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fredonmac
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Fusion 13 M1 Mac (Apple Silicon) - Win 11 ARM64 test installation no network connection

Hi,

I installed Fusion Player Version 13.0.0 (20802013) on my M1 Mac Mini, Ventura 13.2
Form MS I get Windows11_InsiderPreview_Client_ARM64_en-us_22598.VHDX and convert this image to vmdk

Not it get no network connection. Send keys don't work too.

I clicked install VM Ware Tools too, but nothing.

Nice greetings
Fritz

 

 

 

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Technogeezer
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Simply clicking on “Install VMware Tools” in the Fusion menu bar will not automatically install the tools (video and network driver only) like they do on Intel Windows VMs. 

Review the Fusion documentation on how to install those tools on Windows 11 ARM. Or, you might want to take a look at the Unofficial Fusion 13 for Apple Silicon Companion Guide which walks you through the whole process of installing Windows 11 ARM. 

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

After some problems, I found a good documentation here (thanks!), went through it point by point, and the installation now works.

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Fusion-Documents/The-Unofficial-Fusion-13-for-Apple-Silicon...

Fusion 13 for Apple Silicon Companion v7.pdf
https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Fusion-Documents/The-Unofficial-Fusion-13-for-Apple-Silicon...

12.5. Installing Windows 11 ARM from Insider Preview VHDX file - page 53 .... page 64

What doesn't work are characters like \ or @

For this I installed Microsoft Remote Desktop on the Mac, there I can't pass the characters by keyboard either, but at least copy & paste works there. I needed it to log in to the MS account for the beta test. Gives another workaround?

W11 Notepad wouldn't start, I uninstalled it, but now I don't know where to reinstall it.

Still not working directly in VMware window:
Copy & Paste
Sharing of Mac directories which are then displayed in Windows. There is even no option to set this.

With Linux VMs you can set this, but the directories are not shown in Linux, there is still something missing in VMware tools.

Firefox already offers a version for Windows ARM!

PS: An old Windows 7 Pro Key was also sufficient for activation.

PPS: For me it's just a kind of gimmick to see what all works on the ARM Apple Silicone.

 

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ColoradoMarmot
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If you read the documentation you'll see that there are no shared folders for windows guests yet.

I would avoid using the VHDX option and install from uupdump to avoid having your installation expire.  That may also be why notepad wasn't working - don't use an insider edition.

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fredonmac
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uupdump need some installations for the downloading script - I don't want to install all.

I must give a way to reinstall notepad.

And I read about the sharing in this documentation ....

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Technogeezer
Immortal
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Yes, using uupdump on macOS requires some additional installations. But they are not very big, if that's what you're worried about. They're also pretty straightforward to install if you follow the instructions on both the Homebrew site and the Companion Guide. And you had to install something in order to get that VHDX file converted to VMDK (Homebrew could install QEMU plus any additional utilities needed to build the ISO from uupdump.net).

Building the ISO from uupdump.net on Windows doesn't require any additional software to be installed. That's one of the  reasons I recommend doing the uupdump build on a Windows system if you have one available.

If you don't have Notepad, you can install it from the Microsoft Store. 

FYI: I had no problem with Notepad for my Windows 11 ARM retail build that I obtained from uupdump.net.

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
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Technogeezer
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@fredonmac wrote:

 

What doesn't work are characters like \ or @

For this I installed Microsoft Remote Desktop on the Mac, there I can't pass the characters by keyboard either, but at least copy & paste works there. I needed it to log in to the MS account for the beta test. Gives another workaround?

Still not working directly in VMware window:
Copy & Paste
Sharing of Mac directories which are then displayed in Windows. There is even no option to set this.

With Linux VMs you can set this, but the directories are not shown in Linux, there is still something missing in VMware tools.

Firefox already offers a version for Windows ARM!

PPS: For me it's just a kind of gimmick to see what all works on the ARM Apple Silicone.

 


What is your keyboard layout and what is the installed keyboard layout of your VM? If Remote Desktop isn't passing the right keys for @ and \, there's something up with either the keyboard settings in the VM or the keyboard settings on your Mac. Both of these keys work fine for me in Fusion 13 with a Windows 11 ARM VM with a U.S. English Apple Magic Keyboard.

Copy/paste and host/guest folder sharing are known omissions for Fusion 13 ARM VMs.There's no option to set anything about folder sharing in the Fusion GUI because for Windows ARM VMs they're not implemented. 

The Companion Guide talks about workarounds for both of these issues.

Gimmick is the wrong word to use about Windows 11 ARM. You are on the "bleeding edge" to see what software works on Windows 11 ARM. Most software vendors don't directly support it (even for Microsoft's own Surface PCs with ARM CPUs that run the same Windows 11 ARM). Many titles will work because of the work Microsoft has done with their X86_64 translator that's similar in concept to Apple's Rosetta 2.

 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
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fredonmac
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My default language and keyboard settings on Mac are German.

The Keyboard Settings on Windows are German too.

I use an Logitec MX Keys Mini for Mac german.

I printed out an English (USA) KeyMaps -  I need them some times ago as I experimented with a FreeBSD VM.

The next project - a FreeBSD aarch64 VM and append a GUI - run this in the current Fusion for ARM Mac?

 

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fredonmac
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The uupdump.net script needed some libraries too.

I test them - but Homebrew don't offer all needed. Have you a list of them?

I would test this on my older Intel Mac, that use MacPorts, in next time.

On this machine I convert VHDX file to VMDK.

 

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fredonmac
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Gimmick is the wrong word to use about Windows 11 ARM. You are on the "bleeding edge" to see what software works on Windows 11 ARM. Most software vendors don't directly support it (even for Microsoft's own Surface PCs with ARM CPUs that run the same Windows 11 ARM). Many titles will work because of the work Microsoft has done with their X86_64 translator that's similar in concept to Apple's Rosetta 2.


Gimmick .... sorry but I translate this with Deepl - is quicker for longer text (that I wrote before in German) as I done it self.

My Windows experience are long time ago. I worked as an admin for Windows Clients and server long time.
My first Contact with Windows are W 3.1 / W 3.11 for Workgroups (WfW 3.11), after this Windows 95, Windows NT ....

Now about 12 years my current OS is macOS - I love UNIX'oid OS (Unix like - macOS/Darwin, Linux, BSD, ...)

I want to see how Windows has evolved.
I also want to see how Apple's ARM CPU performs with other OS.

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Technogeezer
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Homebrew offers everything you’ll need to build from uupdump.net on macOS. In short, you need aria2, cabextract, wimlib, cdrtools, and a custom “tap” of chntpw. The Companion Guide has the instructions on on how to use Homebrew to install the required packages.

Thinking back on my prior reply, I did miss that XCode command line tools needed to be installed before Homebrew or MacPorts. . Those do take up a bit of space  

MacPorts is missing the chntpw utility. You can use MacPorts if you’re willing to build chntpw from source. I’ve built the ISO from uupdump using utilities provided by MacPorts plus a build  of chntpw from the same source as Homebrew. but I’ve not posted instructions on how to do that. For the vast majority of users, Homebrew is easier. If you’re interested I can write up what I did to get the equivalent of what’s needed from Homebrew. 

I think you will be pleased at how well Windows 11 ARM runs on Apple Silicon. 

I’ve played around a bit with FreeBSD and have gotten the core OS to boot using the documentation. It’s on my “to do” list to get the graphical environment installed. My suggestion would be to use the 13.1  or 12.4 releases.

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
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ColoradoMarmot
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You still have to use the older iso though right?  The new ones won't build on MacOS.

FWIW, that works fine, just upgrade the guest after the installation.

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Technogeezer
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@ColoradoMarmot wrote:

You still have to use the older iso though right?  The new ones won't build on MacOS.

FWIW, that works fine, just upgrade the guest after the installation.


Correct, you have to use a 21H2 build of Windows 11 to create the ISO on macOS systems. That appears to me be a limitation of the open source tools they use on non-WIndows systems. Building 22H2 ISOs on current Windows 10 or 11 releases works fine.

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