M1 Stuck on initialization

[pinsent]

Have followed the KB Article to manually remove all VMWare Fusion attributes but the installer still just hangs on initialization

[Technogeezer]

More detail, please.

What installer are you referring to?

[pinsent]

My apologies, I’m referring to the VMWare Fusion Tech Preview

[pinsent]

Still no updates on this?

The lack of support is seriously disappointing

[RDPetruska]

Perhaps provide some more details of your setup?  If you browse the forum, there are plenty of users who have the Tech Preview working with a handful of running virtual machines...

[Technogeezer]

<redacted because my original post may have misunderstood the situation>

[Technogeezer]

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@pinsent wrote:

Still no updates on this?

The lack of support is seriously disappointing

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Are you having problems installing the Tech Preview software itself, or trying to create and install a virtual machine?

As @RDPetruska notes, the more information you can give us, the more we might be able to help you.

[treee]

That's because you lack to provide any details other than "it doesn't work". It makes it very difficult to understand what you are trying to accomplish and what issue you are running into. Right now all we can do is guess.

So I am going to take a guess that you are trying to install VMware Fusion and you have downloaded it from the website. I am also going to guess that it was the normal VMware Fusion 12 Pro or Player version. Both of them will not work on the new Apple Silicon Macs, they are for Intel Macs only. For the Apple Silicon Macs you need to download the VMware Fusion Tech Preview, just follow the download link on this page: https://communities.vmware.com/t5/Fusion-for-Apple-Silicon-Tech/ct-p/3022

Have you tried it with the VMware Fusion Tech Preview from that download link? If so, are you double clicking on the Fusion icon and does it present you with an error message (if so, which one)?

Edit: @scott28tt yeah, good point. It is also in the Community FAQ (point 1.1). So basically it is just us users helping each other out although sometimes VMware employees and the Fusion/Workstation PM/PMM respond as well. Just be aware that the VMware Fusion Tech Preview is a beta version so support is rather different. Besides using the forums you can also e-mail VMware: fusion-beta@vmware.com (although that is more for feedback on the Tech Preview).

[scott28tt]

You should note that all the other replies so far are from other users just like you, this is a user community forum and not a formal support channel.

[p4tty]

I have a feeling the issue you're encountering is similar to what was experienced by this user here:

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/Fusion-for-Apple-Silicon-Tech/Unable-to-launch-a-VM-after-fresh-in...

The above thread also refers to this Gist, which has really clear instructions on how to get Ubuntu Server for ARM working:

https://gist.github.com/rhaleblian/44f2cb4418ee978603dc0b15dadf0e02

The summary of that Gist is that when installing Ubuntu ARM, make sure the network adaptor is turned off. After the install completes, reboot the VM to finalise installation and only at this stage, reconnect the network adaptor.

The reason we need to do these steps is to prevent the Ubuntu installer from downloading a newer version of the Linux kernel, which for some reason isn't playing nicely with VMware Fusion.

It helped me a lot and I hope it helps you/others too!

[pinsent]

Okay, allow me to start from the beginning. I thought I was being pretty clear with the situation.

1) I'm on an M1 Mac

2) I tried to install the x86 version but got an error

3) I followed the suggested KB article on removing all attributes for that version

4) I downloaded the Tech Preview

5) I double click on the installer and it never gets past the window that says "Initializing"

There are no existing VMs, Ubuntu or otherwise. The software simply won't install.

[chinno53]

I know it does not help much but I have the same issue myself given up on it and I use other method of virtulisation and do not use the M1 for it anymore.