Fusion 12 MacOS Big Sur VMware Tools Issue

[razrdog]

Host cut-and-paste operations are not working and I get timeout errors when attempting to connect to a host shared directory.  Also, I get the following message in the Sharing settings window:

"Shared folders will not be available in the virtual machine until VMware Tools is installed and running."

I've got a new install of Fusion 12.2.3 running on MacOS Monterey 12.3.1 with a Kubuntu 22.04 guest.  On the Virtual Machine drop-down menu it shows "Reinstall VMware Tools" greyed out.  I appears that VMware Tools is running based on the following Konsole command output:

~$ vmware-toolbox-cmd -v
     11.3.5.31214 (build-18557794)

Also, I've confirmed that open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop are installed.

The following VMware help article https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Fusion/12/com.vmware.fusion.using.doc/GUID-FC74F5F1-ECC1-4C1C-AA25... contains a note stating:

Note:

macOS Big Sur onwards, Apple has deprecated support for KEXT kernel extension modules. The KEXT modules are not loaded automatically when you install the VMware tools. If you want to use the features associated with the kernel extension modules, ensure that you manually allow the loading of VMware kernel extension modules when prompted with an option.

However, I was not prompted with an option to allow the loading of VMware kernel extension modules during the guest install and the article does not have any instructions on how to resolve it.  The mentioned kextstat command cannot be found on my system:

~$ sudo kextstat --list-only | grep -i vmware
     sudo: kextstat: command not found

Any tips or guidance would be appreciated.

[Technogeezer]

The article you are reading is applicable only to running macOS as a VM. VMware Tools for macOS VMs require kernel extensions to be installed in the VM (not the macOS host running Fusion) for certain functions. If you need those functions, you have to explicitly allow the macOS VM to load the kernel extensions.

This doesn't happen when you install open-vm-tools on Linux virtual machines, which is why you didn't see any prompts.  The Linux kernel modules required for Linux VMs are installed by the open-vm-tools and you don't get any prompts for that. You can verify that they installed in the guest by using:

# verify packages installed, which you've already done!
apt list --installed | grep open-vm 
# verify modules loaded
lsmod | grep vm              

Look for modules such as vmw_balloon, vmw_vsock*, VMware_vmci, and vmwgfx

Graying out of the "Reinstall VMware Tools" and the message about shared folders not being available are both normal when using open-vm-tools.  Fusion is not "notified" that those packages are installed like it is when the legacy VMware Tools are installed. That's why you see both of those behaviors. (by the way, VMware recommends use of open-vm-tools for Linux VMs where they are available from the distribution - which is pretty much all of them)

If you have open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop installed, both cut/paste and Fusion shared folders should work.

I just installed Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and both cut/paste and VMware shared folders are working for me. So what you're seeing is definitely strange. Just make sure you reboot the VM after installation of the two open-vm-tools packages.

During your Linux session you should see 2 vmtoolsd processes as well.

If by "host shared directory" you mean Fusion shared folders, you might want to take a look at https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/60262

Shared folders won't mount or be accessible at boot time by default, adding the following to /etc/fstab will make that happen.

#
# The following persistently mounts VMware shared folders
# at boot time. See https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/60262
#
vmhgfs-fuse  /mnt/hgfs  fuse  defaults,allow_other  0  0

Another thing is to make sure that Fusion is granted Accessibility privileges in the Security & Privacy. system references on your Mac.

Are you running with bridged or NAT networking? Is the network connecting properly?