OpenStep VMWare Display Driver

VMWareFB is an OpenStep display driver for the virtual display hardware in VMWare.

VMWareFB has been tested with VMWare Workstation 3.0 on Linux, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. The driver works very well on Linux, especially in full screen mode.

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2009-12-22 UPDATE: Version 1.1.0 release with support for numerous high-res video modes.

2009-12-19 UPDATE: We’re on Github!. Please feel free to check it out, fork the source and provide any feedback or updates you have to suggest… or just plain run with it. We want OpenStep on VMWare to continue to thrive, but we’re not doing much work on this driver ourselves, and our own expertise in its code is diminished.

2009-12-19 UPDATE: The README now has instructions on re-configuring the driver to work at resolutions above 1024.

2002-02-03 Note: There are some problems with initialization of the device on Windows XP, but once running, it seems very stable.

Support for other versions of VMWare is unknown. Please report any experiences with the Express and Server versions.

2003-10-02 Note: If your display appears to have very incorrect colors, then the problem is most likely that OpenStep cannot properly handle the number of colors you’re running with. Try changing the number of bits-per-pixel you’re using. Any one of 15, 16, 24, or 32 may work, but in our experience you have to experiment to find the right setting. The specific native OS version, display driver or vmware version can affect this.

Our OpenStep driver can only attempt to run at the color depth that your native OS is using.

Download VMWareFB

• Source code on Github for ProjectBuilder on NextStep 3.3
• Downloads for pre-compiled, compressed configs

Credits

• This work wouldn’t have been possible without Laurent Julliard and his website describing how to install OpenStep in VMWare
• Alex and Jeremy at VMware were great resources for any questions we had.
• Thanks to Andreas Grabher and other folks on www.nextcomputers.org for rounding up and sharing instructions for resolutions above 1024.
• Valley City Linen funded the development of this driver.