Mouse not working in VMs using Linux OS with UEFI and Secure Boot enabled

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

The vmmouse kernel mode driver is required for secure boot-enabled virtual machines. VMware upstreamed the vmmouse kernel driver in Linux kernel 4.1. Any Linux distribution before Linux kernel 4.1 will not have a fully functional mouse unless the user has back ported the vmmouse driver.

This issue affects the following releases:

• SLES 12 SP1 and earlier releases
• RHEL 7.2 and earlier releases
• CentOS 7.2 and earlier releases
• Oracle Linux 7.2 and earlier releases
• Ubuntu 15.04 and earlier releases

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware vCenter Server 6.5.x

Resolution

Users must back port the vmmouse driver for Linux distributions before Linux kernel 4.1.