Read only File System error

[Timon]

I used VMWare Player 4.0.1 on Win 7 Pro 64 bit. The first thing I did
was create a new VM and add the vmdx hard drive. A message prompted me
to convert the drive to 8.0 format. I chose convert.

The OS proceeded to boot up, but towards the end I kept seeing error
messages stating that "Cannot create regular file '/ect/openvpn/./
vpngateway.key': Read-only File System. There were other files that
were not written due to the same error. In the end, the system didn't
boot up to the login prompt, but stopped at ............

Here is the vmx config file. Any thoughts?

.encoding = "GBK"
config.version = "8"
virtualHW.version = "8"
vcpu.hotadd = "TRUE"
scsi0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0.virtualDev = "lsilogic"
memsize = "256"
mem.hotadd = "TRUE"
ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
ide1:0.autodetect = "TRUE"
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"
floppy0.startConnected = "FALSE"
floppy0.fileName = ""
floppy0.autodetect = "TRUE"
ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"
ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
usb.present = "TRUE"
ehci.present = "TRUE"
sound.present = "TRUE"
sound.fileName = "-1"
sound.autodetect = "TRUE"
serial0.present = "TRUE"
serial0.fileType = "thinprint"
pciBridge0.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge4.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge4.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge4.functions = "8"
pciBridge5.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge5.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge5.functions = "8"
pciBridge6.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge6.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge6.functions = "8"
pciBridge7.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge7.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge7.functions = "8"
vmci0.present = "TRUE"
hpet0.present = "TRUE"
usb.vbluetooth.startConnected = "TRUE"
displayName = "OpenVPN"
guestOS = "other26xlinux"
nvram = "OpenVPN.nvram"
virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"
gui.exitOnCLIHLT = "FALSE"
powerType.powerOff = "hard"
powerType.powerOn = "hard"
powerType.suspend = "hard"
powerType.reset = "hard"
extendedConfigFile = "OpenVPN.vmxf"
scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0:0.fileName = "C:\Users\Timon\Downloads\ovpn_appliance_02.vmdk"
scsi0:1.present = "FALSE"
ide1:0.startConnected = "FALSE"
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0C:29:A0:6D:34"
ethernet0.linkStatePropagation.enable = "TRUE"
vmci0.id = "1788898612"
tools.syncTime = "FALSE"
uuid.location = "56 4d 2a c8 33 3c 15 06-02 b5 cb 84 6a a0 6d 34"
uuid.bios = "56 4d 2a c8 33 3c 15 06-02 b5 cb 84 6a a0 6d 34"
cleanShutdown = "TRUE"
replay.supported = "FALSE"
replay.filename = ""
scsi0:1.redo = ""
pciBridge0.pciSlotNumber = "17"
pciBridge4.pciSlotNumber = "21"
pciBridge5.pciSlotNumber = "22"
pciBridge6.pciSlotNumber = "23"
pciBridge7.pciSlotNumber = "24"
scsi0.pciSlotNumber = "16"
usb.pciSlotNumber = "32"
ethernet0.pciSlotNumber = "33"
sound.pciSlotNumber = "34"
ehci.pciSlotNumber = "35"
vmci0.pciSlotNumber = "36"
usb:1.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"
vmotion.checkpointFBSize = "33554432"
usb:1.speed = "2"
usb:1.deviceType = "hub"
usb:1.port = "1"
usb:1.parent = "-1"
sound.startConnected = "FALSE"
serial0.startConnected = "FALSE"
usb:0.present = "TRUE"
usb:0.deviceType = "hid"
usb:0.port = "0"
usb:0.parent = "-1"

[Bob Andrews]

I had the same read-only filesystem error.  It's been a month or more since
it happened, so the details are getting fuzzy.  Here's what I remember:

The VM I downloaded only seemed to contain a disk image, and not the
files describing the virtual machine.  I tried to use the new disk image with
the old VM, and that is how I ended up with the readonly filesystem in the
VM.  I ended up downloading and using VMware's "ovftool" to convert the
downloaded data into everything to make vmware workstation 7 (and 8)
happy.  Once I used what the ovftool produced for me, the readonly
filesystem error went away.  This was all on x86_64 linux.

It sounds like you're trying to do something similar -- create your own
machine, and use the downloaded vmdx...and that's how I got bit.  I
didn't have any luck "importing" the ovf download as Radu suggested.
I had to download the ovftool to get the job done.

Bob