VMware Communities : All Content - VMware Fusion® (for Mac)

Very sluggish mouse response in AutoCAD--Fusion 3

markshel — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:41:14 GMT

If the mouse is still somewhat sluggish with "Never optimize mouse for games" the issue is surely a generic graphics performance problem since while in the main drawing window AutoCAD is drawing the mouse cursor like normal graphics as opposed to using the accelerated mouse cursor path that is typically used.

I would recommend trying to change the graphics settings in AutoCAD, try playing around with enabling/disabling 3d acceleration in AutoCAD if possible, if not you could try changing the global virtual machine setting to enable/disable 3d in Fusion.

Where has all of my disk space gone - vmware fusion wont run as no disk space

WoodyZ — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:10:14 GMT

SCReilly wrote: I just upgraded as well and have the same issue. Did anyone post a solution?

Saying something like "have the same issue" or similar is about worthless from a technical diagnostic perspective and even if you do have the exact problem your system and build is different and it's better to provide exact and specific wording of any error messages you're getting, etc.

Anyway how much free space to you have on the Macintosh HD? Also to have a graphic view of the contents of the Macintosh HD using a utility like GrandPerspective can help you determine what you have and what you might want to get rid of to free up space.

Fusion 3.0 vmdk mount option not visibile in Finder

wla001 — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:08:22 GMT

Here is the answer from Tech Support. It works. Andrew Painter is the man!

MacFuse with snow leopard tends not to be an install option with the
newer releases so it's good that you've downloaded it directly from
their site. VMDKmounter isn't part of their software. That's our
process that uses MacFuse to function. VMDKmounter is located in
Macintosh HD > Library > Application Support > VMware Fusion.

If
you wish you can right click on one of the virtual machine bundles and
choose open with then browse for the application. When you browse
navigate the path mentioned above and then select vmdkmounter.

This should allow you to open your virtual machine using VMDKmounter.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely
Andrew Painter
Desktop Technical Support Specialist
Global Support Services
VMware Inc.

Migration Assistant: Whose (Admin) User Name and Password?

WoodyZ — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:57:21 GMT

Do you have your Companies permission to be doing what you are? If the Physical Machine is still going to be running you need to have an additional license to also create a Virtual Machine from it if it running Windows.

Also you need to Have Administrative rights if you want to use the Migrate Your PC... command in Fusion 3 and also to install VMware Tools.

So before doing anything get permission from your Company and get administrative rights.

VMWare Fusion Version 3.0.0 (204229) & Windows XP Guest Desktop Freezes

lightuser345 — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:34:26 GMT

Hey I had the same problem.
Reinstalled VM Ware Tools: Didn't help.
Reinstalled VM Ware Fusion (from 3.0.0 to 3.0.1): Didn't help. (I did use the installer to uninstall)
Trashed the guest operating system and replaced with a backup from months before there were any problems: Didn't help.

Moved the guest operating system to another directory so that VMWare Fusion lost track of the VM. I then dragged the the .vmwarevm virtual machine file onto the VMWare fusion application icon (VMWare wouldn't let me import the virtual machine). When the virtual machine opened in fusion it asked if I had moved or copied the VM. I click "Copied" and voila! That seemed to do the trick!

So far....

It's only been a day.

I'll let you guys know if the problem comes back.

What a pain!
Anyone else had any luck?

Is bootcamp needed??

WoodyZ — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:24:35 GMT

Have a look at: Choosing the Right Virtual Machine Settings

Also know this about Boot Camp and Fusion...

Fact 1. Apple doesn't guarantee the BSD Name of a Disk between reboots.

Fact 2. VMware unfortunately and inexcusably was unaware of this when they designed Fusion and as such when OS X assigns a different BSD Name to a Disk then it previously had and when this Disk has a Boot Camp partition that has already been prepared to run as a Virtual Machine then two or more entries for the one Boot Camp partition can and will appear on the Virtual Machine Library in all versions of Fusion to date.

Fact 3. VMware has been promising to fix this in a later version of Fusion for almost 3 years now and still hasn't fixed it!

==========

This is more prevalent on with a Mac Pro however I've experienced it with a MacBook Pro and especially when having external drives attached that have a Boot Camp partition on them. On a Mac that has a single hard drive and only a partition for OS X and a partition for Windows it's less likely to happen compared to the Mac Pro which often have more then one internal drive however I have experienced it on a MacBook Pro in of by itself however it is more likely to occur when multiple hard drives are in play.

AFAIC Until VMware corrects this issue it is not worth using the Boot Camp partition as a Virtual Machine and I went so far as to, with Fusion closed, rename "/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmware-rawdiskCreator" so Fusion would stop enumerating the Boot Camp partition and placing an entry on the Virtual Machine Library. I then deleted the "/Users/${USER}/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Boot Camp/../Boot Camp partition.vmwarevm" Virtual Machine and opened Fusion and deleted the Boot Camp partition entry on the Virtual Machine Library and will not use it on the Boot Camp partition until VMware fixes it!

Boot hibernated bootcamp partition?

WoodyZ — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:20:41 GMT

To add to what has already been said...

Because the native Boot Camp partition OS is Hibernated then in all likelihood VMware Fusion will fail to properly prepare the Boot Camp partition to run as a Virtual Machine. I'd listen to the previous advice before proceeding.

On a related note and information you should have before running the Boot Camp partition as a Virtual Machine...

Fact 1. Apple doesn't guarantee the BSD Name of a Disk between reboots.

Fact 2. VMware unfortunately and inexcusably was unaware of this when they designed Fusion and as such when OS X assigns a different BSD Name to a Disk then it previously had and when this Disk has a Boot Camp partition that has already been prepared to run as a Virtual Machine then two or more entries for the one Boot Camp partition can and will appear on the Virtual Machine Library in all versions of Fusion to date.

Fact 3. VMware has been promising to fix this in a later version of Fusion for almost 3 years now and still hasn't fixed it!

==========

This is more prevalent on with a Mac Pro however I've experienced it with a MacBook Pro and especially when having external drives attached that have a Boot Camp partition on them. On a Mac that has a single hard drive and only a partition for OS X and a partition for Windows it's less likely to happen compared to the Mac Pro which often have more then one internal drive however I have experienced it on a MacBook Pro in of by itself however it is more likely to occur when multiple hard drives are in play.

AFAIC Until VMware corrects this issue it is not worth using the Boot Camp partition as a Virtual Machine and I went so far as to, with Fusion closed, rename "/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmware-rawdiskCreator" so Fusion would stop enumerating the Boot Camp partition and placing an entry on the Virtual Machine Library. I then deleted the "/Users/${USER}/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Boot Camp/../Boot Camp partition.vmwarevm" Virtual Machine and opened Fusion and deleted the Boot Camp partition entry on the Virtual Machine Library and will not use it on the Boot Camp partition until VMware fixes it!

Trouble starting VMWare 3.0.1 -- Getting Windows error message

aknit44 — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:01:36 GMT

Same issue as my friend. I actually just posted about it.

VMware Fusion: Windows XP Won't Start Anymore

aknit44 — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:56:51 GMT

Folks, a friend of mine started getting this error once during VMware Fusion 2.0.

He upgraded to VMware Fusion 3.0 and that resolved it, but now it's back.

Basically, he can't get my WIndows XP going.

This is what is logged:

"Feb 08 12:10:05.333: vmx| VMXAIOMGR: system : err=1282 errCode=5 freeSpace=353481183232"

The these 3 errors are displayed at startup:

"Operation on the <path>/Windows XP Professional-s001.vmdk failed"

"VMware Fusion cannot sync with disk before abort. <path>/Windows XP Professional-s001.vmdk my be inconsistent"

"Cannot find a valid peer process to connect to"

All help appreciated.

Cheers,

Mark.

Physical Win98 hd to VM .vmdk

WoodyZ — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:16:59 GMT

qemu for mac can convert from raw image to vm.
Check this forum post: http://qemu-forum.ipi.fi/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4508#p13682
It's for converting from vdi to vmdk, so you'll need only the second part - from raw to vmdk.
You can use dd to get a raw image out of the hdd - just connect it to your mac, and the use:

Why on earth would one want to create a raw disk image and then convert it to a .vmdk when...

1. A Ghost Image already exists and the means to restore it would be faster and easier then having to create another image and then convert that image.

2. The OP can use Ghost to copy the existing working physical hard drive that is temporary mounted in a USB Enclosure or the already created Ghost Image, either of which again is faster then what you've suggested.

3. Can use other and more direct methods to copy/image the contents of the physical drive directly to the virtual hard drive in a newly configured Virtual Machine without the intermediate step of creating another disk image and again would faster then what you've suggested.

As an example if I wasn't already setup to do Ghosting on a commercial level from a Windows Live OS on CD/DVD/ISO Image I would connect the existing working Windows 98 physical hard drive that is temporary mounted in a USB Enclosure to the newly created Windows 98 Virtual Machine that has an empty virtual hard drive and then boot it with a Knoppix 5.1 ISO Image and dd the Physical Hard Drive directly to the Virtual Hard Drive. This way it is a direct process with no intermediate steps to get the contents transferred and Knoppix if free and easy and works great right out of the box, so to speak, with VMware Fusion 3.

So the bottom line is it would be redundant and a waste of time to create another image and then convert that image when the existing source can be copied/imaged directly from the source to the virtual hard drive or use the already existing Ghost image or even dd directly using Knoppix or directly dd under OS X and mounting the virtual hard drive with VMDKMounter, although you'd have to fdisk and format the virtual hard drive first from within the Virtual Machine to do the latter but would still be faster.

iSight installation for XP

rlwash99 — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:08:22 GMT

I followed the instructions to add the drivers in order for the Mac's iSight camera to work. The camera is working, however, every time I bring up the XP virtual machine, it continues to detect new hardware found and wants me to install the drivers. Is this normal? Are the instructions on how to install the drivers correct? They said to use the installation .exe found under the bootcamp drivers, which I ran.

How to increase the partition assigned to Windows Vista under Mac OS 10.6.2

kaput — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:21:26 GMT

I created a Windows Vista 64Bits using VMWare Fusion 3 directly. But the partition assigned in the past is to small. How can i increased the partition size without reinstalling Windows Vista and all the application. My Mac disk is the size of 1,5To, and i have also 3 more disk mounted on my MacPro.

Please advise if it this possible to increased the size on the actual installation?

Weird noises from my USB headset after upgrade to Snow Leopard

eklektique — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:48:29 GMT

this is good news indeed.

Solidworks graphical bugs in Fusion 3, which didn't appear in Fusion 2

etung — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:48:04 GMT

While my inner MechE would love to see SolidWorks on OS X, I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. Comments in that link indicate that it's a proof-of-concept cloud app with no timeline for productization. Given the screenshot, that makes a lot of sense - it's lacking pretty much any editing tools, and I'd think it was at best a viewer.

Re-allocating disc space

WoodyZ — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:45:35 GMT

You can use information in Resizing Virtual Disks With Step by Step Instructions to do this. In other words you can use the EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition or Gparted Live CD disk image (ISO) to accomplish what your asking.

Usual caveats apply! Don't do anything without first making proper backup of the target Virtual Machine Package while the Virtual Machine s shutdown, not suspended, and Fusion closed. Also do not count on a Time Machine backup as it a known fact that TM is not 100% reliable in backing up/ restoring Virtual Machines under all circumstances.

Fusion 2 - blank screen - no start button

KDK2010 — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:07:31 GMT

I have Fusion 2 on my MacBook. It was working fine until this morning. Logged on and it took too long to log my personal settings to load. I shut it down. Shut down the MacBook and restarted.

Logged onto Fusion and now I only get the windows screen with no icons or Start Button. I don't want to uninstall in fear of loosing all of my work including Quickbooks!

Anyone have a solution?

registry and Outlook attachments breaking

WoodyZ — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:54:42 GMT

Example OutlookSecureTempFolder.reg file attached.

As an example place the OutlookSecureTempFolder.reg file in the Windows folder and create a shortcut in the Startup Group that executes the following command:

regedit /s C:\Windows\OutlookSecureTempFolder.reg

This will update the Windows Registry at the latest point it can in the start up of Windows.

BTW One reason you might be having the problem is if the path does yet exist when Office is loading some things during start up it reverts it back to its default value however adjust the info in the .reg to suite your config and report back.

Clean install help

WoodyZ — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:44:11 GMT

You can uninstall VMware Fusion by running the Uninstall VMware Fusion.app from the .dmg disk image or from "/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Uninstall VMware Fusion.app" and to delete the Virtual Machines you can just drag them to the Trash or you can delete them from the Virtual Machine Library window.

All of this is in the VMware Fusion Help File.

BTW Usually caveats apply! (Make sure you have anything you need in the Virtual Machine backed up before deleting them!)

File Sharing prevents AutoCAD from opening--Fusion3

WoodyZ — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:26:42 GMT

Instead of using VMware Shared Folders and or Mirrored Folders features have you tried using a standard SMB/CIFS Share between OS X and Windows 7 to see if that would work or have any issues?

Fusion 3.0.1 heavily beaten by Parallels 5 in performance

diehardboss — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:23:32 GMT

Please VMware Fusion team, we need it now listed below:

1. Better quality and performance (in operating systems and in OpenGL/DirectX, e.g. Modern Warfare 2).
2. Better quality and performance (in operating systems and in OpenGL/DirectX, e.g. Modern Warfare 2), again!
3. Fix port forwarding for NAT network using "nat.conf" file, I can't edit the "nat.conf" file without hacking the "boot.sh" file to stop restoring it.
4. Allow horizontal scrolling with MacBook touchpad.

For your information, we don't need new features right now.

Thank you!

Catastrophic failure of VMWare Fusion and inability to use VM

WoodyZ — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:04:01 GMT

Network not connecting on Windows side

ovaller — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:32:56 GMT

Hello,

I'm using a Macbook that is connected wirelessly to my network. When I open VMware, I am unable to connect using the Bridged adapter on the windows side. The Mac side will work perfectly (internet) but I am unable to go on the internet using Windows. It says that it is" Acquiring a Network Address" and does not go beyond that. I have tried to repair the connection and also to disable and then enable it again with no luck. i have made sure that it is set to Autodetect and that the box is checked for "Connected". I am using Fusion 3. Thank you for your assistance.

Rob

VMWare Tools Service 3.0.1 crashing on guest resume

MDiamond — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:39:15 GMT

I realize this might not help everybody, but: when I created a new virtual machine from scratch, something I'd been planning to do anyway, this problem went away.

The old virtual machine not only had been upgraded incrementally since VMWare Fusion 2.0, but it was originally imaged from a laptop that itself had been imaged from an older laptop. In short, this was an XP install that saw daily use and had had years of accumulated crud. The new install is also XP, and is now up-to-date on the security patches, and the service crash is still not occurring.

Quickbooks Pro 2009

Texiwill — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:13:24 GMT

Hello,

Moved to Fusion forum. Just some administrative cleanup.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009
Now Available: 'VMware vSphere(TM) and Virtual Infrastructure Security'
Also available 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise'
Blogging: The Virtualization Practice|Blue Gears|TechTarget|Network World
Podcast: Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast|Twitter: Texiwll

Disk allocation

WoodyZ — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:21:03 GMT

How much free space do you have in the Guest? If you have adequate free space in the Guest then you should be okay providing you also have adequate free space on the Host.

Palm WebOS SDK and Fusion

parkernathan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:23:55 GMT

The WebOS SDK includes a "Palm Emulator" which says it needs VirtualBox in order to run. The WebOS runs as a separate, bootable, VM. My question is, can that VM be converted to run in VMWare (or can the VHD be used with a new VM in VMWare) or am I going to have to download VirtualBox for it? I hope I can get the VM or VHD into VMWare so I don't have to download VirtualBox.

Thanks!

Nathan

MAC address

bmwdk — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:00:46 GMT

Wow, that is way too easy That won't give me the opportunity to screw up my
configuration file.

Thanks WoodZ, worked like a charm.

Did my VM Double in Size?

TheRazor — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:37:38 GMT

After some searching I found what killed my hard drive space. It turns out I had a SuperDuper Smart Backup go bad on me and a file was created that ate up all available space until there was no more. Then it crashed out on me. It must have messed-up the Virtual Machine I had open at the same time because there was no free disk space.

When I went searching for the problem I was looking for something that was taking up about 20GB of space and this was the only thing I could find. I later learned about the /Volumes directory and that's where I found the true culprit.

Thanks for the help. I still have to read up on SnapShots because I really don't need one right now and I would like to clear up that space as well.

--Dave

Fusion 2.? refuses to go past licensing window.

WoodyZ — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:28:43 GMT

The VMware Fusion application needs to be installed via its Installer not restored from Time Machine. Download the .dmg from VMware and then mount it and run the installer. Also you can complete the install without inputting the Serial Number and then start Fusion and input the Serial Number. If you have problems at that point then reboot the Mac and try the Serial Number again.

As far as the Virtual Machines are concerned it is a know fact the Time Machine is not 100% reliable in backing up/restoring Virtual Machines under all circumstances so you make not have valid Virtual Machines if all you have is Time Machine backups and never made a manual backup of the Virtual Machine Package(s) while Fusion was closed.

Can't add Win 7 Pro to my Mac VMWare Fusion

WoodyZ — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:18:37 GMT

VMware Fusion 2.0.6 was the last release in the 2.x line and is a free upgrade for 1.x users and will run Windows 7 although it is not fully supported in that release and for full support you need to upgrade to Fusion 3 and the latest release at this point in time is 3.0.1.

However there have been lots of reports of various issues with Windows 7 and Fusion 3 so my suggestion is to download the .dmg installer and get a free 30 Day Trial License and give it a thorough test drive before you purchase it.

You might what to search the forum to see whats been talked about in regards to Fusion 3 and or Windows 7.

XP MOde in Mac Fusion

rcardona2k — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:08:27 GMT

After you install Windows XP Mode, you will have a Microsoft VHD base image at:
C:\Program Files\Windows XP Mode\Windows XP mode base.vhd
and the Activation key is at:
C:\Program Files\Windows XP Mode\key.txt

This VHD can imported and run in VMware Player, or Microsoft VirtualPC 2007 SP1 which is supported on Windows 7 x86 or x64.

If you have a Boot Camp machine with WVPC installed and XP Mode setup, the machine path for that is:
Config:
C:\Users\ username \AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines\Windows XP Mode.vmc
Differencing disk (per-user) referencing base image above:
C:\Users\ username \AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines\Windows XP Mode.vhd

Can't get OpenGL 2.1 on Windows 7 x64 when using XPDM driver (Fusion 3.0.1)

jeez — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:48:27 GMT

My apologies - it seems I must not have followed the correct procedure... thought I'd try it one more time, and it has worked!

Redraw issues with Turbotax?

pmarcos — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 01:40:36 GMT

I recently installed TurboTax in VMWare Fusion 3.0.1 and I'm seeing constant problems where the TT window doesn't redraw. I have to move or resize the window in order to get it to redraw. Is anybody else seeing this problem? Anything I can do to work around it? It's rather annoying...

Some advice sought from the experienced: empowering my VM

Stubaan — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 01:08:52 GMT

Well it varies... I have what I'm beginning to consider a self-destructive habit of multitasking...

I do try to keep the load on both the guest and host to a minimum, but if I'm running these sims live I'm generally also running a bunch of other stuff on the Mac. What I have been trying very hard to do is generate a collection of scripts that will let me run a series of sims overnight and thereby leave me the full faculties of my system to work on the results during the day.

I do have two empty DIMM slots, and 4 of the 6 filled slots have got 512MB cards in them so it is an option to consider upping the overall RAM I have quite substantially. Another consideration I intend pursuing is simply running multiple sims at the same time with each allocated to a different processor, since I don't think the code offers much room for executing one sim over multiple processors in parallel. This is something I will be looking into more thoroughly shortly - I have absolutely no experience in parallel computing or even the vaguest of notions how one might achieve this within the VM. My long-term goal is to run these sims through the High-Performance Computing Center we have here at the University of Florida, so perhaps I'll end up just skipping trying to do this myself and let the pros help me set things up for the HPC.

My half-orc wizard Orcen Wiles is about due for a new feat... maybe both he and I will feel Empowered soon.

Can't ping/ssh to Guest OS until after /etc/init.d/network reload

jbrains — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:53:05 GMT

I'm trying to set up a virtual machine as a staging server for my slice at slicehost.com. I've installed CentOS 5.4, but been suffering intermittent-seeming problems pinging or sshing from my Mac OS to my CentOS. I don't understand the cause, so I need some help.

It appears that, soon after I issue /etc/init.d/network reload on CentOS, I can ping and ssh from Mac OS into the VM. If I wait long enough (and I'm not sure how long) or if I reboot CentOS, then ssh/ping fail until I reload the network interfaces.

dmesg | grep eth0

e1000: eth0: e1000_probe: Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Connection
e1000: eth0: e1000_set_tso: TSO is Enabled
e1000: eth0: e1000_watchdog_task: NIC Link is Up 1000 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: None
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
e1000: eth0: e1000_watchdog_task: NIC Link is Up 1000 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: None
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
e1000: eth0: e1000_watchdog_task: NIC Link is Up 1000 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: None
eth0: no IPv6 routers present

If I had to guess, my ability to ping/ssh "expires" in about 60 seconds. WTF?!

Thanks in advance for your help.

Fusion Helper freezing me up?

Aquinas — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:46:23 GMT

I've been having freezes on my 2009 MacBook Pro, 10.6.2, with the only log generated at the time -- vmware-fusionHelper.log -- along with this entry in the console:
2/6/10 5:12:08 PM VMware Fusion Helper168 Could not find image named 'fusion.icns'.

Fusion was not running and the helper is not set to run at startup.
What is this critter doing and can I get it to stop?

VMware Fusion - can it work with alias in my host mac folders?

jimbobuk — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:57:44 GMT

I've just reinstalled fusion (2.0) in the first time in over a year as I needed to work with some visual studio projects.

I downloaded the latest version (VMware-Fusion-2.0.6-196839-light) and got it all setup, running Windows XP. Everything seems ok, however i've noticed in trying to run a particular project that VMware can't seem to handle the aliases that are present within the particular project hierarchy i want to work with. I wondered if there was any solution for this, or whether if perhaps Fusion 3.0 will support this.

Worse comes to the worst i hope i can perhaps work with shortcuts in windows in its place, though this will stop the project being openable by monodevelop on my mac until i restore the alias.

It seems a pretty fundamental problem to me, or is it perhaps the Mac (Snow leopard) that's not serving up the aliases to samba in such a way that they're navigatable, I'd have to boot a windows PC up and see what it makes of it.

Any help is appreciated!! Cheers

Jim

reinstalling XP after a HDD wipe if you have a Time Machine backup?

WoodyZ — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:01:24 GMT

licensedtoquill wrote: So using BootCamp involves adding an additional layer of another VM anyway?

I really do not know what you mean by this and please do not take this the wrong why but from much of what you've said so far in your posts it appears that you cannot conceptually grasp the differences and I've tried to provide you with enough information without getting to technical to be able to distinguish the differences and answer you primary questions however with each answer have come more questions. I'm sorry but you are making this far more difficult then it need to be and I can't explain it any simpler then I have. I'm not sure what else I can say to help you understand the differences and how it all works. Again, sorry.

I NEVER use BootCamp natively, partially 'cos I discovered that everytime I start by changing the OS, I need to reactivate windows!! Microsoft started asking me whether I was installing all these installations of XP on (they called it illegal) different computers.Now I have had to reinstal twice in the last few weeks

It is normal and expected to have to Activate Windows XP both natively and also when virtualizing the Boot Camp partition. The trick is to activate it natively and then when booting it as a Virtual Machine install VMware Tools and then activate it again. By Installing VMware Tools and having activated it both natively and running as a Virtual Machine then VMware Tools is supposed to handle the WPA database between the two modes and you should not have to activate it again.

That said some users have experienced problems and where not able to do both and I don't know that there was a sure shoot cure to the issue for all. Also without getting into the details because it might just further confuse things nonetheless VMware Fusion has a design flaw with the Boot Camp partition run as a Virtual Machine and some users, myself included, refuse to use VMware Fusion to virtualize the Boot Camp partition until VMware fixes this issue. If you're interested in the details read what I've said here: Re: Boot camp VM duplicates frequently since moving BC partition to new disk

I did feel comfortable with the way I was doing things but you seem to be suggesting that I should go the VM route in any event?

What I'm suggesting is that you read the information in Choosing the Right Virtual Machine Settings as well as what else I've said as well as other available information both in VMware Fusion documentation and what others have said and then determine what you're needs/wants are and then just do it

Fusion 3.0.1 Screen Resolution Issue

hk101 — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:57:22 GMT

Hi,

I'm having an issue with Fusion not handling screen resolution changes well. There are a few symptoms:

1. When in full screen mode, with either 1 or 2 monitors, if the guest goes to screensaver mode or sleep, coming back and logging in causes the video to freak out. When you log back in to the Windows desktop, instead of extending the desktop across the 2nd monitor, it goes back to duplicating the main monitor and at a low resolution. The solution is to exit fullscreen mode and go back into windowed mode, then return to fullscreen mode.

2. When changing resolution or starting up the VM, the resolution appears to cycle through a number of resolutions that show garbled output, before "finding" the correct one.

Anyone seen this or have a solution?

Thanks,

hk101

HOST:
MacBook Pro (Mid 2007) 2.4 GHz 4 GB RAM
Snow Leopard 10.6.2
2nd display DELL 22" widescreen

Guest:
Windows 7 x64 Enterprise 1 GB RAM

Does Shared Folders default name change from 2.06 to 3.01 ('.host' to 'vmware-host')?

Stew_E — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:24:26 GMT

Thanks Woody,

Adobe isn't interested in manipulating their data base.

Anyway to easily change the name of the shared folder? I tried to do this and was able to delete characters (not sure it really works), but couldn't add any character.

Stew

black screen after boot logo

rcardona2k — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:44:41 GMT

Can you clarify if you are installing these OS's in Boot Camp or in separate Fusion VMs. If you are using Boot Camp, Fusion (and Apple) only support Windows in that partition. If you are using separate VMs, make sure your XP disc is not damaged and use the New Machine Wizard with Windows Easy install to build a working machine.

Extend the C-drive for Windows XP with 1-click

siginfo — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 05:55:41 GMT

Thanks for your response. We are looking at the CID = parentCID problem.

However, we still don't understand why you lost your original snapshots. The resize could have failed with an error if the original machine wasn't powered off cleanly and NTFS was unclean. We will fix this in the upcoming release. However, this should still leave the original machine, disks and snapshots unaffected.

Can you please check once again what happened to the snapshots. Originally if you had a vmx like win2k.vmx, its associated snapshot meta data would be in win2k.vmsd. When our product extends this VM, it creates a new vmx file like win2k-fatvm.vmx, an associated .vmsd is also generated which is called win2k-fatvm.vmsd. This file is 0 byte in size. However, the original vmx and the vmsd are still intact.

In your case do you see the original vmx and vmsd files? Does the original vmsd still contain all the snapshot information?

Thanks for all your help.

Mac web browser issues when running VM

jmcintyre — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:12:46 GMT

Update:

If I renew the DHCP lease, it also fixes the browsers. Also, I noticed another error that occurs. When attempting to access a website that uses ssl (https), I get an error that a secure connection cannot be created.

Windows 7 on VMware Fusion

WoodyZ — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:06:55 GMT

First of all you do not need to download any SCSI Drivers from VMware to install Windows 7 if you do it properly.

If by chance this was a Windows XP Virtual Machine that you upgraded to Windows 7 well you shouldn't have wasted your time because Windows XP is not directly upgradeable to Windows 7 and since this is a Virtual Machine all you have to do is just walk through the New Virtual Machine Assistant selecting the version of Windows your using and if you're using upgrade media then use the information in "Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Media" to install/activate it. I've use Method 2 successfully.

If it was an upgrade you can then delete the Windows XP Virtual Machine after you've backed up your user data and have Windows 7 up and running. Just ctr-click the target Virtual Machine on the Virtual Machine Library and select Delete.

If you want to transfer files and settings then have a look at:

Windows Easy Transfer for transferring from Windows XP (32 bit) to Windows 7

Or

Windows Easy Transfer for transferring from Windows XP (64 bit) to Windows 7

=========

Anyway as far as "However there is still this problem with fixing my VM internet driver." if this was an upgraded XP then that would explain it and you need to change the OS Type to Windows 7 or Windows 7 x64 and this can be done from the Virtual Machine Library. You will also need to then delete the Network Adapter under the Virtual Machine Settings and add it back. Note that you need to do this with the Virtual Machine shutdown, not suspended.

Otherwise have a look at Information Gathering for VMware Fusion and archive and attach a copy of the .vmx configuration file along with the vmware.log files.

Preventing fusion apps from showing up in 'Open With' in Finder

WoodyZ — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:12:57 GMT

dlhotka wrote: definitely a design flaw.

Just one of many!

Event ID 7000

DAMAN321 — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:27:53 GMT

I had this problem when upgrading my VMware Tools.

To resolve it, I did a "modify" installation of VMware Tools and added the "Descheduled Time Accounting Service" as part of the installation. I assume that as a part of the standard upgrade, this was included in previous versions of VMware Tools and not included in the upgraded version and caused problems.

I suspect that if I do another "modify" installation, I would be able to successfully remove this service and no longer get the error. If I have time, I will do so and report back.

Fusion 3, Windows 7, frequent blue screens

AnatolyVilchinsky — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:26:18 GMT

I've used Win7 since beta and never had a BSOD, only ever had one in
Vista, never had one in XP (we won't discuss ME...lol), across more
than a dozen different laptops and PCs.

iSCSI Software Support Department
http://www.starwindsoftware.com

Win 7 machine starts in 4x3 mode instead of 16x9

BocaBoy — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:32:37 GMT

Ken, thanks for the response. I've tried that before I posted my question, and the screen resolution doesn't "stick." It goes back to the original size on the next reboot. It's strange since my XP vm behaves as I expect it to, meaning that it maintains the last resolution setting.

Oh well, maybe this will be addressed in the next upgrade.

delete key mapping

mootoh — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:28:53 GMT

So, how about the latest compact keyboard?
Fn-Delete, Ctrl-Delete, Ctrl+Option+Delete all don't work...

nfs & iscsi support for disks ?

rcardona2k — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:08:23 GMT

robbedoes wrote:
Re: rcardona2k You are missing the point. Yes with macosx you can mount afs, nfs, afp, smb, iscsi etc shares. But you get the overhead of the OS. ESX has native support for iscsi and nfs

No you're missing the point, Fusion will never be like ESX as there will always be an OS X layer. If you want ESX, ask VMware to support Apple hardware in the vSphere HCL.

Fusion 3.0.1 - Performance even worse

no1tmorrow — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:03:33 GMT

I tried the below and my machine still locks up after I click "OK" to log in.

"I'm new to the forums and I appreciate all of the comments and work people have put into this issue. Going by your posts I messed around a bit and here's what completely fixed my performance issues (and it's very, very simple):

1) Shut down the virtual machine
2) Go to Settings / Advanced / Other / and then change "Hard disk buffering" to "Disabled"
3) Reboot computer

Good to go.

Here's what I'm running:

MacBook Pro, 10.6.2, 2.4GHz, 2GB, Fusion 3.0.1 (which I upgraded from 3.0), Windows 7 Pro

I really hope this helps. Please let me know if this solves anyone else's problem!"

Incredibly slow Fusion 3.0.1 with Snow Leopard on MBPro

no1tmorrow — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:44:25 GMT

I uninstalled VMWare Tools and re-installed them. I have to reboot my XP every morning since it stops at either: when I click login after my password or at applying computer settings. I have let it sit for 10+ minutes with no luck. This sucks.
Thanks
Thom

The file specified is not a virtual disk. - How do I repair?

continuum — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:16:36 GMT

Hi
sorry I had a typo in my last post - it should have said blabla-000001.vmdk - not blabla-000012.vmdk

sorry

___________________________________

VMX-parameters- Workstation FAQ - MOA-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

using virtual PC WIIIIIIIITH vmware? can i do it?

rcardona2k — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:37:42 GMT

naiguy wrote:
When i try to open one of the virual hard disks it says: This program is blocked due to compatibility issues. I''m not sure if i need to use another version of virtual pc or if its just not possible. can someone help with this question?!

VMware Fusion at one point imported Microsoft VMs via File > Import... to import Microsoft VPC 7 for Mac using the .vmc configuration file. The same import process would work with VPC 2007 for Windows (.vmc) or WVPC media (.vmcx). Have you tried that option?

Cloning, and NVRAM

rcardona2k — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:53:12 GMT

liquidcross wrote:
There isn't any personally identifiable information contained in those files, is there?

I'm glad you finally fixed this. You must have renamed a split file virtual disk thinking that was OK? On your comment above, I find it ironic that you would ask a potential 'adversary' if there is personally identifiable information, as if we were looking for any or to expose your personal information to the public Internet. That's akin to asking a wolf if he plans to eat you! Of course not! As WoodyZ said text files are able to be screened for so-called sensitive infomation and if you have the least bit concern you could PM or go down a private support route.

WINDOWS XP PROGRAMS DISAPPEARED

bigmacmt — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:34:02 GMT

Woody,
You appear to be the guru here. I have a similar / same problem. BUT, how can I do a reboot of Windows in fusion when I have nothing but a blank screen--no windows menu, no programs etc. It says its Windows XP on the top bar and I have managed to locate files of the program (Quickbooks) that I'm trying to run, but cannot seem to get anything else to come up in Fusion. Thanks for any help you can offer. Feel free to send direct if you like. Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to offer.

Greg
mba@mtbroadcasters.org

File retrieval

Pearlanta — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:05:47 GMT

Hi Etung - you are right that is exactly what I did!!! Albeit unknowingly!

"unless you manage to recover the deleted .vmdk files from the host filesystem, plus have not changed the base disks so that the recovered files are still usable"

I haven't changed a thing since it happened on the off chance someone might know something here. How would I go about recovering the files? That is what I do not know how to do.....and no base disks have been changed as far as I know.

Thinprint printer no longer available

jasimon9 — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:33:21 GMT

Figuring it was worth a shot, I restarted the TP Auto Connect a couple of times.

Still no joy.

Huge Performance Problem Fusion 3 + Windows 7

demrek1971 — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:28:11 GMT

I run Windows 7 on a MacBook Pro 17 on Fusion 3 and I've got huge performance problem

If I launch notepad on my Win 7 (Fusion 3 session) and I simply try to type some text,
there's a delay for the character typed being displayed in Notepad.exe

What should I tweak to boost the performance of my VM ?
(I never had this problem on the same machine using Fusion 1.1 + Vista)

Fusion 3.0 Migration Assistant - Error - Help Please

kmoize — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:25:25 GMT

I'm not sure if you are having the same issue that I had originally but this might help. In the readme file for the migration assistant, it states that you must have the "guest" account on the MAC turned on and active. By default the guest account is turned off. Apparently, the migration agent uses this account to perform the task. You can turn the guest account on through the Systems Preferences - Accounts panel.

Good Luck if you haven't tried this setup. Once I turned on the guest account, the migration agent was able to perform the creation of a virtual PC running Windows 7.

lstockstiel <communities-emailer@vmware.com> wrote:

A new message was posted in the thread "Fusion 3.0 Migration Assistant - Error - Help Please":

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1469983#1469983

Author : lstockstiel
Profile : http://communities.vmware.com/people/lstockstiel
Message:

HELP NEEDED! How can I get 2560 * 1600 on Win 7 ? MacBook Pro 17 + Dell 30 inch 3008 WFP + Fusion 3

demrek1971 — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:31:02 GMT

Etung : Many thanks, you were correct, all I needed was to install VM Ware Tools to get 2560 * 1600

Once again thanks

Moving VMWare Fusion to a new computer

robbedoes — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:16:45 GMT

Hi !

Did you have a look at:

https://www.vmware.com/licensing/license.portal

(my account when you login @vmware)

My licenses are neatly preserved, so I'd suppose yours also ?

Copy the 'disks' over (Documents/Virtual Machine Library), do a blank fusion install, put in a license and voila !

Cheers !

VMware Fusion 3.0 networking configuration question

WoodyZ — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:25:59 GMT

With the Virtual Machine shutdown, not suspended, and VMware Fusion cClosed then in a Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal) process the following commands.

Hint: You can copy and paste one command at a time into the Terminal.

cd /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion

sudo ./vmnet-apps.sh --stop

sudo nano ./locations

sudo ./vmnet-apps.sh --start

As an example you'd change the Addresses on the lines in red below to show the IP Address/Subnet Mask that you want to use for Host Only (vmnet1)

remove_answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR
remove_answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_NETMASK
answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 192.168.137.1
answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
remove_answer VNET_1_DHCP
answer VNET_1_DHCP yes
remove_answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR
remove_answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 192.168.216.1
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
remove_answer VNET_8_NAT
answer VNET_8_NAT yes
remove_answer VNET_8_DHCP
answer VNET_8_DHCP yes

Notes: You use your arrow keys to move around in nano and then to save the changes you press Ctr+O and then Enter and then to exit press Ctrl+X.

Or you can use the scripts in tokamak300-20091029.zip with Fusion 3 and the referencing post is: Re: Scripts to manage Fusion network settings.

Unable to Extend virtual disk in MAC OSX

WoodyZ — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:05:39 GMT

This thread is over two years old so I doubt it is still and issue for the OP.

Also you've posted your advertising in multiple forums for this product so you don't need to dredge up old post on this subject too!

Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

pevm2008 — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:56:03 GMT

You should download and try fatVM http://www.gudgud.com/fatvm

fatVM is a reliable, robust, and safe, 1-click solution for extending the C drive of your VMware Fusion virtual disk that is becoming full.

It provides a simple, intuitive, interface and a reliable process that hides the technical complexity of extending a virtual disk.
It is robust because it can extend virtual disks having snapshots and clones.
It is safe because it preserves your original disk, which remains available to you for when the need ever arises.

Increasing hard drive space on virtual machine (xp)

WoodyZ — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:05:41 GMT

It is not my guide and that document was written by Pat Lee who is the Director of Personal Desktop Products at VMware although it is his personal document and is not official VMware documentation none then less if you what to accomplish the task at hand then I strongly suggest that you read the entire document and then do one of the third party methods described in that document.

And to be perfectly blunt it can't be written much simpler or explained much simpler then what Pat wrote as he wrote it with the non tech savvy user in mind but understand the following...

1. VMware Fusion the application and any of it components can only increase the size of the Virtual Hard Drive and can only make it smaller if on OS has been installed on the Virtual Hard Drive yet.

2. The Virtual Partition on the Virtual Hard Drive must be increased in size by either a Third Party Utility or a Utility built into the Guest OS.

This makes it always a minimum of a two step process however the second part is critical in that one must do it properly so as not to wipe out what is already existing on the Virtual Hard Drive and the various utilities mentioned in the previously linked document do just that when used properly they preform a nondestructive resizing of the partition.

Good Luck!

Upgraded to 3.01 and lost my internet!!

karynward — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:57:00 GMT

I found another response that said to go to Virtual Machine and disconnect and then reconnect my network adapter. That seems to have worked!

How can I switch between task using an external PC Keyboard

WoodyZ — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:46:03 GMT

demrek1971 wrote: I can't figure out how can I switch between task in MAC OS X using an external PC Keyboard

On the MacBook Pro under OS X you'd press Command+Tab to switch between tasks so on a PC Keyboard connected to the MacBook Pro you's press Windows+Tab to switch between tasks under OS X.

Message was edited by: WoodyZ

Forgot to add that in a Windows Virtual Machine you'd press Alt+Tab to switch between Tasks. (Which is the normal key sequence anyway.)

Fusion 3 + Win7- One hard drive or two drive for best performances ?

demrek1971 — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:13:49 GMT

I use my MacBook Pro as my main software development box,
and I'm wondering if it's a problem if I've only created one hard drive C:\ which has got a size of 170 Gigas.
Or is it better to have 2 drives ? or this simply do not matter on a vitualized box ?

Please note that I do mainly software development, and database access stuffs.

I plan to do that on an externard 1 Tera Byte external drive.

Fusion not showing as a 64-bit application on Mac

etung — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:39:40 GMT

The UI is not 64-bit, but the UI also doesn't do any real work and doesn't really matter what bitness it is. vmware-vmx(-debug) does the real work, is 64-bit, and is not shown in Activity Monitor by default.

Fusion 3, Win7 64bit super sluggish

typemismatch — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:56:32 GMT

yeah FAIL.

PD5 rocks, don't look back.

Transferring Virtual machine from External drive - URGENT HELP PLEASE

Rai66 — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:48:55 GMT

Thank you ! deleting the 2 folders worked.

VMWare Fusion 3 Game isn't running smooth and audio is real bad.

etung — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:14:11 GMT

Hmm strange that I have problems then. I don't have to download drivers in my Windows 7 right?

No, the right drivers should be included with Tools.

One thing for you to try is to create a clean Windows 7 virtual machine (if you don't enter a key, you have a grace period before having to do so, which is incredibly useful for testing) and see if that fares better.

Can you be more specific about what areas (pick an easy-to-get-to early zone I can compare later) and framerates (ctrl-f) you're referring to?

Can you confirm the graphics card you have? Do you have anything running in the background on the host or in the guest?

VMware to run ExamSoft

etung — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:19:13 GMT

According to Examsoft thinks VMware is still running when I'm natively in BootCamp/WinXP, ExamSoft specifically checks for traces of a VMware environment and refuses to run if they are found. While it's probably possible to work around the checks, getting in an arms race isn't something we're interested in. Rebooting natively into Bootcamp is probably the easiest solution (and don't run the Bootcamp partition in Fusion).

Ejecting a CD causes BSOD in Windows XP under Fusion 2.0.6 on OS 10.5.8

stevenstromer — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:44:24 GMT

Hi. Thank you for your response. I have deleted and added the CD drive, and tested as you recommended. It actually seems to be working! Crashes have been inconsistent in the past, so I may be jumping the gun. Thank you again, and I will collect error logs if another BSOD occurs. Again, thanks!

Transfering .vmwarevm file from OS X to OS X (VMWare Fusion 1.1.1)

kmatthews812 — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:18:32 GMT

Nevermind, I figured it out. For anybody else running into the same problem, here is how I solved it:

Shut down vm on computer A, do not suspend it.

Zip up the .vmwarevm files

Copy to a thumbdrive

Copy from thumbdrive to computer B

Unzip files

Double click the new .vmwarevm file and run it.

It turns out that OS X was not copying all the files in the .vmwarevm package on the original copy to the thumbdrive. Putting them in a zip file first solved the problem.

Kev

vmware-vmx using 100% of one cpu

duku — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:26:15 GMT

I have VMware Fusion 2.0.6 running on a MacBook Pro with two Intel processor and 4GB of ram with 2GB allocated to the Windows VM. Shortly after I start the Windows VM the vmware-vmx starts using a minimum of 100% of one cpu. Once the Windows VM has started up and settled down and is using only about 20% to 30% of the "Windows VM" cpu the vmware-vmx process is still at 100% or slightly more. Also when the cpu usage does go to 100% on the Windows VM the vmware-vmx cpu usage increases to only increases slightly, at most 10%. I've found articles on the web about tuning the Windows VM by turning off indexing, and other processes and I've only allocated one cpu to the VM but none of those things have helped. I've tried a new Windows VM and got the same results. The only other thing that seems strange is the down load speed on the MacBook Pro is very slow compared to Windows machines on the same network. The MacBook pro gets about 1/10 or 1/5 of the download speed of a Windows machine. I've tried setting the network setting on the MacBook Pro explicitly but that didn't make a difference. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks -

Pathname to file on the VM

Stubaan — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:25:01 GMT

Alrighty. Lots to do!

Thanks again for all the help rcardona2k - really is appreciated!

Drag-and-drop with Windows 7 not working all the time under 3.0.1

stevemaser — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:06:01 GMT

This is hit-and-miss for me:

I'll launch Fusion, start my 32-bitWindows 7 VM (which was shut down) -- and a minute or so after I log in -- I can drag something from the Mac finder to the Windows 7 desktop.

Another time, I'll launch Fusion, start the Windows 7 VM -- and drag-and-drop doesn't work at all.

"VMwareuser.exe" is running and Tools are installed.

Is there something I can try to kick-start this when it's not working? It's highly frustrating when it does not work!

vmware tools broken on OpenSolaris 2010.03 (preview)

icurtain — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:24:44 GMT

Ok, firstly a disclaimer, I know that you don't really support any "in development builds" of OSs, but just wondering if there was a known work-around for the following:
(also to give you a heads-up on the issues, so maybe you can include in the next service pack

So there are 2 issues so far on OpenSolaris x86 2010.03 (build 131/2):
- xorg configuration doesn't run
- vmware-toolbox errors

From install:

Detected X.org version 7.6.4.
No drivers for X.org version 7.6.4
Skipping X configuration because X drivers are not included.
The configuration of VMware Tools 8.2.4 build-215242 for Solaris for this running kernel completed successfully.

However when I attempt to run vmware-toolbox I get the following:
ic@mapp:~$ /usr/bin/vmware-toolbox &
[1] 7745
ic@mapp:~$ ld.so.1: vmware-toolbox-gtk: fatal: relocation error: file /usr/lib/64/libgobject-2.0.so.0: symbol g_array_ref: referenced symbol not found
[1]+ Killed /usr/bin/vmware-toolbox

But the file seems to be there and linking to /usr/lib/:
ic@mapple:~$ ls -l /usr/lib/64/libgobject-2.0.so.0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26 2010-01-27 15:16 /usr/lib/64/libgobject-2.0.so.0 -> libgobject-2.0.so.0.2200.3
ic@mapp:~$

Any ideas?

Win2003 VM BSOD in Fusion 3.0.1

alantcy — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:46:03 GMT

Thanks rcardona2k!

Your suggestion worked!
I'll hang on to this setting for next few days and see how it goes.

Curious though why it doesn't seem to affect XP when its basically much of the same core design..
And thing is, now system tray doesn't pop up that 'unplugged' icon (obviously), but the vpn window still shows as 'connected' with the timer running.

Have to manually ungrab mouse when restarting a suspended virtual machine.

philwright — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:11:46 GMT

Hi

I recently upgraded to Fusion v3 under Snow Leopard 10.6.2, i'm running Windows XP SP3.

I have found a difference in behaviour when choosing between suspending or powering down the virtual machine when I quit.

If I select suspend, the next time I start Fusion, I can't move the mouse outside of the window without pressing command and control. Re-installing vmware tools fixes the issue, but the problem return the next time I resume.

If however, I choose to power down, then I don't experience this problem and the mouse moves freely between the virtual desktop and my mac one.

It appears as if vmware tools isn't functioning correctly to me and i've tried uninstalling it, rebooting the virtual machine and installing it to no avail.

Anyone got any suggestions as to how to fix this? I know I can use the power down setting to get the correct behaviour, but it's many times slower than suspending.

Thanks
Phil

Full-Screen menu bar not working, and more

spacerunner — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:46:41 GMT

thanks for the hint.

I updated from 2.x to 3 and that new application bar (sorry my fusion is German, I dont know what you call this bar in englisch) is someting I dont like. I like the feature of running fullscreen mode and have the default mac menu bar appear on top when I move my mouse on top. This makes handling easier because I still have access to my mac top menu icons, fusion menu and other apps when I switch applications.

I strongly ask for making a preference choice without having to modify the pref file.

thanks a lot,
stefan.-

Question about the size of my Virtual Machine

WoodyZ — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:45:20 GMT

Try shrinking the disk from within Window using the VMware Tools applet in Control Panel (or from the Notification Area on the Taskbar if the VMware Tools icon is there) as it really should give back some of that space to the Host's filesystem since the Virtual Hard Drive is not preallocated and I see this by the file sizes of the .vmdk files.

Note that it can take a while to shrink from the of 39.9 GB to the 20.5 GB free within Windows.

Unable to create deploy package from VM

WoodyZ — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:38:48 GMT

Glad it all worked out for you!

McAfee installed, now OS ruined

WoodyZ — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:36:06 GMT

Just think if you had taken a Snapshot right before installing McAfee and it messed up your system you could have reverted to the previous Snapshot and then no harm no foul.

That said, the McAfee package included with VMware Fusion is a piece of trash and I'd never install it to begin with on any system, Virtual of Physical.

VMware tools won't stay installed

WoodyZ — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:14:57 GMT

hmotulsky wrote: Thank you. It is good to know that the change in the menu from Update VMware Tools to Install VMware tools is meaningless.

It's not meaningless per se it's just not tied to the actual state of whether or not VMware Tools is installed in a specific Virtual Machine.

But.. it sure seems as though Windows is way more responsive after I reinstall VMware tools. It feels like the tools stop working every day or two until I reinstall them.

Well if you're experiencing issues then you need to properly troubleshoot it and not just arbitrarily reinstall VMware Tools just because it shows on the Virtual Machines menu. You need to first see if the VMware Tools applet exists in Windows Control Panel and there should also be a VMware Tools icon in the Notification Area of the Taskbar and not have an International No symbol (red circle and slash) on it. Also check and see if the VMware Services are running via the Services MMC snap-in.

Sharing Virtual Machines Between Users

WHELP — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:39:09 GMT

Thanks again. This works like a champ!

VMWare Fusion 3.01 won't run Win 7 64bit Virtual Machine from BootCamp partition

cmrock — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:34:30 GMT

Never mind.

I just deleted the Virtual Machine from VMWare Fusion and started over. This time, it worked.

USB Sound devices NOT working in Fusion

bashir555 — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:43:50 GMT

i wish i read this post before purchasing my USB sound device for my WinXP VM !
hope the bug is resolved by Apple quickly

Expose overlapping windows drawing bug

FrancoisJPerreault — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:35:47 GMT

Same thing here and not fixed in 3.0.1.

Also I thought I should mention that it does the same thing to the minimized thumbnail(s); as you click to minimize a window, (or when you invoke Expose,) it seems to call a refresh that paints all windows at the same time, and puts that as the final reference image for each application's window/thumb, so the only one that ends up looking right/correct is the one for the top-most app.

If you look at the attached image, you'll see that the top-most Windows app (Firefox) displays fine, but uTorrent turns out to be mostly composed of the Firefox window since it overlaps it.

"Could not open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory" error

frankharrison — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:25:47 GMT

Excuse the bump, but does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? I can't think of anything I haven't already tried, and really need to get this fixed.

Thanks, Frank

OpenGL 2

Algae — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:57:59 GMT

I've run OpenGL apps that don't require VBOs just fine. It's just 2.x/1.x extensions functionality I'm having trouble with. I'll try reinstalling Tools.

_Nik

WIN 7 PRO 32 BIT GUEST

WoodyZ — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:39:05 GMT

If you'd search the forums you'd know that many users have had various issues with Windows 7 and some of which has made some users go to using Parallels while others haven't had any issue that would make then stop using Fusion.

My suggestion would be to give both VMware Fusion 3 and Parallels Desktop 5 a test drive as both offer free evaluation licenses and then install Windows 7 in both without activating it, as you don't have to for 30 days, and see which product works best for you.

Move "1 install only" Win7 64-bit ultimate from one Mac to another?

WoodyZ — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:16:17 GMT

MacNephDoc wrote:

Also you can re-activate the OS, all you have to do is call the number
on the screen where it says "cannot activate". MS isn't going to
prevent you from using it, they just want to ensure you aren't using
multiple activations, hence single activation, but they will simply
reset the counter.

I'm still a bit nervous about that. The materials I received from Microsoft along with the complimentary DVD said that the OS was limited to a one-time-only installation, unlike retail copies of the DVD . I guess I'll find out...

Well if you plan to move it to another Mac you really have no choice now do you? JSYK the Virtual Machine will see a different CPU and of the various elements used to generate the activation hash the CPU has the highest value when it comes to tripping the threshold for reactivation but hopefully that by itself will not be enough to trip it.

Mac OS X Server in VM, Pages 09 shows blank window

mgrabenstein19130 — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:19:27 GMT

Installing iWork 09 went fine. I was able to update to the latest version via software update. I am running Mac OS X server 10.5

Though when I run Pages 09 and select a blank document, or open a word document all the text on the window is blank. If I change to full screen, or outline view I see the text briefly and then it goes blank again. Pages is registering that I am typing into the window. Just nothing is showing up on the window.

Full screen mode the screen is just black, showing word count in the lower left corner. In normal window mode the window is white with the word count in the lower left corner of the window. The word count is updating and accurate.

Same thing happens for Numbers. Same thing for keynote.

VM machine has 4 GB Ram, and OS X server 10.5.8. Have tried 2 GB ram and multiprocessor cores. No VM settings seem to have any affect.

I am running this on a MacPro, with 8 GB RAM.

Anyone else having this problem?

Thanks,
Mike

HP display assistant

rcardona2k — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:27:36 GMT

Monitors are attached to the host and become available as primary or extended real estate through OS X. Monitors are not ever mapped/bridged directly to a virtual machine. The USB hub can be connected to your host to allow additional devices. The options on this monitor appear to be controllable from buttons on the device, is there specific software you're looking to use? Usually the 'drivers' involve color profiles and gamma settings which OS X might have built-in.

deleting windows setup

RDPetruska — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:12:27 GMT

Thread moved to Fusion forum.

Specify an address of my mac on host-only/nat adapter

hron — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:07:16 GMT

I'll see it, thanks a link.
--
Gabor Garami
hrgyster@gmail.com

A Power User's Guide to VMware Fusion

etung — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 03:29:41 GMT

Disclaimer: This is a personal document and is not official or endorsed by VMware. Feedback, suggestions, and edits are welcome.

This document is primarily intended for people who have used Fusion for a while and are curious about how to do more advanced things. People who have used other VMware products may be interested in this as a reference for where to find settings. This document describes configurations which have no UI settings and are not supported, but are still useful. This document assumes you are familiar with A Beginner's Guide to VMware Fusion.

Important: Whenever you do file operations (move, copy, edit, delete, etc.) to a VM, make sure it is powered down and Fusion isn't running. You don't want to change the data out from under Fusion.

If you want to be notified of changes and additions to this document, you can use the "Receive email notifications" action in the sidebar on the left. Please use the comments below only for things specific to this document; general questions are better off in the discussion section.

A tool you may find handy is VMX Extras, which is a GUI way to change some of these settings.

Fit Full Screen

Note: This setting is no longer necessary in Fusion 2.0, as this is the default.

When you switch to fullscreen mode in a guest without tools installed or a guest which changes the screen resolution, you might notice black borders around the screen since the host resolution remains the same. You can tell Fusion to scale the guest to the host's resolution by editing /Users/yournamehere/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/preferences to include the line

pref.autoFitFullScreen = "fitHostToGuest"

If the preferences file doesn't exist, create it as a plain text file. If the autoFitFullScreen line exists, replace it or comment out the old line.

Boot Delay

Fusion's BIOS flashes by very quickly - this is good for normal use (optimize the common case!) but annoying if you want to change a BIOS setting. You can slow down the boot process by adding the following line to the .vmx:

bios.bootDelay = "3000"

You can of course change this number; the units are on the order of milliseconds (e.g. "3000" adds approximately 3 seconds delay).

In Fusion 3.0, an easier way to change the boot order (the most common reason you'd want to get into the BIOS) is via Virtual Machine > Settings > Advanced > Startup Device.

Scripting

Fusion 2.0 introduces vmrun, a way to interact with virtual machines through the command line. It's located in /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmrun; run it with no arguments for help. An example of some Automator actions which use vmrun is in Automator Actions.

vmrun does not exist in Fusion 1.x, but you can get some similar functionality by using Applescript's UI scripting, for example like Re: Fusion's handling of Fullscreen is driving me INSANE!.

Additionally, you can tell Fusion to take action on certain signals by adding either (or both) option to the .vmx (for just that VM) or ~/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config (for all your VMs):

signal.suspendOnHUP = "TRUE"
signal.powerOffOnTERM = "TRUE"

You might also be interested in the guest power scripts, which depend on Tools being installed and are run inside the guest when it powers on/powers off/suspends/wakes from sleep. To see where these scripts are, open the Tools and select the Scripts tab.

Headless Mode

As the Beginner's Guide said, the vmware-vmx process does the real work of running the virtual machine while the Fusion UI process handles input and drawing. If you don't need the UI process, you can kill the UI process after you start the VM (e.g. ctrl-option-clicking the Fusion Dock icon and Force Quitting). The vmware-vmx process should continue to run in the background. You can reconnect to it by starting Fusion again and opening the VM.

In Fusion 2.0, an easier way is to run the following command in a Terminal Window:

defaults write com.vmware.fusion fluxCapacitor -bool YES

This will add a View menu item, "Headless". If you use this option, you probably should also use the signal config options mentioned in the Scripting section of this document to allow you to safely shut down the physical machine without having to reconnect to the virtual machine.

I believe the VM continues running even if you log out, since the vmware-vmx process is root-owned.

The fluxCapacitor option was removed from Fusion 3.0 due to rearchitecting of the rendering engine; we did not have time to make sure that headless mode still worked. We realize it's something that some people find useful. In the meantime, force quitting the UI or invoking Fusion directly should work.

Networking

Dave Parsons has written a good guide to custom network settings: How to modify Fusion network settings whitepaper, as well as scripts to manage custom settings: Advanced Networking Configuration - Tokamak Networking Scripts for VMware Fusion

Note that Fusion 3's networking configuration is a little different, so you need an updated version of the scripts: Re: Scripts to manage Fusion network settings

Share Guest Internet Connection With Host

WoodyZ has written a good guide for setting this up: Share Windows XP Guest Internet Connection with OS X Host HOWTO

Static IP address

This only applies to NAT and host-only modes; bridged mode does not involve Fusion's DHCP server.

You might want a particular guest to always receive the same IP address via Fusion's DHCP server: Re: DHCP reservations please
Alternately, by default Fusion's DHCP server reserves the range x.y.z.3-x.y.z.127 (where x.y.z is the vmnet1 or vmnet8 subnet) for static IPs - simply set the guest to use a static address in this range (the exact method to do this will depend guest-specific).

Arbitrary MAC address

Fusion 2.0 allows you to use arbitrary MAC addresses, not just the range assigned to VMware. In addition to changing the MAC address in the .vmx file to the one you want, you also need to add the following line:

ethernet0.checkMACAddress = "FALSE"

This is easier in Fusion 3.0. You should be able to set the MAC address via Virtual Machine > Settings > Network > Advanced options.

VNC Server

Like Workstation, Fusion has a built-in VNC server. This allows you to connect to the guest without having a VNC server installed in the guest - useful if a server doesn't exist for the guest or if you need access some time when a server would not work (say during the boot process). It's also good in conjunction with Headless Mode.
The VNC server is set up on a per-VM basis, and is disabled by default. In Fusion 3.0; VNC settings are under Virtual Machine > Settings > Advanced > Other. For older versions of Fusion, add the following lines to the .vmx:

RemoteDisplay.vnc.enabled = "TRUE"
RemoteDisplay.vnc.port = "5901"

You can set a password with RemoteDisplay.vnc.key; details for how to calculate the obfuscated value given a plaintext password are in Compute hashed password for use with RemoteDisplay.vnc.key.

Note Previous revisions of this document incorrectly mentioned that you could use a plaintext RemoteDisplay.vnc.password. This option was in previous versions of Workstation but got removed in favor of RemoteDisplay.vnc.key; it was not added back to Fusion until 2.0. The obfuscated RemoteDisplay.vnc.key is preferred.

If you want more than one VM set up in this manner, make sure they have unique port numbers.
To connect, use a VNC client pointing at host-ip-address:port. If you connect from a different computer, you may have to open a hole in the OS X firewall. If you use Leopard's Screen Sharing.app on the same computer as Fusion, don't use port 5900 since Screen Sharing refuses to connect to that.

Swap Alt (a.k.a. Option) and Windows (a.k.a. Command) keys

Mac and PC keyboards have different positions for the Alt/Option and Windows/Command keys. If you're using a PC keyboard or have years of PC muscle-memory, you can tell Fusion to swap these keys by adding the following line to ~/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config

mks.keyboard.swapAlt = "TRUE"

If the config file doesn't exist, create it as a plain text file.

This may not work in Fusion 2.0b2 and later, because Fusion's keyboard mappings have changed. Instead, set this mapping Fusion's Preferences.

USB HID

You might have noticed that some USB devices, such as keyboards and mice, do not show up in the Virtual Machine menu or in the status bar. By default, Fusion screens out Human Interface Devices (HID) because if you attach your mouse/keyboard to a VM, you may have no way to get back out (shutting down the guest may work, and if you've configured Fusion to not automatically connect, unplugging/replugging should work, but if you don't have this set and the guest crashes, you're out of luck). A similar problem exists if you use a Bluetooth mouse/keyboard and attach the Bluetooth adapter to the guest - don't do that either!

This masking is a problem for other devices such as tablets or mice with lots of buttons, since they are also HID and therefore don't appear in the list. If you want to use pressure sensitivity or other advanced features, you need to attach the device to the guest. To get HID entries to appear, add the following line to the .vmx:

usb.generic.allowHID = "TRUE"

If you use this setting, I would recommend disabling Virtual Machine > Settings > USB > Automatically Connect USB Devices so that you have some way to get a mis-connected device back (unplug and replug). Remember not to connect your only keyboard/mouse to the guest!

Example instructions for using a tablet with an Ubuntu guest: Instructions: enable wacom pressure sensitive tablet in Ubuntu 7.10, Leopard & VMware Fusion 1.1

"Two" computers in one

By now you know that Fusion lets you run multiple OSes at once, but it's limited because only one person can be using them at a time. What if you could separate them even more so that the host and the guest could be used by different people simultaneously? You can combine the USB HID setting with software cursor rendering to do this! While you could achieve a similar effect by combining VNC/headless mode, this method does not require additional physical computers as clients. Major caveats include:

The host is still in control (so if OS X goes to sleep, the virtual computer will not be usable, Exposé will affect the guest window, etc.)
You will need enough hardware resources to handle both host and guest
The guest cursor isn't quite as smooth as normal (but is still quite usable)

To use this tip, you'll need a second keyboard/mouse for the guest and preferably have a second monitor. I would recommend disabling Virtual Machine > Settings > USB > Automatically Connect USB Devices so that you have some way to get a mis-connected device back (unplug and replug). Start by adding the following lines to the guest:

svga.noHWCursor = "TRUE"
usb.generic.allowHID = "TRUE"

Connect the second keyboard/mouse to the guest, and optionally move the guest to the secondary monitor and go fullscreen. Since the host mouse can still wander over to the guest (get back out with ctrl-cmd on the host keyboard), if you use a second monitor, I suggest telling OS X that the monitors are offset so it's harder to do, e.g. go to System Preferences > Displays > Arrangement and drag the displays so they are arranged as follows:

You can extend this for even more virtual computers, though your hardware requirements will go up too.

Paravirtualization

Note: This setting provides no benefit on Nehalem or newer processors. The benefit of VMI is simpler page mapping, but Nehalem processors implement this efficiently in hardware.

VMware proposed the VMI specification as a vendor-independent method for hypervisors to talk to guests about certain things common to all hypervisors. VMI is part of the standard Linux kernel since 2.6.22, though it might not be enabled by default in your distro of choice. Enabling VMI speeds up guest system calls, improves timekeeping, and reduces overhead - of course, improvement varies by workload.

To do this, add the following line to the .vmx:

vmi.present = "TRUE"

For example, with 32-bit Ubuntu 7.04, if you've done this correctly, the dmesg output should contain the line "Booting paravirtualized kernel on vmi" instead of "Booting paravirtualized kernel on bare hardware"

Note that VMI does not work with 64-bit guests. On newer machines, it is also unlikely to help, as the pain point it was created to address has been eliminated due to improvements in hardware-assisted virtualization.

USB Logs

You might remember from Information Gathering for VMware Fusion that Fusion is able to log USB traffic. We've released an open source (and unsupported) tool for visualizing USB logs generated in this manner: http://vusb-analyzer.sourceforge.net/

GDB Server

Like Workstation, Fusion has a built-in GDB server. This allows you to debug the guest without having to run kdb or recompile your kernel (I think this is for Linux guests, or at least guests you can use GDB with). You will need a kernel with symbols for your distro and be familiar with how to use gdb. There is also untested support for record/replay, which lets you do interesting things like stepping backward through a program.

Depending on the guest, add the appropriate line to your .vmx:

32-bit guests	64-bit guests

debugStub.listen.guest32 = "TRUE"

debugStub.listen.guest64 = "TRUE"

32-bit guests	64-bit guests

Once you've gotten to the guest to where you want to debug, use gdb to connect from the host (or other computer) with

32-bit guests	64-bit guests

target remote yourmachost:8832

target remote yourmachost:8864

32-bit guests	64-bit guests

Note yourmachost can be localhost.

In GDB, load up the kernel with symbols:

file yourkernelfilehere

(substituting the appropriate file, e.g. vmlinux-2.4.21-27.EL.debug) and you're ready to debug the kernel. Debugging applications takes a little more work, see the following links for more details:

http://stackframe.blogspot.com/2007/04/debugging-linux-kernels-with.html
http://stackframe.blogspot.com/2007/04/workstation-60-and-death-of.html
http://stackframe.blogspot.com/2007/09/application-debugging-with-recordreplay.html
http://stackframe.blogspot.com/2007/10/configuring-application-debugging-with.html