Fusion still interfering with host shutdown.

[jfreas]

I posted this topic a few weeks ago and thought it was resolved but apparently it is not.

I am running a 24" iMac Aluminum with OS X as host to a Windows XP Pro SP3 VM under Fusion 2.x. The VM is configured to suspend automatically and without opening a dialog box whenever the host either shuts down or restarts. This function works fine, however when Fusion gets the message that the host is shutting down, it tells the host to wait until it is finished suspending. The problem is that when OS X hears this response it throws up a window that says something to the effect of "Shutdown cancelled by VMWare Fusion" and then just sits there running instead of waiting for the process to terminate and then continuing the shutdown.

Generally this is no more than a minor nuisance, however if I am away from the house and the power goes out, the system is set up to shut down automatically, but if the VM is running that automatic shutdown fails and the machine eventually gets a hard power-down when the battery back up runs out. I either need to tell Leopard to be more patient, or to try again after a few seconds, but I don't know if that's possible.

I will be posting this same question to the Apple groups, but in the meantime I was wondering if anyone else had run into this situation and maybe found a solution.

Thanks.

-John

[mudaltsov]

If the "Confirm before closing" checkbox in Fusion Preferences is unchecked, Fusion should not prompt to shut down or suspend the VM. However, unless there's some problem with suspending or shutting down the VM, I don't think Fusion ever intentionally cancels the host shut down process.

OS X provides a certain timeout for applications to terminate, but it's possible that it takes longer than that to suspend a VM. Do you have the exact wording or a screenshot of the error? It's slightly different when it's cancelled vs. timed out. If you're trying to reproduce this manually, you can try to Log Out instead, which is quicker than shutting down completely.

How are you controlling the shut down on power loss? I'm assuming it's via a UPS and some software? Is there any way to modify what it does, or provide a script to run before shutting down?

[jfreas]

Thanks for the reply,

The "confirm before closing" checkbox is empty in Fusion Preferences, and Fusion does suspend as commanded, however the error box shows that Fusion cancelled the operation (see attached screen shot), and in fact the "Virtual Machine Library" appears, and does not go away, thus Fusion still has some process running. If I command a second log-off, the VM Library closes and I'm logged off. There appear to be two issues, one is the VM Library opening and staying up, and the other is the reaction of the OS since the error window opens immediately after the log-off/restart/shut-down command is given (there's virtually no delay from mouse-up to the dialog opening).

The software used for automated shutdown is the built-in UPS management tool in OS X. I don't have much control over how it works.

Thanks for your help.

-John

[admin · Accepted solution]

Um, that screenshot shows Fusion 1.x, not 2.0. Make sure you're running the right version.

[jfreas]

Um, yes, I guess it does. Sorry for the confusion. In fact, upgrading to the latest version fixed the problem.

Thanks.