VMware Tools for macOS Sequoia 15.0

[wywh]

I use VMware Fusion 13.6 Pro for Personal Use, Mac mini 2018 Intel running macOS Sequoia 15.0.

I could install and boot Sequoia VM (see below) but "Install VMware Tools" is grayed out. So VM resolution is stuck at 1024x768, shared folders do not work etc.

Question: I tried to download VMware Tools from Broadcom but could not find them like I could do in the past. Where are they now?

...

VMware Fusion 13.6 Pro does not seem to handle "Install macOS Sequoia.app" so I prepared it with the following advice from this forum (15g was enough for Sonoma but had to be increased to 16g for Sequoia):

hdiutil create -o "Installer.dmg" -size 16g -layout SPUD -fs "HFS+J" -volname Untitled

Double click the Installer.dmg to mount it. It will mount as "Untitled".

Put the Sequoia installer to:

/Applications/Install macOS Sequoia.app

Make a bootable volume from it (this takes a few minutes so be patient, and follow the prompts):

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sequoia.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled

Eject the new installer "Install macOS Sequoia". Also use /Applications/Disk Utility.app to eject the "Shared Support" image; there's a bug in macOS installers that leaves it mounted.

In VMware Fusion, create a new VM as usual.

- Matti

[wywh]

I solved this by grabbing VMware tools from the previous VMware-Fusion-13.5.2-23775688_universal.dmg > VMware Fusion.app > Contents > Library > isoimages > darwin.iso (darwinPre15.iso is for older macOS). For some reason v13.6 does not contain that .iso. Finding v13.5.2 needed some digging around (link below).

Copy darwin.iso to the Desktop. Open VMware Fusion Pro 13.6 and click (do not launch the VM) > macOS 15 > Virtual Machine > Settings... > CD/DVD (SATA) > Connect CD/DVD Drive ON and choose that darwinPre15.iso on the Desktop.

Boot to macOS 15 VM. VMware Tools should be on its Desktop and the Install VMware Tools inside should now work.

Unlike AFAIR in earlier VMware Fusion versions, v13.6 does not seem to release that darwin.iso until CD/DVD (SATA) is removed from the VM settings (it can be added back, if needed).

https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productfiles?subFamily=VMware%20Fusion&displayGroup=VMware%20Fusion%2013%20Pro%20for%20Personal%20Use&release=13.5.2&os=&servicePk=520445&language=EN

- Matti

[gringley]

VM Tools gains the ability to resize the screen by dragging but does not include a real video driver.  You will need to add these lines to your vmx files to get full video functionality in Sequoia:

svga.present="FALSE"
appleGPU0.present="TRUE"

After running the VM with these lines Apple GPU adds screen resolution parameters to the vmx so it may be possible to change the VM resolution by editing the vmx after running once with Apple GPU.

[wywh]

Thanks for the tip: I got the GPU to work in a Sequoia VM a few times in Mac mini 2018 Intel. Adding those lines to the .vmx file makes animated Sequoia VM user interface items fast with no pausing in between, items like Finder and Safari tabs are displayed correctly instead being gray, and the default Sequoia wallpaper is also displayed.

With those lines the VM boots to a temporary colored screen -- I guess that is normal? That occasionally successfully boots to Sequoia. But very often the boot stalls at that colored or black screen or ends in kernel panic. Maybe Mac mini 2018 GPU is not fully compatible?

So I added these lines to the very end of the Sequoia .vmx:

svga.present="FALSE"
appleGPU0.present="TRUE"

After booting these lines were added to the .vmx (resolution 3840x2160 was only added if VMware Tools were also installed):

appleGPU0.pciSlotNumber = "224"
appleGPU0.screen0.width = "3840"
appleGPU0.screen0.height = "2160"
usb_xhci:4.present = "TRUE"
usb_xhci:4.deviceType = "hid"
usb_xhci:4.port = "4"
usb_xhci:4.parent = "-1"

- Matti

[gringley]

...so indeed I have been putting that in my vmx files with no spaces for years...and I can see now all the other parameters like that in the vmx file have spaces around the equals sign.  Yes all the way back to Big Sur.  Oh well...  To your other observation indeed the VMs do boot to a black screen and I just reset them until they decide to boot all the way.  Monterey was pretty bad for this but at least for me Sonoma and Sequoia only do this occasionally.  I am on an iMac Pro.

[wywh]

Thanks for the tip. I got the GPU to occasionally work in a Sequoia VM in Mac mini 2018 Intel. Adding those lines to the .vmx file makes animated Sequoia VM user interface items fast with no pausing in between, and items like Finder and Safari tabs are displayed correctly instead being gray and the default Sequoia Sunrise wallpaper can also be displayed then.

Then the VM boots to a temporary colored screen for about 30 seconds -- I guess that is normal? That occasionally manages to successfully boot to Sequoia. But very often the boot stalls at that colored or black screen or ends in kernel panic VM screen.

Maybe Mac mini 2018 GPU is not fully compatible with that?

I read in this forum that "The spaces before and after the equal sign are required to be there. TRUE and FALSE must be enclosed in regular double-quotes (" ") and not curly smart quotes." So I added them to the very end of the .vmx as follows but the flaky boot persisted (also reducing processor cores from the max 6 to 1-2, or setting appleGPU0.screen0.* to 1920x1080  did not help):

svga.present = "FALSE"
appleGPU0.present = "TRUE"

https://community.broadcom.com/vmware-cloud-foundation/communities/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?MessageKey=6037c9b3-62d2-436c-8461-66d3ec3e673a&CommunityKey=0c3a2021-5113-4ad1-af9e-018f5da40bc0#bm6037c9b3-62d2-436c-8461-66d3ec3e673a

After booting once a few lines were added (with also VMware Tools installed) so it then reads as:

svga.present = "FALSE"
appleGPU0.present = "TRUE"
appleGPU0.pciSlotNumber = "224"
appleGPU0.screen0.width = "3840"
appleGPU0.screen0.height = "2160"
usb_xhci:4.present = "TRUE"
usb_xhci:4.deviceType = "hid"
usb_xhci:4.port = "4"
usb_xhci:4.parent = "-1"