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brado77
Contributor
Contributor

All Linux guest VMs hang immediately after Fusion 11.5.5 upgrade

I am running macOS Catalina 10.15.5. I just upgraded to Fusion 11.5.5 after the previous minor version (whatever was current). I have been using that previous version without any problems whatsoever. As soon as I upgraded to Fusion 11.5.5, while I can boot my Linux VMs, immediately after initial login the VM hangs indefinitely. This has rendered all of my VMs (i.e. Fusion in its entirety) completely unusable. I tried downloading / installing the full Fusion 11.5.5 DMG, but had the same result.

Any ideas? Something definitely has changed in 11.5.5...I hope I can get an answer quickly, this has brought my work to a halt.

Thanks.

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brado77
Contributor
Contributor

UPDATE: I did a manual uninstall of the entire VMware Fusion app, rebooted, and did a clean reinstall of Fusion 11.5.5 -- same problem. I am wondering if it isn't the VM hanging so much, but rather the input not working. Mouse pointer works, and touchpad works, but neither one can click anything, so nothing can be selected. Keyboard shortcuts don't work either.  I have made no settings changes whatsoever, so I'm not sure what the problem would be. The keyboard and mouse settings are where they've always been, the default profile.

Strange....if someone can help I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks.

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brado77
Contributor
Contributor

Unfortunately, a complete uninstall of 11.5.5 and new installation to 11.5.3 didn't help. I'm now completely without VMware Fusion. Help....thx.

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RickShu
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi ,

Please check System Preferences ==>Security&Privacy==>Privacy==>Accessibility, make sure you have added Fusion into the list. You need to quit and restart Fusion to take effect.

If it is already in the list, try to remove it then add it back.

Regards,

-Rick

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pfruth
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I am having the same problem.

Attempts to boot an Ubuntu 18.04.3 Server VM hang.  That same VM was working fine before Catalina 10.15.5 and Fusion 11.5.5

I also have an Ubuntu 18.04.3 Minimal VM.  That VM does completely start.
So, it seems like it may have something to do with video drivers???

Anyway, I completely uninstalled Fusion 11.5.5.  Rebooted, then re-installed Fusion 11.5.2.
Now my Ubuntu 18.04.3 Server VM successfully boots up completely.

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pfruth
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

"Please check System Preferences ==>Security&Privacy==>Privacy==>Accessibility, make sure you have added Fusion into the list. You need to quit and restart Fusion to take effect.

If it is already in the list, try to remove it then add it back."

RickShu
I tried the suggestion.  It did not seem to have any effect.

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pfruth
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Following up on my previous post....


The TL;DR is - Install the latest HWE stack for Ubuntu before upgrading to Fusion 11.5.5

I've got my Ubuntu 18.04 VM working on Fusion 11.5.5 on Catalina 10.15.5
Here's how

  • Uninstall Fusion 11.5.5
  • Install Fusion 11.5.2
  • Boot the Ubuntu 18.04 VM
  • Update the Ubuntu VM with the latest updates

sudo apt update; sudo apt upgrade

  • Reboot the Ubuntu VM
  • Install the latest Hardware Enablement stack (HWE) for Ubuntu 18.04

sudo apt install --install-recommends linux-generic-hwe-18.04 xserver-xorg-hwe-18.04

  • Reboot the Ubuntu VM
  • Verify the Ubuntu VM works as expected
  • Shutdown the Ubuntu VM
  • Install Fusion 11.5.5
  • Reboot MacOS (probably not required, but did it just incase)
  • Boot the Ubuntu VM
  • Observe the Ubuntu VM starts up without hanging
  • Done

    Now my Ubuntu 18.04 VMs boot up without hanging!!!

Note: After installing the latest HWE stack for Ubuntu 18.04, I see the following package versions;

sudo dpkg --list linux-generic-hwe-18.04

ii  linux-generic-hwe-18.04        5.3.0.53.110         amd64                Complete Generic Linux kernel and headers

sudo dpkg --list xserver-xorg-hwe-18.04

ii  xserver-xorg-hwe-18.04         1:7.7+19ubuntu8~18.0 amd64                X.Org X server

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brado77
Contributor
Contributor

So...after hours of wrangling, it appears I've emerged from the fog again, and while I was already in this neighborhood, this comment from Rick helped (thanks):

"Please check System Preferences ==>Security&Privacy==>Privacy==>Accessibility, make sure you have added Fusion into the list. You need to quit and restart Fusion to take effect.

If it is already in the list, try to remove it then add it back."

I had already checked the security->privacy settings, and had verified that not only Accessibility, but several other settings contained Fusion. No love, didn't work. So I completely uninstalled Fusion, rebooted, and then installed 11.5.3, verified security settings again -- still didn't work. I then upgraded again to 11.5.5, verified security settings -- still didn't work. I gave up last night, and after seeing Rick's post, I initially thought it wouldn't matter, because I had verified security settings ad naseum -- they were all as they should be. But the last part -- remove it and add it back -- I thought that I could still try that. I went and removed and added back *every* security setting that had VMware Fusion (the ones which allowed me to remove/add), then started Fusion and my VMs again. THAT WORKED. All VMs are now working again as before.

Thank you Rick for your helpful post.

Conclusion: As I literally did nothing in all of this but upgrade to 11.5.5, both initially from a working 11.5.3, and then a second time from a brand new install of 11.5.3, my best guess is that this is a problem with the 11.5.5 installer which doesn't get the security settings right.

Thanks again for the help and other posts. I guess my suggestion is to remove / add all security settings after the 11.5.5 upgrade is complete.

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