VMware Fusion Pro 13 - Windows 11 nt opening after upgrade to MAC OS 14 (Sonoma)

[rvittori]

I can no longer open my Windows 11 VM after upgrading to Somoma. I have uninstalled Fusion Pro 13 completely and reinstalled and still have the same problem.  I tried posting with some log information but it gets tagged as spam. Can anyone help? Has anyone had the same issue? I am on an 2020 Intel Mac with an i5 processor. 

[rvittori]

Attaching a log file. 

Attachment(s)

VMLog Info.pdf   46 KB 1 version

[rvittori]

I just tried the VMWare Tech Fusion Preview and it also does not work.

[Technogeezer]

Please zip up and attach the entire contents of the vmware.log and the mksSandbox.log files found in the VM's bundle folder.

Snippets of the log file don't tell the entire story.

 

[Technogeezer]

Also,

Shut down Fusion, then try running the script found in https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Fusion-Documents/Script-to-check-if-all-remnants-of-VMware-Fusion-are-gone-from/ta-p/2990161 Remove all the files it shows to completely uninstall Fusion from your Mac.

Then re-install Fusion 13. 

[rvittori]

Just deleted VMWare fusion and used the script to ensure all VMWare files have been removed and also rebooted the Mac after wards. 

Will check the script again for left over files just in case. Next step will be to download Fusion Pro 13.0.2 and reinstall in hopes this will work. 

[rvittori]

After the removal, reboots, download and reinstall. Still the same issues. 

[rvittori]

Here is the VMWare Log. Please let me know if this is correct. I am still looking for the mks logs.

Attachment(s)

vmware-vmfusion.log.zip   10 KB 1 version

[Technogeezer]

Could you also zip up the  log files that are found in the VM bundle. Here's how to get them:

Find the VM in the Finder ( should have a .vmwarevm extension).

Right click on it, and select Show Package Contents. 

You will then see all of the files that make up your VM. 

Zip up the vmware*.log files and the mksSandbox*.log files and attach them to a reply in this thread. 

 

 

[rvittori]

Here are the files. Thank you so much for the directions and thank you for trying to help. 

Attachment(s)

Windows 11 Home.Archive.zip   187 KB 1 version

[Technogeezer]

The mks component of Fusion is crashing for some reason. One thing I can see is that you have 3D support enabled. Can you try disabling it in the VM and see if it helps things? (There's a similar issue reported with VMware Workstation, and it seems that disabling 3D acceleration was a workaround).

[rvittori]

I disabled 3D Acceleration. That did not help.  I also switch Retina support off. That did not help either. O attached the VM logs and mks logs from the recent attempts. 

 

Thanks again.

 

Attachment(s)

Archive.zip   172 KB 1 version

[wila]

Hi,

I saw "remote shutdown" mentioned in the mks logs, not sure if that's a crash.
One thing I do notice however that you have a lot of devices connected to your mac and that the vmware.log stops right in the middle of enumerating those.
Can you try booting the VM after disconnecting every device from your mac?

--
Wil

[rvittori]

There are only two devices attached to the Mac. A super drive and external drive unless you count the wireless mouse and key board. There is nothing else. I disconnected the two drives rebooted the Mac and had the same results. 

[wila]

Hi,

The last lines in most of your logs are looking like:

2023-10-12T03:48:00.487Z In(05) vmx VUsbUpdateVigorFieldsAndAutoconnect: New set of 3 USB devices
2023-10-12T03:48:00.487Z In(05) vmx USB: Found device [name:Robert's\ Time\ Machine\ Backup\ (LaCie\ Mobile\ Drive) vid:059f pid:10bc path:0/2 speed:super family:storage,storage-bulk serialnum:00000000NL6F575X arbRuntimeKey:3 version:5]
2023-10-12T03:48:00.487Z In(05) vmx USB: Found device [name:Apple\ MacBook\ Air\ SuperDrive vid:05ac pid:1500 path:65/4 speed:high family:storage,storage-bulk serialnum:KZ8DBR44219\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ arbRuntimeKey:2 quirks:needs-boot-camp version:5]
2023-10-12T03:48:00.487Z In(05) vmx USB: Found device [name:Virtual\ Bluetooth\ Adapter vid:0e0f pid:0008 speed:full family:wireless,bluetooth virtPath:usb_xhci:5 deviceType:virtual-bluetooth info:0000001 version:5], connected to usb_xhci port 5.

So yes.  I do count the wireless mouse & keyboard as one of the suspects.

--
Wil

[rvittori]

I can wire the keyboard but I do not have a wired mouse to use. It also renders the Mac and Windows VM useless if I can't use a mouse.  I am not sure where to go here. 

I will try disconnecting the drives and wiring the keyboard and see what happens. I need to leave the mouse connected to be able to start VMware. 

I do appreciate folks trying to help. Thanks. 

[rvittori]

With everything disconnected except the wireless mouse and a wired keyboard. Same results. 

[wila]

Hi,

I thought I saw "macbook air" in the log somewhere. That must have been a relic of something else then.
The hardware itself is a normal mac? Not something else? The CPU itself also appears to suggest that it's fairly recent otherwise my next question would be if the host is running OLPC or something else to get Sonoma running on unsupported hardware.

For the rest I'm running out of ideas with the current information that we have, sorry.
In your case I would probably try a fresh install of Sonoma, but that's me.

--
Wil

[rvittori]

This is a 27" iMac from 2020.  Intel i5.  Fully supported by Apple for Sonoma.  There is no OLPC.  Thanks for the help. 

[wila]

Which - I just noticed now - was mentioned in your opening post which I managed to miss.

Other things to try are seeing if it makes a difference to turn off side channel mitigations.
See if other VM's will start. In case you have those, if not then try creating a new VM and see if it will boot.

--
Wil

 

[rvittori]

I tried all of that. I created a new Windows 11 x64 , it did not work. I turned off the side channel mitigations, that did not work. 

I think something the Fusion is not able to connected to a Sonoma driver and it just shuts down. I'm no expert in VMware so take that with a grain of salt. 

I also tried to change the boot from EFI to BIOS, that did not work.  

I copied an old Windows 10 VM I had not used in about a year and that was a worse disaster. VMware could not update or upgrade it and it failed differently then my Window 11 VM. 

[ColoradoMarmot]

One interim step before a reinstall of Sonoma is to create a new user account, and then run Fusion from there.

The step after that is an overlay install (reinstall Sonoma over the existing installation).

Last idea - the VM must be on an APFS or HFS+ formatted drive, so if it's on an external drive with exFAT, or especially if there's an NTFS driver involved, it won't work.

[rvittori]

PROBLEM SOLVED:

I had a seemingly unrelated issue.  My space bar was not working in MS Excel on my MAC. I researched the issue and found out that I had to shutoff "FULL KEYBOARD ACCESS" under the Accessibility Settings in Systems Settings.  I did that and then recalled that this was something turned on during the installation of Sonoma.  

After this fixed the Excel problem. I tried VMware Fusion and my VM started. It had to do some kind of repair but my Windows 11 VMs are working just fine now. 

I do not know why this worked or why it caused the problem in the first place. 

Thank you for all who tried to help. 

[wila]

Hi,

Interesting.

Not something I would have come up with myself. I wonder if this is a new issue for Sonoma.
Glad to hear that the issue is resolved and thanks for letting us know what resolved the problem.

--
Wil

[Technogeezer]

  that was a good piece of detective work. I enabled Full Keyboard Access on Sonoma and now no VM that I have running under the 2023 Tech Preview will start. Disabling Full Keyboard Access as you did enabled the VMs to boot.

I'm going to drop a message to VMware's beta team as I can reproduce this on Sonoma and the Tech Preview.

[Technogeezer]

Another thought. If you're running the Windows VM with Unity, turn it off.

Unity is an abomination of a feature that causes more problems that it solves. (Are you listening VMware???).

 

[rvittori]

I never use Unity so that is always off. I'm working on your other suggestions now. Thanks for the assistance. 

[atamayo]

I'm on a Macbook Pro Max M2 2023 using VMware Fusion Tech Preview Player Version e.x.p (22068932)

I'm not sure if I have the same problem or if it's a similar one but it also occurred after updating to Sonoma. In my case in the Virtual Machine Library, I see Windows 11 starting correctly, but the virtual machine does not appear, so I cannot interact with it. I have another virtual machine but linux Ubuntu and it boots fine, I don't have any problems with Linux.

I'm new reporting VMWare Fusion issues so I don't know what information is needed and where is it located to get help.

Thanks.

[riceball123]

after I updated my MAC M2 to MAC OS 14 (Sonoma), my VMware fusion 13 doesn't work, then I uninstall it. I tried to install again the same VMware Fusion pro 13 version, I double-click to install, but just one second after prompting out the initializing windon then the windon close automatically. I found the icon showed blocked in my Applications, I tried to open it ,it told me that "You can't open the application "VMware Fusion" because it may be damaged or incomplete"

[Technogeezer]

Have you checked the macOS System Settings > Accessibilty > Keyboard > Full Keyboard Access to see if it's enabled?

[Technogeezer]

Also, if you are getting that message and the icon is blocked, you have a broken application.

Use the information in KB article https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1017838 to fully uninstall Fusion. You can't just drag the Fusion application to the trash to get rid of all remnants of Fusion. Use the script here https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Fusion-Documents/Script-to-check-if-all-remnants-of-VMware-Fusion-are-gone-from/ta-p/2990161 to help you make sure you got all the remnants (the script automates finding the files in the KB article).

Then reboot your Mac to safe mode https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/start-up-your-mac-in-safe-mode-mh21245/mac . Once you've done that, restart your Mac and let it boot normally.

Is this a totally clean macOS installation or do you have any other third party software installed on it?

[ranag]

I get this error message "You can't open the application "VMware Fusion" because it may be damaged or incomplete" , any solution?

[ranag]

I was able to fix this error You can’t open the application “VMware Fusion Tech Preview” because it may be damaged or incomplete.

I copied the app to application folder and installed it from there

[Technogeezer]

Does this still occur with Fusion 13.5? That’s the first released version supported on Sonoma.

New installations of the 2023 Tech Preview should not be happening since the release of Fusion 13.5, and if you’re running it, you should be moving off of it sooner rather than later. . The Tech Previews are beta software and the beta is over. No help is available for beta software. 

[vmw1610]

Greetings - I just found this thread and stopped in to say that this bug is still present in 13.5.0, MacOS 14.2.1. I have tested this on two different Intel Macs and one M1 Mac, all with the same software and OS versions.

Reproducing it is easy:

With a VM running, go to MacOS Settings -> Accessibility -> Keyboard, and enable the toggle for "Full Keyboard Access". Watch the VM crash seconds later. Try to start it. Try to start another VM. Try to create a new VM. All will fail.

Turn off "Full Keyboard Access", and just like that, VMWare Fusion works again.

Hope this helps.

[Technogeezer]

I would not think that a VM should crash or fail to run if this setting is turned on. I've been able to reproduce this, and find it eerily similar to the behavior that occurs when the macOS Voice Over feature is turned on. Perhaps the two are related.

If you have the ability to open a service request with VMware, you might want to do so.

 - can you pass this thread to the developers working on the Voice Over incompatibility. This seems to have symptoms that are very similar and it can be easily reproduced.