Latest VMWare Fusion (release date: 2017-05-18) installation messed up file permissions on Mac OS X Sierra

[johnnyla]

I downloaded and installed

Name: VMware-Fusion-8.5.7-5528452.dmg

Release Date: 2017-05-18

Build Number: 5528452

The installation got stuck in the "Initializing" phase which is at the end. I waited quite awhile for it to finish but then I started to get all types of permission errors in all my programs. Finder couldn't see files anymore, Chrome browser can't load new page, etc.

I happened to have a Terminal window open and I checked the file permissions and saw that all files and folders from / all had their ownership change to "root" user and "wheel" group. I tried to use the Disk Utility's First Aid tool to no avail. Finally after much fussing around to and getting my tech colleague and I.T. to look at my computer, we decided to back up my files and mount a networked drive to store some files before doing a reformat a fresh installation.

Halfway through uploading files, I saw the file permissions on the network drive also change to root!

Other relevant info:

Mac OS X Sierra

15.4" Macbook Pro 2015

VirtualBox program running with no running images.

2.2GHz iCore i7 - 16GB RAM.

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hi,

There has been one earlier report of this issue.

See:

Re: Permission destruction?

I hope you haven't formatted your disk yet, please open a support request with VMware so that they can reproduce and fix this nasty issue.

To get official support please go to: Fusion Support and open a ticket at File a Support Request

thanks!

--
Wil

[johnnyla]

Thanks. I responded in the other thread. I'm not going to open tickets. I explained what I gone through here and in that other thread. I won't waste anymore time with VMWare. I have nothing left to add.

[TECH198]

Haven't had this issue at all..  I am running 8.5.7 (5528452) on OS X 10.12.5

[wila]

Hi,

Understood. I was just trying to point out that your disaster might help prevent it happen with others in the future if VMware gets a better understanding of what happened.

Fully understand that you're not that interested in helping out after bumping into this.

FWIW, those two isolated cases have been the only 2 cases I've seen so far, it is not a common issue AFAICT.

Something specific on your and the other poster's configuration made the VMware Fusion install/upgrade to misbehave badly.

In the other thread, Darius -employee of VMware- has an idea on what happened, but he needs more data to confirm his reasoning.

At the very least my thanks for letting us know about the issue that you bumped into.

Raising awareness about things like these also helps already.

--

Wil

[Mikero]

We are investigating this issue. The thing is we haven't changed our installer script in a while, so something else is getting in our way and we're exploring that.

The reason filing a support ticket is so important is because we gather more information about the system and what else is happening besides just what Fusion is doing, and map that directly to the bug report on the backend.

[DrShlt]

Hi there,

Similar Problem here.  Fusion prompt "Unable to retrieve kernel symbols, then ca not initiate display device"

Reinstall - Reboot - Reinstall serval times.  Doesn't work.  Also deeply cleaned profiles and any other files located in system dir.

referred KB in 2013, however, there's no mach_kernel file at the root directory after El Captian.

No system upgrade performed before fusion doesn't work.

Name: VMware-Fusion-8.5.7-5528452.dmg

Release Date: 2017-05-18

Build Number: 5528452

uname -a

Darwin iMac.local 16.5.0 Darwin Kernel Version 16.5.0: Fri Mar  3 16:52:33 PST 2017; root:xnu-3789.51.2~3/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64

Serria 10.12.5

[dariusd]

Unless I am misunderstanding, the problem you're encountering there (Fusion unable to run VMs) is quite different to that in this thread, in which Fusion actually damages the rest of the macOS installation, causing many other failures beyond just Fusion not launching.  If you're encountering the problem described in this thread, which we've had two reports in the last week, please let us know immediately.  Otherwise, I'd advise you to start a new thread with a description of your problem, just so that the discussions don't get tangled up.

Thanks!

--

Darius