VMware Communities
joeboss
Contributor
Contributor

Mac OS 10.11 and VMware Fusion

Who's going to be the first guinea pig to see if the current version of Fusion will run on El Capitan? (Mac OS X 10.11)  🙂

Yes, yes, I know that VMware doesn't support beta OS versions;  I'm just hoping someone else tests it so I don't have to...

EDIT:  I'm curious to know about both as a Host and as a Guest, either separately or together.

Thanks!

-Joe

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dariusd
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I've already heard a rumor (not yet verified) that it doesn't work as a guest in Fusion.  Rest assured that we'll be trying it out this afternoon and investigating as necessary.

Cheers,

--

Darius

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infinitetape
Contributor
Contributor

Tried to make an El Capitan guest on Mavericks Host/VMWare 7.1.1 Pro. Get the error "Unable to create the installation medium."

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dariusd
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I can confirm the same result here.  I'm working on it right now...

--

Darius

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

All over it as usual - Darius rocks!

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dariusd
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Totally unofficial workaround follows, assuming you are comfortable with Terminal...

Quit VMware Fusion.  Download and unpack the attached Create Mavericks Installer.zip to reveal Create Mavericks Installer.tool, then launch Terminal and run:

   sudo cp Create\ Mavericks\ Installer.tool /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/

Enter your password if prompted.

Launch VMware Fusion, and try again.

Have fun!

--

Darius

Poonaka
Contributor
Contributor

Anyone try it as a host?  I would love to install 10.11 but I need VMware for work.

infinitetape
Contributor
Contributor

That patch let me get El Capitan installed. Thanks!

Seems like video performance is pretty sluggish, with acceleration either on or off. Maybe it's the switch to the Metal API?

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ivahos
Contributor
Contributor

After backing up my macbook i installed 10.11 and started up fusion. I then proceeded to start my work vm (win7 64 bit) and the window came up as normal but the vm did not appear to start (play button remained on the screen). While navigating here on my imac I noticed that the VM had finally started.

the vm runs like before. apart from the extended wait before boot nothing seems to have changed running fusion 7.1.1 on a 10.11 machine

-Ivar

Poonaka
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks ivahos!

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joeboss
Contributor
Contributor

infinitetape:  perhaps turn off Beam Sync?  Improving Yosemite VM performance in VMware Fusion | Der Flounder

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danielmiessler
Contributor
Contributor

Yes, this is what I need to know as well.

If I upgrade to this beta and I can't run my VMs I'm going to be very sad. Again.

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ivahos
Contributor
Contributor

So far the vm's I have tried runs at the same speed under 10.11 as they did under 10.10. It also looks like the delay before the VM boots is also gone. Might have been something going on in the background. Its back to normal now

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dariusd
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

If you want to try the beta as a host OS, I'd suggest installing the beta onto a separate hard disk or separate partition, and ensuring that you have a good backup of all your critical data.

If you end up installing the beta, you should expect (and plan for) a bumpy ride: It might not be possible for either Apple or VMware to promptly address whatever issues arise along the way, so a fallback plan (a bootable backup of your current known-good OS, for instance) is pretty much essential.

Cheers,

--

Darius

mountainman
Contributor
Contributor

It looks like when running El Capitan as the Host VMWare is unable to use USB devices in the guest.  I have tried it on 2 systems (iMac 5K & rMBP 15" Late 2013), no USB devices will show up or connect to the guest.  May not be an absolute show stopper but it certainly is an issue.  Likely going to revert back at least on my rMBP but may leave it running on the iMac for a while.  Pretty sure we won't get a fix for this very quickly especially since this is the beta.  Other than that, most other things seem to work and the guest is as fast or faster than under 10.10.  This is the first real incompatibility I have found with programs that I run regularly.

AndrewJMoser
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I was able to get it installed using the workaround provided.  I am not able to install VMware tools however.   When the tools installer mounts, its an empty folder.  Anybody had success with installing tools?

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infinitetape
Contributor
Contributor

Beam Sync helped once I realized it needed to go in the Guest. :smileyblush: Still a little jittery, but now more usable.

Other goodies so far:

  • VMWare Tools won't install. I think the relevant error is "sandboxd: shove() System Policy: deny file-write-create /sbin/mount_vmhgfs". Perhaps that's due to the new security model?
  • Mounted volumes (CDs, Network, etc.) will show no content in Icon view mode. Switch to List view mode. I'm guessing this is a bug in El Capitan.
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joeboss
Contributor
Contributor

This all sounds promising for only 1-day after the beta release. 🙂 

Also, are you folks doing clean Guest installs of El Cap, or upgrading an existing Yosemite Guest? 

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joeboss
Contributor
Contributor

Answering my own question:  I upgraded a plain 10.10 VM successfully to 10.11.  (No patching needed to get the installer running.)  I'm also seeing the sluggishness in the UI, and "beamoff" errors with "6/9/15 9:16:55.036 AM WindowServer[269]: Untrusted client (pid=692) attempted to set debug options."  QuartzDebug will also not run, unsurprisingly, since OpenGL is now gone.  In the middle of downloading Xcode to see if there might be a Metal Debug tool included with it...

Also, presumably because I upgraded an existing VM with VMware Tools already installed, copy/paste between Guest and Host is working, as is dynamic screen resizing.

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infinitetape
Contributor
Contributor

I also see the errors for "attempted to set debug options" in my log. Not sure what's going on. If nothing else, my mouse cursor movements are now smooth instead of jumpy.

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