Ubuntu (11.04) "Unity" now fails on OSX Lion (10.7) with Parallels (6.0.12094)

A

adriann

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Hi,

My previously working installation of Ubuntu (11.04) running "Unity" (desktop environment) now fails on OSX Lion (10.7) with Parallels (6.0.12094).

Prior upgrading to Lion and the latest Parallels, "Unity" worked just fine, but now the desktop only partially loads and exhibits a display error (screenshot attached).

In case my my VM somehow became broken, I created a brand new VM with clean install of Ubuntu. On first boot Ubuntu advised that my machine was not capable of running "Unity" and subsequently loaded "Gnome" instead. Ubuntu update manager downloaded a number of packages and rebooted.

Once started up, I see the exact same problem exhibited on my original Ubuntu VM.

Has anyone else encountered this? (meaning it's probably a Parallels problem and not something I can fix).



thanks Adrian
 

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Update: Logging in using the Ubuntu "Classic" environment works perfectly. The issue is ONLY when using "Unity" which does rely on 3D acceleration. For pure experimentation I installed a version of Unity 2D, which worked which isn't all that surprising since it's specifically designed to run on lesser non accelerated hardware.

Curiously "Unity" does sort of load, the menubar and many other UI elements are clickable, however they are invisible, as you can see in my screen shot the menubar is invisible except for the drop shadow, you can activate menu items, so they are there, just not rendering for whatever reason.

So it looks like whatever acceleration I used to get through Parallels has changed somewhat. Clearly Ubuntu thinks I should be capable of running Unity otherwise it would drop back to loading the Classic environment by default.

My setup:

Processor 2.93 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT 512 MB
Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7 (11A511)
 
I have the same problem. I upgraded SL to Lion, then installed the Parallels 12094 update which fixed the issue with the Launchpad. Last night I went through my VMs to update Parallels Tools in line with 12094, as indicated at the bottom of each VM.

XP - updated fine. Vista U64 - updated fine. Ubuntu started up in Unity, as normal and all looked fine until the reboot following Tools update. It told me my machine wasn't capable of running Unity and gave me the classic screen. I re-installed Tools - no joy. I deleted tools, rebooted VM and installed Tools - no joy.

I'd recently backed up all my VMs so later today I'll restore Ubuntu from before the Tools update. It did seem fine before I updated Tools so I'll run it like that until the next Parallels update, if need be. Seems to me there's a problem with the latest Tools for 11.04.
 
I have already tried rolling back to a backup of my VM, however it didn't help. I don't think it's specifically the new tools, I think Parallels itself has changed something to do with the 3D video which has caused this problem.
 
Finally got around to restoring my Ubuntu VM backup. Unity now works fine again so in my case it does appear to be the tools - on the face of it at least. It's telling me along the bottom that Tools is out of date but I can live with that.
 
Ok that's strange. My Ubuntu VM started exhibiting these problems immediately after I upgraded Parallels and _before_ I installed the tools... I installed the tools in the hopes that it would fix the glitch, which it didn't.

For me at least it's _not_ specifically the tools, neither a clean install of Ubuntu or rolling back to my pre-update VM helps.

@Jrh68uk: Are you still using the latest Parallels version (6.0.12094) with your old VM file?
 
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Same Issue for Me

Same issue for me, using similar h/w as OP. Also similar to the OP this happened before upgrading tools, and "classic" works for me just fine. At least I can get some work done in my VM that way...
 
Hmm - strange indeed. Yes, I'm using the latest build 12094. I updated it and just went through my VMs to update Tools, even though each was working fine as they were before the upgrade to 12094 (the previous one I was using was 12092 I believe).

When I got to Ubuntu everything seemed as it was prior to the Parallels update apart from the fact that it didn't like my non-standard window dimensions, so it went to 1024x768. I could resize at will and go full-screen as well, with no problem, so I thought nothing more of it and updated Tools. Only after that did it tell me that my hardware wasn't capable of running Unity.

Now that I've restored to the VM of shortly before the Tools update, once again everything seems fine and Unity is running as before. Looking closer, yet again Ubuntu says it doesn't like the screen dimensions I had it sized to before previous shut down, so it gives me 1024x768 as the largest standard-sized window that will fit on screen (I have a 2011 15" MBP). Again, I can resize and go full-screen without problems.

So the only problem I seem to have is that my preferred window size won't stick between reboots any more. Perhaps, with my hardware, the older Tools largely bypass whatever change has been made in Parallels/Lion that you see immediately as Unity not working at all.
 
I have the same problem

After upgrading the new parallels tool in Ubuntu with the Ubuntu Classic session, the "Unity" is not usable anymore.
 
I am also having the exact same problem. The screenshot enclosed in the initial post of this thread is exactly what my desktop looks like.

I am running all the latest updates, patches, and software; i.e. Lion OS X, Parallels 6.0.12094, Ubuntu 11.04, and I installed the Parallels Tools package for Ubuntu 11.04.
 
It seems that this problem may be a known issue:

http://kb.parallels.com/en/111614

Assuming that "Screen artifacts in Ubuntu 11.04 virtual machines" actually refers to the failure of unity (3D acceleration) and not some other issue.

We just have to wait it out, a fix is on the way in the "next build".

Thanks everyone for chiming in to let me know I'm not alone.
 
i got the same and exact as the screen shot .. thats mean .. we just need to wait for the update that will fixed it ... :(
 
Same Here

I'm glad I'm not alone. This is very annoying--screwed around with my VM configurations in Parallels and in Ubuntu to no avail, re-created the VM twice... Some update on this issue from Parallels staff would be much appreciated.
 
Work-Around

I've lost my Linux chops over the years, having spent most of my time in Mac OS X. So this may not be the most elegant solution to regaining access to your Ubuntu VM, but it's what I'm doing:

To get to the terminal:
1. right-click on the desktop and select "Create Launcher..."
2. for Type, select "Application in Terminal"
3. for Name, your choice. I chose "bash"
4. for Command, enter "bash"
5. Click OK
6. Double-click the new Launcher icon titled "bash"

To launch gnome-panel (better solution than above, in most cases)
1. right-click on the desktop and select "Create Launcher..."
2. for Type, select "Application"
3. for Name, your choice. I chose "panel"
4. for Command, enter "gnome-panel"
5. Click OK
6. Double-click the new Launcher icon titled "panel"
 
The screen artifacts is how this manifested to me, at least that was the first clue. Otherwise very similar experience as noted previously and it looks like it's a known bug.

The easiest way to at least access my VM with no graphic artifacts was to disable 3D acceleration.
 
asciilator said:
I've lost my Linux chops over the years, having spent most of my time in Mac OS X. So this may not be the most elegant solution to regaining access to your Ubuntu VM, but it's what I'm doing:

To get to the terminal:
1. right-click on the desktop and select "Create Launcher..."
2. for Type, select "Application in Terminal"
3. for Name, your choice. I chose "bash"
4. for Command, enter "bash"
5. Click OK
6. Double-click the new Launcher icon titled "bash"

To launch gnome-panel (better solution than above, in most cases)
1. right-click on the desktop and select "Create Launcher..."
2. for Type, select "Application"
3. for Name, your choice. I chose "panel"
4. for Command, enter "gnome-panel"
5. Click OK
6. Double-click the new Launcher icon titled "panel"
Click to expand...

is the work around works to get the unity environment?
 
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