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VMware Fusion 3 runs extremely slow... posted: Oct 28, 2009 4:34 AM

Click to view JangMunho's profile Novice
JangMunho
14 posts since
Jul 31, 2006
First, my MacBook Pro:
Core 2 T9300 @ 2.5GHz
4GB memory
250GB SATA HDD
Snow Leopard 10.6.1
VMware Fusion 3.0

When I was using Leopard and VMware Fusion 2.x, the virtual machines ran fast, but now they are extremely slow. BTW, I enabled the 64-bit kernel.
I managed to find the reason, that is because the process "mds" in the host OS, not a problem of the guest os. Everytime I turn on my Windows XP in VMware, "mds" will show up in the Activity Monitor window, and take up about 2%~20% CPU usage, the hard disk becomes noisy at the same time. What I could only do is to wait, after about 1 hour, mds will "calm down", and my MBP returns quiet. But, when next time I turn on my virtual machine, "mds" will show up again...

"Mds" is driving me crazy... I tried to google for answers, but no result.
Anybody is facing this issue too? Or anybody knows how to deal with the problem? Thanks!

Re: VMware Fusion 3 runs extremely slow...

1. Oct 28, 2009 4:40 AM in response to: JangMunho
Click to view MaLaun's profile Novice
MaLaun
31 posts since
Oct 28, 2009

mds is 'spotlight''s indexer. Seems it is running and reindexing everything when you start fusion.


Re: VMware Fusion 3 runs extremely slow...

2. Oct 28, 2009 7:27 PM in response to: MaLaun
Click to view JangMunho's profile Novice
JangMunho
14 posts since
Jul 31, 2006
Yes, quite right.
But I don't know why it reindexes everything when I start my vm. And it seems that there is no other person facing the same problem...

I'll try repairing the disk permission and report back later.

Re: VMware Fusion 3 runs extremely slow...

3. Oct 28, 2009 8:51 PM in response to: JangMunho
Click to view JangMunho's profile Novice
JangMunho
14 posts since
Jul 31, 2006
Additional information:
After I edited com.apple.Boot.plist to get back the 32-bit kernel, the mds issue disappeared. So I believe it's a bug of the 64-bit part of VMware Fusion 3.
Other bugs:
1. My "Application Menu" does not work properly. Almost every application gives me an entry, but none of them works, when you click one icon, nothing happened.
2. The VMDKmounter doesn't work at all. I can get a crash report in Console.
3. In Console of Mac OS X, a bug of FusionDaemon shows up:

Obviously, it was cause by a wrong command line which I believe should have been written as "XXXX -psn_0_61455", but now it was divided into several parts...

10/29/09 11:36:53 AM 0x0-0xf00f.com.vmware.fusionDaemon174 /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/VMware Fusion Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/VMware Fusion Helper: illegal option -- p
10/29/09 11:36:53 AM 0x0-0xf00f.com.vmware.fusionDaemon174 /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/VMware Fusion Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/VMware Fusion Helper: illegal option -- s
10/29/09 11:36:53 AM 0x0-0xf00f.com.vmware.fusionDaemon174 /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/VMware Fusion Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/VMware Fusion Helper: illegal option -- n
10/29/09 11:36:53 AM 0x0-0xf00f.com.vmware.fusionDaemon174 /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/VMware Fusion Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/VMware Fusion Helper: illegal option -- _
10/29/09 11:36:53 AM 0x0-0xf00f.com.vmware.fusionDaemon174 /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/VMware Fusion Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/VMware Fusion Helper: illegal option -- 0
10/29/09 11:36:53 AM 0x0-0xf00f.com.vmware.fusionDaemon174 /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/VMware Fusion Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/VMware Fusion Helper: illegal option -- _
10/29/09 11:36:53 AM 0x0-0xf00f.com.vmware.fusionDaemon174 /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/VMware Fusion Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/VMware Fusion Helper: illegal option -- 6
10/29/09 11:36:53 AM 0x0-0xf00f.com.vmware.fusionDaemon174 /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/VMware Fusion Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/VMware Fusion Helper: illegal option -- 1
10/29/09 11:36:53 AM 0x0-0xf00f.com.vmware.fusionDaemon174 /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/VMware Fusion Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/VMware Fusion Helper: illegal option -- 4
10/29/09 11:36:53 AM 0x0-0xf00f.com.vmware.fusionDaemon174 /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/VMware Fusion Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/VMware Fusion Helper: illegal option -- 5
10/29/09 11:36:53 AM 0x0-0xf00f.com.vmware.fusionDaemon174 /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/VMware Fusion Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/VMware Fusion Helper: illegal option -- 5

Re: VMware Fusion 3 runs extremely slow...

4. Oct 28, 2009 9:57 PM in response to: JangMunho
Click to view woolnough's profile Lurker
woolnough
1 posts since
Sep 26, 2009

You could try disabling spotlight indexing that folder through:

System Preferences => Spotlight => Privacy

and adding your VM folder to the list.


Re: VMware Fusion 3 runs extremely slow...

5. Oct 29, 2009 10:16 PM in response to: woolnough
Click to view JangMunho's profile Novice
JangMunho
14 posts since
Jul 31, 2006
I tried it, but doesn't work.
And I found out that when I started vmware fusion, not the virtual machine, mds began to take up my cpu usage. So I guess when vmware fusion starts, it must have mounted a image at a point of the file system. But I don't know the details, and boot with the 32-bit kernel of Snow Leopard, everything will be OK.

Now, I must kill mds process every time when I start vmware fusion. I believe it should be a bug of vmware fusion, because I reinstalled vmware, but it's of no use at all...

Re: VMware Fusion 3 runs extremely slow...

6. Oct 30, 2009 1:31 AM in response to: JangMunho
Click to view MaLaun's profile Novice
MaLaun
31 posts since
Oct 28, 2009

I have the same problem, but onlywhen Snow Leopard is booted in 32 bit mode. In 64 everything is fine.

Strange happenings.


Re: VMware Fusion 3 runs extremely slow...

7. Oct 30, 2009 5:20 AM in response to: MaLaun
Click to view JangMunho's profile Novice
JangMunho
14 posts since
Jul 31, 2006
Yes, very strange...
I'm now reinstalling my Windows XP, but I don't think it will solve the problem.

It's annoying to keep killing mds and mdworker during vmware running.

Re: VMware Fusion 3 runs extremely slow...

8. Oct 30, 2009 10:28 AM in response to: JangMunho
Click to view todivefor's profile Enthusiast
todivefor
162 posts since
Nov 22, 2007
I have the same problem. In addition to MDS, NTFS-3g seems to run wild for awhile also. Just now, everything was calm. I ran W7 with no problems. Then I brought up the Virtual Machine Library from the windows menu and MDS and NTFS-3G went crazy. After several minutes, NTFS-3G is at 57% and MDS is 18%. I am running 32 bit kernel.

20"
iMac Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz


Mac
OS X (10.6.1)


Vmware
Fusion 3.0.0 (204229)


Windows
7 Home Premium – 32 bit

Re: VMware Fusion 3 runs extremely slow...

9. Oct 30, 2009 10:31 AM in response to: todivefor
Click to view todivefor's profile Enthusiast
todivefor
162 posts since
Nov 22, 2007

I don't know what happened to my post above, but software/hardware requirements:

<!--
@page { margin: 0.79in }
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20"
iMac Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz

Mac
OS X (10.6.1)

Vmware
Fusion 3.0.0 (204229)

Windows
7 Home Premium – 32 bit

Re: VMware Fusion 3 runs extremely slow...

10. Oct 30, 2009 10:43 AM in response to: todivefor
Click to view francis.carden's profile Novice
francis.carden
19 posts since
Mar 21, 2008
Just upgraded to 3 and I can confirm, I have exactly the same problem. Running XP and the responsiveness is definitely a lot more sluggish to say the least. I brought it, because it was supposed to be faster.

So, you are not alone. The performance on the rest of my MAC is the same lightening fast. It's just apps in the XP VM that also used to be LIGHTNEING QUICK on the last release. Drop down a menu, click a context menu etc., just takes noticeable fractions of seconds instead of instant miliseconds. Way too noticeable...

GRRRRR

Re: VMware Fusion 3 runs extremely slow...

11. Oct 30, 2009 1:02 PM in response to: francis.carden
Click to view terryhatmaker's profile Lurker
terryhatmaker
1 posts since
Oct 30, 2009

I am evaluating Fusion 3 and I am also very disappointed with the speed of XP. I also had a strange thing happen where the mouse driver will not install. Anyone else have this problem with XP?

Terry

Re: VMware Fusion 3 runs extremely slow...

12. Oct 30, 2009 1:05 PM in response to: terryhatmaker
Click to view francis.carden's profile Novice
francis.carden
19 posts since
Mar 21, 2008
A reboot helped for a while, and then it's back. Considering I never had sluggish for 12 monthsyears and now I do, and the ONLY thing changed is adding $40 Fusion 3.

Mouse driver is temperamental, even pre Fusion 3. I just click ignore when I reboot XP.

Re: VMware Fusion 3 runs extremely slow...

13. Oct 30, 2009 1:24 PM in response to: JangMunho
Click to view anaxamaxan's profile Lurker
anaxamaxan
2 posts since
Oct 30, 2009
Another one here. Fusion 3 is extremely annoying right now. Everything on my Mac is running slowly, starting as soon as I started up Fusion. Macbook Pro (Early 08, 2.5Ghz), Snow Leopard 10.6.1.

Re: VMware Fusion 3 runs extremely slow...

14. Oct 31, 2009 3:15 AM in response to: JangMunho
Click to view JangMunho's profile Novice
JangMunho
14 posts since
Jul 31, 2006
So I think VMware Fusion team will soon release 3.0.1 (or, maybe 3.1) to fix the problem.
Guys who are facing the problem can use this command when you're getting a high CPU usage:
sudo killall mds
sudo killall mdworker
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