Fusion Player 13

[ivan5150]

Hello, I just donwloaded and installed VmWare Fusion Player 13 personal use in a MacBook PRO M1 machine

I still cant install Ubuntu 22.04 or 22.10 with the error:

This virtual machine cannot be powered on because it requires the X86 machine architecture, which is incompatible with this Arm machine architecture host.

Any advice?

Thank you very much!

[scott28tt · Accepted solution]

You need to install the ARM version of your operating system inside the VM, not the x86 version.

[ivan5150]

Yes sorry i figured out later

TY!

[Rogerwilliams]

Hi Scott, I have a M2 chip MacBook which Im trying to run VMware13 on and I get the X86 error, how and where do I install the Arm version not the x86?

[ColoradoMarmot]

The guest OS must be an ARM guest.  That means Windows 11 for ARM or a Linux ARM flavor.  No x86 guests are (or will be) supported.  Check the unofficial guide (there's a thread for it in the forum and it's in the document section) for great help in doing that.

[Rogerwilliams]

For a kind of illiterate VMWare user can you explain in basic terms how I can activate this and where I find the Arm guest I've come from a previous non M2 chip mac where windows and VM loaded easily. Do I need to purchase the upgrade from 12 to 13 then do I need to upgrade my windows? Sorry for my lack of knowledge.

[Technogeezer]

The game certainly has changed since Apple stopped using Intel chips in Macs in favor of their own ARM architecture chip. The expectation that a Mac runs the same Windows that you run on your Intel/AMD chip PC was thrown out the window.

There's no "upgrade" process for an installation of Windows x64 to Windows ARM. . You need to obtain the Windows 11 ARM installation media and do a fresh installation on Fusion 13 on a M1/M2 Mac. Existing Windows 11 retail licenses will activate Windows on both Intel and ARM chips. If you have a Windows 10 license it should also activate a Windows 11 installation on either x64 or ARM.

Take a look at the Unofficial Fusion 13 for Apple Silicon Companion Guide. It has procedures on how you can download Windows 11 ARM installation media (You can't go to Microsoft and download an installation ISO for Windows 11 ARM like you can for for Intel PCs).

[ColoradoMarmot]

You'll have to build a whole new windows instance using Windows 11 for ARM.  The existing virtual machine won't work - Intel (x86) vs ARM is like gasoline vs diesel - you can't put one in an engine built for the other.

The good news is that with the Unofficial guide's new instructions, it's not terrible to get the installation media.  Your windows product key from your previous VM may very well activate Windows 11 (give it a try).  Even better is that built into windows 11 is a rosetta like layer that will let you run x86 software inside the windows 11 arm guest.  But you will have to reinstall all that software.

[dan28088]

Hi there - having an unexpected issue with the attempt to build the Windows ISO media as specified in the Unofficial guide.

I have downloaded the file, created the Build directory,

Given Terminal full disk access, and then used terminal to go into Build and performed the steps as specified - but can't get past step 5....   Not too surprisingly, if I try to execute step 6 specifying en-us I get essentially the same error.

While I use to be very strong and adept at command line stuff, that was years ago.   Not sure what is wrong or how to get around it.

Please help.  

dan@Roadrunner Build % unzip w11arm_esd2iso-V2.0.zip 

Archive:  w11arm_esd2iso-V2.0.zip

  inflating: w11arm_esd2iso.sh       

  inflating: __MACOSX/._w11arm_esd2iso.sh  

  inflating: CHANGELOG               

  inflating: __MACOSX/._CHANGELOG    

  inflating: README                  

  inflating: __MACOSX/._README       

dan@Roadrunner Build % chmod +x w11arm_esd2iso.sh

dan@Roadrunner Build % ./w11arm_esd2iso.sh -l

ERROR: Required program wiminfo not found

ERROR: Required program wimapply not found

ERROR: Required program wimexport not found

ERROR: One or more required programs are not found.

dan@Roadrunner Build % 

[Technogeezer]

The Companion Guide and the README file both note that the open source packages wimlib and aria2 need to be installed. What you are seeing is either a result of those utilities not being installed,  or that the directory they reside in is not part of the the $PATH variable.

If the following 2 commands both come back with "not found", you've not installed the utilities.:

which /opt/homebrew/bin/wiminfo
which /opt/local/bin/wiminfo

The Companion Guide Appendix B or C will walk you through installing them with either Homebrew or MacPorts, respectively.

If you do get a hit on one of them, then you haven't got the directory containing the commands on your shell's PATH variable.

[stephenboey]

Hi, I am trying to install Ubuntu 23.04 desktop amd 64

I set to Connect CD/DVD Drive to the iso

But it seems like it unable to install from the ISO, I am getting this message

Why does the VMWare Player always try to Start PXE over IP4 or IP6 when my installation disk is connected to a CD/DVD iso

[Technogeezer]

You are getting that message because there is no bootable operating system on that ISO.   You are trying to boot an amd64 (Intel) operating system ISO on an ARM architecture CPU and that will never work. 

You need to use arm64 / aarch64 versions of operating systems when running Fusion on an M1//M2 Mac. You really need to read the Unofficial Companion guide https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Fusion-Documents/The-Unofficial-Fusion-13-for-Apple-Silicon...

That document has extensive discussions on what Ubuntu versions work with Fusion on M1/M2 Macs. (Hint, Canonical does not release a Ubuntu Desktop 23.04 installer ISO for arm64 architectures. You should install Ubuntu Server 23.04 arm64 (not amd64) then “convert it” to Ubuntu Desktop using the procedures in the Companion guide.)

[stephenboey]

Thank you so much, it works