Vmplayer crashed but VM is still running. How to reconnect?

Question

I was a running Windows 7 inside vmplayer when vmplayer crashed. If I re-open VM player and select my Windows 7 VM, the option to start the VM is grayed out. I can see the VM process still running in the background.

mhaase@mhaase-prodigy:~$ ps aux | grep vmx
mhaase    3654  6.0 12.4 3814136 2040540 ?     Ssl  Jun13 628:35 /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx -ssnapshot.numRollingTiers=0 -s vmx.stdio.keep=TRUE -# product=4;name=VMware Player;version=5.0.2;buildnumber=1031769;licensename=VMware Player;licenseversion=5.0; -@ duplex=3;msgs=ui /home/mhaase/vmware/Windows 7/Windows 7.vmx
mhaase    9345  0.0  0.0  13588   920 pts/0    S+   16:07   0:00 grep --color=auto vmx

Is there a way to reconnect vmplayer to an existing vmware-vmx process?

Answer 1

So... here's one approach I figured out. This may not be the best.

1. Download VMWare VIX API (https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/free#desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_player/5_0)
2. Install it (chmod +x the downloaded file, then run it)
3. vmrun -T player suspend /path/to/the/virtual_machine.vmx (This step takes a while, obviously)
4. Close and re-open vmplayer.
5. You should be able to resume the virtual machine from within vmplayer.

Hope this helps somebody else.