I have been working on a new VMware View 4.6 installation which required iPad connectivity (which will only work with PCoIP) along with physical desktops. Everything seemed to be working until I had issues using PCoIP when I started to get the black screen disconnects.

After some hunting around Google it seemed that it could be getting caused by a number of issues. So I went through each issue but had no luck until I double checked the driver being used by VMware Tools. The version that VMware Tools installs for the graphics card is .48 but the one that is used by the View agent is .49. If VMware Tools is updated then it reverts back the driver to .48 and the black screen issue will again be a problem.

The steps that need to be followed:

Make sure all updates (OS and application) updates have been applied

Make sure that VMware Tools has been installed and that it is up to date (The virtual machine will need to be restarted)

Check the driver version in ‘Device Manager’ (it will more than likely be .48)

Install the VMware View agent (The virtual machine will need to be restarted)

Check the driver version in ‘Device Manager’ and confirm that it is now .49

Carry out an ipconfig /release and power the virtual machine down

Take a new snapshot of the virtual machine

Open VMware View Administrator console and select the pool that needs to be updated

Click the ‘View Composer’ dropdown and select recompose

Select the snapshot to be used and the if the user will be forced to log off and click Finish

This will now mean that the pool is being rebuilt using up to date VMware Tools along with the View agent graphics driver (.49). PCoIP should now be working for all physical and iPad devices.

By Paul Wood