How do I add an old VM to VMware Fusion Pro's Library?

[ant]

Hello.

How do I manually add an old Mac OS X VM (Spanish v10.7.x) to VMware Fusion Pro's v6.0.2's Library? Usually, VMware autoadds them to my Library, but this one isn't adding at all. How do I do it manually?

Thank you in advance.

[MacsRule]

With Fusion running, File > Open and pick the VM you want to add. But "Spanish v10.7.x" sounds like a program, not an operating system in a VM.

[ant]

OK, I figured where it went. It went inside my Library's collapsed "SHARED VIRTUAL MACHINE" section. How do I make this VM not shared? I could not find a way to change this. I just want a local VM.

[WoodyZ]

If you use the File > Open... command from the VMware Fusion menu it should, when it doesn't already exist, then also populate an entry in the Virtual Machine Library.  Otherwise you can also drag and drop the Virtual Machine Package onto the Virtual Machine Library.  For Virtual Machines that are not packaged use the .vmx configuration file.

[ant · Accepted solution]

WoodyZ wrote:

If you use the File > Open... command from the VMware Fusion menu it should, when it doesn't already exist, then also populate an entry in the Virtual Machine Library.  Otherwise you can also drag and drop the Virtual Machine Package onto the Virtual Machine Library.  For Virtual Machines that are not packaged use the .vmx configuration file.

That didn't work earlier, but I figured out what caused it:Virtual Machine Library: shared vs. not???

It was the permissions on my VM files. If they are full access to every accounts, then it is shared. 😕

[WoodyZ]

The normal default permissions on the .vmx configuration file is 0755 and if under "SHARED VIRTUAL MACHINES" it's 0777.  So remove the Virtual Machine from the Virtual Machine Library then change the permissions on the .vmx configuration file to 0755 and add it back to the Virtual Machine Library.   In a Terminal use the following syntax:

chmod 0755 filename.vmx

Note that a Virtual Machine under  "SHARED VIRTUAL MACHINES" there are other files in which the permissions differ however changing the permissions on the .vmx file is what will allow it to show under "VIRTUAL MACHINES".

[ant]

WoodyZ wrote:

The normal default permissions on the .vmx configuration file is 0755 and if under "SHARED VIRTUAL MACHINES" it's 0777.  So remove the Virtual Machine from the Virtual Machine Library then change the permissions on the .vmx configuration file to 0755 and add it back to the Virtual Machine Library.   In a Terminal use the following syntax:

chmod 0755 filename.vmx

Note that a Virtual Machine under  "SHARED VIRTUAL MACHINES" there are other files in which the permissions differ however changing the permissions on the .vmx file is what will allow it to show under "VIRTUAL MACHINES".

Hmm, I didn't use zero in the front of the numbers and things seem to work?

[WoodyZ]

If the first bit is 0 then it can be omitted and was included because technically when using chmod in absolute mode it's value is an octal number constructed from the sum of one or more of the following values: (see image below)

(Click image to enlarge.)