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Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

PPisKing

PPisKingOct 17, 2023 04:49 AM

Croxton23

Croxton23Oct 17, 2023 06:24 AM

  • 1.  Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Dec 27, 2020 05:02 AM

     

    Today for no apparent reason, when I started VM Fusion 12, it just hangs.

    What should I do first to resolve this problem.

    I've been running Big Sur since it's release.

    I have removed it and re-installed, same thing happens



  • 2.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Dec 28, 2020 02:57 AM

    Well that was strange.

    Today on Startup, run Fusion same as I do every day, and like yesterday it hung immediately, nothing doing, application not responding.

    But I was eating, so I left it, then after thirty minutes it started. But it also popped up a window telling me that there is a new version available.

    So my question is, was it waiting for communication from VMware ? and there wasn't actually anything wrong in the first place.

    ??

     



  • 3.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Dec 28, 2020 11:28 AM

    Hi,

    That would seem unlikely. The update checking logic appears to me to have been implemented in a background thread, at least that's how it always has behaved for me in the past. I don't think that has changed for Fusion 12.

    But while we can keep on guessing about implementation details, the better thing one can do at a moment like this is trying to inspect the log that has details from the UI. It is called the vmware-vmfusion.log and can be found at:
    ls ~/Library/Logs/VMware\ Fusion/

    --
    Wil



  • 4.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Dec 28, 2020 11:35 AM

     

    Hi Will,

    Thanks for the info on the log. Here it is

    2020-12-28T09:01:48.708+07:00| usbArb| I005: Log for VMware USB Arbitration Service pid=2310 version=e.x.p build=build-16739231 option=Release
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.708+07:00| usbArb| I005: The host is 64-bit.
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.708+07:00| usbArb| I005: Host codepage=UTF-8 encoding=UTF-8
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.708+07:00| usbArb| I005: Host is Mac OS X 10.16 (20C69) Darwin 20.2.0
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.704+07:00| host-17141| I005: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/usb-virt-api-switch": No such file or directory.
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.704+07:00| host-17141| I005: UsbVirtApiSwitch: product=VMware Fusion state=on
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.704+07:00| usbArb| I005: VTHREAD 4321046016 "usbArb" tid 17141
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.705+07:00| usbArb| I005: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config": No such file or directory.
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.705+07:00| usbArb| I005: [msg.dictionary.load.openFailed] Cannot open file "/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config": No such file or directory.
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.705+07:00| usbArb| I005: PREF Optional preferences file not found at /Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config. Using default values.
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.711+07:00| usbArb| I005: DICT --- GLOBAL SETTINGS (null)
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.711+07:00| usbArb| I005: DICT --- NON PERSISTENT (null)
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.711+07:00| usbArb| I005: DICT --- HOST DEFAULTS /Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.712+07:00| usbArb| I005: DICT --- SITE DEFAULTS (null)
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.713+07:00| usbArb| I005: USBArbRuleStore: Loading device rules from rules file.
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.713+07:00| usbArb| I005: VMware USB Arbitration Service Version 19.9.0
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.713+07:00| machPoll| I005: VTHREAD 123145440014336 "machPoll" tid 17142
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.714+07:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: Attempting to connect to existing arbitrator on /var/run/vmware/usbarb-socket.
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.714+07:00| usbArb| I005: SOCKET creating new socket, connecting to /var/run/vmware/usbarb-socket
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.714+07:00| usbArb| I005: SOCKET connect failed, error 2: No such file or directory
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.714+07:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: No other USB arbitrator instance is currently running.
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.715+07:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: listening socket 13 created successfully
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.715+07:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: adding listening socket 13 to poll queue
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.721+07:00| usbArb| W003: USBGM: IOCreatePlugInInterfaceForService failed (e00002be)
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.722+07:00| usbArb| W003: USBGM: IOCreatePlugInInterfaceForService failed (e00002be)
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.730+07:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: new socket connection estibalished: socket 4
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.730+07:00| usbArb| I004: USBArb: new client 7FB11A50B030 created, socket 4 added to poll queue
    2020-12-28T09:01:48.731+07:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: Client 2170 connected (version:
    2020-12-28T09:31:48.627+07:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: new socket connection estibalished: socket 14
    2020-12-28T09:31:48.627+07:00| usbArb| I004: USBArb: new client 7FB11A704DB0 created, socket 14 added to poll queue
    2020-12-28T09:31:52.926+07:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: Client 4524 connected (version:
    2020-12-28T09:31:52.926+07:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: Registered target 'vmware-vmx:/Users/RossAtomicSquid/Documents/Virtual Machines/Windows 10 x64.vmwarevm/Windows 10 x64.vmx' for client 4524.
    2020-12-28T09:32:44.522+07:00| usbArb| I004: USBArb: pipe 14 closed by client 7FB11A704DB0
    2020-12-28T09:32:44.522+07:00| usbArb| I004: USBArb: removing client 7FB11A704DB0: pid=4524, pipe=14
    2020-12-28T09:32:44.522+07:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: Client 4524 disconnected
    2020-12-28T09:32:44.522+07:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: Target 'vmware-vmx:/Users/RossAtomicSquid/Documents/Virtual Machines/Windows 10 x64.vmwarevm/Windows 10 x64.vmx' disconnected
    2020-12-28T09:47:21.686+07:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: new socket connection estibalished: socket 14
    2020-12-28T09:47:21.686+07:00| usbArb| I004: USBArb: new client 7FB11A50B0C0 created, socket 14 added to poll queue
    2020-12-28T09:47:21.687+07:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: Client 5815 connected (version:
    2020-12-28T09:47:21.687+07:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: closing listening socket 13
    2020-12-28T09:47:21.687+07:00| usbArb| I005: MachPoll: mach_port_extract_member failed for port 5639 (12)
    2020-12-28T09:47:21.689+07:00| usbArb| I004: USBArb: removing client 7FB11A50B030: pid=2170, pipe=4
    2020-12-28T09:47:21.689+07:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: Client 2170 disconnected
    2020-12-28T09:47:21.689+07:00| usbArb| I004: USBArb: removing client 7FB11A50B0C0: pid=5815, pipe=14
    2020-12-28T09:47:21.689+07:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: Client 5815 disconnected
    2020-12-28T09:47:21.689+07:00| usbArb| I004: USBArb: usb-arbitrator exit normally

    Weird.

     



  • 5.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Feb 12, 2021 04:07 PM

    I encountered the same issue.

    I was using VMware Professional Version 12.1.0 (17195230) and then upgraded to Mac OS Big Sur version 11.2.1. Once I upgraded, VMware appeared as if would not start anymore, the process was highlighted in the Activity Monitor as "Not Responding"

    Hardware Overview:

    Model Name: MacBook Pro
    Model Identifier: MacBookPro11,5
    Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Core i7
    Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
    Number of Processors: 1
    Total Number of Cores: 4
    L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
    L3 Cache: 6 MB
    Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled
    Memory: 16 GB
    System Firmware Version: 426.0.0.0.0

    Solution

    It appears that the trick is to do absolutely nothing, but wait. In my case, after about 25 minutes, the VMware became responsive once again. Very strange. Hope this helps.

     

    Additional Note

    One other thing that I did was to temporarily remove all of the images that I had from the /Users/${name}/Documents/Virtual Machines/ directory before I tried to restart VMware. Once, VMware was back in action, I moved them back in again. I'm not sure if that will make any difference, that's just one of the steps I took.



  • 6.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Feb 13, 2021 04:06 AM

    I am having the same issue. Been using VMWare Fusion 12.1.0 flawlessly for a while.

    And then after closing it down and reopening, it freezes on running Fusion and shows as Not Responding in the Finder.

    I have uninstalled, reinstalled with emptying the trash between reboots.

    I have waited several hours with it Not Responding and it never starts. 

    Running on MacBook Pro 15Inch 2019 Corei9 with 32GB RAM.

    I have an older iMac and it runs just fine. I even tried copying that Fusion App to the MacBook Pro - and same Not Responding Issue.

    I enclose below the log of my latest session. 

    Can anyone from VMware offer any insight in to this Not Responding - Spinning Beach Ball issue? This is job critical that I get this issue resolved.

    Thank you,

    - Lee

     

    2021-02-12T22:02:26.976-05:00| usbArb| I005: Log for VMware USB Arbitration Service pid=1406 version=16.0.0 build=build-16975537 option=Release
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.976-05:00| usbArb| I005: The host is 64-bit.
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.976-05:00| usbArb| I005: Host codepage=UTF-8 encoding=UTF-8
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.976-05:00| usbArb| I005: Host is Mac OS X 10.15.7 (19H524) Darwin 19.6.0
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.976-05:00| host-16339| I005: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/usb-virt-api-switch": No such file or directory.
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.976-05:00| host-16339| I005: UsbVirtApiSwitch: product=VMware Fusion state=on
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.976-05:00| usbArb| I005: VTHREAD 4793753024 "usbArb" tid 16339
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.976-05:00| usbArb| I005: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config": No such file or directory.
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.976-05:00| usbArb| I005: [msg.dictionary.load.openFailed] Cannot open file "/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config": No such file or directory.
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.976-05:00| usbArb| I005: PREF Optional preferences file not found at /Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config. Using default values.
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.978-05:00| usbArb| I005: DICT --- GLOBAL SETTINGS (null)
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.978-05:00| usbArb| I005: DICT --- NON PERSISTENT (null)
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.978-05:00| usbArb| I005: DICT --- HOST DEFAULTS /Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.978-05:00| usbArb| I005: DICT --- SITE DEFAULTS (null)
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.978-05:00| usbArb| I005: USBArbRuleStore: Loading device rules from rules file.
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.978-05:00| usbArb| I005: VMware USB Arbitration Service Version 19.9.0
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.978-05:00| machPoll| I005: VTHREAD 123145368977408 "machPoll" tid 16340
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.978-05:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: Attempting to connect to existing arbitrator on /var/run/vmware/usbarb-socket.
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.979-05:00| usbArb| I005: SOCKET creating new socket, connecting to /var/run/vmware/usbarb-socket
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.979-05:00| usbArb| I005: SOCKET connect failed, error 2: No such file or directory
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.979-05:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: No other USB arbitrator instance is currently running.
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.979-05:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: listening socket 13 created successfully
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.979-05:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: adding listening socket 13 to poll queue
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.981-05:00| usbArb| W003: USBGM: IOCreatePlugInInterfaceForService failed (e00002be)
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.981-05:00| usbArb| W003: USBGM: IOCreatePlugInInterfaceForService failed (e00002be)
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.981-05:00| usbArb| W003: USBGM: IOCreatePlugInInterfaceForService failed (e00002be)
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.986-05:00| usbArb| W003: USBGM: IOCreatePlugInInterfaceForService failed (e00002be)
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.986-05:00| usbArb| W003: USBGM: IOCreatePlugInInterfaceForService failed (e00002be)
    2021-02-12T22:02:26.986-05:00| usbArb| W003: USBGM: IOCreatePlugInInterfaceForService failed (e00002be)
    2021-02-12T22:56:14.525-05:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: new socket connection estibalished: socket 4
    2021-02-12T22:56:14.525-05:00| usbArb| I004: USBArb: new client 7F8FC3704110 created, socket 4 added to poll queue
    2021-02-12T22:56:14.525-05:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: Client 1734 connected (version:
    2021-02-12T22:56:14.525-05:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: closing listening socket 13
    2021-02-12T22:56:14.525-05:00| usbArb| I005: MachPoll: mach_port_extract_member failed for port 5639 (12)
    2021-02-12T22:56:14.526-05:00| usbArb| I004: USBArb: removing client 7F8FC3704110: pid=1734, pipe=4
    2021-02-12T22:56:14.526-05:00| usbArb| I005: USBArb: Client 1734 disconnected
    2021-02-12T22:56:14.526-05:00| usbArb| I004: USBArb: usb-arbitrator exit normally

     

    UPDATE:

    After leaving it for several hours in Not Responding, it finally started working. I can't explain what would change for that long and then start working.



  • 7.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Mar 24, 2021 09:42 PM

    I've left it in "not responding" state for hours now, and it still won't start. How can we get support from VMWare on this?

    2021-03-24T12:22:15.362-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: Log for VMware Fusion pid=24251 version=12.1.0 build=build-17195230 option=Release
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.362-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: The host is 64-bit.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.362-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: Host codepage=UTF-8 encoding=UTF-8
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.362-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: Host is macOS 11.2.3 (20D91) Darwin 20.3.0
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.317-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: VTHREAD 4707925504 "VMware Fusion" tid 306648
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.317-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: UTIL: Change file descriptor limit from soft 256,hard 4294967295 to soft 8192,hard 4294967295.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.318-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config": No such file or directory.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.318-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: [msg.dictionary.load.openFailed] Cannot open file "/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config": No such file or directory.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.318-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: PREF Optional preferences file not found at /Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config. Using default values.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.319-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/settings": No such file or directory.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.319-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: [msg.dictionary.load.openFailed] Cannot open file "/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/settings": No such file or directory.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.319-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: PREF Optional preferences file not found at /Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/settings. Using default values.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.319-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/config": No such file or directory.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.319-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: [msg.dictionary.load.openFailed] Cannot open file "/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/config": No such file or directory.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.319-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: PREF Optional preferences file not found at /Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/config. Using default values.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.319-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "/Users/karlcepull/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config": No such file or directory.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.319-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: [msg.dictionary.load.openFailed] Cannot open file "/Users/karlcepull/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config": No such file or directory.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.319-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: PREF Optional preferences file not found at /Users/karlcepull/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config. Using default values.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.325-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: lib/ssl: OpenSSL using RAND_OpenSSL for RAND
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.325-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: lib/ssl: protocol list tls1.2
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.325-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: lib/ssl: protocol list tls1.2 (openssl flags 0x17000000)
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.325-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: lib/ssl: cipher list ECDHE+AESGCM:RSA+AESGCM:ECDHE+AES:RSA+AES
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.325-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: lib/ssl: curves list prime256v1:secp384r1:secp521r1
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.326-04:00| VMware Fusion| I004: gVmomi: gvmomi_init: success.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.362-04:00| VMware Fusion| W003: Log Facility output is directed to file: /Users/karlcepull/Library/Logs/VMware Fusion/vmware-vmfusion.log
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.363-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: OBJLIB-LIB: Objlib initialized.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.363-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: Msg_SetLocaleEx: HostLocale=UTF-8 UserLocale=en
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.364-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/messages/en/vmware.vmsg": No such file or directory.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.366-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: WQPoolAllocPoll : pollIx = 1, signalHandle = 12
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.387-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: vmxFilePath="/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmware-vmx"
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.387-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: vmxFilePathDebug="/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmware-vmx-debug"
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.387-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: vmxFilePathStats="/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmware-vmx-stats"
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.431-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: HOSTDEV-MAC: HostDeviceInfo_FindHostSoundDevices: Found default sound devices [AppleUSBAudioEngine:DisplayLink:Targus USB3 DV4K DOCK w PD100W:00249B5E2ECA:3|BuiltInMicrophoneDevice].
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.433-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: Warning: SGHostEnumerate not yet implemented
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.433-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: SMBIOS: can't open /dev/mem: Could not find the file
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.433-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: VmhsHostInfoPopulateSystem: Could not get information from smbios to populate VMDB.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.514-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/config": No such file or directory.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.539-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: Foundry Init: setting up global state (1 poll threads, 0 worker threads).
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.539-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: Vix_InitializeGlobalState: vixLogLevel = 0
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.539-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: Vix_InitializeGlobalState: vixApiTraceLevel = 0
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.539-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: Vix_InitializeGlobalState: vixDebugPanicOnVixAssert = 0
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.539-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: Vix_InitializeGlobalState: vixLogRefcountOnFinalRelease = 0
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.539-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: Vix_InitializeGlobalState: asyncOpWarningThreshold = 1000000
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.539-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: Vix_InitializeGlobalState: enableSyncOpSelection = FALSE
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.539-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: Vix_InitializeGlobalState: enableExternalThreadInterface = TRUE
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.539-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: Vix_InitializeGlobalState: enableVigor = FALSE
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.539-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: Msg_SetLocaleEx: HostLocale=UTF-8 UserLocale=en
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.539-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/messages/en/vmware.vmsg": No such file or directory.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.540-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: VixHost_ConnectEx: version -1, hostType 3, hostName (null), hostPort 0, options 8707
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.717-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: ReadProxyFile: Failed to read file: /etc/vmware/hostd/proxy.xml
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.718-04:00| CnxFSVigor| I005: VTHREAD 123145490513920 "CnxFSVigor" tid 306795
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.718-04:00| vthread-306796| I005: VTHREAD 123145491050496 "vthread-306796" tid 306796
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.718-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/usb-virt-api-switch": No such file or directory.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.718-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: UsbVirtApiSwitch: product=VMware Fusion state=on
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.718-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: SOCKET creating new socket, connecting to /var/run/vmware/usbarb-socket
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.719-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: SOCKET connect failed, error 2: No such file or directory
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.719-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: REM-USB: Protocol version min:15 current:17. hostId:52 78 1d 0d ba 01 d6 3f-24 a0 9c f7 88 6b 6a 69
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.719-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: REM-USB: Initializing 'Generic' backend
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.719-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: SOCKET creating new socket, connecting to /var/run/vmware/usbarb-socket
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.719-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: SOCKET connect failed, error 2: No such file or directory
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.719-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: REM-USB: Initializing 'Virtual CCID' backend
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.720-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: USB-CCID: dlopened /System/Library/Frameworks/PCSC.framework/PCSC.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.741-04:00| usbCCIDEnumCards| I005: VTHREAD 123145491587072 "usbCCIDEnumCards" tid 306803
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.741-04:00| usbCCIDEnumCards| I005: USB-CCID: Card enum thread created.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.741-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: SOCKET creating new socket, connecting to /var/run/vmware/usbarb-socket
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.741-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: SOCKET connect failed, error 2: No such file or directory
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.751-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "/Users/karlcepull/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/preferences-private": No such file or directory.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.752-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: Phone Home: PhoneHome_CreateClient: Creating client for host https://vcsa.vmware.com/ph, collector fusion.12_0, instance 52781d0d-ba01-d63f-24a0-9cf7886b6a69.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.752-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: Phone Home: PhoneHome_CreateClient: Will send phone home requests to "https://vcsa.vmware.com/ph/api/hyper/send?_c=fusion.12_0&_i=52781d0d-ba01-d63f-24a0-9cf7886b6a69".
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.752-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: VMServiceUser opening service (async): /Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/services/Open VMware Fusion Services
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.754-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "/Users/karlcepull/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmInventory": No such file or directory.
    2021-03-24T12:22:15.754-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "": No such file or directory.
    2021-03-24T12:22:19.496-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/licenses/urls": No such file or directory.
    2021-03-24T12:22:20.601-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: UtilMacOS: Found graphics devices
    2021-03-24T12:22:20.603-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: DUIPopulateGPUData: Failed to find VRAM subdata for GPU Intel UHD Graphics 630, giving up



  • 8.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Mar 26, 2021 10:32 AM

    Hi,

    I don't work for VMware, nor do I have any superpowers in that respect

    However I might be able to help you draw the attention of the VMware Fusion product manager who AFAIK has those superpowers. He should be able to assign a support engineer to your case.

    Your log snippet is interesting as it has a hint on what is going on:

    "2021-03-24T12:22:20.603-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: DUIPopulateGPUData: Failed to find VRAM subdata for GPU Intel UHD Graphics 630, giving up"

    It certainly is not a good thing if a fresh VMware Fusion install gets stuck on startup and I'm sure that VMware wants this fixed too.

    --
    Wil



  • 9.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Mar 26, 2021 04:37 PM

    Looking into it... does the issue persist on macOS 11.2.3?

    I see in the logs posted that it's happening with 11.2.3... Investigating. I haven't seen this personally.



  • 10.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Mar 26, 2021 06:02 PM

    Hi Mikero. 

    I have two machines where this was an issue. But the one I am in front of now is running Mac OS 10.15.7

    I am now running fine. But what I did (having read somewhere in another forum) was to let the system stay in its 'Not Responding' state for many many hours. I would say at least 3 hours - but did not set a stopwatch. Just left it and went away for a long while. When I came back 6 hours or so later, VMware had started up. It then has been working fine ever since. I could not possibly tell you what the system was doing for 3+ hours that it was able to finally resolve and move past. 

    But 'm happy to report it is working now. 

    I am on VMware 12.1.0

     



  • 11.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Apr 01, 2021 05:28 PM

    Update: As with others, I just let it sit for HOURS (like 6+), and it finally started responding! Since then, I've not encountered it again. So, it would appear that maybe it's something that happens the first time you run VMWare Fusion after upgrading to 11.2.3?



  • 12.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Apr 06, 2021 06:27 PM

    I am having this problem as well.  My leading theory on the delay is Time Machine having to create space on a disk (SSD) that is getting too full, and/or having to retrieve files from the Cloud that haven't been used recently.



  • 13.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted May 04, 2021 04:33 PM

    VM's should be excluded from time machine, and absolutely excluded from cloud backups.  Neither are reliable.



  • 14.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted May 04, 2021 06:59 PM

    Neither are the case regarding this issue.  



  • 15.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted May 04, 2021 01:54 PM

    Same problem just started today after working fine for about 7 months.  I tried a clean un-install using the instructions here:  

    https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1017838

    And did a fresh install using the VMware-Fusion-12.1.1-17801503.dmg installer and on first launch it's right back to hanging again.

    I looked at the vmware-vmfusion.log file and also noticed the last line is the same thing someone else pointed out:

    2021-05-04T09:38:17.399-04:00| VMware Fusion| I005: DUIPopulateGPUData: Failed to find VRAM subdata for GPU Intel HD Graphics CFL, giving up

     



  • 16.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted May 04, 2021 03:40 PM

    Even though it appears to be hung, Just let it sit. For hours. It usually will eventually come up. After the first time, it seems to work fine. 



  • 17.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted May 04, 2021 07:01 PM

    After hours and hours of waiting it finally sprung back to life on its own.  Been using Fusion 12 for over 6 months and first time this has happened.  



  • 18.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted May 04, 2021 07:19 PM

    This is such a weird issue... we haven't seen this in-house, but we also don't have a clear idea of what needs to be in place to trigger it.

     

    I'm glad that just waiting moves it along, but the last time I waited 6+ hours for something to finish was when I was compiling a full OS from source on a proliant in 2003. Even then, my boss at the time just gave up and installed Windows 2000 instead. "This linux stuff is stupid..."

    Anyway, I digress...

     

    If anyone can share a way to trigger it, we might be able to debug it. 

     

    Or if someone who just came out of it could launch Fusion and run 'Collect support information', that might also help.

     

    edit: I know there are log excerpts above, but we need a whole log bundle so we can correlate what's happening in the system as a whole at the time.



  • 19.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted May 04, 2021 07:42 PM
      |   view attached

    This happened to me (see my post earlier in the thread) on 2/12/21

    That night, I decided to just let it hang overnight and when I woke up in the morning, VMware Fusion had started. I enclose the log file from 2/12/21 when I exited while it was still hung. And from 2/13/21 after I waited overnight and it started working. It has been working fine ever since. I hope these two logs might offer a clue to the cause or ability to replicate the issue on your end.

    - Lee 

     

    Attachment(s)

    zip
    vmware-usbarb.zip   3 KB 1 version


  • 20.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted May 04, 2021 08:05 PM

    I have had no issues after taking the following steps:

    1. Move all VMs out of my Documents directory (which was subject to iCloud management)

    2. Reinstall everything (VMware Fusion, Windows 10, Quicken)

    3. Restore Quicken files from backups and make sure no active Quicken data files use directories shared with the Mac 

    4. Attach a new 2TB SSD drive and free up about a third of the internal 2TB SSD, to reduce long pauses elsewhere on the Mac

    I definitely had a corrupted Quicken file, and probably also a corrupted VM, in view of the long hangs.  I suspect that I did a dirty shutdown at some point to cause the corruption.  Had I waited the necessary hours, it seems likely everything would have survived intact.



  • 21.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted May 05, 2021 01:14 AM

    Mikero,

    When the hang condition is happening it's fully repeatable.  Reboots, cold shut-downs, even deep clean un-install and re-install using the instructions I linked above.  Even after the fresh install it still hung, which makes me think the un-install instructions are leaving some things behind.  What might be useful for future users stumbling across this post is if you can share instructions on exactly what logs (VMWare, Mac Console, Activity Monitor, etc)... any kind of metric you would want to capture as the hang is taking place someone might be able to capture the info needed.  They'll have plenty of time to collect the logs while waiting for Fusion to come back to life!   I can confirm that once you wait the few hours and it auto-recovers it doesn't seem to hang again after that.  Multiple quits and re-launches today and it loaded right away, as usual.

     

     



  • 22.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted May 05, 2021 07:06 PM

     What might be useful for future users stumbling across this post is if you can share instructions on exactly what logs (VMWare, Mac Console, Activity Monitor, etc)

    Simply put, we just need folks to click Help > Collect Support Information, and post a link to the zip file somewhere that we can get.

    This is what we _always_ want when we ask for logs.



  • 23.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Jun 15, 2021 09:34 AM

    Hi

    I had this issue too.    I uninstalled Fusion 12.1 after experiencing the issue and then did repeated re-installs, while increasingly removing and VMware files I could find except the VM bundles themselves.   On the last one, I also moved the VM bundles to different folders.   Fusion remained unresponsive after every attempt.

    On the last and cleanest reinstall, I left it going and it finished whatever it was doing after around 15 hours, based on the accumulated CPU time (it was 100% busy on one thread the whole time it was unresponsive).

    I collected Support Information and have uploaded it to Google Drive.  I don't want to post the link here publicly in case it contains some private info, but I am happy to share directly on request.

    Thanks,

    Martin



  • 24.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Aug 18, 2021 03:28 AM
      |   view attached

    We unfortunately cannot do that if we cannot launch VMware Fusion, unless you can provide us with some other way of collecting full logs.

     

    I am also encountering this issue on a brand-new MacBook Pro:

    macOS Big Sur 11.3.1 (20E241)

    MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)

    2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5

    16 GB 3733 MHz LPDDR4X

    Intel Iris Plus Graphics 1536 MB

    1TB Flash Storage

     

    Using the VMware-Fusion-12.1.2-17964953.dmg installer with the verified sha256 sum of 873049d4080168b56085c5b67be1d4eeb14debc0e6cf176dbd52c78518d0b883.

     

    VMware Fusion was only the second piece of software I installed after Lastpass, and this is my first day of owning the MacBook.

     

    Hopefully that at least provides a (somewhat expensive) reproduction environment, even if I can't provide full logs at the moment.

     

    I've attached everything in ~/Library/Logs/VMware Fusion

    Attachment(s)

    zip
    vmware-logs.zip   7 KB 1 version


  • 25.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Aug 18, 2021 04:30 AM

    So I restarted my machine while Fusion was not responding, and it seems to work fine now.

     

    The first thing it presented me with was the "Terms and Conditions", so possibly it encountered some issue while trying to display that page.



  • 26.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Dec 07, 2021 05:47 AM

    I had this problem, and although I can't perform this "Collect support information" task, I have run the "VMware Fusion Problem Reporter.tool" and have the output from it. It says to report the issue at 

    http://www.vmware.com/support/sr/sr_login.jsp

    But then I can't create create an issue because I get the error message:

    "The selected Entitlement Account has no products associated with it. Try selecting a different Entitlement Account to see the products you are entitled to."

     

    I left VMWare fusion running for a while and it came up working, just like as mentioned in this thread. I also have the problem reporter files from after it started working again. I assume these files would be valuable in order to diagnose/fix this problem, but I guess because I don't pay for support I can't report bugs? Where can I upload these files?



  • 27.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Dec 07, 2021 08:55 AM

    from time to time - vmware fusion is open up again - but i am not willing to wait for several hours on a randomly base to use an application. i am also willing to upload my logfiles to find the solution, but as jeremy mentioned - i don't know where to upload it.



  • 28.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Jun 23, 2021 05:07 PM

    same issue here and no luck after waiting for one night. 

    Have to try reset macos? 



  • 29.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Jul 06, 2021 02:33 PM

    I have a Mac mini that run a VM to convert a browser ( PRTG Server monitor Map)  to a video for security monitor display. This config has been working flawlessly for years. We upgraded MacOS and then forced to upgrade VMware to 12. Now everyday I have to spend 15-30 mins messing with vmware trying to reboot the VM. VM locks up hard. Menus do not show up. I have to reboot the macmini some times to get Vmware to clear up. Forcing the shutdown of the app does not always clean up the mess.

    I have 3 Disk systems attached, data NVR Storage, TimeMachine, Network TimeMachine for MPB on network.

    At this point I can almost reliably reproduce this issue ever 12-24 hours. If someone from support wants to tell me what information they want from this I am happy to let them connect to the mac mini or provide logs, run beta builds etc.. Vmware has be come very unstable for my usage.

    MacMini 2018 i7 64GB ram.

     



  • 30.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Nov 01, 2021 12:29 PM

    Luckily I don't have this issue every time I try to open Fusion, but I have had it a few times lately.  Here is the support information I collected.



  • 31.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Nov 12, 2021 09:31 PM

    I experienced the same issue - all of a sudden VM Ware Fusion refuses to start - i let my Macbook run for over 10 hours and it did not return ?!? That is really frustrating. i tried uninstalling and reinstalling with the latest dmg "VMware-Fusion-12.2.1-18811640_x86.dmg". But no luck - Does anybody have a good hint what i could try ?

    Thanks and best regards

    Manfred



  • 32.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Nov 30, 2021 08:45 AM

    a small update from my side. A week after gotting it to work i am again facing the problem. And this is really annoying clearing and uninstalling everything.

    I think here goes another customer for vmware fusion ... 



  • 33.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Nov 26, 2021 08:26 PM

    I had to wipe my hard drive and reinstall everything (including the OS). The first time I started VMWare Fusion (latest version), it hung, and I'm now waiting for hours and hours to see if it will magically finish starting up.

    This issue was reported a year ago, and there still is NO fix from VMWare!? Why is that? I'm not very confident that I will pay to upgrade Fusion any longer, and will instead look at competitor solutions, such as Parallels (which supports the M1 chip, too). I've waited long enough for VMWare to fix this issue, but they don't appear to want to do so, so they have probably lost a customer.



  • 34.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Jan 08, 2022 12:44 PM

    Get the similiar issue

    "VMware Fusion DUIPopulateGPUData: Failed to find VRAM subdata for GPU Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645, giving up"

    Restarted and reinstalled, nothing help.

    Let's see if it fix by itself after night.



  • 35.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Feb 19, 2022 04:06 PM

    Hello,

    The following solution worked for me:

    - Uninstall Fusion (per instructions)

    - Reinstall Fusion

    - Start Fusion: Hangs

    - Kill Fusion

    - Move the VMs directory to a new name. e.g. mv VMs VMs.olde

    - Launch Fusion (it now runs but gives an error on not finding the VMs). Fusion Application is now running

    - Move the VMs folder back to the old name. e.g. mv VMs.olde VMs

    - Fusion magically sees the VM and I can now launch the VM just fine

    It looks like the instructions is missing file or two. Fusion will try to launch your last VM and something is causing it to have issues. Corrupted plist perhaps. But once you move the folder to a new name and back it clears up.

    Best regards,



  • 36.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Feb 23, 2022 01:04 PM

    I stumbled on this today after having several problems with Monterey (macOS 12.2.1), Microsoft Outlook crashing, Microsoft Teams crashing, slow etc.

    My VMware Fusion stopped to work after I rebooted my computer and resetting some work related integrations to macOS

    So I tried the 'wait' game but after 30 minutes I got tired of that so I followed this guide instead;

    https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1017838

    And it worked afterwards! I guess some preferences were out of date/ corrupted. I also reinstalled VMware Fusion but that did not single handedly help.



  • 37.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Mar 03, 2022 09:38 AM

    I had this issue on start-up today. I more or less followed advice in previous 2 posts - I uninstalled fusion (i used ccleaner) but manually drag to bin i guess fine to do to - then i went to the various library locations mentioned here https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1017838 and deleted any left over fusion related files/folders. I also went to my user account library and did the same. I then reinstalled fusion and boom all good! It asked me to locate my virtual machine etc... and up an running. Thanks to the forum for guidance. 



  • 38.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Mar 03, 2022 09:43 AM

    I had this issue on start-up today. I more or less followed advice in previous 2 posts - I uninstalled fusion (i used ccleaner) but manually drag to bin i guess fine to do to - then i went to the various library locations mentioned here https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1017838 and deleted any left over fusion related files/folders. I also went to my user account library and did the same. I then reinstalled fusion and boom all good! It asked me to locate my virtual machine etc... and up an running. Thanks to the forum for guidance. 



  • 39.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Jun 17, 2022 04:22 AM
      |   view attached

    Same issue here: Application Not Responding and the same error in my logs:

    2022-06-17T04:25:40.006Z In(05) VMware Fusion DUIPopulateGPUData: Failed to find VRAM subdata for GPU Intel HD Graphics 530, giving up

    It has happened multiple times now...I have an exam tomorrow and don't have time to wait 6 hours for it resolve itself. Ridic for a product I'm paying for and is new.

    MacOS: 12.3.1

    VMware Fusion 12.2.3

    Attachment(s)

    log
    vmware-vmfusion.log   17 KB 1 version


  • 40.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Jun 17, 2022 04:58 PM

    Simply stating "same issue here" without all the details specific to your configuration doesn't help us help you.

    Please post the vmware.log file in the VM's directory in addition to the vmware-vmfusion.log - it contains more information.

    Also, can you share the Mac model that you're running?

    If this issue had been occurring multiple times, waiting until the last minute ("I have an exam tomorrow") doesn't give anyone here (who are not VMware employees, but other users) a chance to look into what might be going on.

     



  • 41.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Jun 23, 2022 01:10 AM

    Hi

    You can obvs hear the frustration. I posted what others had been asked for in their messages which was just the log. 

    Mac Model: MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016)

    2.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7

    16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3

    Radeon Pro 455 2 GB

    Fusion Pro 12

    Ordered and downloaded: 2022-04-29

    I have reinstalled Fusion Pro twice since my order date above. 

    The issue resolved itself the first time as others have said. I did have to wait all day (about 6 hours) though. This happened again on Monday this week (the third time) during my exam unfortunately but it again resolved itself after an hour this time and VMWare started working again after it gave me the message that "Application Not Responding".

    Please find the logs you requested attached too. I couldn't locate the "vmware.log" file in the VM's directory unfortunately so I attached the logs I could find in /Library/Logs/VMware Fusion.

    I followed this advice: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1017838

    Appreciate your time and expertise because I'm stumped.

     

     

    Attachment(s)

    log
    vmware-vmfusion-0.log   151 KB 1 version
    log
    vmware-vmfusion-1.log   129 KB 1 version
    log
    vmware-vmfusion.log   6.72 MB 1 version
    log
    vmware-vmfusion-2.log   9 KB 1 version
    log
    fusion.log   992 KB 1 version


  • 42.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Nov 02, 2022 05:50 PM
      |   view attached

     

    same problem Fusion 12.1.2 on iMac running Catalina 10.15.7 fusion hangs.

    "top" reports that the process is consuming 99-100% cpu - busy waiting on something?

     

    I am attaching an 'lldb bt all' below ...

    I also dtruss'ed the process and got this:

    madvise(0x7F89B0D20000, 0x2A8000, 0x7) = 0 0

    madvise(0x7F89B08B8000, 0x468000, 0x7) = 0 0

    madvise(0x7F89B0D20000, 0x2A8000, 0x7) = 0 0

    madvise(0x7F89B0FC8000, 0x2A8000, 0x7) = 0 0

    madvise(0x7F89B08B8000, 0x710000, 0x7) = 0 0

    madvise(0x7F8920B80000, 0x2A8000, 0x7) = 0 0

    madvise(0x7F89B08B8000, 0x468000, 0x7) = 0 0

    madvise(0x7F89B0D20000, 0xD18000, 0x7) = 0 0

    madvise(0x7F89208D8000, 0x2A8000, 0x7) = 0 0

    madvise(0x7F8920B80000, 0xA80000, 0x7) = 0 0

    madvise(0x7F8970470000, 0x2A8000, 0x7) = 0 0

    madvise(0x7F8970008000, 0x468000, 0x7) = 0 0

    madvise(0x7F8970470000, 0x2A8000, 0x7) = 0 0

    madvise(0x7F8970718000, 0x2A8000, 0x7) = 0 0

    madvise(0x7F8970008000, 0x710000, 0x7) = 0 0

    this pattern of madvise calls is repeated, which I think is the "busy wait" I am seeing consuming 99% cpu

     

    I also have a full lldb process save-core file but it is large (approx 5Gb) you can find it here:

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zxdOuG1WiY1idsAJnFo6XI2-Oxq6Qd6T/view?usp=sharing

    MacOs "compressed" lldb core.

    hope this helps!

     

     

    Attachment(s)

    txt
    lldb-bt-all.txt   9 KB 1 version


  • 43.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Oct 17, 2023 04:49 AM

    Same issue, on Fusion 13. now



  • 44.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Oct 17, 2023 04:56 AM

    Are you still following the issue? They provided things you asked then you disappear? 



  • 45.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Oct 17, 2023 06:24 AM

    Thanks for sharing this.



  • 46.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted Oct 28, 2024 07:01 PM
    Edited by Broadcom Platform Admin Oct 29, 2024 01:28 PM

    SOLUTION

    Top Menu -> Virtual Machine -> Send Key --> HOME

    • Send a key to the virtual machine to possibly break its current start or start a new state.

    .

    .

    I had the same problem. 

    • Sometimes (rarely) would be blank and not boot the Virtual machine
    • rebooting my mac completely would not solve it
    • turning off all apps, closing everything not needed.. nothing helped.
    • If I open it in the evening, when I try to use it in the morning it magically has loaded and worked

    .

    System Info

    • MacBook M1 Max
    • VMware Fusion 13.6.1
    • MacOS Sequoia
    • VM: Windows 11 64bit




  • 47.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted May 24, 2025 04:37 PM

    Dear all,

    I'm pretty sure these phenomena are due to your VMs getting transferred into the cloud by iCloud.

    Most of us will have iCloud active, and by default, iCloud backs up your Mac's Documents and Desktop folders to iCloud. Cruclally, it will transfer files entirely to the cloud, with no local copy on your Mac, if disk space gets low on your Mac.
    If I recall, by default Fusion will create your VMs in a folder in Documents. VMs are often very large - easily 10s of Gb - so iCloud will often quietly transfer then entirely to the cloud to regain local disk space. This has been my experience anyway.
    Go and have a look for yourself - find a VM you would like to open in your Mac's Finder and see if it has the cloud symbol next to it...
    When you click on a file like this, iCloud then transfers the file back for local access on your Mac's disk.

    However, A: This can take an appreciable amount of time, and B: you might not have enough space locally on your disk anyway...
    For instance, Fusion on my Mac (I'm running Fusion 13 on MacOS 12.7) seemed to hang for a long time - like others have observed, for many hours - and when I noticed the VM I was trying  to open had the cloud symbol by it in Finder, I did a rough calculation of how long the file would take to be copied back to my local disk, based on its size and my local network speed - for instance, a 100Gb VM transferring at 0.1Gbps.... will take 8000s to open! That's over 2 hours. And indeed that was indeed how long Fusion took to open roughly for the file in question.

    Ok, but then why does Fusion hang when you are starting it up even when you are not trying to open a particular VM?:

    I think this is the same phenomenon. Fusion usually start up and displays the list of recent VMs you have used. It's basically hanging before even this list appears, at least that's what happened to me.
    I went back and looked at the VMs I had on Finder - several of these had the cloud symbol, showing that they had got transferred by iCloud fully into the cloud. Despite my efforts to get these transferred to my Mac's local disk (e.g right click on the VM in Finder and select "Download Now") some of the VMs never transferred, quite possibly because there just wasn't enough space on my Mac's disk locally (e.g a 100Gb VM with less than 100Gb free space on my Mac's disk)
    I postulate that Fusion is checking ALL the VMs on the list in some way, and hangs until they are all present locally.

    I assume that Fusion is asking MacOS to look at the VM files, and MacOS is asking iCloud to transfer the files back to Mac's local disk, and iCloud never completes this... because the network connection is slow, or there is not enough space on the local disk, etc. So VM just hangs - for hours (until iCloud transfers ALL the VMs back to the local disk) or forever (if there just isn't enough disk space)

    There is an obvious test for this which is to totally disconnect your Mac from the network - no wifi, no ethernet etc.
    I tried this - Fusion started working again instantly.

    I then edited the list of VMs in Fusion - I deleted absolutely any VM from the list that I didn't need. NOTE, Fusion will ask if you want to delete the actual VM and its files, or just it's presence in the list. Obviously, if you still need the VM, don't delete the files by accident!
    Once you have your pruned list - and you have made sure that the VMs you need are indeed actually present locally on your Mac's disk and are not in the cloud - you will find that Fusion works perfectly again. At least, that's what happened to me.

    You can always add a VM back onto the list later by opening that VM from Fusion's file menu. There's no real need to have all your VMs in the on screen list in Fusion all the time, since it obviously adds the possible hazard than any one of them might hang Fusion as above.

    Many of you might scold me for allowing iCloud to get its hands on my VMs in the first place. To be fair, as I say if I recall correctly Fusion creates its folder of VMs in your Mac's Documents folder by default, and iCloud backs up the Documents folder also by default!
    If you put your VMs your desktop instead.... iCloud backs up your Mac's desktop by default as well!
    So, you would need to find some other place to put it. And from another angle, if your VMs are important to you then you probably DO want to have them backed up - somehow. Perhaps that could be a topic for another thread!

    Ironically, I got myself in trouble with Fusion hanging again by trying to get iCloud to download my VMs back to the local disk, and then transferring them all to a RAID1 mirrored external drive I happen to have. Not all the VMs would complete the download - not enough disk space on my Mac.... - which I think "broke" Fusion's list of VMs again.
    I will gingerly try opening the VMs from my external disk.... again that's maybe a topic for another thread.

    Hope this is helpful to people!!


     




  • 48.  RE: Fusion 12 Hanging on startup

    Posted May 24, 2025 05:07 PM

    Agreed that it is a very, very bad idea to have VM stored on locations that are being sync'ed to any cloud storage provider (such as Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive). The time needed to recall a VM's virtual disks that have been uploaded is just one of the reasons why.  Fusion isn't aware of anything being done to the files by the macOS cloud storage mechanisms that pretty much all of these cloud providers use. 

    To be fair, as I say if I recall correctly Fusion creates its folder of VMs in your Mac's Documents folder by default, and iCloud backs up the Documents folder also by default!

    You are correct that older versions of Fusion created the default Virtual Machines in your Documents folder, Newer versions do not - they create the Virtual Machines.localized (default location) folder immediately under a user's home folder -- at the same level in the hierarchy as the Documents, Music, Photos, etc folders.  (I don't remember exactly when the behavior changed).  But the old default location in the Documents folder will be recognized and won't be touched if it exists when upgrading. 

    Having iCloud Drive enabled does not automatically mean that the Documents and Desktop folders are synchronized to iCloud. There's a separate setting in your System Preferences/Settings to enable that sync of Documents and Desktop folders. I've seen this setting turned on by default in some circumstances, or can be turned on by answering the questions on managing macOS disk storage. 

    My recommendation is if you have any cloud sync turned on for your Documents folder or Desktop folder, move any virtual machines you've stored there into another folder outside those locations. An external USB3/4 SSD is best (this easily lets you disable TIme Machine having anything to do with your VMs -- that too is another discussion). Going forward, make sure you don't store new VMs anywhere in the Documents folder hierarchy or the Desktop  

    Unfortunately as you found out, moving an offloaded VM first recalls it to the user's home folder first, then moves/copies it. That means  you have to have the disk space available to hold it.

    Yes, indeed backup of VMs is another topic entirely. Cloud sync,



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    - Paul (technogeezer)
    vExpert 2025
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