Sep 15, 2021

Fixing vmware boot error: Unsupported or invalid disk type 2 for 'scsi0:0'

After downloading an old version of Metasploitable, the following error appears when trying to boot:

Failed to power on virtual machine Metasploitable2-Linux. Unsupported or invalid disk type 2 for 'scsi0:0'. Ensure that the disk has been imported. Click here for more details.

To fix the problem, ssh into the vmware host and run the command:

vmkfstools -i Metasploitable.vmdk MetasploitableFixed.vmdk

Full output:

[root@vm02:/vmfs/volumes/5e909c57-02b960e8-e12a-d4ae52a130ac/metasploitable] vmkfstools -i Metasploitable.vmdk MetasploitableFixed.vmdk
Destination disk format: VMFS zeroedthick
Cloning disk 'Metasploitable.vmdk'...
Clone: 100% done.

Delete the broken hard disk:

Image of

Add a new hard disk:

Image of

Select the fixed disk image from the command above:

Image of

Boot the vm.