KDE Neon Unstable - vm-tools do not work under user, but is working on SDDM (login screen)

VMWare 17.5.2 on Windows, KDE Neon Unstable. Installed vm-tools.

On SDDM screen it perfectly runs: window is fitted to all screen, mouse runs from-into VM without borders, copy-paste from host works. But after logged in with my user it does not work at all, I even have to hit Alt-Ctrl to get the cursor control to Windows back.

Locking user → on the lock screen it does not work, but if I hit “login with different user”, then it works again.

Seems some service is not starting under my user. Found a ton of information, but nothing helps me.

$ ps -ef | grep tools
root 508 1 0 18:39 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/vmtoolsd
user 1285 1 0 18:39 tty1 00:00:00 /usr/bin/vmtoolsd -n vmusr --blockFd 3 --uinputFd 4

$ systemctl status -l run-vmblock\x2dfuse.mount
● run-vmblock\x2dfuse.mount - VMware vmblock fuse mount
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/run-vmblock\x2dfuse.mount; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (mounted) since Sat 2024-08-24 18:39:25 EEST; 2min 11s ago
Where: /run/vmblock-fuse
What: vmware-vmblock
Docs: open-vm-tools/open-vm-tools/vmblock-fuse/design.txt at master · vmware/open-vm-tools · GitHub
Tasks: 3 (limit: 9311)
Memory: 796.0K
CPU: 7ms
CGroup: /system.slice/run-vmblock\x2dfuse.mount
└─435 vmware-vmblock-fuse /run/vmblock-fuse -o rw,subtype=vmware-vmblock,default_permissions,all>

$ lsof -p 1402 | grep -i plugins
does not shows anything

$ sudo systemctl enable vmtoolsd.service
Failed to enable unit: Refusing to operate on alias name or linked unit file: vmtoolsd.service

tnx!

I just had this problem with Gentoo Linux kernel v6.6.58-gentoo-dist and KDE Plasma 6.1.5 running in VMware Fusion 13.6.1 on macOS 15.1.1 (x86).

In my case, it turns out SDDM is running in X11, but default login session starts a Wayland session. Logging in to an X11 session fixed the mouse pointer integration and screen resolution.

(Note that neither distribution utilises systemd (OpenRC and GNU Shepherd) so this may be unrelated to the original poster’s problem where a service seemingly won’t start.)