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Introduction

PMRC is a Poor (wo)Man's Remote Control, allowing you to easily connect to a server running VMware Fusion and do simple tasks. These tasks include powering on or off virtual machines and connecting to them via VNC via Fusion's built-in VNC server (you don't have to install anything in the guest, although you can if you wish).

PMRC is not a VMware product, please don't pester them for support.

The VMTN Communities discussion thread for PMRC is here.

Screenshot

Main interface of PMRC

Requirements

The server you will connect to must have VMware Fusion 2.0 (or newer) installed. PMRC depends on vmrun, which was introduced in Fusion 2.0.

The faster the connection between client and server the better, especially if you want to use VNC and do more than minimal work in remote guests. 100Mbit should be fine, 10Mbit is a bit slow. I would *not* expect PMRC to function well across the internet due to latency/bandwidth problems. You can of course install other remote desktop software in the guest, such as RDP.

PMRC uses /usr/bin/ssh and /usr/bin/python. OS X should come with these by default.

PMRC requires a little bit of setup to use, please see the next section.

Setup

Steps 5-7 are only necessary if you plan to use VNC.

1. PMRC communicates with the server via ssh, so you need to enable Remote Login on the server. You can limit this to the user you will be connecting as.

2. PMRC assumes it can ssh to the server without needing a password or input. Set up SSH keys and verify you can do so.

3. PMRC will only know about running virtual machines and virtual machines in the specified user's Virtual Machine Library. I recommend adding any virtual machines of interest to the Library.

4. PMRC does not handle Fusion dialogs. You should make sure your virtual machines are set up to not prompt for input when possible - for example, add msg.autoAnswer = "TRUE" to the .vmx files. Symptoms of a dialog include a never ending busy indicator after powering on or off a virtual machine.

5. If you intend to use VNC, enable it in your virtual machines' .vmx files, giving each virtual machine a unique port. See A Power User's Guide to VMware Fusion

6. You need Tools installed to use the mouse in most (all?) guests over VNC. Without Tools, the mouse will move only diagonally in one direction (usually up and to the right or down and to the right).

7. PMRC does not come with a VNC viewer, and assumes Chicken of the VNC is installed. By default, PMRC looks in /Applications, but you can override this with `defaults write com.koiproductions.fusion.PMRC PathToCotVNCBin "$PATH_TO_COTVNC"`. Substitute in the absolute path to Chicken of the VNC, including Contents/MacOS/Chicken of the VNC, e.g. defaults write com.koiproductions.fusion.PMRC PathToCotVNCBin "/Users/etung/Applications/Chicken of the VNC.app/Contents/MacOS/Chicken of the VNC"

Known Issues with PMRC

PMRC does not handle Fusion dialogs. I don't think there's a way to do this, at least as Fusion/vmrun are right now.

When a guest changes resolution, CotVNC asks if you want to reconnect; selecting Reconnect does not automatically reconnect.

I've seen PMRC sometimes hit a mach_msg_trap when connected to a virtual machine and that virtual machine changes its resolution and/or color depth. I'm not sure if this is development only, if you see this, please let me know.

I've occasionally seen PMRC not update properly (e.g. not show non-running virtual machines). Logs show the ssh connection is being refused, throttling connections may be necessary. Refreshing the list has worked.

Powered off virtual machines with \n in their filename probably will not be parsed correctly.

.vmx files with unusual characters might not be parsed correctly.

I've tested PMRC running on 10.4.11 against servers running 10.4.11 and 10.5.4 using Fusion 2.0rc1.

License

PMRC is copyright Eric Tung. PMRC is free for you to copy and use.

I ask that in return for using PMRC, you do something extra (beyond what you would otherwise do) to improve something. It can be yourself: Learn a new vocabulary word, read a book, practice or learn a skill, get more exercise, etc. It can be something intangible: Give a friend a hug, call your parents or children, and so on. It can be a cause: Volunteer, donate whatever you think this software is worth to your favorite charity. It can be whatever you want. Just make the world a more awesome place.

No warranty or liability for damages. I think this program will work as advertised, but I make absolutely nothing resembling a guarantee about this.

The source code for PMRC is available for inspection, but other rights reserved. If you'd like to do anything with it beyond your own personal use (e.g. if you'd like to fork it and rerelease it), let me know (I'm just curious) and I'll almost certainly say OK.

Changelog