Removing inventory file on a Linux machine using VMware Workstation

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Unable to open existing virtual machines after upgrading VMware Workstation. 
• VMware Workstation fails to identify the virtual machine location.
• You see the error:

Fail to open executable: No such file or directory

• Opening existing VMware Player 12.x virtual machines in VMware Player 14.x fails.

Environment

VMware Workstation Pro 14.x (for Linux)
VMware Player Pro 7.x (Linux)

Resolution

To remove the inventory file on a Linux machine using VMware Workstation:

1. Run this command:

cd ./vmware  (complete path is /home/username/.vmware)

2. Check if there is inventory.vmls file by running the Is command.
3. Copy the inventory.vmls to Desktop by running this command:

cp inventory.vmls /home/username/Desktop/

4. Delete the inventory file by running this command:

rm -rf inventory.vmls

5. Confirm that the file is deleted by running the Is command.
6. Launch VMware Player and add the virtual machine to library and power on the virtual machine.