The Unofficial Fusion for Apple Silicon Companion Guide

[#1]

Using inspiration from (and with apologies to) David Pogue's 'Missing Manual" series, I humbly present:

The Unofficial Fusion for Apple Silicon Companion Guide
Version 26, 2024-04-02

The manual that VMware didn't publish and the one that you will need...

Changes in Version 26

Cosmetic/Formatting Changes

• Commands that were too long to fit on one line were proving to be difficult to copy/paste from the pdf form of the Companion. The display of commands in general have been changed to make copy/paste from the pdf document easier and more reliable.General:
• Known Issues sections have been introduced to organize items that aren’t tips and techniques, but rather are problems/gotchas that have been found by the community.
• Miscellaneous other cosmetic/formatting changes to cross-references within the Companion document. Readers will note the addition of page numbers for cross-references and more prominent numbering of figures/screen shots in the document..

Updated content:

• GNOME 46 is now appearing in Linux distributions and is introducing issues with 3D acceleration on Fusion. Discussions have been added with workarounds for users that are experiencing these issues.
• The Companion has been updated to reflect the release of VMware Tools 12.4.0. This new Tools release introduces OpenGL support for Windows 11 ARM VMs.
• A workaround to the DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION crash and other hangs on Windows 11 ARM VMs is provided.
• An expanded discussion on 3D capabilities for Windows ARM VMs is now available.
• Updates to reflect the release of Fusion 13.5.1. This includes:
  • A discussion of the security content of the release, which contains fixes to a critical vulnerability.
  • Fixes to the “Get Windows from Microsoft” tool in the Fusion GUI when running a non-English version of macOS.
• Updates to reflect the release of macOS Sonoma 14.4, which fixes the issue of Fusion crashing when macOS VoiceOver or Full Keyboard Access features are enabled.
• Because of the number of posts seen in the discussion forums about the GNS3 and EVE-NG network simulation software not working on Apple Silicon, a new topic has been added.

------

The Companion Guide contains tips and techniques that were provided through the experiences of the broader Fusion community while running the Tech Preview releases on Apple Silicon Macs. It can save you searching the forum for frequently encountered issues.

The Companion Guide may answer many questions that aren't covered by reading the VMware Fusion documentation. Take a look at it before you start creating VMs - you might find something that will make your life easier. If you have a question that you're thinking about posting in the forum, check out the Companion first - it may already contain an answer to your question.

Of particular interest to Windows users is the section on Windows 11 on ARM. This section is chock full of information, procedures, and screen shots that should help you be successful in the installation of Windows 11 on Fusion 13..5

For you Linux users, you haven't been left out. There is plenty of content to help you as well, especially if you are an Ubuntu or Fedora user.

This document will be updated as the community experience with Fusion 13.5 grows and is discussed in the forums.

Enjoy and please post any comments or questions about the Companion to the Fusion forums.

NOTE: Please stay on topic if replying to this document thread. Post issues here that are related to the content of the Guide (e.g. errors, typos, clarifications, suggestions, things that don't work as noted in the Guide). Other issues with Fusion or your VM (e.g. VM doesn't work/won't boot/can't install/crashes/behaves strangely after upgrade), should be posted to the VMware Fusion Community forum https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Fusion/ct-p/3005-home.

[ColoradoMarmot]

And what are you trying to do in the guest?  I've noticed that even the tech preview is more sluggish with certain operations than 13 (I strongly suspect it's due to the 5K monitor now being fully utilized, and 3d drivers that still need some optimization.

One note - would strongly suggest building a new guest from scratch using the instructions in this guide.  I had a  lot of pretty severe graphics artifacts, and other oddness when trying to upgrade from 13 to the TP (I suspect some of the manually installed drivers weren't properly removed).

[Stork76]

short note:

new Tech preview of VMWare Fusion has been released, which besides 3D support now includes also drag/drop & copy/paste between Apple Silicon Host and Win11-arm Guest:

https://blogs.vmware.com/teamfusion/2023/07/vmware-fusion-2023-tech-preview.html

download:

https://customerconnect.vmware.com/downloads/get-download?downloadGroup=FUS-TP2023

(already tried drag/drop on Apple M1 Mini, running smoothly!)

[Technogeezer]

If you are using the Tech Preview, a version of this document specifically for the Preview has been created. You can find it at:

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/Fusion-2023-Tech-Preview/The-Unofficial-Fusion-2023-Tech-Preview-C...

[gameboyadvance]

I'm running Windows 11 Arm and the display is pretty blurry. I'm wondering if there's a way to make it clearer without having to make the window really small since that isn't a good trade off.

[Technogeezer]

@gameboyadvance - are you trying to change the size of the console display by resizing the Fusion window or switching to full screen display? If so, that only scales the size of the window at the same resolution. That would contribute to making the display blurry since the Windows 11 ARM video drivers shipped with Fusion 13 don't change the resolution when using either of those methods. The only way to change console resolution is from within the Windows 11 VM (Settings > Display). And even then, the available resolutions are limited. That's discussed in the Companion Guide.

You might wish to try the 2023 Fusion Tech Preview - it has much better Windows 11 ARM support in its tools - and the driver and tools do support resolution change by resizing the window and/or going to full screen.

[sohorice]

Thank you so much for sharing this @Technogeezer! Very useful and saved me loads of time 🙂

[mweholt]

I have had Windows 11 ARM working smoothly for quite a while under Fusion Player 13.0.2, including now under MacOS Sonoma 14.0, thanks to @Technogeezer's guide and some personalized help. I have a simple question now that maybe there is no simple answer to.

I don't want to mess with my smoothly working setup by moving up to the Tech Preview, but I would like to have VM Tools completely working (copy/paste, etc.).

When VMware gets around to fully releasing a non-tech-preview version of Fusion, will my current set-up be notified through Fusion and be able to update to it smoothly and end up with a fully operational version of it? (Or am I going to have to start over with the fully operational update?) Thanks! (If you know.)

[Technogeezer]

@mweholt In general I would not rely on in in-product notification. Past major versions of Fusion would let you know that a new major version had been released, and if memory serves me a minor update just may be offered  for installation. I'd keep watch of the forums and VMware's Fusion product page for the official announcement. Then download the release installer from VMware and run it when you're ready. And that means when you've read the release notes and have all your virtual machines shut down and copied to another media. These are best practices for any software upgrade, and no negative comment intended on the quality of the next Fusion release - which I think will be pretty solid based on the Tech Preview. 

The version should install on top of your existing Fusion implementation (just like other updates/patch releases). The contents of your VMs won't be touched until you open them on the next Fusion version. You may be asked to upgrade the encryption algorithm (I'd do that) and the virtual hardware version to 21 (I'd do that). Then upgrade the VMWare Tools with the version included with the release and Windows 11 should now have copy/paste/drag/drop and other goodies missing from Fusion 13. 

[mweholt]

Thank you!

[tazzmania]

Hi,

Sorry if this has been mentioned elsewhere but I've been trying to get VMware to work on my M1 MacBook Pro for the past week (I am completely new to VMware and accessing vms in general, I'm normally used to using my university's vms). I keep getting the same error message of "

This version of VMware Fusion is for Intel-based Macs, but is being run on an Apple silicon based Mac via Rosetta-2.

See KB-84273.

Then after clicking 'ok',

Transport (VMDB) error -14: Pipe connection has been broken

"

I have reinstalled v13.0.2 countless times, used v13.0.0 and v13.0.1 countless times, still nothing.

I have tried to use the 2023 tech preview, however it never accepts my license key so I don't even get past the installation wizard. 

Really stuck on what to do, not sure if its VMware or my iso i am trying to use (Ubuntu v20.04.5)

[Technogeezer]

@tazzmania 

That error message shouldn't appear with Fusion 13. It will appear with Fusion 12 as it's not built to run on M1/M2 Macs. Really double check what Fusion version you have installed. What does it say when you open Fusion and then click VMware Fusion -> About VMware Fusion from the menu bar?

Delete all vestiges of Fusion from your laptop by using the information in KB article https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1017838. Don't just drag the Fusion application to the trash, there's more to get rid of than just the application for a complete uninstall. Pay special attention to where the files are located:

• /Library is the system-wide Library folder. Use the Finder Go -> Go to Folder.. and then type in "/Library" to find the files starting with /Library
• ~/Library is the user's "Personal" library folder located in the user's home folder. Use the Finder Go -> Go to Folder.. and then type in "~/Library" to find the files in the KB article starting with ~/Library

Then, re-install Fusion 13.0.2 or (preferably) the Tech Preview available at  VMware Fusion Tech Preview 2023 Universal DMG.

If you have verified that you are running on Fusion 13 or the 2023 Tech Preview and the license key isn't working, then you may not have a Fusion 13 license key. You can sign up for a free Fusion 13 Player personal use license key at https://customerconnect.vmware.com/en/evalcenter?p=fusion-player-personal-13

A license key for Fusion 13 will work on both Fusion 13 or the 2023 Tech Preview.

[LongTimeMacGuy]

New to this list.  Mac Guy since 1984.  VMWare user since 2017.  

Thanks for publishing this document, IMHO it is rather exceptional support by the VMWare organization and especially the people contributing!

I have gone thru the process and successfully installed Windows 11 ARM on a 2023 MacBook Pro M2... and will also install on an early Mac mini M1.

I have limited Windows experience and would appreciate some guidance on what to install, what to test, and how to provide feedback.

[LongTimeMacGuy]

New to this list.  Mac Guy since 1984.  VMWare user since 2017.  

Thanks for publishing this document, IMHO it is rather exceptional support by the VMWare organization and especially the people contributing!

I have gone thru the process and successfully installed Windows 11 ARM on a 2023 MacBook Pro M2... and will also install on an early Mac mini M1.

I have limited Windows experience and would appreciate some guidance on what to install, what to test, and how to provide feedback.

   Unofficial Fusion 13 for Apple Silicon Companion Guide

   Unofficial Fusion 2023 Tech Preview

Mmm... Which list would would best help advance VMWare?

[Technogeezer]

Heads up - According to @Mikero the next version of Fusion (a free update to Fusion 13 users) should be released to the public starting at 20:30 PDT on 2023-10-19. I would not at this point attempt anything new with Fusion 13.0.2. The 2023 Tech Preview is also on the cusp of becoming obsolete when the new version is released, so I'd avoid any new installation of it. 

I personally don't expect any major hiccups with the new Fusion version since the Tech Preview it's based on has been very stable. Hopefully the (relatively few) issues found by the testers of the Tech Preview have been addressed. 

I'm in the process of editing the Companion guide for the new version of Fusion. For you early adopters, use the 2023 Tech Preview Companion Guide as an interim guide since the next Fusion version is based on the features found in the Tech Preview.

No guarantees, but my goal is to get the new, improved Companion guide out the door on Sunday 2023-10-22. At which time the Tech Preview Companion Guide will be removed.

[3rawmv]

@Technogeezer 

Thank you for taking time to maintain these guides. You're a legend.

A couple of points to note regarding recent release:

1) the link to Ubuntu 23.10.1 (Mantic Minotaur) Desktop daily development build stopped working when they officially launched during this month. I can't find any links to daily builds for desktop Mantic Minotaur so to me it looks like there's no way to install desktop for arm at all anymore.

2) this issue https://communities.vmware.com/t5/Fusion-2023-Tech-Preview/quot-Unable-to-reencrypt-the-virtual-mach... HAS NOT BEEN FIXED. So anyone with W11 hoping that the final release of 13.5 is safe to use, should think again and consider not upgrading since the only way to correct this is to build a new W11 machine, apparently if we keep declining that will cause other issues (as per one of the posts in the quoted thread).

[Technogeezer]

Drat and thanks for the heads up on the Mantic daily development build.

Canonical just doesn't seem to care about arm64 Desktop except for one special build for a Lenovo X13s Gen 1 PC t(hat appears to have a Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU) and Raspberry Pi's. I tried the Lenovo build on Fusion and it won't boot - so there's something that they've done with it (something with secure boot keys for that specific hardware perhaps)

If you want the equivalent of Ubuntu Desktop. install Server and then use the procedures in the Companion Guide to "convert" to Desktop. All of my Ubuntu "Desktop" VMs have been created in that manner and they've all worked and updated without problems. 

[3rawmv]

No worries, I luckily managed to download the desktop image a few days before they pulled it, so for now I'm good. As a sidenote, one thing I noticed is that the choppy audio (which was mentioned in the tech preview under point 2.16) can also be fixed in Ubuntu by setting the audio to 4.0 in audio settings in Ubuntu without having to modify any config files.

As for Win11 issue with encryption, it's a shame VMware completely abandoned the subject. I noticed that not only was I unable to upgrade the encryption but also couldn't change the password for encryption even under 13.0.2 (which was also mentioned as one of the complaints on here). The only option was to build a completely new VM and do a fresh Windows install, which lead to another issue of being unable to activate Windows. Eventually I found a useful hint online which allowed me to copy two parameters from old VM (with the encryption problem) to the new one and make the new VM seem like it's an old one, from hardware perspective. Massive ballache to be honest, but you don't look a gifted horse in the mouth, I guess (that said I believe that paying customers of VMware products have the same issue, so...).

The parameters, in case anyone wonders, are:
uuid.bios
uuid.location
I also copied over the MAC address (directly under VM settings, not in the config), just to be on the safeside.

Once the VM is started you'll get a prompt asking if you moved or copied the VM, "moved" does the trick and makes Windows think it's the same "PC".

[Fontair]

Great guide. I am using VMWare Fusion Player the French version. When I tried to create a Windows 11 VM with the VMWare tool the download doesn't work. I receive the following message: 

L'outil Esd2iso n'a pas pu obtenir l'URL ESD et l'algorithme SHA pour la version Professionnel de Windows 11 pour la langue en-us à partir de Microsoft.

The same message appears when I choose the fr-ca language.

I have a Visual Studio M2 Mac running Ventura 13.5.2.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Technogeezer]

It looks like there's a bug that keeps the VMware tool in the GUI from working. I've heard that reported for French, but it may be a problem for other languages.

You can generate the ISO using the command line version of the utility. Drop into a terminal session and use the following commands to mount the VMware Tools ISO from the Fusion application (that's where the video and network drivers are found that are used in the ISO build process), download the French version of the Professional ESD, generate the ISO based on the downloaded ESD, and clean up everything except the ISO when finished.

cd Desktop
hdiutil attach /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/isoimages/arm64/windows.iso
/Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmw_esd2iso getesd --edition "Professional" --lang "fr-fr"
/Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmw_esd2iso generateiso --esd ./22621.1702.230505-1222.ni_release_svc_refresh_CLIENTCONSUMER_RET_A64FRE_fr-fr.esd --drivers "/Volumes/VMware Tools/svga,/Volumes/VMware Tools/vmxnet3"
hdiutil detach "/Volumes/VMware Tools"
rm  ./22621.1702.230505-1222.ni_release_svc_refresh_CLIENTCONSUMER_RET_A64FRE_fr-fr.esd

The ISO file should be on your desktop.

fr-ca (Canadian French) would be a similar process, except use fr-ca instead of fr-fr in the above commands.

[lalee123]

@Technogeezer first and foremost, thank you for this incredible unofficial guide. I just got a M2 Mini with Sonoma and VMware Fusion 13.5.0, starting setting up a Windows 11 Home VM for testing, and *BAM* have been failing all afternoon to install VMware Tools.

Regarding your comment from Oct 28 about a bug that keeps the VMware tool from working in the GUI, this is not just for French users. I'm in the US, I just started this process for the first time today, and following your procedure above allowed me to install Windows 11 and VMware Tools.

Without the method described above, it is not possible to install VMware tools on a fresh setup of Win11 with Fusion 13.5.0. THANK YOU!

Here's what happened:

1. I select "Install VMware Tools" from the Fusion menu in MacOS
2. the CD mounts, I'm prompted for an autoplay action.
3. the installer starts
4. I get a "pop-up" from Windows asking me if I want the app to take action.
5. I acknowledge that I do.
6. And then the installer quietly terminates.

I've tried a variation of this. For example:

1. Download the in-guest installer for VMware Tools.
2. The install fails... I read VMware's release notes more carefully... I need a .NET installer of some sort. 
3. I install the .NET installer (or so I think)
4. I try to run the in-guest installer... it gets further, but still dies, this time with a different error message.

I should have taken screenshots, but I became exasperated.

By using your instructions above and specifying "en-us" as the language, I was able to get everything to work.

Point of note: in case anyone is typing out the pathnames to watch them auto-expand, you have to watch out for the backslashes that the shell will add in. For example, take the line below:

/Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmw_esd2iso generateiso --esd ./22621.1702.230505-1222.ni_release_svc_refresh_CLIENTCONSUMER_RET_A64FRE_fr-fr.esd --drivers "/Volumes/VMware Tools/svga,/Volumes/VMware Tools/vmxnet3"

If you started typing "/Volumes/VMwa<tab>" to auto-expand the path, you'd get this:

"/Volumes/VMware\ Tools/

If you leave that backslash in, the shell will not send the correct input into the command and the ISO creation will fail. Remove the backslashes, or better yet, don't be clever, and just copy/paste the exact text specifying the two driver paths.

Below is a copy/paste of my session to see what happens when you goof by 1) mistyping the language specification and 2) adding a backslash into a quoted pathname.

mac:Desktop jdoe$ /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmw_esd2iso getesd --edition "Professional" --lang "us-en"
Edition : Professional
Language : us-en
ERROR: Failed to get ESD url
ERROR: Failed to get ESD file.
mac:Desktop jdoe /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmw_esd2iso getesd --edition "Professional" --lang "en-us"
Edition : Professional
Language : en-us
Downloading Windows 11 Professional_en-us ESD file : 100.00%
ESD: /Users/gru/Desktop/22631.2715.231109-1527.23H2_NI_RELEASE_SVC_REFRESH_CLIENTCONSUMER_RET_A64FRE_en-us.esd
SUCCESS
mac:Desktop jdoe$
mac:Desktop jdoe$
mac:Desktop jdoe$ /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmw_esd2iso generateiso --esd ./22631.2715.231109-1527.23H2_NI_RELEASE_SVC_REFRESH_CLIENTCONSUMER_RET_A64FRE_en-us.esd --drivers "/Volumes/VMware Tools/svga,/Volumes/VMware\ Tools/vmxnet3"
ERROR: failed to run  cp -R '/Volumes/VMware' Tools/vmxnet3' 'EXTR_ESD/$WinPEDriver$'  with error  exit status 2
ERROR: Failed to copy drivers.
ERROR: Faled to create iso
ERROR: Failed to generate ISO
mac:Desktop jdoe$ 
mac:Desktop jdoe$
mac:Desktop jdoe$ /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmw_esd2iso generateiso --esd ./22631.2715.231109-1527.23H2_NI_RELEASE_SVC_REFRESH_CLIENTCONSUMER_RET_A64FRE_en-us.esd --drivers "/Volumes/VMware Tools/svga,/Volumes/VMware Tools/vmxnet3"
ISO : 22631.2715.231109-1527.23H2_NI_RELEASE_SVC_REFRESH_CLIENTCONSUMER_RET_A64FRE_en-us.iso
SUCCESS
mac:Desktop jdoe$

So to tie this all together:

1. Create a new ISO using the instructions above.
2. Install a new version of Win11 using the ISO you just created.
3. After you are logged into Win11, select "Install VMware Tools" from the menu and it will now work.

I'm super happy just to see copy/paste working again from the host to the guest.

[Lindsay2]

Where is the document exactly?

[Technogeezer]

@Lindsay2 - the document is contained in the zip file that's an attachment to the first post in this thread.

[kitenski]

@Technogeezer there is a minor typo in the ubuntu instructions, need to remove the space after -- and ubuntu is spelt incorrectly at the end

[Technogeezer]

@kitenski thanks for pointing out the typos. It'll be fixed in the next update to the Guide.

[D3DAiM]

Curious... is file/folder sharing all good and working on the latest VMWare Fusion preview release now?

Section 15.11 in v25 of the guide seems to suggest that Windows folder sharing is still not supported, but according to section 2.18 linux folder sharing via fuse mount does work (with Arch Linux being the exception) but requires a small workaround.

Can anybody confirm any of this? Thank you.

[Technogeezer]

@D3DAiM 

The guide is still accurate.

Fusion folder sharing works for Linux when open-vm-tools is installed in the ARM Linux guest. The issue (with workaround)  in section 2.18 is because shared folders don’t  mount  automatically at Linux VM boot time by default.

Fusion folder sharing for Windows is (still) not implemented for Windows 11 ARM. 

[D3DAiM]

Got it thanks. My hope is to run a dropbox client (maestral) in a linux VM and have it sync on my OSX base system via these mounts. It would have been nice to have Windows native client as another option..oh well. Wish me luck...will post back with my results afterward

[Technogeezer]

@D3DAiM if you report your results or have further questions on how shared folders work, please post in the main Fusion Community and not in this thread.

Thanks. 

[fjonded]

hiya, im trying to follow this guide and im really confused about one detail

where it says

Create the ISO file from the ESD and include VMware video and network drivers (the

drivers will be installed by Windows setup)

and

The arguments to the --drivers option must be enclosed in quotes as noted above

because they contain spaces in the file names

im confused about this detail because im not sure if im meant to put anything after drivers and this whole step is just really confusing me

 

[Technogeezer]

@fjonded  Did you try the GUI version of the tool first as noted in the Fusion documentation's procedure for building the VM that is referenced in the Companion Guide? You should only need to use the command line procedure if you're using Fusion 13.5.0 and running a macOS system language other than English. 13.5.1 fixes this issue.

It appears that copy/paste of the commands that are split across multiple lines in the pdf document isn't working as I expected it to. I apologize for that. Evidently the commands that are broken across multiple lines aren't getting pasted into the Terminal in the format that I expected - I only tried them from the source word processing document and they worked there. I'll see what I can do in the Guide to make them work better for users not familiar with Unix shell mechanics. 

To help you along, try using the following commands where I've done the editing for you. Copy/paste and execute them one-by-one in the Terminal (this assumes that we'll start the process from scratch with no ESD file downloaded and no Tools ISO file mounted. I've checked them myself and they seem to work.

hdiutil attach /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library /isoimages/arm64/windows.iso
/Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmw_esd2iso getesd --edition Professional --lang en-gb
/Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmw_esd2iso generateiso --esd 22631.2861.231204-0538.23H2_NI_RELEASE_SVC_REFRESH_CLIENTCONSUMER_RET_A64FRE_en-gb.esd --drivers "/Volumes/VMware Tools/svga,/Volumes/VMware Tools/vmxnet3"
hdiutil detach "/Volumes/VMware Tools"

If you're more skilled with the Unix shell, you can fix the commands so they work properly by::

• copying and pasting each line of the split line separately, pressing return after each line pasted from the Guide,
• pasting the entire split command, then editing the command line once pasted into the Terminal to be all on one line and remove the backslash "\" and the space next to it
• manually typing the commands so they are on one line.