VMware

NixOS as VMWare Guest

VMWare Video Driver

Enable vmware video driver for better performance:

services.xserver.videoDrivers = [ "vmware" ];

VMware Guest Tools

Enable VMWare guest tools:

virtualisation.vmware.guest.enable = true;

And note that file copying, pasting, and dragging between guest and host are only supported on Xorg, not Wayland.

For example, in the GDM and GNOME desktop environments, to use Xorg, click on the settings button at the bottom right corner of the login screen and select the "GNOME on Xorg" option.

Troubleshooting

Guest issues

This section covers issues you might have running NixOS as a guest VM in VMware Workstation or similar.

Display issues

Cannot change resolution in KDE Plasma ISO

If you are unable to change resolution in a guest VM while booted into the NixOS Plasma graphical installer ISO...

This appears to be an issue where if KScreen is running as a service it will instantly revert to the default resolution [1].

Disabling the KScreen 2 Service under Background Services allows resolution settings to apply properly.

If you continue to have issues, running journalctl should print a system log with debug info which might help in resolving the issue.

Mouse issues

Mouse buttons above 5 do not work

If your mouse's thumb buttons or other additional buttons do not work, set guest to use advanced mouse. For your NixOS-based guest VM, add the below lines to its .vmx configuration file:

 mouse.vusb.enable = "TRUE"
 mouse.vusb.useBasicMouse = "FALSE"