Why do I have to enter my password every time I want to run Fusion?

[los1sol]

I've installed VMware tools (repeatedly) and every time I run VMWare Fusion, it keeps asking me to enter my admin password. And then when I get in and click on "Virtual Machine" I see the option to install VMWare Tools--which means my previous installation never took.

Anybody have any idea why this is happening? Is this expected? Or is it just me and my computer experiencing this problem?

I have a brand new iMac Core 2 Duo running Leopard.

Thanks for whatever help anyone can offer.

[MandarMS]

do you see other changes you made to the system available after reboot? a simple test would be create a test file in your home directory to check that it stays while your vmware tools not

Just to verify

1) Uninstall VMware Tools complately

2) delete the VMware folder from C:\Program Files

3) Restart the Guest OS

4) Install VMware Tools

[mtatmc]

Which admin password are you being asked for, the Windows Admin password or the OS X Admin password? Are they one and the same?

As I recall, the VMWare Tools installation is happening within Windows, so it should be the Windows password you are providing.

[los1sol]

What home directory? I cannot access anything other than my bootcamp partition while in windows...

I uninstalled VMWare tools and deleted the directory like you had suggested. Restarted the OS. Installed VMware Tools. Restarted. Was again asked for my password.

Looks like this is just part of the process...

Maybe it's a bug relating to the fact that I installed Fusion to run off my existing (beta) Boot Camp partition?

Anybody else with Leopard experiencing this?

[los1sol]

Nope, it's my Mac admin password that I am prompted to enter every time I attempt to run Fusion. I am also prompted to enter my windows password to get into our network at work, but that's normal.

I just don't see why I would need to enter my admin password to run Fusion each and every time. Moreover, why would Fusion not realize that I've installed VMWare Tools already? Logic would dictate that once VMWare tools have been installed, the only option you should see (in Virtual Machine menu) is to "Update Virtual Machine" not "Install VMWare Tools".

It's too bad VMWare doesn't offer technical support. I would much rather be running Parallels at this point.

[admin · Accepted solution]

If I remember correctly, it's actually OS X asking for your password so that your Boot Camp partition can be unmounted. If the partition were not unmounted before Fusion tried to use it, the partition could be corrupted if both OS X and the guest tried to access it at the same time.

Fusion normally does recognize that Tools are installed and updates the menu accordingly. Not sure what's going on in your case.

[los1sol]

Correct me if Im wrong etung, but are you saying that it's normal for OSX to ask you for your password every time it needs to unmount the partion? And that said unmounting is a necessary step in running Fusion correctly?

If so, then that's a design flaw that I guess I'll have to live with. The fact that it doesn't recognize that i've installed VMWare tools is secondary--and actually more symptomatic of what I perceived to be a real problem with my installation. But if you're saying that this is supposed to happen, then I take it others are experiencing the same thing? (at least the password prompting)

If not, how do you guys have yours set up?

[mtatmc]

If you are running as an ordinary user in OS X then yes, to unmount the boot camp partition requires administrative access - that is an OS X / Bootcamp requirement.

It needs to be unmounted so that WINDOWS can control the partition rather than OS X. I know of no system whereby two entirely separate OS's can share physical access to the same partition simultaneously.

I had forgotten about the unmount part when I replied earlier - most of my VM's are by definition not Bootcamp VM's - I pretty much leave BC for gaming, and for that I want the best access to graphics and no annoying distractions such as email coming in, which I do exclusively under OS X. ;^)

[admin]

If you are running as an ordinary user in OS X then yes, to unmount the boot camp partition requires administrative access - that is an OS X / Bootcamp requirement.

I believe there's a Fusion bug where it always asks for administrative privileges even if they're not required (e.g. if the partition's already unmounted), but it's generally true that administrative access is actually required.

I know of no system whereby two entirely separate OS's can share physical access to the same partition simultaneously.

Clustered configurations do this, but it's not something you'd see on desktop systems.

[mtatmc]

I know of no system whereby two entirely separate OS's can share physical access to the same partition simultaneously.

Clustered configurations do this, but it's not something you'd see on desktop systems.

And I don't recall clusters of separate distinct OS's - are there such? All the clusters I have seen were the same OS clustered together for failover or performance. Not sure what the point of a different OS cluster would be.

[admin]

It wasn't clear if you meant "distinct" to mean "more than one" or "heterogenous". The ones I know about are homogenous, but I don't think there's any technical reason why they have to be (it's just easier to do, and the market is so small and specialized).

[AnnAM]

I'm pretty sure this is the solution you're seeking:

When you start Fusion, the first thing you probably see is the Virtual Machine Library. (In my library, there are two options, "Boot Camp partition" and "Windows XP Professional")

To the right side of each of these selections are two small icons. If you click on the star icon, it will turn yellow. From then on, you won't have to enter your Mac OS password nor select which of the booting options.

If there's any reason why you want to boot from a different option, select "Shut Down Guest" from the "Virtual Machine" menu. Once it's such down (black screen with big round right-pointing arrow in circle), you'll find the Virtual Machine Library behind that window. Click on the star icon, and it turns blue again.

[AnnAM]

<sighs> Apparently this got changed in the 2.0.1 version. Even with the star set yellow, I'm now having to enter my password every time I run Fusion. What an annoyance!