I'm running VMware Fusion (version 8.5.3) in macOS Sierra (version
10.12.2) with a single Linux VM.
This setup runs fine as long as I start the VM manually (by clicking on
it), but it crashes without fail when I select the VM as the default to
start whenever Fusion is started. The crash happens just after the GRUB
boot manager page shows, so even before Linux itself is booted.
This is a minor inconvenience that I can live with and that I'm sure
will be fixed in a future release of Fusion.
Meanwhile, recovering from the crash is not straightforward because
deselecting the default VM must be done in a running Fusion, not a
crashed one. This is how you do that:
1. Delete all .lck files and folders from the directory where the VM is
stored.
2. Delete the file com.vmware.fusion.plist from the
/User/<username>/Library/Preferences folder (where the actual
username should be substituted.
Fusion will now restart as per regular and recreate that .plist in the
process without reference to the default VM.
Enjoy!
