I installed VMWare Workstation Player 12.1.0-3272444.x86_64 onto a Linux Mint 17.3 (3.19.0-32-generic Kernel) system. From what I've read, the issue with being unable to launch the initial VMWare GUI is supposed to be fixed at this release.
The installation went exceptionally smoothly and I had no problems getting a VM up and running. It's a personal non-commercial installation BTW.
However, on about one load in five of the Host OS, the Launcher for VMWare just seems to time out and the initial GUI is never presented no matter how many times you try. Rebooting the Host OS invariably seems to clear the problem - until the next time.
I looked in /var/log/vmware and the only files are of the vmware-usbarb-nnnn.log variety.
In a failure situation the log file always ends like this :-
2016-03-06T12:43:25.722Z| usbArb| I125: USBArbRuleStore: Loading device rules from '/etc/vmware/usbarb.rules'.
2016-03-06T12:43:25.722Z| usbArb| I125: VMware USB Arbitration Service Version 15.1.7
2016-03-06T12:43:25.722Z| usbArb| I125: USBGL: USB Sysfs found at /dev/bus/usb
2016-03-06T12:43:25.722Z| usbArb| I125: USBArb: Attempting to connect to existing arbitrator on /var/run/vmware/usbarbitrator-socket.
2016-03-06T12:43:25.722Z| usbArb| I125: SOCKET creating new socket, connecting to /var/run/vmware/usbarbitrator-socket
2016-03-06T12:43:25.722Z| usbArb| I125: SOCKET connect failed, error 2: No such file or directory
2016-03-06T12:43:25.722Z| usbArb| I125: USBArb: Failed to connect to the existing arbitrator.
whereas in a success situation it continues :-
2016-03-06T13:31:16.234Z| usbArb| I125: USBArbRuleStore: Loading device rules from '/etc/vmware/usbarb.rules'.
2016-03-06T13:31:16.234Z| usbArb| I125: VMware USB Arbitration Service Version 15.1.7
2016-03-06T13:31:16.235Z| usbArb| I125: USBGL: USB Sysfs found at /dev/bus/usb
2016-03-06T13:31:16.235Z| usbArb| I125: USBArb: Attempting to connect to existing arbitrator on /var/run/vmware/usbarbitrator-socket.
2016-03-06T13:31:16.235Z| usbArb| I125: SOCKET creating new socket, connecting to /var/run/vmware/usbarbitrator-socket
2016-03-06T13:31:16.235Z| usbArb| I125: SOCKET connect failed, error 2: No such file or directory
2016-03-06T13:31:16.235Z| usbArb| I125: USBArb: Failed to connect to the existing arbitrator.
2016-03-06T13:31:49.920Z| usbArb| I125: USBArb: UsbArbPipeConnected: Connected to client, socket:4
2016-03-06T13:31:54.115Z| usbArb| I125: USBArb: Client 3018 connected (version: 7)
2016-03-06T13:34:07.570Z| usbArb| I125: USBArb: UsbArbPipeConnected: Connected to client, socket:12
2016-03-06T13:34:39.180Z| usbArb| I125: USBArb: Client 3644 connected (version: 7)
and then there are messages relating to the successful starting and eventual shutdown of the client OS VM.
My knowledge/skill level in this area is very low so I'd be most grateful for any help in trying to understand what is happening here and hopefully correct it.