Fusion 10 on Mid 2012 MacPro - Error

[mpbaker82]

I have a Mid 2012 Mac Pro Quad-Core and bought Fusion 8 a few months ago with the offer to bump to 10 for free. Now that 10 was released I decided to upgrade today.

I have 4 VMs installed in my library and not a single one work now... I get the following error:

"This host does not support virtualizing real mode"

After doing some research and a little bit of digging, I have concluded that my current processor didnt make the cut... Thats issue #1. Issue #2 is that I cant even down grade to start my existing VMs. I still get the error and a dialog box shows I must start the VM in the newer version to downgrade to the older version. Well.... this is an issue being that Issue #1 prevents me from even starting the VM.

So how did I try fixing this? I removed VMware Fusion 10 from the Mac, downloaded Fusion 8 and tried to start the VM again. To my surprise... No dice! I then tried to pull in a individual backup of the VM file thinking that the upgrade changed the file. Nope, didnt help! I'm now in the process of doing a time machine restore (PITA) to just before I did the upgrade to Fusion 10. I'm hoping like hell this fixes my issue because I have some time sensitive work that I need to get completed before Sunday @ midnight.

So I end with this... What can i do, if anything to fix the problem with Fusion 10 or am I forced to drop back to Fusion 8 for the lifetime that I have this machine? I've been fumbling around the idea of upgrading the processor to a 6-core. Does anyone know if the following cpu's are compatible with fusion 10?

• 3.33 GHz 6-Core Westmere X3680
• 3.46 GHz 6-Core Westmere X3690

Michael

[wila]

Hi,

The Fusion 10 system requirements only mention systems, the workstation 14 system requirement OTOH are a bit more clear about the processor numbers.

Processor Requirements for Host Systems

That page seems to suggest that the westmere processors should work.

Personally I have no idea and I am not aware of a way to verify that at intel's website as this particular feature "VMX Unrestricted guest" is not listed.

For your VM's if they have upgraded virtual hardware, then you can change that to Fusion 8 level from within the GUI with the VM shut down.

--

Wil

[todivefor]

How do you determine processor number?  The workstation 14 system processor requirements go a little deeper (ie Intel Atom processors based on the 2012 Saltwell micro-architecture. For example, Atom Atom S1200, Atom D2700/D2500, and Atom N2800/N2600.) into processors not supported.  I also have a macbook pro mid 2012.  Are some of these supported and others not?  How to tell?

[Mikero]

From store.vmware.com product pages:

System Requirements

All Macs launched in 2011 or later are supported except:

• 2012 Mac Pro “Quad Core” using the Intel® Xeon® W3565 Processor.

In addition the following are also supported:

• 2010 Mac Pro “Six Core”, “Eight Core” and “Twelve Core”.

[todivefor]

I read that.  I have a macbook pro mid 2012 same as the original poster.  His configuration does not work.  How do I deter mine if mine will or will not?  How do I determine if my processor is one of the excluded:

• 2012 Mac Pro “Quad Core” using the Intel® Xeon® W3565 Processor.

From System Report:

Hardware Overview:

  Model Name: MacBook Pro

  Model Identifier: MacBookPro9,1

  Processor Name: Intel Core i7

  Processor Speed: 2.6 GHz

  Number of Processors: 1

  Total Number of Cores: 4

  L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

  L3 Cache: 6 MB

  Memory: 16 GB

  Boot ROM Version: MBP91.00D3.B22

  SMC Version (system): 2.1f175

  Sudden Motion Sensor:

  State: Enabled

[wila]

Hi,

A Mac Pro and a Macbook Pro?

The topic starter has a Mac Pro (not a macbook!), I really wish that apple had chosen a less confusing name for that product line.

The Xeon W35xx is not supported as in the release notes.

OTOH the release notes also state that "Processors on all Macs launched in 2011 or later" and then excludes the beforementioned Xeon.

So according to those system requirements your macbook pro from 2012 should be fine.

Unfortunately the mac "Hardware Overview" does not tell a lot, we would have to go match that up at apple's website against their documentation to find out which actual processor it has. ugh.. There's however a way to find out technical details in macOS, just run this from a command line:

sysctl -a | grep "machdep.cpu.brand_string"

That would at least tell us which intel i7 processor your macbook pro has.

Unfortunately though I am not aware of a clean way in macOS itself to figure out if the processor has the required "unrestricted guest" feature.

Also more info and a link to a tool that prints out if your CPU has this feature (sorry have not tested it with my macbook pro yet, if the CD boots it will print the data, otherwise not)

VMX unrestricted guest errors with Workstation 14 or Fusion 10 - PlanetVM

If you have Fusion 8 already running then there's also a way to print the required feature from an existing vmware.log file:

cat vmware.log | grep "MSR\s*0x485" | awk '{print $NF}' | sed 's/^.*\(.\{2\}\)$/\1/'  

Which shows the last 2 characters of the hex code for the model specific register and if bit 5 on that hex code is set then your CPU supports unrestricted guest.

--

Wil

[todivefor]

Wila,

Thank you.  I now see the OP references Mac Pro.  In reading that, I read Macbook Pro, which is what I have.  Sorry for that confusion.  I ran sysctl -a | grep "machdep.cpu.brand_string" and got Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3720QM CPU @ 2.60GHz.  I also ran the cat vmware.log | grep "MSR\s*0x485" | awk '{print $NF}' | sed 's/^.*\(.\{2\}\)$/\1/' on my vmware.log and got e5.  I did not see the link to the tool.  I will take a closer look.  However, it looks like I should be good to go.

Thank you again.

EDIT: found link to tool.

[wila]

Hi,

Yep, 0xe5 = 1110 0101(b) and thus bit 5 is set.

You're good to go.

--

Wil