For starters let me be clear. This is reckless and will probably result in data loss, but it's still cool. Don't do this.
VMware Workstation 6 introduced a feature similar to that in VMware's Server products, namely that you can detach the graphical user interface and leave the virtual machine running. No such behavior is exposed in VMware Fusion for Mac, but I've discovered that it can be done.
Here's what I found...
I had Windows XP running in a VM. From the terminal, I typed 'ps auxwwww | grep vmware' and received the following list of running processes:
MacBook-Pro:~ brad$ ps auxwwwwww | grep vmware
root 391 6.0 -27.6 970508 578212 ?? Ss 12:37AM 0:19.36 /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmware-vmx -E en -D dwUCLFv3HLAHNwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA= -# product=1;name=VMware Fusion;version=1.0;licensename=VMware Fusion for Mac OS;licenseversion=6.0 build-51348; -@ pipe=/var/tmp//vmware-brad/vmx7db58cd086ae3952;readyEvent=25 /Users/brad/Documents/Virtual Machines/Windows XP Professional.vmwarevm/Windows XP Professional.vmx
brad 406 0.7 -0.0 27368 448 p1 S+ 12:39AM 0:00.00 grep vmware
root 107 0.0 -0.0 27624 224 ?? Ss 9:15PM 0:00.00 /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmnet-dhcpd -cf /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmnet8/dhcpd.conf -lf /var/db/vmware/vmnet-dhcpd-vmnet8.leases -pf /var/run/vmnet-dhcpd-vmnet8.pid vmnet8
root 115 0.0 -0.0 27624 196 ?? Ss 9:15PM 0:00.00 /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmnet-dhcpd -cf /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmnet1/dhcpd.conf -lf /var/db/vmware/vmnet-dhcpd-vmnet1.leases -pf /var/run/vmnet-dhcpd-vmnet1.pid vmnet1
brad 388 0.0 -2.9 498720 60668 ?? S 12:37AM 0:04.68 /Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/MacOS/vmware -psn_0_6291457
From the terminal, I typed 'killall -9 vmware' to kill the Cocoa GUI. Another run of 'ps auxwww... ' showed that vmware-vmx was still running.
VMware itself however, was not running. Its icon had disappeared from my dock. So, out of curiosity, I relaunched it. I then brought up the Virtual Machine Library, selected 'Windows XP', and the GUI showed up again with my Windows desktop and applications right where I left them.
This behavior is nearly identical to that of VMware Workstation 6 and VMware Server Console (with the difference of authentication in the latter case) showing that VMware for Mac is definitely capable of this.
So, a few of things for you VMware developers:
1) Awesome app, goes without saying
2) Please add official support for detaching the GUI, for advanced users, and
3) VMware Server for Mac! Imagine a closet full of Apple XServes running MacOS X and virtualizing legacy Exchange/Active Directory services. Yum. Good business opportunities here guys.
Cheers!
Message was edited by:
brad-x
Wording tweak
