VMware Fusion 4 and Mavericks

[chuckufarley]

Is VMware Fusion 4.x expected to be compatible with Mavericks?

Parallels Desktop have just declared in an email to customers that Parallels Desktop 7 will _not_ be compatible with Mavericks, so I thought it prudent to check how the upgrade to the latest version of OS X will affect my other VMMs.

Thanks.

[jcholmes]

Will - Thank You!

FWIW, Running a Win8 client OS in Fusion 5.0.3 with Mavericks Host OS is working for me.  My setup has Fusion running on a dedicated monitor full screen.  I do not use Unity.  I probably don't use any Fusion features beyond the basics...I just want to run a few Win programs like SSMS.

That said, my upgrade to Fusion 6 is in the hands of accounting

[fabrizio12320]

hi to everybody! i have a macbook pro with lion 10.7.4 and i use vmware fusion 5.0.2. i have to know if i istall the new OS X Mavericks, my fusion 5 still run correctly. it's very important because with fusion i do my job! thanks to everybody

[awair]

TIger,

Can you give more details? I had a failure on this, with 4.1.4.

I want to use Fusion 4 both on Mavericks when I upgrade, and on 10.8 to test a VM.

Here's my experience:

2013 MBA13 running 10.8.5

1. Cannot boot any which way from the regular Mavericks install image.

2. Created new VM with default values (2GB Ram) running 10.8.5

3. Installed VM Tools

4. Run the Install Mavericks app

5. Encounter video corruption after booting to desktop changing screen size allows 1/2 second of interaction.

6. Update VM Tools.

7. VM now refuses to boot - straight to VM off black screen every time.

Any suggestions, much appreciated. I have 8 GB Ram, so will try again.

However, I don't want to hear "buy the upgrade"

1. Having purchased several previous versions, the upgrade pricing is not favourable.

2. I already have a licence for Parallels 9, (and 3 spare for version 8), but am reluctant to switch.

3. 10.8 does appear to be officially supported on 4.1.4 - it appears as a VM version on the general tab

4. I agree that the VMware website is not navigation-friendly.

[7Tigers]

awair wrote:

1. Cannot boot any which way from the regular Mavericks install image.

I covered that in my other post, booting from the image is not supported and will not work. 

As far as running, nothing sounds out of the ordinary with your installation method or attempt to upgrade.

My host is Lion running on a 2009 Mac Mini with 4GB of RAM, but it has an Nvidia graphics card.

Can you post screenshots of the graphics issue?

[fuzzy-wan]

I have found an incompatibility between 4.1 and a Mavericks host, though I expected there might be issues with this one: multiple monitors.

The VM still thinks I have two monitors, but the secondary isn't actually visible anywhere. Not too surprising given all the changes on Apple's end. So here's hoping that 6.0 solves the problem.

[fuzzy-wan]

Randall Blank wrote:

So here's hoping that 6.0 solves the problem.

Yup, it did.

[wjboynton]

As I said I would do above, I completed the 10.9 upgrade on my work computer, a fairly old MacAir (2-3yrs). Like the upgrade I performed on my kids' fairly new MacBook Pro, VMWare Fusion 4.1.4 appears to be running fine. I ran all MS Office Apps just fine with no problems noted.

Good luck to the rest of you. I will report issues, If I run across them.

Note: I am running Virtual Machine in a single window. I don't like Unity, so I have not even tried running in that mode. I also did not creating a new VM environment. I am just using the environments that were previously created, prior to upgrading to Mavericks. I completely Quit VM before perform the Mavericks upgrade and after the upgrade it relaunched just fine.

[hanksterr7]

Hi. Here's some real issues.

I have vmware fusion 5 hosting windows 7 which worked fine for me. I was on mountain lion previously (I think).

I upgraded to Mavericks.

Works fine when just running on my laptop.

But when I plug an external monitor into my laptop (macbook pro), I can not extend my Windows desktop onto the external monitor. The external monitor just shows a Mac display. I think the extended Windows desktop is hiding under the Mac bitmap because I can drag icons/windows off my primary windows desktop onto what should be the extended desktop, and the items just disappear when I release the mouse. This is when in full screen mode in Fusion.

There are also some funny behaviors of the mouse cursor image. It flickers a lot, I think because the two bitmaps (mac and windows on the external monitor) are competing with each other. I tried plugging the mac into a projector and things got worse. I was seeing only the secondary windows desktop and not the primary. So, no start button or task bar, or any way to shut down windows. Unplugging the projector allowed me to again control my windows desktop.

So, I am upgrading to vmware v6 hoping this will fix the issue.

[hanksterr7]

Hey, I solved my issue!

Mavericks has a nice new feature of letting you run full screen apps in both monitors. You can have fusion full screen in one monitor (or laptop display) and a mac app full screen on the other monitor. But this is what is preventing fusion from showing my windows extended desktop in the second monitor while showing the windows primary desktop on the primary monitor.

You can turn off this new feature in mission control settings in system preferences. Just uncheck "displays have separate spaces" and log off/on to the mac. Life is good again. Sticking with fusion 5 for now.

[admin]

But this is what is preventing fusion from showing my windows extended desktop in the second monitor while showing the windows primary desktop on the primary monitor.

Yes, see my comment here: Do I need VM 6 if I upgrade to OS X 10.9 Mavericks?

[BB_fromCali]

Dear Friend,

[Redacted, as I mentioned earlier stay ON TOPIC!]  I'm sending you this note from my guest Ubuntu 12.04 LTS virtual machine running on a Mavericks host that I installed this morning.  I have 16GB of Ram installed on a late 2011 MPB non retina.  I have never used unity; I find it annoying.  I full-screen my VM and use swipe to access the VM when I need to use it.  So, does everything work?  It seems to.  I can't swear on a stack of bibles; but, it seems to run faster than before when I was using the latest mountain lion before Mavericks.  Hope this helps

Message was edited by: Wil van Antwerpen

[BB_fromCali]

Nope Using Fusion 4 on Mavericks installed this morning .... Works fine.  Have a nice day

[iKees]

Installed Mavericks, VM Fusion 4 works like a charm, also with Unity screen.

[Shaunk1]

I too am interested in Mavericks and Fusion 4.1   I have a 2009 Mac Pro with 16GB RAM running 10.7.5 .and am still using Fusion with WinXP as I only run a few apps namely Quickbooks and a nutritional software for our business, and everything runs great.   As I read the threads here, it sounds like fusion 4 will be ok with Mavs.  I don't really have much heartburn with upgrading to Fusion 6, if it can be done painlessly from 4.1 while keeping my XP guest OS.   Thoughts?

Am also wondering the sequence of upgrade....mavs then fusion or fusion then mavs.

Thanks

Shaun

[fuzzy-wan]

Shaunk1 wrote:

I too am interested in Mavericks and Fusion 4.1   I have a 2009 Mac Pro with 16GB RAM running 10.7.5 .and am still using Fusion with WinXP as I only run a few apps namely Quickbooks and a nutritional software for our business, and everything runs great.   As I read the threads here, it sounds like fusion 4 will be ok with Mavs.  I don't really have much heartburn with upgrading to Fusion 6, if it can be done painlessly from 4.1 while keeping my XP guest OS.   Thoughts?

Am also wondering the sequence of upgrade....mavs then fusion or fusion then mavs.

Thanks

Shaun

Upgrading from Fusion 4 to 6 didn't give me any trouble, unlike going from to 3 to 4 did. (Man was that a nightmare.) And I don't think it'll matter which order you do it in. I did Mavericks then Fusion 6.

[Shaunk1]

Thanks for the info....I hear you regarding the fusion 3-4...I had similar issues...and it all started with the upgrade to OS X 10.7...which proved incompatible on my machine with fusion 3.  Ended up buying a new hdd and rebuilding the whole damn system...Then when 10.8 came out I was so scared I put it on a different boot disk just to check it out..never ended up really using it or putting fusion on it..

Thx Again

shaun

[DaveMichael]

I am running VMWare Fusion 4.14 (900582) on Mavericks. Mostly it works fine, but when I try to open the Settings menu for any virtual machine the window freezes and the settings menu is not displayed. Clicking the red "Close" button gets rid of the invisible Settings menu and returns the virtual machine to whatever state it was in.

So I can run my virtual machines, but I can't change any settings except for how the network connections are configured (bridged vice NAT). I've failed to edit the VMX properly to workaround this so far. I'm going to try a reinstall, but I'm short on other options. Does anyone know a way to change the settings via command line. by any chance?

[WoodyZ]

DaveMichael wrote:  I've failed to edit the VMX properly to workaround this so far. I'm going to try a reinstall, but I'm short on other options. Does anyone know a way to change the settings via command line. by any chance?

What settings in particular?  For the most part manually editing the .vmx configuration file in a Text Editor is what you'll have to do under the circumstance while using an unsupported version of VMware Fusion on OS X Mavericks.  Make sure you backup the .vmx file before editing it although a new on can be created from the vmware.log file if you attach it.

NOTE: DO NOT copy and paste the contents of the .log or .vmx files into the body of a reply!  Use the "Use advanced editor" link in the upper right corner of the normal reply window to bring up the Advanced Editor where you'll be able to attach files via the Choose File button or Browse button (depending on the Browser) above the Post Message button!

[DaveMichael]

I'm looking to adjust the virtual machine's RAM, number of processors, and add an additional hard drive to it. The RAM is simple but the hard drive is throwing syntax errors.

Also, for what it's worth you cannot install VMWare 4.11 on Mavericks. I was planning to install it and upgrade back to 4.14 for a clean build, but Mavericks just reports that it can't be run on this version of OS X. :smileycry: Time Machine, save me!

[admin]

You could download Fusion 6 and run it with a trial license to change settings. Who knows, before the trial license expires you may decide to keep it