VMFusion on M1 can't run Ubuntu 22.04.1 - Black Screen

[fastfrank1]

Ventural 13.1 on M1 MAX

VMFusion: Professional Version 13.0.0 (20802013)

Ubuntu Server 22.04.1 (Live)

Power Up just gives me a black screen and then nothing... 

How to fix, I'm not getting anything out of this product.

[RDPetruska]

Search this forum (and also read the unofficial guide document by Technogeezer) for this issue. 

[Technogeezer · Accepted solution]

The Unofficial Fusion 13 for Apple Silicon Companion guide ("the Companion") can be found

• within the VMware Fusion Documents section of this forum, or
• by searching the forum using the magnifying glass at the top of the web page, and using the search terms "Companion" or "Unofficial", or
• by using the following direct link: https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Fusion-Documents/The-Unofficial-Fusion-13-for-Apple-Silicon...

The Companion guide should be considered required reading before anyone starts to do anything with Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon. It will save you time, as It fills in a lot of gaps in VMware's documentation based on real-world experience.

[fastfrank1]

Thanks... this document should really be part of the 13 desktop interface... otherwise it would have been missed entirely.

I don't think 13 is ready for prime time if you have to jump through hoops to simply install a valid guest OS.

Consider adding a "install from well known and working OS" type prompt/feature in the app.

[Technogeezer]

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@fastfrank1 

I don't think 13 is ready for prime time if you have to jump through hoops to simply install a valid guest OS.

Consider adding a "install from well known and working OS" type prompt/feature in the app.

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Those Linux “valid guest OSs” that don’t install cleanly in most cases have older kernels that have bugs. That’s on the distros (Ubuntu was one of the laggards in getting the fixes into their kernels).

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last year plus of testing Linux distros on a fusion running on ARM64 architectures is that arm64 is maturing at a rapid pace. The newer releases of most distros today have way fewer issues than those of 15 months ago. Most recently released arm64 distro versions don’t need you to jump through a lot of hoops to get them to run. 

Ubuntu is the exception in my mind. They seemingly took forever to address issues that the other distros did. Although Ubuntu has gotten better recently. I expect the next 22.04 LTS update installers to include the kernel they are providing as an update to installed 22.04 systems - which fixes the bugs that are giving you the blank screen problem. I also expect the upcoming 23.04 interim release to install without issue based on what I’m seeing in the development builds. 

At the speeds at which ARM64 distros are moving, any in-product guidance about “well known and working distributions” would be out of date very quickly. Ideally VMware should have a tech note about this. The community seems to be able to react much more quickly to provide this kind of information. Lots of people are trying lots of things out there.