Hyper-V Enhanced Mode issues

conticreative · 23 May 2020

On my Windows 10 Pro 18363 I have built 3 VM in Hyper-V
2 Windows 10 pro machines
1 Ubuntu

At first, there was no issue at all, when starting the machines I'd get the Enhanced Mode dialog box, I'd choose full screen and everything worked fine. I was able to use the VM for my purposes as if they were just another program on my computer.

More recently, things have gotten a bit crazy, possibly after the latest Windows 10 upgrade (early May 2020), mostly because the availability of "Enhanced Mode" is inconsistent for reasons I cannot discern. Meaning that on any of the 3 VM, enhanced mode may or may not be available in the drop down menu. When it's available, everything works fine, when it's not, it's greyed out and I basically end up with an 800x600 screen in the middle of a 32" screen.

One of my Win 10 VM makes Enhanced Mode (EM) available if I turn the machine on, shut it down and then turn it on again. Not always, but it seems to work more often than not.

My Ubuntu is a complete mystery.
Occasionally in Ubuntu I have been able to make EM work, but only if Ubuntu showed me XRDP login first. Whenever I manage to boot Ubuntu into XRDP then Enhanced Mode works flawlessly.
The problem is that I don't know what I am doing to make XRDP appear on screen. Most of the times I simply start UBUNTU and it shows me its regular login screen, I enter my password and then I am in the 800x600 nightmare.
If I try to change the resolution, nothing is available even close to the resolution I need.

But sometimes, after restarting the Ubuntu VM several times, XRPD magically shows up and then EM is in the menu and I can use it without any issues. The ratio is about 10 to 1 as it mostly boots directly into Ubuntu, bypassing XRDP.

Incidentally, something similar happens with windows. If I start one specific VM, EM is greyed out and if I try to change screen resolution from the desktop, the available resolutions are all much smaller than my screen. If I restart, sometimes EM becomes available, but most of the times it doesn't.
Here too, I cannot explain what I am doing differently when EM is available and works.

For the record, I isolated a few checkpoints on all machines, renaming those where I have the most luck, but this random behavior happens weather I am using the latest state available or one of the checkpoints I was able to start with EM turned on.

It's possible that in two of the VM the issue started happening after a VM OS update, because for a time I was able to revert to an earlier checkpoint and have steady access to EM, but that too has degenerated into randomness recently.

I tried the trick of turning EM off and then back on in the Server settings and that seemed to work, for a while. I can't tell if when it works is because of something I am doing or pure blind luck. Especially when XRDP is concerned.

I was thrilled when I made Hyper-V work, because it is snappier than Virtualbox or other VM I have used, but the screen size issues are just too much and now I am regretting going down this road. I have used VirtualBox for years with a fraction of the problems I am encountering in Hyper-V.

Thank you for any thoughts on this issue.

- - - Updated - - -

I have regressed my Ubuntu installation to the very first Checkpoint I saved. I had marked that checkpoint [date]-XRDP because it was the only checkpoint that brought me to the XRDP login screen reliably (other checkpoints do but it's very spotty).
Once I logged in XRDP Ubuntu was working in all aspects I tested. Primarily screen resolution, but I could also see the network drive I had connected to in a previous session.
I noticed that while changes I had made inside the OS vis à vis Appication installs and other changes remained, the OS version had regressed to the initial install.
So I updated Ubuntu again and at the end I restarted.
After the restart, I lost Enhanced Mode again and I am again unable to see the XRDP login when I restart the virtual machine.In other words, as long as I never update or restart Ubuntu, I have a functioning, networked and quite fast linux VM that launches with XRDP and then goes to the Ubunto login. It even remembers installed applications and documents I created (and browser history).
The moment I update and restart, I lose EM, screen resolution and all that goes with it.
In looking at my checkpoints on the Windows 10 VM it looks like the same thing is going on. Of two Win 10 VM, the one I have not updated still launches fine with EM functioning and correct screen res.
The one where I updated win 10 and restarted behaves the same as Ubuntu. It seems that the only solution is to install a VM and never restart it again?

cereberus · 24 May 2020

I would try removing HyperV and reinstating it. Obviously use the HyperV backup function first.

conticreative · 24 May 2020

cereberus said:

I would try removing HyperV and reinstating it. Obviously use the HyperV backup function first.

Thank you. I was afraid I'd have to do that. I followed older posts from folks with the same issue and for some it did not solve it. Hopefully I'll be luckier.

Still, it bothers me not understanding what could be going wrong. Why would it do something like that?
It also sounds like many people are having the same issue, but aside from a complete reinstall, I have seen no reliable solutions.
Interestingly, a lot of the posts I find are from Windows 8 users. So it looks like this used to be a pretty big issue at some point but either people have stopped using Hyper-v for this purpose, or for most people it is resolved.

It's also frustrating not being able to use other VM programs along with Hyper-V. I have seen tutorials on how to solve that, but I can't risk screwing up my machine for the sake of curiosity.

The main rason I use a VM is because I have an important client that uses an enterprise version of a program I use for my personal stuff. I can either have it work with my credentials or the enterprise credentials and it's key to working with this client. A VM makes both available at the same time and that's priceless to me.

muchomurka · 25 May 2020

Not solution but test/workaround: Remote Desktop Connection should always work for Windows, functionality is the same as in Enhanced Session Mode. In Ubuntu, you need to change one line in xrdp.ini file:

Code:

use_vsock=false

See RDP into Ubuntu 18.04 Desktop VM on HyperV with xRPD from other device for more info.

jimbo45 · 27 May 2020

Hi folks

@conticreative

Remote GUI login to Linux FROM Windows or anywhere else for that matter can always be a bit of a bugbear. (Remote also includes connecting to a VM hosted on the same physical box as the Host OS).

Login TO windows is usually easier but same problem now with the RDP protocol on some Linux systems :

A lot of Linux modern distros have deprecated XORG in favour of WAYLAND which can cause problems for the old "RDP" type of programs.

This is the problem with xrdp and similar programs.

If you have wayland on the Linux box. the xorg dropdown doesn't have a wayland option. Other options such as VNC also are problematical.

Hyper-V Enhanced Mode issues-screenshot_20200527_114541.png

CENTOS 8 (it's Free of course) works fine though if you want a stable distro with working GUI access from Windows -- however you'll have to put up with (IMO) that Ghastly GNOME desktop !!!.

CENTOS is based on REDHAT Enterprise server (almost identical) so if stability and reliability is what you need in a VM rather than "The latest and greatest" then this is definitely one to look at --in spite of the ghastly GUI -- I'm seeing if I can "Poodlefake it to get KDE working (IMO an infinitely superior desktop) - but I'm stymied at the Wayland / XORG stuff so will wait on that.

CENTOS 8 also accesses Windows systems properly via XRDP type of programs and as it's source compatible with RHEL (Red Hat's Enterprise server) running your enterprise programs on the VM should be fine.

Cheers
jimbo