VMware Communities: Message List - AppleScript to Run Virtual Machine and switch to Full Screen View or Unity View at Login.

Re: AppleScript to Run Virtual Machine and switch to Full Screen View or Unity View at Login.

CSeenaStyle — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:29:32 GMT

Fantastic, this worked, thanks for the pointers. I had tried to search for "vmwarevm" through spotlight to find where this file for my boot camp was located (if fusion makes such a file for BC VMs as well), but the search came up dry. I'm guessing that my spotlight is setup to not index such folders - I haven't checked yet.

Regarding the spaces: Apparently you can designate certain applications to open in certain spaces. You can do this in the spaces preferences, there is a list that you can add applications to using the + sign. However, I tried to add fusion to space 2, and while it did correctly open in space 2, it didn't do so in full screen. Can't have it all (just for the time being hopefully)

Re: AppleScript to Run Virtual Machine and switch to Full Screen View or Unity View at Login.

WoodyZ — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:31:49 GMT

For the Fully Qualified Pathname of the Boot Camp partition Virtual Machine on my system is as follows with the open command...

open "/Users/WKZ/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Boot Camp/%2Fdev%2Fdisk0/Boot Camp partition.vmwarevm"

However you need to verify it on your system.

Yes the Script as I wrote it checks to see that UI Scripting Elements is Enabled as it needs to be in order for the it to work.

Tip: you can drag & drop the Boot Camp partition item (Bundle Package) into the AppleScript Script Editor and it will write out the FQP automatically.

To avoid having to click the Run button deselect the Startup Screen check box on the Save As dialog box just as in the picture.

As far as scripting it to a particular Space I'm not sure as I'v not looked at doing it however I'd imagine it's possible. (Sorry I don't have time to look at at it now.)

Verboseness is never an issue when it's on topic or point which you were. It's only an issue when one drivels on with irrelevant useless information and not supplying anything substantive to diagnose the issue.

Re: AppleScript to Run Virtual Machine and switch to Full Screen View or Unity View at Login.

CSeenaStyle — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:24:53 GMT

WoodyZ,
Thanks for this script, I was looking for exactly this. I have a few questions to which the answers may be related:

(1) I run my Boot Camp partition as the VM. So, what do I set as the path? I tried this:
open "/Volumes/Windows HD"

(2)
-I opened the script with Script Editor, modified the path as shown in item 1 above and left the delay alone. Then I did Save As and set File Format to Application, leaving the other values alone.
-When running the newly created app the first time, it popped up with "UI element scripting is not enabled. Check \"Enable access for assistive devices\" then rerun script" and an instance of the preferences window where this setting could be found. I believe that this is from your script, so I followed the directions and enabled it.
-Running it on the second time, I get a pop up saying "Press Run to run this script, or Quit to quit." I choose run. It immediately pops up a Finder window showing my "Windows HD" contents
-After about the default 30 seconds, I get this pop up error:
Can't get <<class prcs>> "VMware Fusion" of application "System Events". with "Edit" and "OK" buttons, and so Fusion doesn't even startup

(a) Can I bypass the "Press Run to run this script, or Quit to quit." popup?
(b) Can I bypass the Finder window showing my "Windows HD" contents?
(c) What's generally going wrong here? I suspect some of my other problems are tied to the fact that I am specifying the path incorrectly.

(3) Is there a way to tell the script to start the VM in a certain space, for example space 2 in Leopard spaces?

Sorry for the verbose write up, just wanted you to have all of the information available,
Thanks

Re: AppleScript to Run Virtual Machine and switch to Full Screen View or Unity View at Login.

etung — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:58:19 GMT

VMware policy is to not comment on unannounced features/timelines/products/etc., so you won't get a definitive answer. The developers are aware that people would like Fusion to be smarter about what mode it starts up in.

Re: AppleScript to Run Virtual Machine and switch to Full Screen View or Unity View at Login.

Steve D — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:53:47 GMT

Are there plans to make this part of the settings in Fusion? I use Leopard and have my VM open in a dedicated "space" and would like it to automatically open in full screen each time. The script is helpful but does not solve all possibilities (like if the guest was suspended, it doesn't unsuspend) and thus fails. I guess I would like it to be an option to open in full screen or have AppleScript tie-ins so that we can gain guest status and take appropriate actions in the script.
Thanks for a great product!

AppleScript to Run Virtual Machine and switch to Full Screen View or Unity View at Login.

WoodyZ — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 08:29:53 GMT

Unfortunately at this point in time VMware Fusion does not support AppleScript so that puts some limitations on what you can do with AppleScript and Fusion!

The extent of Fusions AppleScript Dictionary contains "specifier : the host application. in vm text : the virtual machine bundle or config file" and it provides no functionality that I could tell.

The intension of theses scripts are to show that loading a Virtual Machine in Full Screen or Unity view at Login is possible however because of the lack of support for AppleScript it's easy to have these scripts fail if the "delay = n" value is not set properly. The value of "n" is in seconds and it needs to be an adequate amount of time to allow for the Virtual Machine to be at a point in its startup capable of accepting the subsequent command to change from Single Window to either Full Screen or Unity view. The value of "n" of course will vary from system to system based on its speed and what else is being loaded at Login and how much time it takes the Virtual Machine to get to that point it can execute the command. Entering Full Screen requires less time than Unity as it can go into Full Screen view before the OS is at its Desktop however for Unity view the Virtual Machine needs to be at the OSes Desktop before the subsequent command executes. So after a little testing you should be able to find the sweet spot for "n".

Aside from setting the value for the "delay" command you must also set the value of the "open" command, which needs to be the fully qualified pathname of the target Virtual Machine.

Tip: Delete the existing target pathname in the "open" command leaving the quotes now drag & drop the Virtual Machine's Bundle Package in between the quotes and it will populate the fully qualified pathname for you.

After making the appropriate changes to the script it must be saved as an application with no flags set. (No check boxes checked. Look at the Save As image.)

I recoded the original scripts so the Virtual Machine Library window should not show when opening the target Virtual Machine and also modified the code that changes the view from Single to the target view.

...

Once you've adjusted the Pathname and Delay Time you can save the Script as an Application that you will then set in the Login Items. (Apple menu > System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items)

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File Attached: StartVMFullUnity.zip contains two AppleScript files. "StartVMFullScreen.scpt" and "StartVMUnityView.scpt"

Note: Because of the lack of AppleScript Support in Fusion the method presented here is not perfect however it’s a viable option although I cannot guarantee these scripts will work every time. This is one of many ways to accomplish this task so feel free to modify the scripts to suite you needs and or wants. Use these scripts at you own risk as no warranty of any kind is expressed or implied!