VMware Fusion 6.0.3 breaks VMwareTool support in OS X Guests

[aykay123]

VMWare Tools seems no longer working within OS X guests (Mavericks) after upgrading to VMware Fusion 6.0.3.

Resolution is no longer adjusted and resized to window size.

Reinstalling VMWare Tools multiple times does not solve the problem. Manually setting pref.autoFitGuestToWindow = "TRUE" is not working either, window remains diffuse.

[SvenGus]

Works fine for me, with OS X 10.9.2 host and guest, after the 6.0.3 Tools upgrade; strange, thus...

Edit (see below): Didn't yet try with a retina display Mac, however: so, maybe it's something specific to those models...

[aykay123]

Update: Even reinstalling VMWare Fusion and a clean install of a Mavericks guest (incl. VMWare Tools) didn't solve the problem. Autofit Guest only works when "Use full resolution for Retina display" is enabled, however, as Fusion treats the retina display as a standard DPI device, this makes all text and icons to appear small in the OS X interface. Any ideas on how to get autofitting back for OS X guests (no problem with Windows or Linux guests)?

The screenshot shows that tools are installed, kernel extension is loaded properly, but the resolution is not adjusted (black bars alongside).

[SvenGus]

I just tried the 6.0.3 Tools update on a Retina MacBook Pro (current model), and it works without problems; and with the option Use full resolution for Retina display both checked and unchecked.

Strange, thus, the problem you have - probably we need some real experts, here...

[WoodyZ]

Observation: It definitely take considerable longer in VMware Fusion 6.0.3 then previously for the ability to change screen resolution.  In other words, when OS X 10.9.2 Guest loads to the Desktop it can take ~30 or longer before auto-change resolution to be available upon resizing the Virtual Machine Display.

That said, also make sure that you have two vmware-tools-daemon processes running in Activity Monitor, one for the User and the other for root.  If the one for root is not loaded then auto-change resolution upon resizing the Virtual Machine Display will not work.

(Click image to enlarge.)

[aykay123]

Thanks for your help! I confirmed that there is a vmware-tools-daemon running as root.

Unfortunately, even after manually un- and reinstalling VMWare Fusion and manually uninstalling VMWare tools in the Mac OS X guest, the problem still persists...

[aykay123]

Update: I noticed that the screen resolution of my OS X guest VM is changed properly as soon as the window dimension reaches a level of 1024x768 or higher. As soon as the window dimension would lead to a lower guest resolution, it is not updated at all, and the screen turns blurry. Can anybody confirm this?

This seems to affect OS X guests only. Within Windows or Linux VMs the resolutions are also scaled to lower values than 1024x768. I was wondering how practically this is, as Low DPI guests are likely requiring lower resolutions on Retina displays to fit on the High DPI screen in window mode.

[WoodyZ]

Yes that is the (unwanted) expected behavior of the existing state of VMware Tools in an OS X 10.9 Guest.

BTW if you're using an iMac or Thunderbolt Display have a look at: Re: Mavericks Screen Resolution

[HPReg]

Mac OS displays improperly at resolutions smaller than 1024x768. This is why we do not allow them. All physical Macs have resolutions larger than this, which I suppose is the reason Apple does not see a problem to fix there.