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audenmahk
Contributor
Contributor

"Not Enough Physical Memory" error on MacOS Big Sur Beta 1

On MacOS Big Sur Beta 1, receiving the following error when launching any VMs that worked fine prior to update:

"Not enough physical memory is available to power on this virtual machine with its configured settings."

Mac has a total of 16GB of RAM, VM has 4096MB allocated in preferences, and shows that there is still 12GB available for the Mac.  Same issue no matter how much memory is allocated to the VM.

Posting to report to devs as potential bug with new beta, but obviously any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks!

55 Replies
Leica
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Have you tried the new Fusion Preview? Version 12 beta?

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audenmahk
Contributor
Contributor

I have -- same situation unfortunately.  But appreciate the suggestion!

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Leica
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Maybe it is because macOS Big Sur does not support kernel extensions anymore?

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Starlir
Contributor
Contributor

I can report the same on Fusion 8.5.9

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I expect it will take a new version of Fusion before MacOS 11.0.0 (beta or otherwise) to be supported - as such this forum area might be one to watch: VMware Fusion Pro Tech Preview


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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Interesting.

I had no problems to update to macOS Big Sur.

Here's what I did.

Booted up my old macOS Catalina Beta VM.

That VM was still enrolled in the beta, as such I ran the normal update check.

I got the following screen:

pastedImage_0.png

Hmmm... macOS Beta 10.16 you say?

Curious.

So I let it download the installer.

On trying to run the update it complained about a lack of disk space (needing another 35GB it said).

That's when I shut down the VM, increased the VM disk size to 80GB (previously 40GB), booted the OS again and ran the installer.

VMware Fusion 11.5.3 on macOS 10.14.6

VM Config:

2 vCPU

4 GB RAM

Sata Disk

Guest OS set to macOS 10.15 (Fusion reports 10.16 when running)

pastedImage_1.png

Oh and for the curious... is it 10.16 or Big Sur?

pastedImage_1.png

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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audenmahk
Contributor
Contributor

Mark,

LOL, I just came back to this thread as I now understand what you reported (after I just ran VMware Fusion in the VM above... nested) and seemingly missed the obvious that you are running macOS Big Sur as the host OS.

--

Wil

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Phoohoo
Contributor
Contributor

So how to solve this issue? I update macos to Big Sur, the vmwave fusion does not open VM with the same Pop window"not enough physical memory", thanks.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hello Phoohoo,

No fix that I am aware off. I tried a few vmx settings regarding the memory in order to suppress the locked memory check, but it did not work.

Most likely because the error message is true.

This is what happens with macOS Beta software and why you either run macOS 11 in a VM or on a spare mac.

FWIW, I'm sure that the VMware team is hard at work on trying to resolve this issue.

Hopefully this is the only issue that blocks running VMware Fusion on macOS 11.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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TimSheppard
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I'm getting a different error - I manage to do a fresh install of Big Sur beta 1 in a new VM but when I come to log on, I enter the password, wait a bit, the screen goes black for a bit then returns me to the log in prompt again. I'll try another install again to see if I get the same result a second time.

This is with the latest release of Fusion, not the tech preview.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

See Mike's tweets for more details.

https://twitter.com/mikeroySoft/status/1275177785917534209

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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MacDragon
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

You're talking about big sur as a guest, this issue is about as host. ( that tweet is referring to as guest too )

But it does sound like next week or week after we can expect a vmware tech preview to try, that probably targets both aspects.

wila
Immortal
Immortal

Yes, my first reply in this thread was about Big Sur as a guest (my mistake).

However do read the replies on that tweet as well and you'll see that it is not just about guests.

Figured to post to the top of that thread instead of the specific tweet where Mike talks about the next Tech Preview.

Perhaps Mikero​ has time to explain what's planned down here.

Although I'm sure he's very busy right now, so don't be disappointed if you just have to wait for the next TP to see what is coming.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
jdbvmware
Contributor
Contributor

>Maybe it is because macOS Big Sur does not support kernel extensions anymore?

Big Sur still supports kernel extensions. Apple deprecated some kinds of extensions and with the new Apple Silicon, I'm pretty sure that any VM will have to use the Apple API hypervisor framework. So I suspect that VMWare has some work ahead if they want to support macOS going forward though how useful a VM without Windows is going to be is still a question. Maybe Microsoft will support Windows on ARM in VMs?

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

They may support windows on ARM for a VM, but there's basically no apps that support windows on ARM at all, so that won't be a viable option.  The only hope is either that rosetta will/can work, or that the VMWare team has magic up their sleeve.  For the former, there's this:  Rosetta Won't Support x86 Virtualization Apps Running Windows

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jdbvmware
Contributor
Contributor

I personally don't have much need for a Windows VM. I used to need one for testing web pages in various squirrelly Windows browsers but now browsers on Windows are Chromium or Firefox and they seem very compatible across OS's. I don't use Microsoft Office applications much and Office 360 on an iPad seems compatible enough for my use. Also, Microsoft seems hard at work porting to Apple Silicon anyway.

But without having a viable Windows environment (I agree that currently Windows on ARM has little software), I wonder if VMWare will bother to port to Apple Silicon. I hope they do but if not, it looks like Parallels has decided to given the demos during keynote.

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Oh I have no doubt that we'll still have Fusion running on Apple silicon - the latest tweets indicate that they're waiting for the hardware.  The question is, will it virtualize x86 or just ARM?  Good news is that we have at least a couple of years before it's a real problem (it's not like out boxes magically stopped working on Monday) 🙂

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biomir
Contributor
Contributor

Anyone figured out workaround to this error? Running Big Sur as host on a MacBook to launch Windows 10 thru VMware.

Screen Shot 2020-06-26 at 11.26.22 AM.png

ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Yes, wait for a supported version.  Mike's tweets indicate they're working on it, targeting early July.  It'll be part of the tech preview for Fusion 12 (probably the version number).  I would not expect support in 11.5.