The VMware Installer could not shut down all running virtual machines - VMWare Workstation upgrade error

Yesterday, while upgrading VMware Workstation 14.1.2-8497320 to 14.1.3-9474260 on my Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS machine, got the following error message:

"The VMware Installer could not shut down all running virtual machines. If you have Encrypted VMs open, please shut them down or suspend them now and press 'Retry' to continue."

No VM instance was running/open in my case, tried pressing Retry button on installation GUI, but still got the same error message. Rebooted the physical machine tried upgrading (both in-app and manual upgrade) and got the same error message again. Tried multiple tweaks and finally after much struggle managed to resolve the issue by following steps:

• Remove all vmware startup scripts
  rana@ranatics:~# sudo rm /etc/init.d/vmware
  rana@ranatics:~# sudo rm /etc/init.d/vmware-USBArbitrator
  rana@ranatics:~# sudo rm /etc/init.d/vmware-workstation-server
  
• Reboot your computer
  rana@ranatics:~# sudo reboot
  
• Uninstall your old vmware installation
  rana@ranatics:~# sudo /usr/bin/vmware-installer -u vmware-workstation
  
• Download and install the updated version
  rana@ranatics:~# sudo VMware-Workstation-Full-14.1.3-9474260.x86_64.bundle

Enjoy!

HTH,
Rana.

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SecureCRT "Error while loading shared libraries: libpng16.so.16" on Ubuntu 16.04

Today, I installed SecureCRT Version "8.3.3 (build 1646) - Official Release - May 3, 2018" on Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS machine. After installation, SecureCRT won't launch and gave the following error in terminal.

$ SecureCRT
SecureCRT: error while loading shared libraries: libpng16.so.16: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Tried various tweaks, and the following did the job.
Firstly, install required PNG Library "libpng16-16" package with the following command:

$ sudo apt install libpng16-16

Run the program, and if you come across `GLIBCXX_3.4.22' not found error than go further below to next step:

$ SecureCRT
SecureCRT: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.22' not found (required by SecureCRT)

Now, Update GLIBCXX_3.4.22 library packages from this untrusted PPA by adding ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test to your system's Software Sources.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt dist-upgrade -y

You can check if you have GLIBCXX_3.4.22 like this:

$ strings /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 | grep GLIBCXX_3.4.22

GLIBCXX_3.4.22  

Now, run SecureCRT and enjoy!

HTH,
Rana Tauqeer.

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Unable to login via HTML5 console on EVE-NG

Issue:
Unable to login via HTML5 console on EVE-NG's Web GUI after upgrade to EVE-NG 2.0.3-86 or when in HTML5 console, disconnect button gets you into a guacamole login page and can’t get any sessions in HTML5.

Solution:
This is a typical corrupt Guacamole SQL database issue; whether happened randomly or even during/after eve upgrade process, there are two very simple proposed solutions for this problem:

1. Logout/Login from/into eve to be able to open html console again.
   or
2. Issue the following command on eve-ng vm:
   #cat /opt/unetlab/schema/guacamole-update.sql | mysql -u root --password=eve-ng guacdb
   and than login/logout from/into eve.

HTH,
Rana Tauqeer.

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Setting SecureCRT as default telnet handler for EVE-NG devices on Firefox.

While doing Lab practice on EVE-NG's Web GUI on Firefox Web-browser, telnet (by double click or right-click console option) to a network device opens Ubuntu's default terminal (Gnome Terminal) via 'xdg-open' script from 'xdg-utils' by default. Console to multiple devices opens a new instance of Gnome Terminal for each telnet session, which for me is not handy and makes it too messy! 

I'm rather a SecureCRT fan, and have always preferred it over other available terminal emulators due to it's awesome features and handy tools. So, I was trying to find a way to open the EVE-NG's telnet:// or ssh:// links directly via SecureCRT. Manual telnet/SSH from SecureCRT to EVE-NG's devices works fine by default, but, this becomes hectic for full scale CCIE Labs having over 50 or more devices running.

With the help of VanDyke Technical Support, I was able to figure out a way to get Firefox on Ubuntu to prompt you for which application to open SSH/Telnet links with.

Following instructions can make it possible:

• Open Firefox and type “about:config” in address bar.
• Create a new Boolean preference (right click on an empty space), name it
  “network.protocol-handler.expose.telnet” (without inverted commas) for telnet handler, and set the value “false”.
• Create another new Boolean preference (right click on an empty space), name it
  “network.protocol-handler.expose.ssh” (without inverted commas) for ssh handler, and set the value “false”
• Restart the browser.

This should be enough for Firefox to let us select an external application to open “telnet://” links. 
While testing I would suggest leaving the "Remember my choice for ..." option unchecked. When prompted you should be able to select SecureCRT, by default it is located at /usr/bin/SecureCRT.

PS:
I'm using latest SecureCRT 8.3.2 on Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS (Xenial) and while attempting various suggested workarounds, messed up SecureCRT's Tab feature (it kept opening new sessions in new instances rather than in tabs).

There is a work around that you could try. It would force SecureCRT into Single Instance mode, though you would not be able to open two separate instances of SecureCRT.

To accomplish this:

• Locate the config folder info in the General / Configuration Paths category of SecureCRT's Global Options
• Close all instances of SecureCRT/FX
• Navigate to your SecureCRT configuration folder
• Locate and open the Global.ini file
• Find the line containing "Single Instance"
• Modify the line to D:"Single Instance"=00000001
• Save the changes to Global.ini

Now that SecureCRT is in Single Instance mode any link selected should open in a new tab.

HTH,
Rana Tauqeer.

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