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paulrussam
Contributor
Contributor

WMWare 8, OSX 10.11, Win10 Dual Monitor Problem

I'm having some problems getting a dual monitor setup to work.

It used to work in OSX 10.10 with Fusion 7/8 but now under 10.11 Windows 10 completely fails to recognize the 2nd monitor.

It did work in 10.11 for a bit but for some reason it now doesn't.

The 2nd monitor is perfect under OSX

My current Setup

iMac i5 27" 2015 (Late 2013)

OSX 10.11.1

Fusion 8

Windows 10

My second monitor is connected via a DisplayPort to HDMI cable

I've tried a DisplayPort to VGA adapter to another monitor with the same results.

Things I've tried:

Uninstall/re-install VMWare tools (several times)

Switch between Windows/Full Screen/Unity

Turn 3D acceleration on/off trying to detect monitor under both settings.

Copy the vmdk file out of the VMWare bundle and make a new Bundle via the Wizard in the App and importing the vmdk.

I don't use unity but that also fails with Large window with a 'VMware Fusion cannot enter Unity' message BUT.... there are 2 tabs for Screen1 and 2, both are dark grey.

Any advice or suggestions would be very very welcome.

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paulrussam
Contributor
Contributor

This is really bugging me, here's a screen shot of Win10 in Unity mode:

Screen Shot 2015-09-29 at 22.14.39.png | Infinit

As you can see, Windows is seeing both monitors and they both register in Device Manager but....

As soon as I switch back to Full Screen the second monitor disappears from both the Settings and Device Manager:

Capture.PNG | Infinit

I don't use unity so I'm not sure what I should be seeing but I'm guessing that the message: 'VMware Fusion cannot enter Unity. Please wait until Unity automatically starts...' isnt right.

Does anyone have any Idea what might be going on?

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bodybybuddha
Contributor
Contributor

I don't have a solution - but I have the same issue - except my guest is Win7.

Was working fine with OS X 10.10.  Once I upgraded Guest loads incredibly slowly and I have the same display issues as Paul has posted.

Is anyone else seeing this issue?

I've reinstalled the tools multiple times - however, I'm going to manually uninstall them and bring up the guest to see if that makes a difference.

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bodybybuddha
Contributor
Contributor

Just a follow up - the manual uninstall and fresh install of the VMware tools did not improve anything. Same issue.

Update: rolled the diced and upgraded to 8.0.1.  Now, VMware completely crashes started the VM guest.  May have to reinstall 8.0 and attempt the upgrade again.

Update 2: Went back to 8.0.0, then upgraded to 8.0.1 without starting the VM first.  All was good.  Started up VM and it finally came up. So chalking up the latest issue to a bad install.  However, even after manually removing vmware tools, rebooting, and then reinstalling the 8.0.1 tools - in the same boat.  When in full screen, the secondary screen is dark and the Windows 7 guest only registers one monitor.  However, if I go into Unity, the Windows 7 guest see two monitors.  Also I had the VMWare Library on another Desktop - during boot up of the vm, it clearly shows two monitors in the snapshot.  Once the guest is fully up, it reverts back to showing one window.

I'll stop playing with it now and just live with one window.  This is my daily driver so I've already taken enough chances with it.  Hopefully the above is helpful to someone troubleshooting the issue.  Although I may feel braver once I back everything up. 🙂

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ejavm
Contributor
Contributor

I am also seeing these crashes when starting a guest in full screen mode (Win7 and WinXP guests, Fusion 8.0.1 & OS X 10.11, 3 monitors). What seems to work at least in my case is to start the VM in windowed mode, then switch to full screen mode only after Windows boots (at this point the VM usually resizes correctly if Tools is installed and the display mode is "Resize the virtual machine to fit the screen"). Note that I have disabled 3D acceleration, maybe that makes a difference. There is another thread here complaining about hard crashes with 3D and NVIDIA drivers under 8.0 and 8.0.1, but I have ATI...

In any case, if the VM is started in full screen, it will almost always crash immediately on startup. Switching back and forth between windowed and full screen modes (I never use Unity) can get it into weird states where some monitors are black but Windows still detects them (the black screens have a Mac mouse pointer, so maybe the VM is getting hidden behind black windows?). Using only one monitor in full screen mode seems to work, but I am always trying to use all monitors.

Anyway, Fusion 8.0.1 + OS X 10.11 + multiple monitors clearly isn't working well right now.

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paulrussam
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks ejavm‌ that got it working.

Just to confirm, I started the VM in Window mode, waited for Win10 to boot and I logged in, I then switched to FullScreen and hey presto I have dual monitors!

I have 3D acceleration enabled.

This is a good work around but not a fix, hoping for a nice present in 8.0.2 Smiley Happy

bodybybuddha
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks ejavm for the suggestion.  Unfortunately, it didn't work for me.

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ILang01
Contributor
Contributor

Regrettably, I do not have a solution, but wish to add some observations I have encountered running VMware Fusion 8.0.1 and OSX 10.11

Running windows 10.

When trying to run full screen both displays, the main screen switches to a new area with the  new second screen area blank. This can be seen when selecting  mission control, however, the second vm screen appears overlaid on the original OSX second screen from where one started as a single window. I also find that the mouse positioning does not relate to the position of items I wish to select.

Example; main screen is the left monitor, secondary screen is the second monitor.

Start Windows VM in single windows mode

Change to full screen. Display goes full screen on the left hand monitor, right hand monitor shows the original OSX display

Select "Use all screens in Full Screen" Main (left) screen switches to a new area, second screen (right) goes blank

Move to the original OSX display pair from where full screen was selected and the second screen (right) has the VM windows  second display.

I have also noticed that when in full screen single display the secondary display sometime  starts to flicker and jump left to right. Does not happen all the time.

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bodybybuddha
Contributor
Contributor

I took another stab at this.

This time fired up the VM full screen, single monitor.  Then selected "Use all Screens...".  This resulted in left monitor going full screen and the right monitor going black (w/ OS X mouse.).  However, this time around, when I went into the Win7 guest - it recognized the two monitors!

dualmonitors.jpg

I played around with mirroring, etc to see if I could kick in the other monitor - no joy.  It always stayed black.

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bodybybuddha
Contributor
Contributor

WOW .. look at that.. I found the second screen!  I found it under a different desktop layout!

When I swipe up to see all my full screen apps, I have Desktop 1, VMWare Fusion, and Desktop 2.  The Fusion 'desktop' has what I previously reported, left side guest, right side black.  However, Desktop 2 has Mac on the left and Win7 guest on the right!!

So I found it.. and it's recognized by the guest.. however not really useful to have it other 'desktop' for practical use, but I'm hoping it gives some devs/others and idea of maybe what's going on.

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ILang01
Contributor
Contributor

A Solution work round (maybe)

I have found a combination of actions and I can get both screens to function.

First shutdown the Windows VM in single windows mode.

1 Before starting up set to use all screens in full screen mode.

2 Start the Windows VM in single windows mode

3 Log on to the VM and wait until the logon sequence has completed.

4 Select full screen mode.

5 Before shutting down select single windows mode.

This appears to work for me.

Update 1

If one suspends a VM running in full screen mode that is using all screens then restarts it Fusion crashes.

However if one switches to single windows mode for that VM before restarting then the VM will restart and go back to full screen mode after the restart is complete.

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Jerry_G
Contributor
Contributor

I'm also having problems with the loss of the 2nd monitor. All is fine with Fusion 7.1.2 and 8.0.1 with Yosemite. But with El Capitan, 10.11, crashes and no image on 2nd monitor.

This is on a very clean OS X startup. It's clearly a conflict between Fusion 7 and 8 and 10.11. I happen to be using Windows 7 with Fusion. This is such a severe issue that I can't update to El Capitan until it's resolved. If there isn't any good news from VMWare with a very short period of time, I will have to switch to Parallels.

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907Life
Contributor
Contributor

Well I am running OS 10.11.1 and Fusion 8.02  and windows 10 on the guest

Start the Guest machine

View -> View Full Screen

then

View -> Use all displays

I am on an iMac with a display port connection to a second monitor.

Works fine for me like this

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ChipMcK
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

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SeanWong
Contributor
Contributor

Good news Report

Its not impossible

The following is a good config for Windows 10

I'm still fighting OSX 10.11

Required Steps

  1. Set VMware Preferences to resize
  2. Set VM Display Preferences for VM to inherit from VMware Preferences and 3 D Acceleration off
  3. See Screenshot
  4. pastedImage_10.png
  5. Install VMWare Tools
  6. Restart in Windowed Mode
  7. Select Use all Displays
  8. Restart in Full screen
  9. note Apple ( command + Shift +F )

Vmware 8.1

OSX 10.11

Mac PRo Mid 2010 Multi Socket  + 32 GB RAM and ATI 5770 Cards 2 DELL 1280x 1024 on DVI and One DELL 1920x 1200 on Displayport

All latest updates as of Feb 29 2016

Win 10 3 screen screenshot using ( F13 Key pasted int firefox on MAC OSX Host )

pastedImage_1.png

Win Display control panel with 3 screens

pastedImage_3.png

Unity view works also

see the 'Floating Win 10 Settings" in the OSX display

pastedImage_8.png

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SeanWong
Contributor
Contributor

Gotchas for Mac OSX Guests

From this page

VMware KB: Installing VMware Tools in a Mac OS Guest

VMware KB: Installing VMware Tools in a Mac OS Guest

Running VMware Tools in Mac OS guests has these limitations:

  • SVGA only. No accelerated 2D or 3D graphics.
  • Drag-and-Drop / Copy-Paste
  • No support for Unity.
  • No multimonitor support in full screen.
  • No USB 3.0 support.
  • Mac OS X Server guests do not support sound.
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