VMware Communities
admin
Immortal
Immortal

Fusion 3.1.3 and OS X Lion

A new blog posting covering running Fusion 3.1.3 on OS X Lion is now available:

http://blogs.vmware.com/teamfusion/2011/07/os-x-lion-spotted-in-the-wild.html

Feel free to post your experiences and feedback in this thread.

Tags (2)
Reply
0 Kudos
81 Replies
ngins
Contributor
Contributor

Hi, Did anyone else experience the same issues as I do with the Video somehow being corrupted in the bootcamp partition after the Lion updrage.  I am running my Win7 64 Bootcamp partion as the guest in Fusion 3.1.3 after I upgraded to Lion.  Everything seems ok aside from the Video issues I mentioned on page 2 of this thread but whatever VMWare tools is doing to my PC is is disabling restore points that I have made and even a restore of registery or re-install of the native drivers doesnt fix the problem.  Only an entire system restore fixes the issue.  I can't find anyone having similar problems so just thought I would ask one last time before I give up on my head scratching!

Reply
0 Kudos
Boondoggle
Contributor
Contributor

Installing a Lion VM is allowed under Apple's revised license.  it is currently blocked by Fusion.  I would really like to do this.  Now.

Reply
0 Kudos
Boondoggle
Contributor
Contributor

Did you do a clean install of Lion from a USB thumb drive?  I did and have had zero issues so far.  I used the migration assistant to "import" Fusion into the Lion space.  Everything is working well.

Well, zero issues aside from being dissapointed that VMWare hasn't allowed Lion VMs yet.

Reply
0 Kudos
Boondoggle
Contributor
Contributor

An official statement is very thin protection.  You could always test it for yourself on a spare box.  If you don't have a spare box, then business continuity might not be all that important.

Reply
0 Kudos
Boondoggle
Contributor
Contributor

no snapshot?

Reply
0 Kudos
ngins
Contributor
Contributor

HI, Sorry for delayed reply.  Thanks for the update - I did a Lion upgrade and the re-installed fusion as i can;t face a clean install.  Not sure what is going on but somehtying in VMWare tools definitelly causes me issues that cant be undone by simply uinstalling.  I am going to see if I can get by on a Windows VM (seperate to the bootcamp partition) as I now have 8G RAM so maybe I'll be abel to ditch the natiove windows boot finally.....

Reply
0 Kudos
macrifice
Contributor
Contributor

An official statment would be "hereby we certifiy vmware fusion version x.y.z to fully work with mac os x lion as a host". But surely not "vmware fusion 3.1.3 works with lion but a),b),c),d),e) and if you have f) ...and best you reinstall the software for best compatibility...". Sorry but that's just fooling customers.

Other software vendors shipped lion compatibilty releases even before lion was released and after checking the important software on my mac pro I found that vm fusion is the only remaining part that does not.

So I decided to not install mac os lion for now and for the next months until there will be a really working version of fusion.

Reply
0 Kudos
smokey33
Contributor
Contributor

I didn't read first, so I installed Lion can I now upgrade, the instructions on you site say to upgrade first.  Will everything be messed up if I upgrade after I have installed LION.

Reply
0 Kudos
WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

As a general rule I do not do in place upgrades of an OS and always clean install and Lion is no different, it should be and can be clean installed and then install the applications however I did both just to see what would happen although my working build is a clean build.  On the upgrade build I had no problems with having had VMware Fusion installed and if I would have, so what!, no big deal!, just uninstall it and reinstall it and get on with it! Smiley Wink

Reply
0 Kudos
warriorfullight
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

That is absolutely correct. Sometimes, things happen when you have installed it in such a way where you encounter some problem. The best way to try if it out is by uinstalling the program and reinstalling it. This way, you will get a clean and fresh installed software you could use. Everything should be working by then.http://imagicon.info/cat/5-59/1.gif

Reply
0 Kudos
admin
Immortal
Immortal

You should definitely upgrade to 3.1.3 as soon as you can - a couple of issues related to changes in Lion were addressed there. You shouldn't see any adverse effects upgrading after moving to Lion.

Simon

Reply
0 Kudos
dawilson99
Contributor
Contributor

I don't know if this problem is related to OS X Lion directly but ever since upgrading I find that my virtual hard drive is at capacity and even when I change the size there is no change when I run VMWare again. For example, I have my VMWare hard disc settings at 90 GB with pre-allocated checked and when I startup the Windows XP session it says I have 49.3 GB capacity with less than 24 MB free space. This is making VMWare Fusion essentially unusable for me. Any help would be appreciated.

Reply
0 Kudos
WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

dawilson99 wrote: I don't know if this problem is related to OS X Lion directly but ever since upgrading I find that my virtual hard drive is at capacity and even when I change the size there is no change when I run VMWare again. For example, I have my VMWare hard disc settings at 90 GB with pre-allocated checked and when I startup the Windows XP session it says I have 49.3 GB capacity with less than 24 MB free space. This is making VMWare Fusion essentially unusable for me. Any help would be appreciated.

It's a multi-step process, have a look at: Resizing Virtual Disks With Step by Step Instructions

Reply
0 Kudos
dawilson99
Contributor
Contributor

WoodyZ,

That was just the help I needed. I now have all the hard disc space I need. Thank you very much.

David

Reply
0 Kudos
chrisandersen
Contributor
Contributor

Just had my Windows XP go to 100% CPU usage and stay there until I rebooted it.  Did not change any settings or use any different programs.

Reply
0 Kudos
sentience
Contributor
Contributor

We’ve been unable to install Ubuntu 10.4 Server on VMWare Fusion 3.1.3 under OS X Lion. The OS fails to boot.

Posted details here: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/324905

Reply
0 Kudos
flips
Contributor
Contributor

You must be kidding: "You shouldn't see any adverse effects upgrading after moving to Lion."

I disagree strongly, and this thread suggest there's lots of issues with 3.1.3.

After I upgraded VMWare to 3.1.3 (on Lion), all my trouble started. Now Fusion fails to load central kernel modules, like vmmon and I have to reinstall Fusion to get it working again. (Reinstalling almost every time you need the app is tiresome.)

Fusion 3.1.3 is broken on Lion and I am disappointed that VMWare releases such beta quality software.

And also when I reported (some other) plain errors in the easy install scripts/kickstart file that makes the product broken, I was told I could pay for support to get it fixed. I don't need to get it fixed, but I assumed the company would want to improve the product ...

This is probably the wrong channel to "vent" frustration, but I can't now see any reason on why I should recommend Fusion over f.ex. VirtualBox to anyone. I think one should be able to expect better quality product and support when buying such a well-known Virtualization platform/app.

-- flips 😎
Reply
0 Kudos
WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

flips wrote:

You must be kidding: "You shouldn't see any adverse effects upgrading after moving to Lion."

I disagree strongly, and this thread suggest there's lots of issues with 3.1.3.

After I upgraded VMWare to 3.1.3 (on Lion), all my trouble started. Now Fusion fails to load central kernel modules, like vmmon and I have to reinstall Fusion to get it working again. (Reinstalling almost every time you need the app is tiresome.)

Fusion 3.1.3 is broken on Lion and I am disappointed that VMWare releases such beta quality software.

And also when I reported (some other) plain errors in the easy install scripts/kickstart file that makes the product broken, I was told I could pay for support to get it fixed. I don't need to get it fixed, but I assumed the company would want to improve the product ...

This is probably the wrong channel to "vent" frustration, but I can't now see any reason on why I should recommend Fusion over f.ex. VirtualBox to anyone. I think one should be able to expect better quality product and support when buying such a well-known Virtualization platform/app.

VMware Fusion 3 was originally released October 27, 2009 with 3.1.3 released on May 31, 2011 as a maintenance release.  Note that both these dates were before Mac OS X Lion was released so to expect not to have any issues seems foolish since VMware Fusion was not designed for Mac OS X Lion nor have the maintenance releases to this point focused on compatibility with Mac OS X Lion  This is probably due to the fact that the next version of VMware Fusion is in private beta and once released will in all likelihood be officially certified compatible with Mac OS X Lion.

Also VMware Fusion 3 comes with 18 months of free VMware Complimentary Support.

As to the competition, if their product works better with Mac OS X Lion and without any issues then that is always an option one should consider. Smiley Wink

BTW... You're the one that choose to upgrade to Mac OS X Lion (or purchase a Mac that had Mac OS X Lion preinstalled) so do you really have a right to complain that a piece of software written before the OS you've choose to run has issues as VMware Fusion is not the only application that has issues with Mac OS X Lion, No.

Reply
0 Kudos
RCampbell12
Contributor
Contributor

WoodyZ wrote:

BTW... You're the one that choose to upgrade to Mac OS X Lion (or purchase a Mac that had Mac OS X Lion preinstalled) so do you really have a right to complain that a piece of software written before the OS you've choose to run has issues as VMware Fusion is not the only application that has issues with Mac OS X Lion, No.

I think you've missed the point entirely.  He's aggravated that their statement saying "you shouldn't see any adverse effects" is - in his experience, at least - not accurate (and I'd imagine he'd say not even close to being accurate).

Sure, you take a chance upgrading to Lion when Fusion 3.1.3 was put out before Lion went gold, but you'd think they'd have done some serious testing before they make the statement above.  He chose to believe them - and, again, is that such a sin, can't we expect them to know what they are talking about? - and I chose not to believe them and play it safe for awhile until all the upgraders find the problems and - hopefully - VMWare fixes those problems. But doesn't he have the right to complain if they make such a positive statement and then his installatoin gets hosed?  Personally, I'd say he does.

Reply
0 Kudos
flips
Contributor
Contributor

Yes, that statement irritated me enough to vent my saved up frustration ... :smileymischief:

(Both for the app breaking but also for some simple errors that no one wanted to fix when I tried helping by reporting it.)

Of course I knew I took a chance by upgrading, but like many other people I would probably just migrate away to a competitor if an app stays incompatible for too long. I also took the chance based on never having had such issues with VMWare in previous OS upgrades.

Anyway, after some helpful feedback and time to actually debug instead of just reinstall and see if it works again.

I found "/Library/Application Support/VMWare Fusion/boot.sh" to be helpful. Just run that with --restart (or stop/start) and it works again -- much better than reinstalling.

Hopefully we will also find the cause, but quickfixes helps a lot ... Smiley Happy

-- flips 😎
Reply
0 Kudos