Cannot install ISOs - black menu screen loops

[chris_williams]

I have a new installation of Fusion for ASTP.  I have downloaded several different ISOs to install - RHEL, CentOS, Ubuntu, etc.  Both the install ISOs and the DVD ISOs - always the aarch64 versions - never the x86 versions.  I am running on an M1 Mac.

What I get is a black menu with the following options:

Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.5
Test this media and install Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.5

Troubleshooting -->

If I select either of the top two options, the menu clears and the redisplays.  If I choose the Troubleshooting menu item, it takes me to another menu with two different options but the same behaviors as the first menu.

I can edit the menu items but have no idea what to edit them with.

It seems to me that since this is not specific to one ISO, but to several of them - different vendors, packages, etc - that this is not an ISO or menu issue, but rather a VMShell issue in Fusion for ASTP.  Going through the settings of the VM Shell, there's nothing that stands out.

Any assistance is appreciated.  Thank you...

[chris_williams]

Additional information - the same ISOs install correctly under Parallels...

[ColoradoMarmot]

Check the thread right below this (Ubuntu challenges) - there's a number of steps to do to get a VM built.  @Technogeezer has a great cookbook to get one built and booted.  I suspect there's similar requirements for other distros.

[Technogeezer · Accepted solution]

From what I and others have found, RHEL 8.x for arm64 and other derivatives of those versions such as CentOS 8, CentOS 8 Stream,  or Rocky Linux 8.x will not install on the tech preview. I’ve been told those kernels are built using a 64k page size which won’t work. Red Hat has changed their arm64 kernels for a 4kb page size in RHEL 9 and this is the case for CentOS 9 Stream as well.

If you want RHEL family releases that work on the tech preview, use

• Fedora 33, 34 or 35
• RHEL 9 beta update 2 or later 
• CentOS 9 Stream (not 8 )

Take a look at my “Tips/Techniques/Gotchas” document https://communities.vmware.com/t5/Fusion-for-Apple-Silicon-Tech/Tips-Techniques-Gotchas-for-the-Tech... over in the Tech Preview Documents area that has a lot of advice on getting various distros working. It’s a one stop shopping destination compiled from what others have found in the various threads in this board. 

[Technogeezer]

I’m surprised that you got RHEL 8.x to work on Parallels on ARM. Reports from a RH board here https://access.redhat.com/discussions/5966451 state that Installing on Parallels didn’t work, and issue is due to Apple not supporting a 64KB page size on M1 Macs, just 4K and 16k. 

[chris_williams]

Yeah - me too.  I was wrong in this post.  I have not gotten anything to work in Parallels except W11 - which I don't really want, it was just an option to see what would work.  So far nothing has worked in VMWare - even RHEL9 and Fedora.  I will continue to work towards solutions based on the other replies. 

Thanks...

[chris_williams]

Following the guides listed, I was able to get Fedora 35 installed.  Now to work on RHEL 9.  Thanks everyone for commenting.

[Technogeezer]

Glad you got Fedora working. RHEL 9 (Beta 2 or later) and CentOS 9 Stream should boot to the graphical installer without issue. 

By the way, If you used my guide and something was unclear or didn't work for you, let me know and I'll fix it.