VMware Workstation Pro 14 - Fails To Start Due To CPU Non-Support

[jvenuto]

Just installed VMware Workstation Pro 14.   It fails to start guest (either 32 or 64 bit Kali distro).  Attempted on Windows 10 Enterprise and Ubunutu 17.04.

No prior issues with same using any prior version.

Pop Up Box Error:

     This host does not support "Intel EPT" hardware assisted MMU virtualization.

     This host does not support virtualizing real mode. The Intel "VMX Unrestricted Guest" feature is necessary to run this virtual machine on an Intel processor.

     Module 'CPUIDEarly' power on failed.

     Failed to start the virtual machine.

[ayelagin]

Same here, Workstation 14 does not run any of my virtual machines because "This host does not support virtualizing real mode." Damn, I wish I knew this before I wasted money on upgrade. Processor: i5 750, rather old but not that old that I would wish to replace it with all the other hardware just to be able to run the same virtual machines as before. Will downgrade to WS12 and recommend everybody I know to avoid ever touching WS14.

[JurgenD]

So now VMware will dictate us what CPU and HARDWARE we need to run their products ?
We want to be able to run on any CPU. What did run in the past should run in the future.
Simple like that.

It is ridiculous enough we have always problems to compile Your vmnet or vmmon kernel modules.

Let's face it, it is not only with VMware workstation but with other products as well such as esxi.

Why just not to stick to the standard and let things works as they should and test your modules.

I follow this product way back since 2 decades. It is time you support in decent manner the community or we
have no other option to ditch those products of VMware and look to proxmox, qemu, kvm or virtualbox

Each time there is a change of the linux kernel or VMware workstation version, we hold our hearts.

It is the most stupid decision I have seen in years to enforce users to buy other hardware and CPU to run
a way to do virtualization.

When things run in the past, let then run as in the past.

[JurgenD]

Well try to downgrade to WS 12 and see a bunch of problems to compile vmnet and vmmon, some need patches.
Some have success on redhat or fedora

Well, i could not succeed, until now, to compile vmnet and vmmon against kernel 4.14 in Debian Stretch...

Good work VMware, btw do you write tests to check your modules or not ?
Can't you just not write two kernel modules that compile flawless against a kernel ?!?

[peter222]

Folks I bumping this up because this is an outrage !!! :smileydevil::smileydevil::smileydevil:

I had a good working Vmware 9 X86 setup on Debian Wheezy for many years.

I have reinstalled the whole system to Debian 9 Stretch and did some research already that the same old story goes with building the vmmon vmci etc kernel modules, they are all broken on 4.X kernel so I decided to go with Vmware 14 Pro workstation.

Quite a stepforward you would say but it seems it's a step backward because now with the same This host does not support "Intel EPT" hardware assisted MMU virtualization. my VMs rendered useless.

I have put:

monitor.allowLegacyCPU = "TRUE"

In both the global config and into the vms config but it does not help. Vmware have to immediately come out with a patched version where this check is removed so we can use it on our old cpus!

[rtharston]

I am using VMware Fusion 10 on macOS, with the exact same results. Adding monitor.allowLegacyCPU = "true" does make the error go away, but the boot time is terrible. At least my Ubuntu VM works fine once it has booted.

I wanted to add another voice of agreement that the installer should fail or include some big warning in huge red letters or something so we would know that our CPU isn't supported. Yes, I should have checked the program requirements first I guess, but I never imagined that they would drop CPU support. At least I got this free (I was lucky I guess) through school, I am terribly sorry for anyone who had to pay for their copy.

I just wanted to point out this forum here:

@VMware Workstation Product manager : please publish the necessary vmx-file hacks that are required ...

where wila goes into great detail about what is going on and what feature is exactly lacking in our older CPUs. There is one little feature called Unrestricted Guest that your CPU must have to run the latest VMware products, and there is almost no way you can tell what CPUs are actually supported in any accessible documentation. And to help, VMware failed to update their hardware requirements in their documentation, so many of you may have even read the specs and not known you'd be up a creek without a paddle. I'm again sorry for everyone who had to pay for this upgrade. In the meantime I guess I'll try and find a way to downgrade to Fusion 8 if I can...

[peter222]

After crawling the web for couple of hours I realized there is no other solution than uninstall vmware.

And I went back to my Debian Wheezy and Vmware workstation 9 installation (where all my embedded development vms and testvms work perfectly) for another 2-3 years. Thank you vmware for going backwards.

[kszadkowski]

The same problem occurs with me, i7-920 processor... Does VMware plan to do something about it? This is a joke... Should I return to Workstation 12 or buy a new processor?

[aquila828282]

I have the same problem; when I install windows server 2012 or esxi 6.5 but with virtual box this problem not exists. I install it without problem.....

[BCoats]

New machines are NOT working either.  Just purchased an HP Z6 G4 with Intel Xeon Silver 4116 and get the same error.  The CPU is capable of VT-x and EPT.  The BIOS doesn't have a setting to enable or disable it (though systeminfo displays it disabled).  I upgraded BIOS to P60 v01.42 and same results.

WS 14 worked fine on my Dell Precision 7510 out of the box.  I did upgrade from WS 12. Would that make a difference?

[Scillonian]

New machines are NOT working either.  Just purchased an HP Z6 G4 with Intel Xeon Silver 4116 and get the same error.  The CPU is capable of VT-x and EPT.  The BIOS doesn't have a setting to enable or disable it (though systeminfo displays it disabled).  I upgraded BIOS to P60 v01.42 and same results.

Are you trying to configure the UEFI settings by pressing F10 at system startup or using the configuration utility from within Windows? Apparently the virtualisation options are not available in the configuration utility from within Windows.

When configuring UEFI settings by pressing F10 at system startup the VT-x setting is under Advanced > System Options and is disabled by default. (See page 39 of the Maintenance and Service Guide​ for the HP Z6 G4 Workstation.)

[CLRTC]

This needs a real solution, I have many I7 9X0 machines and all were running VMware Workstation 12 previously and we upgraded and added more Workstation 14 licenses only to find suddenly we are unable to operate. We ran VMware so we could run a  VM with older unsupported OS/Software that were never replaced by a vendor that disappeared, now in order to run my even older VM's I have to buy newer hardware? All my I7 are on Windows 10 update 1709, and I need to run Some Windows XP VM's why do I need to buy an 8th Gen I7 to do that?  Ridiculous

[wonderingmind]

Hello,

I have an old processor and was using Workstation Pro 12 and everything was working fine.

My virtual machine was in a suspended state.

I upgraded it to Workstation Pro 14.

Now Workstation Pro 14 will not resume my suspended state and gives an error:

I get something similar to this error (I just have Windows 8):

I tried to reinstall Workstation Pro 12 but the software told me:

"This product installer does not support downgrades."

So my question is:

My virtual machine is in a suspended state.

Can I uninstall Workstation Pro 14 completely, re-install Workstation Pro 12, and will the suspended state of the Virtual Machine be lost and can it be retrieved at all ?

Will the uninstall of 14 be clean, so that I dont get the: "This product installer does not support downgrades." error again when I try to install 12 ?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[wila]

Hello wonderingmind,

Yes, the solution is to uninstall workstation 14 prior to installing Workstation 12.

I suggest to reboot after that, just to make sure that any lingering binaries from workstation 14 are removed.

Then re-install workstation 12 and your VMs should work again.

--

Wil

[wonderingmind]

Wila,

Thanks for your reply.

But when I uninstall 14, and re-install 12, will 12 recognize the suspended VM and be able to un-suspend it.

14 did when I changed from 12 to 14 - it recognized the suspended state.

There are no guarantees about this - correct ?

[wila]

Hi,

Normally you should just be able to resume the VM.

You never were able to resume the VM in Workstation 14 from what I read so it still has the workstation 12 suspended state.

--

Wil

[wonderingmind]

Wila,

Thanks again.

Typically when you uninstall VWare, like I am with 14, is the install clean, that is, the installer will remove everything ?

I have read sometimes registry keys are not cleaned up and I might get the "This product installer does not support downgrades.".

Is is typical for an un-install not to be a clean un-install ?

[wila]

Hi,

It should be clean and if not we'll continue with steps for cleaning manually.

--

Wil

[wonderingmind]

Wila,

Ok thanks, I will give it a try and see what happens.

[wonderingmind]

Wila,

When I start the un-install, it asks me the following:

Should I uncheck the boxes for a full, clean uninstall ?

[wila]

Hi,

You can put a checkbox in the "Product configuration" if you want to the Workstation 12 install to be more pristine.

It will clear things such as your network configuration and preferred settings you might have made in the GUI.

There's absolute no harm in remembering the product license information. It just remembers your license key. There's also no harm in putting a checkbox there as you can always re-activate by re-entering the license key.

--

Wil