release with 3.6.10)
2) disable temporarily the Fedora Updates repository
3) modify the yum.conf to disable kernel
4) yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
5) install parallel tools
6) reboot
7) enable Fedora Updates repository
8) update your system

DietrichL said:
Dear BooleanVariable,

thanks for your answer. For me 3.6.10-4.fc18.x86_64 would be good enough and I think as well that with some bits and pieces of information this should be solvable. I tried it the way you suggested:

a.) Installed Fedora from the Image
b.) modified /etc/yum.conf
c.) Tried to install gcc and kernel-headers

I did not manage to install the gcc and hernel-headers which I need for Parallel tools further on. The reason is that I cannot find the 3.6.10-4.fc18.x86_64 kernel-headers (or other rpm files which look such as kernel-sources ...) in the distribution used by yum.

Regards
Dietrich


Regards
Dietrich
Click to expand...
 
It seems like a new update with F18 support has been released: http://kb.parallels.com/de/115848

edit:
I installed it but there seems to be a graphical glitch. Whenever I move the mouse outside the VM's window the Gnome desktop starts to flicker and everything turns white. Did anyone else noticed this, too?
 
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"I installed it but there seems to be a graphical glitch. ... Did anyone else noticed this, too?"

Yes. To workaround turn off 3D acceleration (Virtual Machine/Configure/Hardware/Video) when the VM is stopped.

For FC17, even with that, there still is a bit of flakiness going on with the video. It is still useable, however.

For FC18, there are more serious problems:
1. Gnome 3 is not used. Instead the older Gnome 2 is used. It has to do with the graphics capabilities of the video.
2. The desktop background seems to be out of horizontal/vertical sync when first booted or when the desktop is resized. It appears to fix itself when some application opens a window. You just need to drag that window over the desktop to "repaint" the desktop.
 
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