Epic fail after 10.6.4 update

[WheatWilliams]

VMware Fusion 3.1 with Windows 7 64-bit on MacBook Pro. After updating to 10.6.4, the virtual machine crashed hard when VMware alerted me that the OpenGL driver was no longer any good. It put up the same error message over and over again. Clicking "OK" would simply put the error message back up. I could not quit VMware and had to Force Quit. I was only able to access the VMware virtual machine after force-quitting VMware and rebooting the computer.

VMware gives this voluminous error message:

"A serious error has occurred inside your computer's OpenGL graphics drivers.

Support for accelerated 3D graphics will be disabled until the next time our virtual machine is powered on. If you are runninga 3D application in full-screen mode, you may need to switch out of it using Alt + Tab or Ctrl Alt Delete. You may also be able to recover by suspending then resuming this virtual machine.

Make sure ou are using the latest drivers from your graphics card vendor's web site. If this problem persist,s contact VMware for support. Details of tihs error have been recorded to the virtual machine's log file."

[WheatWilliams]

My VMware logs relevant to this crash are attached.

[WheatWilliams]

For information about the graphics card and drivers

[ColoradoMarmot]

Apparently 10.6.4 has regressed the video drivers - macrumors has a post from Valve warning users not to upgrade.

Sigh...no easy way to revert either.

[WheatWilliams]

Well then VMware certainly needs to be made aware of this new issue!

[cadaver]

Yes, I'm having the exact same problem, even after a full erase and re-install of Mac OS 10.6.4 and VMware 3.1. My XP bootcamp partition gives me the same error after resuming from sleep. My details are in another post: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/272614?tstart=0. I have to force quit too because the OpenGL driver warning box keeps displaying after clicking OK and I can't shut down XP. Have to force quit just like you.

[WheatWilliams]

So what are VMware and Apple going to do about the severe incompatibility with the new nVidia drivers that Apple pushed out with the 10.6.4 update? I would like to hear from a VMware staffer moderating this forum.

Something mighty strange has gone on. The same week that Apple pushed out 10.6.4 with its regressed and incompatible (with VMware Fusion) nVidia drivers, (which really messed with OpenGL and 3D functions), nVidia released a new driver for Windows 7 64-bit that tremendously enhanced OpenGL and 3D performance on that platform! I work with several Windows 7 64-bit computers and when I installed the new nVidia driver, Window's Performance Index for the graphics card improved by a factor of over 60%.

Now obviously I can't install the nVidia Windows driver under VMware emulation. I'll have to wait on VMware and Apple to sort this out.

Somebody please explain what's gone on here.

By the way my Mac has an nVidia GForce 8600M GT with 128MB RAM.

[ColoradoMarmot]

It's not a VMWare problem at all. Apple broke the OS with 10.6.4. VMWare is at the mercy of Apple and their drivers, which badly lag the windows drivers. Valve has exactly the same issue with Steam, hence the warning to not upgrade. Everyone waits on Apple, and we know how silent they can be.

This is why 10.6.3 improved performance so much with no code changes in Fusion. Apple's drivers. Apple's bugs. Apple's problem. Don't blame VMware, there's not a darn thing they can do about it.

For me, I'm seriously considering rebuilding my machine this weekend back to 10.6.3. I know that'll immediately trigger a patch from Apple, so everyone else should be good next week .

FWIW, my fusion still works with no issues (well, beyond what the rest of the OSX system is experiencing).

[WheatWilliams]

I understand WHOSE FAULT it is. But I would appreciate it if a VMware staffer would explain right here how VMware, Apple and I, the user, should respond to the situation. Surely VMware is in contact with Apple's engineers and can provide them some feedback on how 10.6.4 has impacted VMware and its users. Surely VMware can advise their users on how they should remedy or work around a situation such as I and many others have encountered. Some guidance, please?

[admin]

Another option is to disable 3D graphics with the virtual machine before power on. Uncheck the 'Accelerate 3D Graphics' under Settings->Display.

There are many Fusion users successfully using Windows 7 virtual machines with 10.6.4. These errors could be hardware or guest applications dependent. Are you doing something specific in the Windows 7 virtual machine when the OpenGL error occurs or does the error happen during boot?

You can also file a bug report with Apple and describe your problem there as well.

[WheatWilliams]

The crash happened as soon as Windows 7 64-bit finished booting up and I launched my first application--I think it was Microsoft Outlook 2010 32-bit.

Of course once I got VMware to shut the virtual machine down (after two reboots of the host) I turned off 3D support and things will run. But now my performance with my virtual machine is apparently lower than it was before I upgraded to VMware 3.1, and before I upgraded to 10.6.4. Disappointment.

While "many" VMware fusion 3.1 users may have not had a problem with 10.6.4, I suspect it is my particular model of nVidia card that has a problem with the driver. In my case it's a GForce 8600M GT in my MacBook Pro 3,1.

I have been using VMware Fusion on this particular MacBook Pro for three years, as long or longer than any of the rest of you. I've never encountered a problem like this. I hope VMware gets with Apple and they can fix this soon.

[ColoradoMarmot · Accepted solution]

1) There is no workaround. VMWare can't fix Apple's buggy drivers. There's nothing wrong with Fusion.

2) Your only choices (like mine) are to rebuild your machine with 10.6.3 or wait for Apple to fix 10.6.4.

This is a widespread issue, and Fusion is only one of many many products impacted.

I'm debating on reverting to 10.6.3 (which is about a days' work), or hoping Apple will fix it. The best thing to do is to call apple (if you have applecare) and log an official ticket. The more they get, the quicker we'll get a fix. I'm just hoping we don't have to wait for 10.6.5.

[cadaver]

I'm still having problems with Fusion freezing up when resuming a Windows XP VM from Mac OS screen saver and/or screen sleep modes. It does seem, however, that this happens only when I'm running some particular applications in Windows XP, such as Hummingbird Exceed (an X Windows emulator.) When I don't start this app in the VM, everything seems to work okay. I can resume without getting the endlessly looping "OpenGL Driver problem" dialog that requires a force quit. However, freeze ups are pretty consistent when I launch the X emulator. I wonder if other posters/readers on this and the Apple forums who are also having their Fusions freeze up when running Windows have been able to isolate their problems to any particular Windows application. Plenty of folks don't seem to have this problem with Fusion 3.1 under Mac OS X 10.6.4. They may not be running Windows apps that trigger this condition.

Besides freeze ups that cause a force quit of Fusion, I've also noticed that, when resuming from screen saver/power saver, that sometimes Mac OS resets itself to the initial login prompt as though I just did a power off reboot; all my original apps are no longer loaded and it's like logging in for the first time. NONE of this happened in 10.6.3, so my conclusion so far is that 10.6.4 created some kind of incompatibility with OpenGL drivers that seems to be exploited with particular Windows applications.

I'm running Fusion 3.1 with a single processor, 1GB RAM and OpenGL disabled (enabled or disabled doesn't seem to matter).

[ColoradoMarmot]

There doesn't appear to be any pattern to who is having the issues - some do and some don't, even on the same hardware. Unfortunately, reverting to 10.6.3 is the only thing that seems to be a reliable fix at this point in time.

FWIW -It's much more stable to sleep the VM from fusion before letting the OS sleep with Fusion running.

[jakemondo]

>>Another option is to disable 3D graphics with the virtual machine before power on. Uncheck the 'Accelerate 3D Graphics' under Settings-

Actually, no. This does NOT fix the problem. Even after turning off 3D graphics acceleration in VMWare, I still got the OpenGL driver crash.

This is getting really annoying. I can't run any games without crashing VMWare Fusion, losing all my files, and forcing a complete restart.

Can anyone from VMWare verify that they are in contact with Apple and working to fix this problem?

Hardware: MacBook Pro 15" Unibody 2010 edition

Mac OS X: 10.6.4

VMWare: 3.1.0