I would appreciate some help with this one. I know that there is a lot of activity on the forums in relation to consoles going black on booting etc and that it can be fixed with the right permissions. I don't have this issue. I have an issue where the console will blank or go black at random times during normal operation. To recover you must click in another console tab or gome and click back to force a refresh of the screen. I have seen somewhere on the forums (I've looked at far to much information now to remember where!) that this may be due to SSL encryption of the console session. As a result of this and trawling through far to many forum entries I've a couple of questions:
\- Does anyone have the random blanking of the console screen and have they managed to fix it (other than disabling SSL)?
\- Has anyone had issues with disabling the SSL feature for remote console connections (Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to
encrypt remote server console connections) that results in the console being inoperative altogether after that, i.e. wont connect to the server at all?
I have both issues and would like to fix one or the other. I've tried all of this on a fresh and vanilla install of Ubuntu Server 6.06 that follows the Howtoforge guide on installing VMware server for Ubuntu. Everything appears to work fine apart from console blanking. If the SSL option is deselected, the Server Console will not connect at all. I'm using windows to run the Remote Console and there is no GUI on the server so I can't connect from the localhost.
VMWare server version: 1.0.1-29996
Windows console version: 1.0.1-29996
Host OS: Ubuntu 6.06 2.6.15-26-386
I've eliminated networking issues as I can telnet to 902 with SSL enabled and without it.
Before SSL disabled:
220 VMware Authentication Daemon Version 1.10: SSL Required, MKSDisplayProtocol:VNC
After SSL disabled:
220 VMware Authentication Daemon Version 1.0, MKSDisplayProtocol:VNC[/i]
I've also checked for the host_only entries in the /etc/xinetd/vmware_authd and /etc/xinetd.conf and they don't exist.
Here's the output from the from the authd logging when SSL is enabled (can connect remotely - console will blank randomly):
Sep 27 19:29:31: app| Log for VMware Server pid=5262 version=1.0.1 build=build-29996 option=Release.3.2.2
Sep 27 19:29:31: app| VMAuthd started.
Sep 27 19:29:31: app| start
Sep 27 19:29:31: app| Connect from 192.168.1.2
Sep 27 19:29:31: app| Connecting via SSL
Sep 27 19:29:31: app| Unable to open dir /var/run/vmware/authdTickets/
Sep 27 19:29:31: app| PAM up and running.
Sep 27 19:29:31: app| login from 192.168.1.2 as jason
Sep 27 19:29:31: app| received initial command: GLOBAL server-vmdb
Sep 27 19:29:31: app| Acquired lock for /var/log/vmware/authd_vmware%2Dserverd
Sep 27 19:29:31: app| VMX sent pid: 4304
Sep 27 19:29:31: app| released lock for /var/log/vmware/authd_vmware%2Dserverd
Sep 27 19:29:31: app| Msg_Reset:
Sep 27 19:29:31: app| \[msg.file.maketemp.openFailed] Failed to create temporary file "//.vmware/preferences0": Permission denied.
Sep 27 19:29:31: app| \[msg.preference.writeMakeTempFailed] Cannot create temporary file to save user preference file "//.vmware/preferences".
Sep 27 19:29:31: app| \----
Sep 27 19:29:31: app| PREF Failed to save user preferences before exit.[/i]
Here's the output from the authd logging when SSL is disabled (can't connect - remote console times out eventually after about 10 minutes):
Sep 27 19:32:41: app| Log for VMware Server pid=5267 version=1.0.1 build=build-29996 option=Release.3.2.2
Sep 27 19:32:41: app| VMAuthd started.
Sep 27 19:32:41: app| start
Sep 27 19:32:41: app| Connect from 192.168.1.2
Sep 27 19:32:41: app| Using plaintext connection
Sep 27 19:32:41: app| VMAuthdSocketRead: read failed. Closing socket for reading.
Sep 27 19:32:41: app| VMAuthdSocketWrite: writing to a closed socket: 221 Goodbye
Sep 27 19:32:41: app|
Sep 27 19:33:23: app| Log for VMware Server pid=5269 version=1.0.1 build=build-29996 option=Release.3.2.2
Sep 27 19:33:23: app| VMAuthd started.
Sep 27 19:33:23: app| Using Plaintext!
Sep 27 19:33:23: app| start
Sep 27 19:33:23: app| Connect from localhost
Sep 27 19:33:23: app| Using plaintext connection
Sep 27 19:33:23: app| Unable to open dir /var/run/vmware/authdTickets/
Sep 27 19:33:23: app| PAM up and running.
Sep 27 19:33:23: app| received initial command: GLOBAL server
Sep 27 19:33:23: app| Acquired lock for /var/log/vmware/authd_vmware%2Dserverd
Sep 27 19:33:23: app| VMX sent pid: 4304
Sep 27 19:33:23: app| released lock for /var/log/vmware/authd_vmware%2Dserverd
Sep 27 19:43:58: app| Log for VMware Server pid=5283 version=1.0.1 build=build-29996 option=Release.3.2.2
Sep 27 19:43:58: app| VMAuthd started.
Sep 27 19:43:58: app| Using Plaintext!
Sep 27 19:43:58: app| start
Sep 27 19:43:58: app| Connect from localhost
Sep 27 19:43:58: app| Using plaintext connection
Sep 27 19:43:58: app| Unable to open dir /var/run/vmware/authdTickets/
Sep 27 19:43:58: app| PAM up and running.
Sep 27 19:43:58: app| received initial command: GLOBAL server
Sep 27 19:43:58: app| Acquired lock for /var/log/vmware/authd_vmware%2Dserverd
Sep 27 19:43:58: app| VMX sent pid: 4304
Sep 27 19:43:58: app| released lock for /var/log/vmware/authd_vmware%2Dserverd[/i]
When the console eventually times out, it presents the following error:
There was a problem connecting:
Connection terminated by server,
C:/ob/bora-29996/pompeii2005/bora/lib/connect/authdConnection.c:886 ret 0 err 0[/i]
The remaining authd log above says to me that the localhost can authenticate fine in plaintext. I don't know why it's doing it but I want it to work remotely as well 
I would greatly appreciate assistance with either issue.