A few things.
I had issues running with nogui as a startup script with su. I haven't had a chance to explore all the permutations yet, however...
nogui as root will start the VM, confirmed.
If no one is logged in, you'll see complaints about access to the window manager. This can be overcome by codesigning the executables and there are some other ways to eal with that without code signing. That's a OS X issue and VirtualBox sees it as well.
Where I'm concerned at this point is whether VMware intends to keep/support nogui as a viable option. It certainly does not work in the same way as it did in 2, as my original stab at this was to ungrade Fusion and reboot my machine. So, the startup scripts/whatnot that worked in 2 do not work in 3. Whether that turns out to be codesigning, or some other issue, I would need to see it resolved as I require my VM's to start upon boot without user login.
So, in order for me to consider moving forward with Fusion 3 and beyond, my requirements are:
1. Working nogui option that works upon boot without need for user login. When the system boots, I want my specified VM's to be able to boot. And I want reassurance from VMware that this will continue to be a supported option.
As a corollary to 1, codesigning of vmrun and vmware-vmx and whatever other binaries might be needed to make nogui not too onerous. Yeah, I can generate my own code signing certs and whatnot, but it is a pain.
Optional, but would be very nice:
1. Return of "Headless" options to Fusion's GUI, with the same functionality as in 2.
2. Add in Gui settings, possibly under advanced?, for boot-time start of individual VM's, again, without requiring user login.
3. Add/Keep in Gui settings remote console (VNC) setup.
Of those, 1 is more important, I can deal with scripting the boot-time start and editing the .vmx files to add the remote console, but certainly having it right there would be nicer.
I am, within reason, willing to pay for a "workstation" version of Fusion with explicit support of these features. I can certainly understand why it may be desirable to have a desktop versus workstation version. Mind you, I think the price difference should be reasonable. Perhaps $50 for the additional features. However, best would be to keep them in/supported in the existing Fusion cost.
Unless VMware provides some sort of assurance about the future of being able to start VM's without user action/login and at boot-time, I have to consider alternative products that already include and explicitly support this. While it was "undocumented" in 2, I have come to depend on the functionality, whether or not that was VMware's intentions.
