VMware Fusion 1.1.2 (Build 87978) Update Now Available...

[Pat_Lee]

The VMware Fusion 1.1.2 update is a FREE update for all existing VMware Fusion customers and the 1.1.2 update includes English, French, German, Japanese, and now Simplified Chinese language support. VMware Fusion 1.1.2 adds support for the MacBook Air, enables Time Machine backup of virtual machines, adds support for Windows XP SP3 Boot Camp partitions, fixes the wireless bridged networking DHCP issue, and is now available in Simplified Chinese.

To download VMware Fusion 1.1.2, go to:

http://www.vmware.com/download/fusion/

See below for more details:

VMware Fusion 1.1.2 addresses two MacBook Air related problems. Previously, MacBook Air users would encounter a crash if a virtual CD/DVD drive was connected to the virtual machine but a CD/DVD drive was not connected to the MacBook Air. The latest VMware Fusion update also adds the ability to burn CD/DVDs with the MacBook Air’s USB Superdrive.

Prior versions of VMware Fusion automatically excluded virtual machines from Time Machine backups to avoid hitting a Mac OS X related crash when backing up virtual machines that were in use. Apple has addressed this issue in Mac OS X 10.5.2 and VMware Fusion 1.1.2 enables Time Machine to backup virtual machines on Mac OS X 10.5.2 and later. NOTE: Since virtual machines can be large, you may want to consider manually excluding certain virtual machines from backup in Time Machine’s preference pane.

With Windows XP Service Pack 3 arriving on April 29th, VMware Fusion now supports Windows XP Service Pack 3 Boot Camp partitions when they are run as virtual machines.

Finally, VMware Fusion 1.1.2 addresses the problem with wireless bridged networking in some cases not being able to obtain an IP address from the DHCP server.

Other bug fixes include:

• Properly disconnect USB devices connected to the virtual machine when shut down, making the USB devices available again to the Mac.

• Fixes a sound problem where only the default speaker worked in some cases.

• Pressing the newly introduced keys on the new slim Apple Aluminum Keyboard caused VMware Fusion to crash in certain circumstances, this has now been fixed.

• VMware Fusion’s keyboard shortcuts to remap common Windows commands to Mac keyboard equivalents could not be disabled previously in Full Screen or Single Window views

• In some cases, VMware Fusion, after being upgraded to Version 1.1.1, would fail with a Signal 10 error when the user tried to use the keyboard. This problem has been fixed.

We hope you find VMware Fusion 1.1.2 helpful and as always let us know if you encounter any issues.

The VMware Fusion Team

[manfredell]

I can't believe that we've waited so long for this update and still no expanded feature set, i.e. multiple snapshots!!

[rachel]

still no support for kernels > 2.6.23 either; specifically vmware-tools-config still fails on Ubuntu Hardy - which is now Released!

[Pat_Lee]

I can't believe that we've waited so long for this update and still no expanded feature set, i.e. multiple snapshots!!

Manfred,

Bug fix releases and feature releases are very different. Don't take the release of this bug fix update to assume that no work is happening on a feature release of any form. While I can't tell you any details of what will be in a potential feature release, stay tuned the team is working hard.

Pat

[manfredell]

Yes, I know. But I was hoping after all this time to get some new stuff.....

Like Xmas being spoilt

We're running here ESX on HP blade servers attched to an EVA. Top notch. Important thing here: don't touch if it works

BUT on my private desktop I want more.......

[jreffner]

I see no mention of the 1.1.2 update as having included the ability to run a 64-Bit Vista that was installed on a separate drive via Bootcamp.

Am I wrong? Will it finally work with a bootcamped 64-Bit Vista?

Thanks

[Pat_Lee]

I see no mention of the 1.1.2 update as having included the ability to run a 64-Bit Vista that was installed on a separate drive via Bootcamp.

Am I wrong? Will it finally work with a bootcamped 64-Bit Vista?

No, there is not official support for 64-bit Boot Camp partitions at this time. While you can effectively make it work with a couple of manual settings hacks, the biggest issue in this case is handling activation moving back and forth between Boot Camp and Virtual Machine, that is not handled in 64-bit OSs at this time.

It is something we are looking into for a future release.

pat

[jreffner]

Thank you. I hope this can be done fairly soon.

[iLamp]

Unfortunately, the Vista SP1 (Ultimate Edition 32 Bit) activation-problem for was also not fixed with the VMware 1.1.2 update. - I installed the Update and also the VMware tools update successfully this morning and reactivated Windows, however Windows keeps asking me for activation as I am moving between Boot Camp and Virtual Machine. Since you expressly referred to Vista 64 Bit in your above statement, I ask myself whether you know a workaround for Vista 32 Bit? In case no, do you have an idea of when a fix for this issue is likely to be released?

Thanks for your reply!

iLamp

[rx-sp]

Can I ask why this update is an astonishing 170MB? That's just crazy.

Seriously — I can't think of any other software I'm expected to download that's as large as that. I don't think even the core installer of Microsoft Office is as big as that.

[rachel]

I think most of it is the vmware tools installers and pre-built modules/drivers for various operating systems and kernel versions isn't it?

Which does suggest an alternative: that the main download doesn't have that stuff, but vmware itself could download on demand the appropriate tools disk image for the os into which it's about to be installed.

Idea?

[rachel]

Just to answer my own post (such an egotist ) that kind of mechanism would also allow for the rollout of new vmware tools packages to users (such as anyone running linux with a kernel version > 2.6.23 right now) without it forcing a point upgrade of the entire package.

[Pat_Lee]

I think most of it is the vmware tools installers and pre-built modules/drivers for various operating systems and kernel versions isn't it?

Yes, that is a good chunk of the download along with the utility VM used to enable Boot Camp VMs.

Which does suggest an alternative: that the main download doesn't have that stuff, but vmware itself could download on demand the appropriate tools disk image for the os into which it's about to be installed.

Great idea, but with bandwidth getting faster and more people having access, it is hard to prioritize this potential feature over many others people have requested.

Pat

[rx-sp]

You ought to be careful — ridiculous installer file sizes are just the kind of thing people tend to pick-up on and laugh about on blogs. I might have a go at compiling a top 10 list myself.

[WoodyZ]

Can I ask why this update is an astonishing 170MB? That's just crazy.

Seriously — I can't think of any other software I'm expected to download that's as large as that. I don't think even the core installer of Microsoft Office is as big as that.

The VMware-Fusion-1.1.2-87978.dmg file is the complete Fusion Application not just the delta. That's why it's ~170 MB.

Microsoft Office Pro 2007 Download was ~775 MB so I wouldn't be complaining about a ~170 MB download.

[rachel]

I'm sure the laughter of the blogosphere has them quaking in their boots.

Pat's response is about right - it took me about a minute to download the whole thing earlier through my home cable connection. Frankly it's the least of my problems with it right now.

[borisdusek]

still no support for kernels > 2.6.23 either; specifically vmware-tools-config still fails on Ubuntu Hardy - which is now Released!

Yes it fails, but:

• both sound and mouse are supported already on the live cd and default install

• even though building kernel modules fails on Hardy, you still get the graphics driver installed and it works. It which allows resizing the VM window with guest adapting to it dynamically, which is probably the only thing why I install VMware Tools.

This is not at all to say proper support is not desired by me (the opposite is true), just that the situation is not as tragic without portion of VMware Tools compiling correctly - you still get most of the functionality (just easy file sharing and file drag-and-drop is not working from features mere mortal is interested in).

[rachel]

And mouse pointer doesn't automatically enter/exit the vm when it enters/exits the window. I'm also not yet entirely up with how Hardy works wrt its X configuration - as in, there really isn't one any more. It's the Future, but in the meantime you can't actually see what driver you're using any more...

I do like the ongoing idea of having a distribution-supplied open-vm-tools to do all this stuff, at least among the linuxes. But it's early days, and Ubuntu having removed their packages for open-vm-tools in time for the final release of Hardy wasn't helpful. (I was using those during alpha/beta of hardy and besides a spurious warning during vm startup (saying it couldn't power-on the tools or something) it seemed to work well.)

[WoodyZ]

You ought to be careful — ridiculous installer file sizes are just the kind of thing people tend to pick-up on and laugh about on blogs. I might have a go at compiling a top 10 list myself.

The only thing ridiculous here is you complaining about the file size. If this was 10 years ago your gripe my have carried a little bit of weight however by todays standards it is your complaint that is laughable not the file size and I'd venture to say anyone blogging and laughing at a download of ~170 MB is out of touch with mainstream computing. Now that's truly laughable!

[borisdusek]

And mouse pointer doesn't automatically enter/exit the vm when it enters/exits the window. I'm also not yet entirely up with how Hardy works wrt its X configuration - as in, there really isn't one any more. It's the Future, but in the meantime you can't actually see what driver you're using any more...

Are you sure? The mouse entering/leaving vm window automatically even on Live CD session was what really pleasantly surprised me, strange it does not work for you.

I did not need to do anything else than to issue the vmware-tools-config commnad with "-d" parameter (to avoid answering "yes" lot of times) to get the screen resize to work and did not have to touch any X config files.

Yes, open-vm-tools is the future