Resuming VMWare Fusion forces hard Mac reboot

[jcmc968]

Hello,

I’ve been using Fusion (Version 7.1) quite happily for 7 years with my late 2010 iMac and have rarely encountered any issues with the limited ways in which I use it.  However in the past few days I have encountered a significant problem. When attempting to resume the application, this causes a hard Mac reboot which is very unusual for it.

I have replicated this issue a number of times with a number of different scenarios (i.e. other applications open, other applications closed) but it reboots at the same point each time. I quite recently updated OS X to High Sierra but I have managed to open Fusion certainly once since I did that. Also, I have the crash report details I can post if that’s a help.

So advice about  how I might get past this would be very welcome.

Thanks,

Craig

[daphnissov]

Fusion 7 isn't compatible with High Sierra; only Fusion 10 is at this time, so this could have a great deal to do with your issue.

[bluefirestorm]

A warning: Not all 2010 models would be able to run VMs with Fusion 10.x. The system requirements for Fusion 10.x with regards to CPU has changed.

You can check the vmware.log of any existing VM and look for MSR 0x485. I pasted here a sample below. Bit 5 has to be "1" in this case it is in the "e5" which is binary 1110:0101, bit 0 starting from the right going to the left is 1. Or you could simply reply back with the System Report of the CPU or paste the Terminal output of "sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string" or paste the MSR 0x495 value to verify for you whether the iMac you have meets the Fusion 10.x requirement.

vmx| I125: Common: MSR

0x485 =

0x300481e5

[jcmc968]

Thanks for the feedback. Something of a layman here so much of what you posted below didn't really make a huge amount of sense. I tried pasting that command in Terminal and got the following:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU         550  @ 3.20GHz

Is that what you need to tell compatibility?

Thanks,

Craig

[bluefirestorm]

Officially, VMware lists Mac models from 2011 onwards as supported for Fusion 10.x.

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2005196

The 2010 Mac models are a mix of Penryn, Nehalem, and Westmere generation of Intel CPUs. The Penryn and Nehalem CPUs do not have a feature called VMX Unrestricted Guest that Fusion 10.x requires. This feature was introduced in the Westmere generation.

https://everymac.com/systems/by_year/macs-released-in-2010.html

It is far easier to say with 100% certainty a CPU is not supported for Fusion 10.x just by identifying the 2010 Mac has a Penryn or Nehalem CPU. But the reverse is a bit tricky as it may not necessarily mean that the feature appears in all Westmere CPUs. (Maybe that's why VMware just decided to say only 2011 Mac models are supported). The i3-550 belongs to the Westmere generation (Clarkdale and 32nm lithography would mean that this is Westmere generation CPU).

https://ark.intel.com/products/48505/Intel-Core-i3-550-Processor-4M-Cache-3_20-GHz

I would think the iMac you have should be able to run Fusion 10.x.

The MSR 0x485 bit 5 value of 1 is to indicate with 100% certainty that the CPU that you have has the VMX Unrestricted Guest feature. So you can paste the text of the MSR 0x485 or attach a recent working vmware.log if you want me to interpret it for you.

[jcmc968]

Thanks. I'm happy to paste the text you suggest or attach the vmware.log, however would you be able to walk me through the process of how I access this information?

Craig

[bluefirestorm]

From the Fusion menu Window - Library (shift-command-L shortcut key).

Right click on any VM and select "Show in Finder", and then select "Show Package Contents". There should be vmware.log, vmware-0.log, vmware-1.log and vmware-2.log. If you open any one of these look for 0x485. Preferably you should use a VM that didn't have the trouble that you described as VM power up process may not have gone far enough to log the MSR 0x485 line. These log files get rolled over every time you power up/resume a VM so you could try looking at vmware-2.log first.

Alternatively is to attach a "Collect support information package" which you can refer to in this KB https://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003894 and attach the support package.

You could always try the 30-day free trial of Fusion 10.x but I don't think you will be entitled to upgrade pricing from version 7.x if you do decide to purchase Fusion 10.x. In the past, VMware would conduct "Summer sale" and offer discounts on Fusion/Workstation but I don't remember which month it tend to occur. It is a northern hemisphere summer sale so it might just be another 2-3 months from now if they do decide to bring out such discount sale this year.

[jcmc968]

When you say Right Click on any VM, do you mean the DMG within my applications folder? I can't see any vmware.log files there and none came out from a general OS X search. And I can't access the Fusion menu window as I cannot start up the application at all without it rebooting my machine.

I checked the information about 10 and apparently you can upgrade from 7, so perhaps i will try the 30-day trial and see if it works and go from there. 

[bluefirestorm]

Sorry about that. I misinterpreted the problem as resuming a VM and completely missed out the problem was the Fusion 7 application itself. And it looks like Fusion 7.x licensees are also entitled to upgrade pricing (I should have checked first).

You could try to go System Preferences, Security and check to see if any VMware kernel extensions (kext) are being blocked. The High Sierra OS security blocks some of these.

It is strange that you cannot even find a vmware.log through a Finder search. What if you search for vmwarevm and select "Kind"?