By Alexandros Frantzis

here is a quick-start guide for running Mir in VMware:

1. Go to https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/downloads and download
   VMware Player (last in Desktop & End-User Computing section).

2. Install VMware player with: sudo bash VMware-Player-6.0.4-2249910.x86_64.bundle

3. Get latest vivid daily iso.

4. Install vivid into VM, restart and log in.

5. Install VMware tools from the menu "Virtual Machine->Install VMWare tools"
   and follow the instructions. If you get an error "VMware Tools installation
   cannot be started manually while the easy install is in progress.
   see [1].

6. If you are using Mesa drivers, stop the virtual machine, go to the folder
   where the VM is saved and add the following file to the <vm-name>.vmx file
   there:

       mks.gl.allowBlacklistedDrivers = "TRUE"

7. sudo apt-get install glmark2 and run 'glmark2' to ensure that it runs and
   shows SVGA as the renderer (not llvmpipe!)

8. sudo apt-get unity8-desktop-session-mir mir-demos

9. Try out raw mir server:
   a. Change to VT2 and run "sudo mir_demo_server_shell"
   b. Change to VT3 and run "sudo mir_demo_client_egltriangle"
   c. Change back to VT2, you should see a window with a triangle spinning fast.
   d. Use Alt + click + drag to move the window around
   e. Use Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to stop the server

10. Try out unity8 desktop session by selecting it in lightdm

Unfortunately the VMware KMS support is still somewhat unstable. The KMS/DRM
driver doesn't seem to respect vsync (hence the fast spinning egl triangle in
step 9c). Also switching between VTs may occasionally make the VM unresponsive,
and sometimes screen resizing causes problems.  I strongly suggest you set up
an ssh server in the VM so you can inspect the system over ssh from the host.


[1] http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1017687