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willburn
Contributor
Contributor

Catalina, Fusion 11.5, Windows not working

After installing Catalina and upgrading to Fusion 11.5 Pro then opening windows, coming to the enter user password…after that the screen goes black. At first I had a little blue whirling circle, after shut down/restart, just a blank/black screen for hours.

11 Replies
brentbeebe
Contributor
Contributor

I have the same issue with Vmware Fusion v7.1.3. it seems to be booting up, but the display is black. Oddly enough, in the Virtual Machine Library Window, the session is visible, and if I move my cursor around in the black screen area, I see buttons highlight in the Library Window. I can actually click in the black screen on buttons and fields and make things happen, like logging in, and I see the results happen in the Library window. So, VMware appears to be working, its just that the primary viewing screen is not visible. See attached picture--Note black window on left and Library view on right.

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Fusion 7 will not work on Catalina.  Only Fusion 11.5 is supported.  While there are hacks to get 10 working, and a few reports of 8 working, those are dangerous long term and risk corruption of virtual machines.

It's time to upgrade.

C999
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

i probably did something wrong: upgrading to Catalina and still running vmware 8.5.3...

Now (after installing catalina) I had the known "black screen" and thought "updating" was a good idea.

Vmware started to update to 8.5.10... and crashed while updating. Now I even haven't got vmware in my app list...

The vmdk file is still present.

What can you suggest for me te get my data back?

->install vmware last version & "connect" to old vmdk? is that possible?

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

Yes, Fusion 11.5 will see your existing VMs and is the recommended and supported version of VMware Fusion to run on macOS Catalina.

You can download the 30 day trial from here:

Download VMware Fusion | VMware

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi Willburn,

The other black screen reports where people are trying to use an earlier version of Fusion on macOS Catalina talk about that the display of the VM is actually visible in the macOS Library.

From your screenshot it looks like yours is a different case and something might be wrong with either the VM or the installation of VMware Tools.

We don't know much about your setup which makes it quite hard to diagnose.

What hardware is your host using?

What happens if you disable 3D acceleration on your VM?

Is this a new VM or have you been using it with earlier versions of VMware Fusion? (If so, what version)

Do you have problems with other virtual machines on this host?

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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office100
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi

I've also been updating  to Catalina with VM Fusion version 11.1 all my vm machines and all are black

Mac book Pro

It's the same procedure as every year
Delete and reinstall VM goods or update to 11.5
then comes the security query Allow security appstore and developer

Sometimes it is enough to put vmware in the trash and to push it back into the programs but doesn t work today


or alternatively try
system control Allow security appstore and developer

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Pataxi
Contributor
Contributor

Hello,

I have the same problem : MaxOs Catalina, Fusion 7, windows on the vm.

I made the update of Fusion (11.5) and yes the black screen is gone.

But i can not Share files between Mac and Windows . I can not Print too.

The support ask me to :

Go to System Preferences - Security and Privacy - Under privacy Tap- go to screen recording - Check VMware Fusion

I can not do it, OS Catalina do not propose to me to be able to do it.

It is over for me, It's always the same when there is an Apple update.

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office100
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi

I've also been updating  to Catalina with VM Fusion version 11.1 all my vm machines and all are black

Mac book Pro

It's the same procedure as every year
Delete and reinstall VM goods or update to 11.5
then comes the security query Allow security appstore and developer

Sometimes it is enough to put vmware in the trash and to push it back into the programs but doesn t work today


or alternatively try
system control Allow security appstore and developer

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,


Fusion 11.5 does not need the screen recording permissions, that is only needed for Fusion versions earlier than version 11.5.

This is why it isn't showing up and support should know that really.

Sharing files depends on if VMware Tools is working as it should.

For printing via the host you need to install the Virtual Printer driver which is in the "Virtual Machines" menu these days (it used to be part of VMware Tools).

Apple is making it difficult for software developers these days to be able to give the user a smooth experience.

Worse, as a developer you're not even supposed to help the user by popping up the correct screen when you detect that something isn't working due to security restrictions.

Just been through adding support to macOS Catalina with my VM backup software and it wasn't easy.

What I would try in your case is:

- drag the installed VMware Fusion from the applications folder to Trash

- install again.

If that still doesn't work, you can try removing the quarantaine flags that invoke gatekeeper.

eg.

   xattr -l ~/Downloads/VMware-Fusion-11.5.0-14634996.dmg 
   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine ~/Downloads/VMware-Fusion-11.5.0-14634996.dmg

and do the reinstall dance again.

hope this helps,

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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MBoland
Contributor
Contributor

I did exactly as you suggest and now I cannot access any of my Windoze VM’s.

Fusion11.5 will not see .vmdk as valid

MacOS Catalina on Mac Pro

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Please see my reply in the other thread. No need to drag the conversation out in multiple threads.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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