What does this error message mean

[tonydenson]

When I try to start up my Virtual Machine I get "Could not open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory. Please make sure that the kernel module `vmmon' is loaded."

Tony

[ezzeldin72]

is it running on workstation or ESX?

[Mikero · Accepted solution]

@ezzeldin72: Considering this is the Fusion forum, we'll presume the user is using VMware Fusion

@tonydenson: The error means the kernel modules are not loaded right now. They could have crashed, or there could be a version discrepancy.

Try just rebooting the Mac.

If it persists, Fusion might need to be reinstalled. Note that reinstalling won't affect your Virtual Machines in any way.

[tonydenson]

@ezzeldin72: Considering this is the Fusion forum, we'll presume the user is using VMware Fusion

@tonydenson: The error means the kernel modules are not loaded right now. They could have crashed, or there could be a version discrepancy.

Try just rebooting the Mac.

If it persists, Fusion might need to be reinstalled. Note that reinstalling won't affect your Virtual Machines. in any way.

Thanks. As it happens I had just reinstalled VM Fusion before seeing your post and it fixed it.

Apologies for posting incorrectly, but frankly as an occasional user I have always found this website very confusing.

[Mikero]

Oh, I see what happened... the Moderators moved the post... That's why it looked confusing

No worries, glad you were able to sort this out... 😃

[Komiksulo]

I found this error ocurring after I downgraded my user account from "administrator' to just a standard user (I unchecked the box in the account's settings that allowed me to administer the computer). Checking the box again made the error go away. It seems that VMWare Fusion required some sort of administrative permissions to run virtual machines. Is it possible to set it up so that it can be run from a non-administrator account?

[Mikero]

I just tested to be sure, but I had no issues after unchecking the 'allow this user to administer the computer'.

So, a non-admin account should indeed be able to run VM's.

Are you using BootCamp?

Would you mind posting the output of Help > Collect Support Information, taken right after you make the error message appear?

[tonydenson]

I just tested to be sure, but I had no issues after unchecking the 'allow this user to administer the computer'.

So, a non-admin account should indeed be able to run VM's.

Are you using BootCamp?

Would you mind posting the output of Help > Collect Support Information, taken right after you make the error message appear?

I'm afraid I have already reinstalled VM Fusion and I cannot reproduce the error.

[Mikero]

Duly noted.

The error message is a symptom of something else going wrong, so there could be a number of reasons why someone would see that, be it permissions, corruption, or plain old missing files.

Either way, glad to hear it hasn't resurfaced after reinstalling 😃

[Komiksulo]

Seems I was a little premature. On my main computer, I unchecked the checkbox, then rechecked it, and still got the error. From reading around, it seems I need to reinstall VMWare?

[Komiksulo]

I reinstalled Fusion and now can run it and VMs in a standard user account.