VMware Workstation: CPU disabled by guest operating system

Question

I am using VMware Workstation 12.5.2 on a Windows 7 64-bit host. The Ubuntu image I've been using was working fine until recently.

The GNU GRUB bootloader starts when I play the virtual machine, which didn't happen before. After this, the following error message is displayed:

The CPU has been disabled by the guest operating system. Power off or reset the virtual machine.

I have tried restarting the virtual machine, the VMware application, and the host itself. What do I need to do to get the VM working again?

Solution

^{There's no question in this question, so I just assume you want to understand the situation.}

Your guest Ubuntu machine is unusable and it is indicated by the error messages in the console starting with:

run-init: /sbin/init: No such file or directory

The error in the VMware Player is just a result of the guest machine not being able to start correctly. Per KB2000542:

The error message is seen when a guest operating system running in a VMware virtual machine intentionally halts the virtual CPU by executing the instructions CLI and HLT in succession. This can occur during a critical error or fault within the guest operating system.

This error can occur in:

• Windows virtual machines - Caused by the guest operating system crashing (BSOD).
• Linux virtual machines - Caused by kernel panic can also generate those messages.

Either you have a disk configuration problem, or your guest machine became corrupted and you should create a new one.

After that you might try to mount the affected machine disk to retrieve data or further troubleshoot the problem.

Comments

[Aaron]

To clarify, I will need to select the 'Delete from Disk' option and then reopen my .vmx file? Does this delete my data on the VM as well or will I be able to recover it?