Mountain Lion Kernel Panic during startup after VMWare tools are installed

[dvreid]

Installed OS X Mountian Lion Preview 1 on Fusion today.   It installs correctly.  Installed the VMWare Tools and rebooted.  Early on during the reboot the OS takes a Kernel Panic.  It will take the panic on a restart or a shutdown then powerup.   Is there is chance VMWare will update the VMWare Tools to support Mountain to enable developers.

Thanks

Doug

[trodemaster]

Maybe this will work..

http://www.robservatory.com/?p=809

via @patlee

Blake

[dvreid]

Yes that workaround does allow Mountain Lion to Boot.  

[mopcodes]

How do you get the installer started in VMWare Fusion? I haven't been able to determine how to do that yet...

[dvreid]

Here is the link to the KB article that explains how to do it:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=200533...

I had a little trouble with the Mountain Lion install where it did not prompt for the final setup.   I think it had to do with the the disk image for the final setup not mounting correctly.   When it did that I would be given the login prompt but no user was ever setup.

Doug Reid

[mopcodes · Accepted solution]

Hello.

Correct. It installed, but setup never ran for me either. I used the instructions about dragging and dropping the installer for Lion into VMWare, etc.

After it installs it is stuck at some weird login window w/ three buttons to control overall computer state and a back arrow the doesn't go anywhere.

I have not found a way around this. At first I thought it was due to installer being on desktop and not App folder on Mac. Moved it. Tried again. Nothing. Stuck now.

[dvreid]

That sound like a similar experience with my Mountain Lion installs.  I had to install multiple time yesterday because of this and the VMWare Tools issue.  The Lion/Mountain Lion install are very different from the previous OS versions because they are downloaded.  I really believe the mechanism that is causing the issue is the disk image that has to be mounted so the install can finish after the reboot.   It worked every other time for me on a 2008 Mac Pro.

That is all I can really tell you.

Doug

[ColoradoMarmot]

My install went just fine - I dragged the installer.app to the create new VM window and all was well.

Until I installed the tools that is.  I expect that we'll see an update that add support now that this version is out.  We all need to keep in mind though, that VMWare didn't get it until yesterday either, so it may be some weeks before we have anything (and they won't/can't share any information until it's released anyway).

[mopcodes]

I'll see what I can do to get the image to mount. Otherwise I've still haven't even seen set up yet!

[SvenGus]

Yes, this workaround indeed seems to work.

BTW, opening Launchpad inside a Mountain Lion VM takes a couple of minutes on my test machine (one can see it opening on the screen one line at a time): so, probably the virtualized graphics needs some improvement.

Maybe Mountain LIon could stimulate more complete VMware Tools for OS X guests, finally...

[mopcodes]

Ok I got it working, but it is a real pig on my i7 13-in MBA. bleh. lol

[SvenGus]

Especially at boot: it's really so sloooooooooow - exactly as Brazilian soccer commentators, while they say gooooooooool... :smileylaugh:

Another macroscopic glitch (at least on my machine): the new Software Update through the Mac App Store always hangs, with a spinning beachball.

Well, this newcome big cat still needs to be domesticated a little in a virtual environment, in other words... :smileycool:

[pfruth]

Sorry to resurrect this old thread....

I know it's only been a week and a half since Mountain Lion (10.8) became generally available.  But, does anyone know if/when there will be a Fusion update available, addressing the vmware tools panic?

In the mean time, I'll attempt to implement the hack (deleting vmmemctl kernel extension) as suggested in the links above.

Thanks

[ColoradoMarmot]

Both 4.1.3 and the technical preview have addressed the issue.

[pfruth]

Indeed it has.  I'm running 4.1.3, but apperently the version of VMWare tools in the VM was back-level.  I re-installed the VMWare tools and all is well now.

[ColoradoMarmot]

Yeah, it's a fiddly thing - for OSX guests, they don't auto-install.

[alfinator]

I think I'm in a similar situation.

I tried to upgrade lion to mountain lion in my VM (Fusion 4.1.3).

Install ran to completion, said it needed to reboot as usual.

At this point it crashes several times and says it has been rebooted because of a problem (see first attachment), wait a few seconds to continue starting up, but cycles like that several times and then gives up with a stack dump (second attachment), current process: vmmemctl

Install VM ware tools option is greyed out in the vmware fusion menu.

Is there any way to get back this VM or get it to boot?

alf

[ColoradoMarmot]

First off, try the technical preview for Fusion 5 - much better 10.8 support.

Upgrading OSX VM's seems to have a bunch of issues - the migration option (outlined elsewhere in the forum) seems to be more reliable.

[pfruth]

#alfinator - That's exactly the situation I was in.  Here's what I did.

- Boot the VM into safe mode (hold down the 's' key, while the VM starts up).

- Once booted in safe mode, implement the hack, as suggested in post # 2 of this thread (by bgarner).  Then reboot the VM. The VM should boot up normally, at this point.

- Once rebooted, invoke the Reinstall VMware Tools mechanism... be sure to run the Uninstall VMware Tools app first.  Then, run the Install VMware Tools app.  Finally, reboot the VM.

- At this point, you should be golden.  Confirm that you are now running VMware tools V 8.8.4.xxxx (tip: open a command windows, and run './vmware-tools-cli -v' in /Library/Application\ Support\VMware\ Tools).

- Done

[alfinator]

Thanks for the response, but I can't seem to get it to boot in safe mode either 😞

It still cyles through a few reboots between the gray screen with the apple logo and vmware, then gives up after 3 times or so, no crashdump this time.

I tried ctrl-s also and that puts me at the command prompt but can't install vmware tools there, complains that CD is in use by the gues OS.

Unless there's another way to get up in safe mode I guess I'll just have to rebuild my OS.