Information Gathering for VMware Fusion

Information Gathering for VMware Fusion

Disclaimer: This is a personal document and is not official or endorsed by VMware. Feedback and suggestions are welcome. Feel free to extend.

This document contains step-by-step instructions for common information-gathering tasks. It is intended to help novice users who may not already be familiar with these techniques. If you've been directed to this document, someone probably needs information from you in order to help with a problem.

Note If you're asked to provide multiple pieces of information, you can zip them all together, rather than doing each one separately.

Locate your virtual machine

  1. In Fusion's Virtual Machine Library (Window > Virtual Machine Library), ctrl-click the virtual machine and select "Show in Finder". A Finder window should open showing the virtual machine.

ShowInFinder.png

Note: Some people get confused about this, so it's worth mentioning: a virtual machine is not the same thing as the VMware Fusion application (just like an .mp3 is not the same as iTunes, a .doc is not the same as Microsoft Word, etc.).

Get inside a .vmwarevm bundle

  1. Locate your virtual machine (see prior section).

  2. In the Finder, ctrl-click the .vmwarevm bundle and select "Show Package Contents". A Finder window should open showing the contents of the .vmwarevm bundle.

ShowPackageContents.png

Note: Virtual machines created by Fusion will be in bundles, but virtual machines from other platforms might not be (it's also possible to unbundle a virtual machine). In this case, the second step is not needed.

Note: Some people get confused about this, so it's worth mentioning: a virtual machine is not the same thing as the VMware Fusion application (just like an .mp3 is not the same as iTunes, a .doc is not the same as Microsoft Word, etc.).

Edit a .vmx config file

  1. Get inside the .vmwarevm bundle (see prior section).

  2. Locate the file with the .vmx extension - you should not have to go anywhere, it should be in this bundle.

  3. Make sure the virtual machine and Fusion are not running.

    Never
    edit a file from under Fusion!
  4. Open this file in your text editor of choice (such as TextEdit).

  5. Make the edit.

  6. Save and close.

Note: There must only be a single value per key. If you're supposed to add a key that's already present, replace the existing key instead.

Note: Editing .vmx files lets you do useful things not exposed in the UI, but is officially unsupported and doing this incorrectly can cause your virtual machine to not work. Unless you know what you're doing or have been instructed to do something, it's probably best to leave this file alone.

Note: As of Fusion 3.1, steps 1 and 2 can more easily accomplished by control-option-clicking a virtual machine in Fusion's Virtual Machine Library and selecting Open Config File in Editor.

An alternate method is to use VMX Extras.

Collect vmware.log files

  1. Get inside the .vmwarevm bundle (see prior section).

  2. Locate the vmware.log files - there will be up to four, names vmware.log, vmware-0.log, vmware-1.log, and vmware-2.log. You should not have to go anywhere, they should be in this bundle.

  3. Select them, ctrl-click and select "Create Archive of # items" (Tiger) or "Compress # Items" (Leopard) to zip them.

  4. Post the zip file as an attachment.

These logs record what happened from vmware-vmx's point of view during a run. The log files rotate - vmware.log is the most recent, followed by -0, then -1, and finally -2.

Collect vmware-vmfusion.log files

  1. In the Finder, go to

  2. There should be up to four vmware-vmfusion logs in this directory.

  3. Select them, ctrl-click and select "Create Archive of # items" (Tiger) or "Compress # Items" (Leopard) to zip them.

  4. Post the zip file as an attachment.

These logs record what happened from the Fusion UI's point of view during a run. The log files rotate - vmware-vmfusion.log is the most recent, followed by -0, then -1, and finally -2.

Get a file listing of the .vmwarevm bundle

  1. In a Terminal window, type the following without quotes, including the trailing space, but don't press enter yet. Note these are lowercase 'L's, not ones: ""

  2. In Fusion's Virtual Machine Library (Window > Virtual Machine Library), ctrl-click the virtual machine and select "Show in Finder".

  3. Drag and drop the virtual machine to the Terminal window. This will enter the full, escaped path to the virtual machine.

  4. Type the following without quotes, including leading space, then press enter: ""

DroptoTerminal.png This image is what you should see during step 3.

This will create a file on your desktop with important information about the contents of the .vmwarevm bundle, such as file sizes, names, and permissions. Post it as an attachment.

Collect Tools installation logs

For Windows guests

Tools installation logs are located in %TEMP%\vmmsi.log and %TEMP%\vminst.log in the guest. Zip and attach them.

Collect Tools logs

For Windows guests

The Tools config file location depends on the version of Windows you're running. It may be one of the following:

  • C:\Users\All Users\VMware\VMware Tools\tools.conf (Vista)

  • C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Tools\tools.conf (XP, Vista)

  • C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Tools\tools.conf (XP)

After locating the config file, skip to the "For all guests" section.

For Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, and OS X guests

The Tools config file is /etc/vmware-tools/tools.conf in the guest.

After locating the config file, continue to the "For all guests" section.

For all guests

In the config file you just found, set the following:

log = "TRUE"
log.file = "%PATHNAME%"

where %PATHNAME% is something like "c:\vmtools.log" or "/tmp/vmtools.log", depending on the guest. You'll end up with two files - one the name you specified, and one with a number appended (e.g. c:\vmtools.log.289) -- the number corresponds to the pid of vmwareuser.exe. Whatever location you pick needs to have full permission for all accounts. Reboot the guest.

Reproduce the problem, zip and attach the log. You probably want to undo the Tools config file edits after you're done so that you don't keep generating log files.

Enable USB debugging

  1. Edit the .vmx config file (see prior section) to include the line usb.analyzer.enable = "TRUE"

  2. In Fusion's Preferences, make sure "Diagnostics: Enable debugging checks" is enabled

  3. Start the virtual machine and reproduce the USB problem. Try to minimize other activity so the log is easier to read.

  4. Shut down the virtual machine and collect vmware.log files (see prior section).

  5. Optional: Remove the usb.analyzer.enable line from your .vmx file and disable debugging checks, since the combination will make your logs large.

USB debug logs record a bit of information about each USB packet that gets sent to or from the device, which is invaluable in tracking down USB problems.

An alternate method is to use the USB debug preset in VMX Extras

Tags (1)
Comments

i do nor have this library, where do I install it from. the only virtual machine libray entry I have is Win-xp Professional under the Tab "windows".

NO LIBRARY! control click does nothing for me within the Win-xp-Pro window.

Dummy here, need to know where to install this library from, I have install the VM tools with in the Win-XP-pro window

The Virtual Machine Library is what you get when you select Window > Virtual Machine Library.

The fact that you're talking about about tabs suggests that you're not using Fusion (maybe Workstation instead?).

FYI

I upgraded from 1.0.2 to 2.0.1 and I am debugging a very slow boot for XP. I tried to add Tools logging but my tools.conf is in c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Tools

When I try to get a file listing of the vmware bundle as directed above, I get a "-bash: 1s: command not found" message.

Here's the command I input: 1s -1AF /Users/xxx/Documents/Virtual\ Machines.localized/Windows\ XP\ Professional.vmwarevm > ~/Desktop/filelist.txt

Maybe too many spaces?

Thanks in advance for your help...

It's lowercase 'L', not the number one.

thanks, that worked!

Minor mistake - Under "Edit a .vmx config file" it says "Note: As of Fusion 3.1 (currently in a public beta), steps 1 and 2 can more easily accomplished by control-option-clicking a virtual machine in Fusion's Library and selecting Open Config File in Editor.".

For me on SL10.6.4 and Fusion 3.1 release, it's CtrlAlt, not CtrlOption.

OxkAMam, alt and option are the same key. Smiley Happy

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Last update:
‎11-14-2008 12:40 PM
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