Still no iWork in Mac OS Guests?

gringley · ‎11-23-2011

I see that iWork does not work in a Fusion MacOS guest. I get the impression that this is due to a lack of video support in the VMware Tools? What is the plan here?

dariusd · ‎11-23-2011

Hi gringley,

Which versions of iWork and Mac OS are you using? And what happens when you try to use the iWork applications?

Cheers,

--

Darius

gringley · ‎11-25-2011

I am using MacOS 10.7.2 and iWork 9.1. In other words Software Update has applied everything that it can apply. If I open any document the contents are not displayed. I have tried all three apps.

oharamj · ‎05-22-2012

I also have the same issue. I'm waiting to hear back from Support after an initial phone conversation to go over the preliminaries and obvious. I was asked to try installing and running iWork '09 under a Lion version before 10.7.4. I did so, and the problem still persists.

Briefly said, I can load and effectively use worksheets and documents using iWork '09 on the host side. No problem. But, under the guest side, while Numbers and Pages load properly, the same file shows as blank screen. I know the data is in there, having proven this a number of ways.

This would seem to be some sort of graphics problem in VMWare as it relates to certain applications. This obviously puts a big crimp in my planned use of Fusion 4 since I rely on iWork extensively.

Factoids: Late 2009 MacBook Core 2 Duo 8GB RAM (4GB and one processor allocated to vm). Lion 10.7.4. iWork '09. Everything updated to latest versions.

I'm surprised this problem isn't getting more visibility.

ColoradoMarmot · ‎05-23-2012

I suspect it's because most of us run iWork on the host - never thought to install it in my guest (I only put my company's software in there).

But I would guess it's a lack of 3d acceleration in OSX guests. Hopefully we'll see that added in an upcoming release.

oharamj · ‎05-23-2012

Last night I downloaded a trial of Parallels. Same behavior!

Why would that happen? Does Parallels not support acceleration also? Why does a spreadsheet need 3D acceleration anyway? Or, is this just an iWork fail? If so, wouldn't you think these vm companies building vm software for Macs test Apple's flagship office suite and get it working ok?

I'm really bummed about this.

I saw Parallels has an option to create a vm from your recovery partition - which happens to have iWork in their. Maybe I'll try that just for grins.

ChipMcK · ‎05-23-2012

Lion Client 10.7.4 and VMware Fusion 4.1.2 with Pages and Numbers from the App Store.

Both Pages and Numbers work just fine in Lion Client 10.7.4 vm for me.

oharamj · ‎05-23-2012

Oh for goodness sake ... thanks for giving it a test.

Also, to add to the troubleshooting, I got the same results (I.e., blank screens) after installing Parallels and iWork.

So, it seems to narrow down to some difference between retail disk + current updates versus App Store download.

How can that happen?

ChipMcK · ‎05-23-2012

Perhaps a question for an Apple forum?

oharamj · ‎05-23-2012

Perhaps, and I've posted info over there, but nothing's turned up.

However, would you post config details for your MacBook Pro. I wonder if there's something - especially graphics related - that also account for why iWork does this. There have been posts here about 3D acceleration and OpenGL issues under VMWare Lion clients.

johnl72 · ‎11-16-2012

Since I had a similar issue and after working with VMWare Fusion Tech support team they reported back that iWork 09 needs openGL and VMware Fusion uses IOFramebuffer drive for graphics and the reasonfor the problem. VMware emgoineering team is working on the problem.

JCL

ctlow · ‎11-18-2012

On the occasions when I've had to reinstall iWorks (don't ask), it did something like this, not showing content, until I then applied all of the interval patches since I bought the program (and I'm using '08). I think that performing the regular Mac OS X software update was all I needed.

ColoradoMarmot · ‎11-20-2012

Didn't make a difference for me in a guest - it's definitely a graphics limitation.

gugus2000 · ‎07-04-2020

Eight (8!) years later and the issue is still open.

Since a good year now Apple has removed 32-bit support from its OS (Catalina). However I still rely on iWork '09 which is 32 bit only. All my company's documents and work processes are built around iWork. The successor to iWork '09 has lost over 100 features that I need (eg mail merge). So my solution was to install el Capitan into VMWare Fusion and have my legacy sw running there. But no, iWork (Pages et al) does not display anything. Interesting however is the fact then when I open a pages doc the white window momentarily displays the content when I toggle outline mode back and forth. So it seems that the system *is* capable to display the window's content.

With Big Sur around the corner I have to upgrade eventually due to security concerns (and what happens when I need to eventually replace my Mac with a newer model?). Still running Mojave 10.14.6 on my MacBook Pro, iWork '09 mostly still working. Having another spare mac around just to run the legacy 32-bit stuff is not feasible as I am travelling and need to have everything with me. No way to lug a second MBP around!

I know from various discussions and forums that I am not alone with this problem. And things become more and more pressing. Anyone found a solution? Can't we all ask VMWare for help and build up some presure? Aren't we paying customers? Well, at least I am!

ColoradoMarmot · ‎07-04-2020

It's still open because iWork requires 3d acceleration, which is not available for MacOS guests. That's due to limitations in how apple implements the graphics stack, and is somewhere between extremely difficult and impossible to work around.

It's probably time to look for modern software alternatives.

gringley · ‎10-11-2020

So I think I have seen discussions that under Big Sur graphics acceleration is possible now. Will it help solve this problem?

dempson · ‎10-11-2020

So I think I have seen discussions that under Big Sur graphics acceleration is possible now. Will it help solve this problem?

Not in this case. The iWork '09 graphics issue has nothing to do with the host macOS. The limitation is that macOS running as a guest doesn't have a supported way of virtualising accelerated 3D graphics.

If macOS Big Sur has changes which make it possible to virtualise graphics acceleration in macOS guests, that would apply to macOS Big Sur (or later) running as a guest. It doesn't change anything for macOS Catalina (10.15) or earlier running a guest.

The iWork '09 applications are 32-bit, therefore only work in macOS Mojave (10.14) or earlier. Apple isn't likely to port Big Sur's graphics engine changes back to older macOS versions, so this change in Big Sur will still not allow the iWork '09 applications to run properly in a virtual machine.

My solution for occasional use of iWork '09 is to keep an older Mac Mini running macOS Sierra (10.12). I also use that computer for several other occasionally used old Mac applications which won't work in Catalina or later. In my experience, High Sierra (10.13) broke several parts of iWork '09, Mojave initially broke more of it, but late updates of Mojave restored it back to the state it was in for High Sierra. Retroactive claims to be able to get iWork '09 running better in High Sierra or Mojave but I haven't tried it. Retroactive does not allow iWork '09 to work in Catalina or Big Sur.

ColoradoMarmot · ‎10-12-2020

Chiming in here as well, the comment above is on point, and even for Big Sur it's experimental. This is one of those things when it's probably time to pay the tech debt and upgrade to current tools.