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Mystimus
Contributor
Contributor

VMWare Fusion 6 on a MAC with Mavericks - Multiple Display Setup

Greetings - if I have posted this in the wrong place, please forgive me. This is my first post.

I'm using a 3-monitor set-up plus APPLETV as a fourth on a MacBook Pro with the Mavericks GM. I have upgraded to the latest VMWare 6 release.

Now that Spaces works on each monitor independently, it highlights a problem in VMWare (unless there is a setting I can't find). When I am in the VM, all 4 screens are of the VM.  When I swipe to another space in any of the monitors to a MAC window, I can use it just fine and all other screens stay as is.

However, and here is the problem, whenever you select any display and click to the VM, the other 3 displays all immediately are forced to the VM as well.

This seems to defeat the purpose of multiple displays with independent spaces. If I have video playing on the MAC side in one window and want to use Microsoft Outlook in the VM, I am out of look, because all windows go right back to the VM if I am using the VM in any one window.

I would love to hear if the solution is configuration or, if not, in the works to fix.

Thanks for the help.

P.S. Disabling the AppleTV as a fourth display in the VMWare environment does not work. Even though the settings indicate is not extended, it remains. I can't disconnect it and use it independently on the Mac side.

19 Replies
admin
Immortal
Immortal

When the VM "grabs" keyboard and mouse focus it pulls all the related fullscreen windows to front, because they need to operate as a group - if, for instance, you started dragging a guest window on one monitor while the other virtual monitor was not on the active space, the VM would have control of your mouse and would merrily drag that window onto a monitor you can't see.

This doesn't mean you can't shift your virtual monitors out of the way without selecting one and bringing it's sibling windows back, it just means that you'll have to use Mission Control to switch spaces for anything other than the active space. We're investigating ways to select a space with a virtual monitor without actually selecting the VM itself, but it runs counter to the way OSX expects apps to behave and the way the VM emulates a multi-monitor system, so it's not a trivial problem.

We're also investigating allowing more options than simply "one" or "all" monitors, now that 10.9 makes handling multiple fullscreen spaces more flexible.

Mystimus
Contributor
Contributor

I appreciate the quick response. I hope you guys are able to come up with a solution that makes it work with Mavericks and spaces.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

In the most recent 10.9 seed, Apple has changed the space-changing behavior to what I was considering implementing myself: the space-shift gesture applies to the screen that contains the mouse, *not* the one with the active menubar. So you don't have to click a window in a space first to make it switchable, and you can switch out all your virtual monitors easily - just don't click on them first.

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Mystimus
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the response. I tried what you said, and it works as long as the window you eventually begin working in is MAC. However, the instant you...

1. Use SPACES to switch to a VM window

2. Click in any VM Window

Every monitor immediately returns you to the VM, which defeats the purposes of SPACES entirely.

I have given up using VMWare until this is resolved and resorted to Citrix. It's a less elegant solution overall, but at least I can have the windows stay put in their SPACES.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Do you mean it does this when you do either of those steps? Or does it not bring the other windows to the active space until after step 2? Because clicking on a window causes the VM to "grab" the mouse and keyboard, and once that happens all the windows need to come to front because the host Mac is not going to see the mouse or keyboard events until you "ungrab" with the cmd-control shortcut.

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shootist69
Contributor
Contributor

Unless I'm reading your post incorrectly, you're having the same trouble I had.  To turn off this "functionality" you'll have to do the following:

1. Go to system preferences

2. Click Mission Control

3. Uncheck the checkbox for "Displays have separate Spaces"

4. Rejoice!

Edit:  I forgot to add, you'll have to log off and back on for the change to take effect.

Message was edited by: shootist69

Mystimus
Contributor
Contributor

I appreciate you taking the time to post a reply and include a tidbit for which I was unaware. 

In my case, though, I want my displays to have separate spaces. Very handy.

I opted instead to stop using VMWare and access all my applications through Citrix, which behaves as expected with separate spaces for each display. 

i will consider a return if/when VMWare works with separate spaces.

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Amadeus71
Contributor
Contributor

I have opted for the Unity mode to solve the problems you've outlined above...feels like Citrix only faster.

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a_skydiver
Contributor
Contributor

Is there a way in 6 or will there be a way to use more than one screen when in full screen mode?  I run a windows 7 VM and I need to have outlook on one screen as well as a couple of other programs and on the other screen I used to have an RDP session for the servers that I manage.  After upgrading to Maveric I can no longer do this.  I'm stuck to having to run everything in one screen.  I'm still on VM4, but am exploring upgrading to 6 if it will resolve this issue.  I need to be able to work across two monitors when running the VM.

Thanks,

BK

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DEGoodmanWilson
Contributor
Contributor

I am having the same aggravation as the OP. I only have two monitors, and I strongly prefer to be able to work with OSX on one, and Windows on the other. I also prefer, although less strongly, to be able to access both monitors from inside Windows (because I am using a BootCamp partition, and when I boot into Windows natively, of course I get both windows), but I am probably going to simply disable multi-monitor mode in VMWare for the time being. If y'all come up with a reasonable solution that allows me to use both monitors without the behavior the OP described, that would be just delightful.

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a_skydiver
Contributor
Contributor

I was able to work around this by going to system preference -> Mission Control and unchecking the "Displays have separate spaces".  That allowed me to use both screens from my windows VM.  And I can live with both screens switching when I'm running in native mode.  I had to have both screens in windows though and this was the only fix that I could find.

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DEGoodmanWilson
Contributor
Contributor

That's a non-starter for me. I really, really like Mavericks's new seperate Spaces for each monitor feature, and make heavy use of it. It is exactly that heavy use that brought this issue to my attention in fact.

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Kiggsworthy
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the reply, and your explanation makes perfect sense, but plainly, you are not serving your customers needs with the current design.

There are *loads* of reasons that you should at least have an option available (with a warning if you feel necessary) to allow this to happen, as 'improper' as it may be.

One example:

I always keep Outlook inside my 2-monitor VM open on one space.  I also use the Mac Remote Desktop Client to connect to servers at work.  Frequently I am typing an email on my host VM that needs information from one of these remote sessions.  However currently it is impossible for me to be typing an email in the VM, while my secondary monitor is on a different space. 

I would never try and drag windows back and forth in this 'bad' configuration mode, but simply being able to select a text field and type is totally and completely necessary, and not being able to do so is incredibly frustrating.

I am confident you guys could enable this functionality as an option.  Please do so ASAP, because your product is nearly perfect, but this is a major hinderance!

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RaZaKKaZaR
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

VMware Fusion Team, are you still monitoring this thread?  If so, please consider the following undesirable behaviors:

1. Multiple Monitor Support on Mavericks is broken!

Please look at the new Mac Remote Desktop Client's (RDC) support for Spaces in Mavericks:

An RDC window can open with multiple monitor support with the primary monitor being the desktop and other displays being extended desktops.  I can switch between spaces on either Monitor without RDC freaking out and trying to force me back to a view that only contains RDC windows.

The current behavior in VMware Fusion 6 (mirrored display ONLY with default Mavericks settings) is unacceptable because we want to make use of Mavericks' Spaces features.

2. Desired Resolution Settings are ignored and require hacking the VMX file to address it!

This may be a result of using Fusion on a Retina Mac, or it may be another conflict with Mavericks, but when I full screen my VM, it automatically uses full Retina Resolution.  I normally use a smaller resolution setting.  The workaround has been to edit the VMX to disallow Fusion from changing my resolution.  However, I never had to do this with Fusion 5 on my standard MacBook Pro.

Please fix these bugs!

VCAP5-DCD,DCA * http://www.vmtrooper.com * If any of my responses have been helpful in any way, please rate accordingly. Thank you and Happy VM'ing! 😄
SZimm
Contributor
Contributor

I have the same problem with VMWare. I just switched from Parallels because of a Win8.1 issue.

However, Parallels works exactly the you expect separate spaces to work. So I must continue using it until VMware gets this fixed.

I have 3 monitors and 2 need to run full screen VM and the 3rd Mac desktop to run email and 2 VNC sessions.

If Parallels can get spaces working right, why not VMware?

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BenWilde
Contributor
Contributor

I have the same issue. Parallels handles mavericks spaces correctly, meaning that you can work in each monitor separately, in the mac or in the vm.

With vmware, clicking in the vm forces ALL monitors to switch to the vm. This is HIGHLY UNDESIRABLE.

I'm using vmware because Parallels has alot of other issues and weird erratic behavior in full screen mode when adding / removing multiple monitors regularly, sometimes even getting into an unworkable state. vmware is way better. Except for this ONE thing.

My current workaround is to just run in unity, but that is also very undesirable because of decreased (sometimes frustrating) performance.

Can we get an update on whether a fix for this is in progress?

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rob_oli
Contributor
Contributor

If you use VMware in Single screen mode instead of full screen you can place each VM where ever you want and you can determine the size and cover one or two screens if you want.  So to do that it's select View and then single window.

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BenWilde
Contributor
Contributor

Sadly this doesn't work if you have mavericks setup where displays have separate spaces, since every window 'belongs' to a single display in that mode. And turning off separate spaces kinda defeats the purpose.

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RaZaKKaZaR
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello Folks,

VMware Fusion Product Management and Support do not seem to be monitoring the Forums.  It would be best to open a support issue so that they understand that this is a real concern for users.  Sending an e-mail to this address will automatically open an issue: desktop-services (at) vmware.com.

I tried contacting the VMware Fusion Team on Twitter, and the team is mistakenly under the impression that the independent spaces feature in Mavericks is experimental.  When you discuss your issue with them, please emphasize that this is not the case.

Thanks!

VCAP5-DCD,DCA * http://www.vmtrooper.com * If any of my responses have been helpful in any way, please rate accordingly. Thank you and Happy VM'ing! 😄
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