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FlyBar
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Fusion 3 Not Running 64 Bit

Installed Fusion 3. First time it ran, Profiler showed it running in 64 Bit. Re-started my MBP a couple of times including rebooting explicitly into 64 bit at system boot time a couple of times but Fusion no longer shows it is running in 64 bit mode. I have a 64bit Windows 7 install and also have tried a 32 bit linux vm in case it was dependant on the os running in the VM. On both occasions Fusion now shows as running in 32 bit mode and wont move to 64 bit.

Anybody any ideas ?

Thanks

Paul

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TonyArnold
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The VMware application process (VMware Fusion.app) is a GUI shell that wraps around vmware-vmx this is the important process, and is the one doing all the work. vmware-vmx is 64-bit, VMware Fusion.app isn't (and doesn't really need to be just yet). I'm sure the Fusion team can offer more info about this, but long story short: it really doesn't matter right now - the important parts are indeed 64-bit in 3.0.

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FlyBar
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Thanks for the response. I'm sure you're right, but having said that, the profiler definitely showed it running 64 bit, which it now does not. Given other apps in there appear as 64 bit, surely I should see Fusion appear with the 64 bit flag alongside, if it truly is running 64 bit ? After all, profiler is talking at the kernel level isnt it ?

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TonyArnold
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I'm not sure how that would be possible - the Fusion application process is 32-bit through and through. It's the VMware engine (vmware-vmx) that is 64-bit:

~ > file /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/MacOS/vmware 
/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/MacOS/vmware: Mach-O executable i386

The profiler (I assume you mean Activity Monitor) doesn't need to talk at the kernel level, and frankly it doesn't make much difference. 64-bit application binaries still run in 64-bit when your kernel is running in 32-bit mode. Don't get too hung up on it - it really doesn't make a big difference yet Smiley Wink

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daveporter
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Actually, the VMWare Fusion process itself is reporting 32 bit. I'm not talking about the "Helper" or "Start-up" processes. This is in direct conflict with the photos of the Activity Monitor window shown in the Fusion promotional site which clearly shows the VMWare Fusion process operating as a 64 bit process. Also, the in the Fusion Application "get info" box the application is not shown as a 64 bit application.

Does anyone else have any idea what is going on here?

Thanks,

Dave

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bgertzfield
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Actually, the VMWare Fusion process itself is reporting 32 bit. I'm not talking about the "Helper" or "Start-up" processes. This is in direct conflict with the photos of the Activity Monitor window shown in the Fusion promotional site which clearly shows the VMWare Fusion process operating as a 64 bit process. Also, the in the Fusion Application "get info" box the application is not shown as a 64 bit application.

Does anyone else have any idea what is going on here?

As Tony helpfully mentioned, the core process (vmware-vmx) that runs the virtual machine is now fully 64-bit. This is what the Activity Monitor screenshot shows on the Fusion promotional site.

The user interface process (VMware Fusion) that displays the virtual machine doesn't actually do much CPU or memory-intensive work, so rather than make our customers suffer through the bugs caused by porting that process to 64-bit immediately, we decided to keep it 32-bit for the time being. There's really no benefit from making this process 64-bit right now, but we hope to do it eventually.

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daveporter
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Ok, now I see what is going on. The vmware-vmx process does not report under "my processes" so if you have that selection chosen in Activity Monitor you do not see it and only see the VMWare Fusion process and the "helper" and "start-up" processes which are all 32 bit.

If others are not seeing the 64 bit vmware-vmx process it may be because, like me, they have the "my processes" category selected also. If you change it to "all processes" the vmware-vmx process is shown and reports 64 bit.

Thanks for the info.

Dave

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desmondfuller
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IMHO I think it is alittle "flimsy" to say that Vmware is 64-bit.... some of it is 32-bit and some is 64-bit.

I think this is misleading... do the helpers apps need to be 64bit... maybe not but it would seem like it would be better to have all the helper and misc apps running as 64-bit for the purists and for future development.

If you say you are one thing, be that one thing 100%.... don't give the lame excuse that "oh those don't have to be 64bit...."

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bgertzfield
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I think this is misleading... do the helpers apps need to be 64bit... maybe not but it would seem like it would be better to have all the helper and misc apps running as 64-bit for the purists and for future development.

I understand your frustration, but the Fusion team is pretty small, and we really wanted to make sure you, the customers, didn't suffer from bugs and problems introduced by unnecessarily switching the UI binary to 64-bit. We'll get there, but it takes a little time.

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desmondfuller
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Then I would note the fact what is and isn't 64bit publicly... or at least on the blog.

Otherwise this seems alittle shady.

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benmartz
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There's nothing even remotely shady about it. I hate to break it to you, but even Snow Leopard does not run in "pure" 64-bit mode which means that VMware's practice of running only specific high-performance areas of code in 64-bit mode (in layman's terms) is not only accepted but directly condoned at the "lowest" levels (i.e. the Mac OS X 10.6 kernel).

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tim_woods
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I completely disagree with the poster and would rather see the cosmetic 64bit stuff come later if it means I get the 64bit engine sooner... What is your real purpose for wanting 64bit??? Just so you can say look at me, I have chrome wheels?... Come everyone... Gather around my screen and look what my process windows says... I need 64bit to unlock the memory limits of my machine, I need 64bit for true multi-core distributed processing, I need 64bit to correct the gross deficiency of JVM that exist in 32bit... I could give a rats a$$ about whether the GUI of all things is 64bit or not... but deal... Unlock the potential of machine! THANKS VMware... your efforts are appreciated!!!

T Way

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FlyBar
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All, thanks for the discussion and to Dave Porter for pointing out the trick with Activity Monitor. From my point of view the comments about what you are advertising are valid, but my concern was over how the base VM engine was running. Now I know it's running 64 bit, I'm happy to wait on the 64 UI at a later date.

I have to say that after a day of using it, it does seem to perform a lot better than 2.0.6. I can use a Windows 7 VM and a Linux VM at the same time and they both perform reasonably well .......

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