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alecliu
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VMWare Fusion 4 Black Screen on my Mac Pro

Please help it is driving me carzy....

It looks like the guest WinXP is Running well, but just black screen. When I resize the window from full screen to window mode, I can see my desktop of WinXP. And I can see it on the Vitural Machine Library, with tiny screen.

Please help me out, thank you!

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gpierce1
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It seemed for a while that this problem might be restricted to computers with 64GB, but more and more people are reporting this problem with virtual machines on hardware with not only 64 GB but less. I wish it would be addressed by VMware's software engineers. I have downgraded to version 3. That seems to work without a hitch. If you come across a solution, could you remember to post?

Thanks,

Greg

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Bain
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Just fixed it. Here's what I did.

1. First, I backed up all my VMs...

2. Then I downgraded my Windows 7 VM to 3 through the Compatibility setting.

3. Then I shut down the 4VMs of concern (do not suspend)

3. Then I dropped Fusion 4 into the Trash

4. Then I downloaded the latest Fusion 3 and latest Fusion 4 (to be sure I have the latest)

5. Then I installed Fusion 3.

6. Then I started the 4 VMs of concern with Fusion 3. No Black Screen.

7. Then I shut down all 4VMs

8. Then I dropped Fusion 3 into the Trash

9. Then I installed Fusion 4

10. Then I started the 4VMs of concern in Fusion 4. All were in Compatibility mode Fusion 3. No Black Screen.

11. Then I shut down my Window 7s VM

12. Then I started my Windows 7 VM and, upon the question if I wanted to ugprade to 4, I said yes. No Black Screen.

And with that, I am back to normal operations (for now - I"ll be sure to update my post if I have the problem again), having lost 7 hours of development productivity (so frustrated) but have my Dev Environment back (so happy about).

From what I can tell, there are a few others who have gone through this, so hopefully this guidance will be helpful (still pondering why VMWare is silent on this issue!!!)

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Bain
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I thought about how I got into this Black Screen state. I think it has to do with using the new Unity Screens. Yesterday I ended up in Unity by mistake (pushed the wrong button). I have so much running on OSX Server, it's hard to find Windows menus so I stick to Full Screen and Single Window mode. I had no problems until I shut down the server and rebooted 4h later. Then the Black Sceen issue arose. I suspect I could duplicate the issue by going through the same process but I don't have time for now. But I am relatively comfortable that if I run into the Black Screen again, that I can recover through the same process I just posted, so I may try to isolate the bug later when I get some work done. If I do decide to take the time to isolate the bug, I'll post my findings.

Hope this is helpful....

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gpierce1
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Thanks, I'll give it a try. I think I tried setting one or two of my Vms to compatibility mode but not all of them.

Greg

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Bain
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I had to do more work on this. Got the Black Screen again, so decided to take the time to isolate.

ISSUE

* In Fusion 4, if you resize the screen (Single Window => Full Screen => Single WIndow [FULL SCREEN being the culprit]), even in compatibility model, you get the Black Screen. It doesn't matter if you use the menu commands or the resizing Icons in the upper righrt corner of the VM Window.

** If you get your screen back in Fusion 3, leave it in Full Screen mode, and then upgrade to Fusion 4, you get a Black Screen.

** If you set your screen to Single Window in Fusion 3 and upgrade to Fusion 4, you are OK until you set the screen to Full and you are back to the same problem once you resize the screen to Single Window again.

** Once you have Black Screen in one VM, you have it in them all - if not immediately, then upon resizing those screens as well.

** This is not a Windows thing. It's any OS in Fusion 4, when using OSX Server Snow Leopard 64 bit (see my machine config posted earlier).

RECOVERY

* Go through the process I posted earlier to get your screen back.

TIMING

* When did this issue happen? I've been resizing my VM screens constantly over the past two weeks (standard practice). I shut my server down once a week (last Friday, and yesterday (Friday), so possibly it dates back to something that was updated in OSX or VMWare between then (if the issue gets germinated upon server reboot - e.g. MAC OSX Driver update?). I had no problem resizing screens yesterday. The issue showed up last night about midnight.

RECOMMENDATION

* Do not use Fusion 4 until VMWare fixes the problem, even in compatibility mode, if you need to use Full Screen mode, or if you have obsessive compulsive behavior and can't leave the Full Screen Icon alone, now that you know it's a dagger...

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gpierce1
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Thank you for taking the time to post your experiences here.

Greg

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Bain
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I have an update on this, having upgraded to OSX Lion Server, and Fusion 4.1.1. Slightly different behavior, but I found a solution to Fusion 4.1.1 on OSX Lion Server - the issue this time is not Black Sceen of death, but "VMWare Fusion (not responding)" in Activity Monitor, resulting in the need to hard-boot the OSX Server so same result. Details below.

Environment:

MacPro (Dual Quad Core hyperthreaded, 32GB Memory ), OSX Lion Server, I am running Windows 7 in one VM (Fusion 4.1.1) with Visual Studio 2010, SharePoint Foundation 2010, and SQL Server 2008 R2. A Virtual Drive is mapped to another VM, running Windows 2008 Server R2 and SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Server. Virtual Drives are mapped to a Source Code folder (for VS2010 projects), and to the Windows 2008 GAC, required for debugging code on the Windows 2008 SharePoint Server VM using Remote Debugging. Also mounted are three more VMs. SOLR Search engine VM running in UBuntu, LYNC Unified Communications Server running in Windows 2008 Server R2, and Active Directory running in a Windows 2008 Server VM.

* The VS2010 Dev VM is running on an 8TB (configured as 6 Raid 5 eSata connected storage device), and two of the VMs are running on the MacPro internal drives (configured as 4 TB Raid 5 an 1TB JBOD).

Issue:

When the host OSX Lion Server goes into Screen Save mode, even sometimes before but after a few minutes, VMWare Fusion hangs. If you look at the processes in Activity Monitor, it says "VMWare Fusion (not responding)". When you get this, you need to hard-boot the server. Fortunately, VMWare is robust enough that nothing gets corrupt. OSX Server is never a concern.

* Note my other post  to this thread on a Black Screen issue, when I was running OSX Snow Leopard Server and tried to upgrade to Fusion 4.

Solution:

I tried everything, and nothing worked, until I saw the post in another forum  that full screen in 4.1.1 has issues. That connected my thinking with the Black Screen behavior I had which isolated the issue to Full Screen view mode as well. I found when dealing with the Black Screen issue that if I unintentionally ended up in Full Screen, or Unity View, I got the Black Screen issue and had to reboot also. So the ability to keep Full Screen mode at bay through the following config for each VM worked wonders ( FUSION | VIEW | FULL SCREEN MINIBAR | ALWAYS SHOW ). Now I can have Full Screen functionality without the system locking up Fusion.

Perspective:

I recall, in the release notes for 4.1.1 that a slight delay is inserted in Full Screen view mode menu, and I wonder if this is causing an event clash, such that VMWare Fusion locks into listening for the Full Screen VMWare menu to slide down but it never happens, so it becomes unresponsive. Irrespective, the workaround above works for me, and finally, after many gruelling hours, I am up on OSX Lion Server and VMware Fusion 4.1.1.
Hope this helps save someone some time and frustration.

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Bain
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Well, while I solved the original problem, I've found more. Seems that file paths longer than 254 (longest in Windows), while OK in Unix, when on a Virtual Folder from a mapped network drive, causes Windows FileManager to crash, which causes VMWare Fusion 4.1.1 to hang, which causes OSX Finder to hang, which requires a Hard Boot of my Server (OSX Lyon Server). Not pretty. I resolved that, but other issues cause this apparent deadly embrace to happen....it seems to be focused around OSX Shared Folders.

Furthermore, it has corrupted one of my VMs. fortunately I had the foresight to move code outside the VM into the (shared folder) and make copies of the VM should something like this happen. One VM (Windows 7 got trashed) went into a forever Repair mode that it never came out of. Another just now, repaired itself, removing bad indexes and so forth, and so far seems to be running, but I am wary... ;-(

To recall my structure, I have Windows 7, running Visual Studio 2010 Professional, mapped to the Shared Folder, which is shared by Windows 2008 R2, which is running SharePoint Server Enterprise. I have a network mapped folder to the GAC on the Windows 2008 R2 machine, and one to the OSX Shared Folder. When I compile the app, I push the DLLs and the PDBs into the Windows 2008 GAC from the Windows 7 Dev VM (allows remote debugging). This worked well under OSX Snow Leopard, VMWare Fusion 3.1.2. But now it is flakey. I am seeing a pattern, that once VMware Fusion started to think about something, VMWare becomes unresponsive. If I drop something into the Shared Folder from OSX, and I haven't yet opened up the folder, then it seems that VMWare Fusion gets confused and goes into a continuous search (deadly embrace) that it never somes back from, which starts the chain of events above. Now way out of it but to Hard Boot, which is like Russian Roulette - in that it can damage the Guest OS, and another one gets trashed. Not a great confidence builder.

It seems like the apparent tighter integration of Fusion with OSX Lyon has a number of pitfalls, which can hang a total server. I can repeat this quite regularly  - my time is finding ways to avoid the precursor events which sets it up.


Anyone have any ideas in how I can resolve this issue.

* going back to 3.1.2 does not seem to be the answer. I preserved one Dev VM (Windows 7) with 3.1.2 Fusion. But when it tried to access the shared folder, shared with the Windows 2008 R2 server, it hung and back into the Hard Boot recovery process. Not getting much work done with all of this. I don't see a way to go back, so just need to tip-toe along to try to keep things afloat until VMWare becomes aware of the issues, cares about it, and offers a solution.

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Bain
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More data on this problem.

* If I try to access a shared folder which was once shared in the VM, with another VM, but was unchecked as shared in the Sharing Settings, and then try to acess that shared folder, it hangs the VM (Windows 7) when I try to restart the VM. This causes a big black window in the middle of my screen and although this one doesn't cause Finder to hang the end result is the same. You can't move the big black window (which is the VMWare Fusion VM Start screen with the right arrow - except VMWare is hung and unresponsive. Thus, the only course of action you have is to try to restart your machine the proper way, and while Finder and all OSX apps and interfaces go down, VMWare stays resident and nothing you can do about it but hit the hard-reset button again.

Anyone else getting this behavior?

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Bain
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I am noticing that VMWare Fusion gets confused about network connections across VMs. The spinning beachball can come on at any time when flipping between VMs. I have lots of disk, RAM and Power, so it's not my machine. If I leave it alone for a while....sometimes a very long while (an hour, overnight,...), it will find things, else will say it can't find the network, in which case it requires a hard-boot of my server.

Anyone have any ideas about what's goind on here?

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Bain
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I fix my problem with VMWare Hanging, which caused OSX to hang.

Not quite sure of the root cause, but the symptom of hanging was caused by a networking issue. It felt like Windows 95 Groundhog Day.

* My DEV VM is networked to the other 4 Windows VMs, but most particularly to the SharePoint 2010 Server VM, hosted by Windows 2008 R2 Server.

** To facilitate Remote Debugging from Visual Studio 2010, I use Shared Folders and mapped a network drive onto the SharePoint Windows Server GAC to push DLLs and PDBs required for remote debugging of SharePoint services. Then I access the msvsmon.exe remote Visual Studio debugger  process on the Windows 2008 Server through the Visual Studio Debug Menu.

** I also map another network drive onto the same shared folder for sharing WSPs (SharePoint Application Deployment Packages).

* Other mappings are through HTTPS and are not the cause of the hanging problem, although can be the recipient of them.

* I didn't even have to be pushing things through or accessing the shared folder mapped network drives, and VMWare Fusion 4.1.1 would go into a network wait mode, causing the spinning beachball, which never goes away. Given the tight integration with VMWare Fusion 4.1.1 with OSX Lion (in this case Lion Server but not sure that matters), when VMWare hangs, it hangs anything at the OSX Lion UI level, which you can readily see through the OSX ActivityMonitor, which will also hang. You can force close VMWare, and the VMs it hosts will remain resident but hung.

* When you try to reboot the OSX server, Finder and all else will go down, even VMWare hosting environment, but not the VMWare VMs. They stay live and hung. Nothing you can do but Hard-Boot the system (e,g, push the Power Button). I lost two 100GB VMs because of this. Fortunately I keep a copy of my VMs and have lots of space and power to do that. Furthermore, I keep Visual Studio projects and configs in OSX, accessed through the Shared Folder, so that corrupt VMs only kill the DEV Engine, not the project code and configs.

I tried everything to resolve the issue (as you can see from my posts, and call for help). Nothing helped. I repaired all drives on my Windows VMs and even on OSX. It wasn't until I unintentionally did a Verify Permission (OSX DiskUtility) on my OSX Boot Drive that it seems to have gotten resolved. Doing Verify Permissions through the UI is not the recommended way - this should be done through Safe Boot at the command level, but I got away with it. You loose all access to the UI when you do this, so at some point your going to need to do a hard boot. Given the size of my system, I let it run for a few hours. Then I hard booted and my machine became fast (faster than Snow Leopard) and the hung VMWare VM issue went away. My machine is back to what I expect of OSX - it went the full two weeks with no hangs, with very fast response.

Now I can get back to development productivity I expect from OSX - until two days ago when my TrackPad started acting up (became overly sensitive, so can start jumping around,, moving Windows folders) and that's very dangerous in a complex Dev envirtonment which you are accessing folders all the time. This one doesn't involve VMWare - it's another OSX Lion Server issue. Still looking for the magic bullet to solve this issue. So far the posts I've read have not provided a solution.

So, while in the end the hanging was not caused by VMWare directly, the tight integration of VMWare Fusion 4.1.1 locks-up the entire system if VMWare hangs. So VMWare, if you are listening, you should find a way to abort your VMs safely when OSX gets into a hung state. There is an OSX feature which aborts apps when it senses a hung state (I wonder why Apple buried that in the Config UI!!!), but VMWare is immune to it. I think that would be a good place to start. While I love the speed, functionality and UI richness of OSX Lion, and the performance of VMWare 4.1.1, it's a little too much of an adrenalyn rush to have to keep hard-booting my Server every time that VMWare Fusion hangs.


This ends my posts to this thread. While it may look a bit like a journal of a journey of fate, I hope my posts can help someone avoid the anquish I went through when I cannot afford any downtime.

Thanks for listening.

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