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MRomine
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Can Not Launch Fusion 13.0 for Mac

Just purchased an upgrade of Fusion for Mac version 13. Installed on a new Mac Studio running OS 13.0 Ventura. When I lunch Fusion I get the following message: "New features are available for your virtual machine. To upgrade power off this virtual machine and choose "Virtual Machine > Settings > Compatability". When I go to Virtual Machine menu the option to restart or shutdown are greyed out. Only the 'Resume' option is available. If I select 'Resume' I get this message: "This virtual machine cannot be powered on because it requires the X86 machine architecture, which is incompatible with this Arm machine architecture host.
See KB-84273."

I have no idea what to do now. Can anyone help?

Thanks

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scott28tt
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As your post needs moving to the area for Fusion, I have reported it to the volunteer moderators. Once it has been moved, the path shown above your opening comment will change.

The issue you face is that your VM runs an x86-based OS, but your new Mac doesn't have an Intel processor. Fusion does not support running x86-based OSes on Macs with Apple processors. You will need to build a new VM on your new Mac which uses an ARM-based OS, that OS might also not support running the same applications which you were previously running in the VM with the x86-based OS.

 


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Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog

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Technogeezer
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@MRomine You may wish to review the following two documents found in the VMware Fusion Documents section of this forum. They can help explain what your options are. 

Running Fusion on an Intel Mac and upgrading to an M1/M2 Mac? Read this first.

The Unofficial Fusion 13 for Apple Silicon Companion

 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides

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Technogeezer
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@MRomine Yes, that is indeed another technically accurate but practically useless piece of information from the VMware release notes.

Fusion does run on the Apple Silicon Macs without jumping through hoops. It's when we start talking about what users expect (I can move my old VMs that run on my Intel Mac to my new Mac) is where the hoop jumping begins. It's clear as mud (a kinder way of saying it's not at all obvious) unless you have a good understanding of the plumbing involved. That's why I wrote the two articles that I posted (that quite honestly VMware should have written)If it's Windows that you run on Intel PCs that you need, Apple Silicon Macs may not be the platform for you. Parallels has the same "problem".

Windows users on the Mac are the most impacted. Windows 11 ARM may be an option, but then you have the task of installing your applications, making sure they work, and then moving your data like you would for a new computer.

And virtualizing macOS is a mess right now. Versions that run on Intel Macs prior to 12 won't run on Apple Silicon Macs. Fusion doesn't support virtualizing Monterey or Ventura at all on Apple Silicon. There are free options that will let you do virtualize Monterey and Ventura (with equivalent features to what you'd pay for in Parallels), but those wanting to use older macOS versions (to run 32-bit applications, for example) are out of luck on Apple Silicon.

 

 

 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides

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Dawnpalma
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When you use Fusion on an Apple Silicon Mac, the ability to upload and download virtual machines to/from remote hosts is not supported. This is expected to be resolved in a future update. 

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scott28tt
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As your post needs moving to the area for Fusion, I have reported it to the volunteer moderators. Once it has been moved, the path shown above your opening comment will change.

The issue you face is that your VM runs an x86-based OS, but your new Mac doesn't have an Intel processor. Fusion does not support running x86-based OSes on Macs with Apple processors. You will need to build a new VM on your new Mac which uses an ARM-based OS, that OS might also not support running the same applications which you were previously running in the VM with the x86-based OS.

 


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
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Technogeezer
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@MRomine You may wish to review the following two documents found in the VMware Fusion Documents section of this forum. They can help explain what your options are. 

Running Fusion on an Intel Mac and upgrading to an M1/M2 Mac? Read this first.

The Unofficial Fusion 13 for Apple Silicon Companion

 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
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MRomine
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Thank you Scott28tt for both answering my question and moving my post to the approve location. I was trying to find the best place to start the post but I could not find a Fusion themed thread to post it.

This is pretty disappointing response especially in view of what is posted by VWWare on the Fusion page:

"Fusion 13

See VMware Fusion system requirements:

Hardware

VMware Fusion 13 can run on Intel or Apple Silicon Macs that support macOS 12 and later.

Software

Fusion 13 supports macOS 12 Monterey and macOS 13 Ventura."

So although it may be true that Fusion can run on an Apple Silicon Mac it can not be done easily without jumping through a lot of hoops. This should have been made Deistically Clear on that page. Had I know that I would not have spent the $79 + tax to download and install thinking I would be up and running in no time. 

Scott28tt do you know who I can call for a refund?

Thank you for your assistance.

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RDPetruska
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Nothing stated is false... VMware Fusion (the virtualization product itself) can run on Apple Silicon Macs.  It can run ARM-based OS guests. 

There is a reason there is a 30-day trial of the product - so you can TRY it before spending your money!  I fail to understand all the people who visit this site with issues on their first download of the software, stating that they paid $$ for it... Use the trial before buying, folks - that's why it's there!!

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ColoradoMarmot
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It's actually simple to get it to run on either one.  Download, install, and build a guest for the appropriate hardware.

There are limitations in Windows 11 ARM support, but if you follow the instructions in the unofficial guide it's trivial.

 

Now if you're trying to run an intel guest on an ARM machine, that's simply not possible (no commercial solution does it).  It's like trying to run gasoline in a diesel engine.

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Technogeezer
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@MRomine Yes, that is indeed another technically accurate but practically useless piece of information from the VMware release notes.

Fusion does run on the Apple Silicon Macs without jumping through hoops. It's when we start talking about what users expect (I can move my old VMs that run on my Intel Mac to my new Mac) is where the hoop jumping begins. It's clear as mud (a kinder way of saying it's not at all obvious) unless you have a good understanding of the plumbing involved. That's why I wrote the two articles that I posted (that quite honestly VMware should have written)If it's Windows that you run on Intel PCs that you need, Apple Silicon Macs may not be the platform for you. Parallels has the same "problem".

Windows users on the Mac are the most impacted. Windows 11 ARM may be an option, but then you have the task of installing your applications, making sure they work, and then moving your data like you would for a new computer.

And virtualizing macOS is a mess right now. Versions that run on Intel Macs prior to 12 won't run on Apple Silicon Macs. Fusion doesn't support virtualizing Monterey or Ventura at all on Apple Silicon. There are free options that will let you do virtualize Monterey and Ventura (with equivalent features to what you'd pay for in Parallels), but those wanting to use older macOS versions (to run 32-bit applications, for example) are out of luck on Apple Silicon.

 

 

 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
MRomine
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I didn't say that it was false or that they lied but they do not make it clear that there are real issues involved and it is not like running fusion Prior to OS 13. Nor is this going to be something that you Dl, install and you are up and running. Therefore, I find their statement very misleading and there should be clear statements to this fact. 

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ColoradoMarmot
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It's exactly like it was - you download Fusion, install it, and install a supported operating system (though to be fair, Windows 11 support isn't anywhere near as straightforward on ARM as Windows 10 and earlier on intel - but that's a lack of tools, not fundamental to the platform).

I think the issue is that their marketing department is built around enterprise products for a technical audience vs a consumer population.  Based on posts like yours (and there have been a number), I agree that they should state more explicitly (and in layman's language, not techie) that running Fusion on M1/2 processors requires using an ARM based operating system, and state explicitly that Intel based OS's like Windows 10 and earlier will not work.  Parallels peanut butters over that too, so it's not unique to Fusion...take a look at their home page, and it's definitely not clear.

I also wish the error message were more clear and explicit, with guidance on what to do, not just what the technical issue is.  The volunteers here spend a lot of time answering the same 'why can't I run my old VM on my new mac' questions over and over because that message is in technospeak.

Important:  If you are moving from an Intel Mac to an M1/2 Mac, you cannot run your old virtual machines (no commercial virtualization product can do that).  You'll need to build new ones on current operating system versions.  For Windows that means that only Windows 11 ARM edition will work.  See the unofficial guide for instructions on how to do so

Something like that.....right on the download page.

 

Stcks
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Please send me a link to how you set up 13 to run on m1 chip

 

 

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RDPetruska
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@Stcks wrote:

Please send me a link to how you set up 13 to run on m1 chip


Umm... you run the Fusion v13 installer just like any other application.

If you are asking how to get a Windows virtual machine to run under Fusion 13 on an M1 chip, the link to Technogeezer's Unofficial Guide is in one of the messages above in this thread.

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GreyJay
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Does that mean that we cannot run older systems like macOS High Sierra?

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Technogeezer
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Versions of macOS that run only on Intel Macs do not and can not run on Apple Silicon. On anyone's hypervisor.

Fusion on Apple Silicon doesn't support virtualization of any macOS version - including those that run on Apple Silicon.

You can virtualize Monterey or Ventura on Apple Silicon, but not under Fusion. To do that, you can use:

All three of those options use Apple's high level Virtualization Framework that Apple's been touting since WWDC last year. They all have the same capabilities - which are not as robust as what you will find in Fusion, so don't get your expectations up too high. If it were me, I'd choose UTM as the price is right and it seems to be actively maintained.

 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
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GreyJay
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Okay.

Thanks for your clarification.

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