Is there a way to share a folder with a Mac OS guest that doesn't look like a network folder?

[atj777]

I have a Catalina host with a Mojave guest.  I'm running the guest so I can use Lightroom 6 on my Catalina MacBook Pro.

The shared folders appear as networked folders on the guest.  Lightroom 6 doesn't allow catalogs to be on a network folder.  I'd rather not have to copy the catalogs, which can be quite big, from the host to the guest.

I've tried symbolic links but Lightroom still knows they are on the "network".

[ColoradoMarmot]

The only other option is to put them on a USB drive and then attach that directly to the guest.

FWIW, you're likely to have terrible performance with LR in a guest, both because of the way graphics work, and also because LR6 itself was really slow.  The newer versions are vastly improved both in terms of capability and performance.

[atj777]

The performance is perfectly fine for what I want to do.  In fact, I could do much more than I need to do.

[ColoradoMarmot]

Very cool!  Later versions of lightroom may trigger API's that Fusion doesn't support, just so you're aware.

[atj777]

I'm not planning to run later versions in the VM.  The whole point of running in the VM is so I can run Lightroom 6.14 on Catalina.  If I was willing to pay Adobe's ransom for later versions I wouldn't need to use a VM.

But is all out the window as it appears VMWare can't make Fusion stable enough to run Mojave in a VM on Catalina!

[ColoradoMarmot]

If you're referring to the machine crashing issue, that's due to a bug that Apple introduced in 10.15.6.  You can downgrade to 10.15.5 or wait until Apple fixes it. 

[atj777]

Interesting...

I was running Fusion 11.5.5 with a Mojave guest on 10.15.6 for a week without any problems at all.

I had one unexplained crash after I left the VM running overnight but it wasn't a panic.  Leaving the VM running overnight shouldn't cause any problems and I'm not sure if that was Fusion or something else.

Anyway, I upgraded Fusion to 11.5.6 and that's when my problems started.  I'd get a panic every 10-20 minutes whether or not I ran Fusion.

I manually uninstalled Fusion using this: VMware Knowledge Base but the panics kept occurring.  I then found this: Steve Q - So I upgraded to macOS Catalina... which appears to be identical to the panics I was getting.  I ran Remove VMWare Tools and the panics stopped completely.

I reinstalled Fusion 11.5.5.  I got no panics.

I rebuilt my Mojave guest as the file system had been trashed by the crashes.  I was able to run it and Lightroom 6.14 fine with no more panics.

So, from where I sit, this appears to be a bug with Fusion 11.5.6.

I can't say that Apple didn't introduce a bug with 10.15.6 (and it wouldn't surprise me if they did) but it does not appear to be affecting me in any way.  Further, the blog post above, which appears to show the exact same panic as I was experiencing, was posted in October 2019, long before 10.15.6 (but also before Fusion 11.5.6 so who knows).

[ColoradoMarmot]

Probably two different issues.  The crash overnight is exactly what is expected from the 10.15.6 bug (it's a massive memory leak), but the kernel panic sounds different.

[HurcoMv]

Sorry if I've misunderstood the issue, but why don't you just put the catalogs in the guest file system (Mojave) since that is where you need them (at least from what I understand you mean).

I guess the question is why do the catalogs need to be on the host at all if the software only runs in your VM?

As the other person pointed out, you could use a USB drive or depending on your MacBook Pro, an SD card - my business partner used a 256 GB card on his older MBP for a while.

[atj777]

I can put the catalog and preview files on the guest filesystem, and that is what I'm currently doing until I can come up with a better system.

The problem with putting them on the guest filesystem is that it takes space there which means I have to size (and resize) the guest filesystem to account for them.  If they were on the host filesystem, I could make the guest filesystem small enough so there is just enough space and leave more space available on the host filesystem.  It would also mean backups and snapshots of the guest would be smaller.

Here's a little more detail of what I'm doing.  I have Lightroom 6.14 on my Mac Mini (Sierra) and my catalog, plus all my image files, etc, are on drive connected to that computer.  I do the vast majority of my editing, keywording, etc. on that machine.  The vast majority of my photography is underwater (diving) and have a folder for each dive.  What I do is to Export as Catalog... one or more dives with Smart Previews, and then put the catalog on my MacBook so I can review the photographs and write up my dive log (even make minor adjustments) while I'm not at my desk (sitting on the train to work, sitting in backyard, in front of TV, etc.).

This worked great on my (12 year) old MacBook running Sierra but as it is starting to die I bought a new Macbook at the start of the year.  Unfortunately, the new MacBook is running Catalina and I can't run Lightroom 6.14.  I am no yet prepared to give Adobe $172 a year when Lightroom 6.14 does everything I need.  It is much cheaper for me to pay a one-off $75 to upgrade my current Fusion licence to 11.5 and I can run Lightroom 6.14 on a Mojave guest.

The other problem I have with having the files on the guest filesystem (although perhaps there is a solution to this) is that I can't seem to be able to share guest filesystem with my Mac Mini.  This means I have to export from the Mac Mini in one step and then connect to the Mac Mini from the guest (which is on the MacBook) and copy them across in a second step: two steps and the files are in two places.  If the files were on the Host filesystem I could export in a single step.