VMware Known Issues

The sections below detail known issues with using VMware discovered by the IS&T Vmware release team during testing.   Additional known issues provided by VMware can be found in the Release Notes for each product.  For details, see the VMware Workstation 6.0.x Release Notes and Vmware Fusion Release Notes.

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Changing VMware Fusion to "optimize for Mac OS application performance" via Fusion's preferences may cause your virtual machine or entire OS to hang, possibly corrupting the virtual machine disk.   To avoid this, users should use the default setting of "optimize for virtual machine disk performance."  Apple and VMware are working to resolve this issue.  For more information, see VMware's Team Fusion blog

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The code that Red Hat Linux uses to discover network interfaces at boot time can produce some difficult to interpret behavior under VMware. Red Hat Linux records the ethernet interface hardware address (also called the MAC address). Every time it sees a new MAC address it moves aside the old network configuration, and creates a new one which completely ignores any network settings previously used and instead uses DHCP to set the IP address.

If you clone a VM, or if you copy it, or even if you move it to a different directory on the same host, the MAC address will change. This is because, unless you do extra hand configuration to set a MAC address explicitly, VMware will generate one that is a hash on the host ID, the location of the VM files, and a few other things.

Using the recommended NAT networking setup will hide the effects of this behavior. NAT utilizes the networking of your host system in a way that is unaffected by changes to the MAC address of the VM guests.

A setup with Bridged networking will appear to stop working. Red Hat Network will tell you that you have updates, but then not give them to you. Attempts to visit a web site will bring you to the MIT Network registration web page.

Any static IP address set, along with name servers will be ignored because the old config has been moved aside. A setup using DHCP will also stop working because the MAC address previously registered is no longer the one you are using.

Deleting the HWADDR entry from the network configuration files causes the network interface discovery to behave erratically. At first it seems that network configuration stays the same even if the MAC address changes. In fact events like kernel updates force the network device discovery code to run, and then the network configuration changes even though the MAC address has been the same.

Therefore: After you move or clone a Linux VM guest using Bridged networking, you will need to deal with a changed MAC address:

If you have a static IP address configured, go to System->Administration->Network and move all the configuration you will see for eth0.bak into eth0.

If you registered the VM guest for DHCP, you need to re-register.

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During installation VMware gives a warning about CPU speed : " VMware Workstation has measured your CPU speed to be 2394 MHZ, but Windows reports that it is 2401. This may mean that your computer has a power saving feature that varied the processor speed. As a result, the clock in your virtual machine may run too fast or too slow."  See the attached screenshots. That explains why the time is off betwee host system and running virtual OS. This can be corrected by enabling the time synchronization option in VMware Tools.

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Installing a 64-bit Guest OS on a 32-bit machine:

You cannot install a 64-bit Guest Operating System on a 32-bit machine.  Details on this issue can be found in the VMware knowledgebase article:http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1901
Example: You cannot install Vista or Windows XP 64-bit on a 32-bit machine running 32-bit versions of Vista or Windows XP SP2.

Windows XP SP2 32-bit Host machine installing Vista 64-bit as a Guest OS:
When attempting to do so, the Windows boot manager window opens
Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:

1. Insert your windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. Choose your language settings, and then click "Next".
3. Click "Repair your computer".

If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.

File: \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe

Status: 0xc00035a

Info: Attempting to load a 64-bit application, however this CPU is not compatible with 64-bit mode.

Hitting escape ends up in an endless loop of reloading files and getting the windows boot manager window. You must close the VM window and power it off.

Windows Vista 32-bit Host machine installing Vista 64-bit as a Guest OS:
When selecting 64-bit Vista from the pull down menu when creating a new virtual machine, a caution sign with the text 64-bit guest operating systems are not supported by this host and will not run is displayed, however, it is easy to miss and can continue on to create the vm (until the virtual machine is started and it reads the DVD). It attempts to load the files but again, the Windows boot manager window appears and provides the same message as indicated above.

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If you have over-allocated your disk (told VM ware to make images that, if they all grew to their full size would take up more disk space than you have free) VMware may pop up an alert warning you when you're about to use up more space than you have.  That would give you a chance to free up disk space or exit cleanly.  We don't recommend you over-allocate your disk space. There's no guarantee of a warning before bad things happen.  It could end poorly in data loss or corruption.

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Activation of Vista in a virtual guest on a Windows or Linux host with NAT networking fails when the "primary DNS suffix" is not set. (Mac OS sets this automatically.) For detailed instructions see Setting Vista DNS suffix.

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The Linux version's check the web for updates feature is broken and does not find updates. It appears to be pointing to the wrong url. Here are the manual instructions to download v 6.03:

1. Go to vmware.com
2. Click on downloads (top right)
3. Click on desktop virtualization products (in menu on right)
4. Click on vmware workstation.
5. You will need to login (email address and create a password)
6. Once you login, or create a new account then login, you will be able to download v6.0.3.
   

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VMware Fusion will crash without giving an error message on a MacBook Air when a CD/DVD drive is "Connected" and set to "Automatically detect physical CD/DVD drive." To resolve this, select the virtual machine from the Virtual Machine Library and press Settings. Then, select CD/DVD under Removable Devices, make sure Connected is un-checked and click OK.

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[alexp, Athena VM] If a .vmss (VMware suspended state) file is around when you launch a VM, networking can be irreparably broken even if the VM had previously been halted. The only fix seems to be to remove the .vmss file from the VM directory.

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[alexp, Athena VM] I've seen Kerberos tickets and tokens disappear on a running VM, long before they're due to expire, for no obvious reason.

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[alexp, Athena VM] I've had problems running the VPN in the host OS. Running it in the guest seems to work for me.

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[alexp, Athena VM] Leaving a VM suspended for about 5 days and subsequently resuming results in broken network and AFS. Restarting these as root did not fix them. It was necessary to reboot the VM. Athena 9.4.43 VMs can't be updated to latest release due to rpm conflict between WMware Tools in the VM and VMware Player in the Athena release (introduced after 9.4.43).

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[alexp, Athena VM] adding a line:
VMwarePlayer
to /etc/athena/rpmupdate.exceptions lets an Athena VM update correctly. However the user must then run vmware-config-tools.pl manually as root after the update to restore VMware Tools functionality.

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[alexp, Athena VM] DHCP will work in an Athena VM if you first get a fixed IP address from Network, then register the machine for DHCP. If the VM is moved or cloned later you need to make sure that the MAC address it has is the same as it had when it was registered for DHCP. After the registration takes effect, you need to have the following entry in /etc/athena/rc.conf:

ADDR=dhcp; export ADDR

vpnc works well as vpn within an Athena VM. To restore zephyr functionality on VM restart, you will likely need to run:

zctl load

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[alexp, Athena VM] PXE install issues on Windows (XP, Vista) host machines for Athena VMs:

Both on my laptop and on another machine running
Vista, I kept running into a situation where the PXE installer would
attempt to connect but spin forever, or sometimes connect and begin
the install, but then hang shortly after. There were no obvious clues,
error messages or useful logs. Finally I took my machine up to the
demo center and tried there, and everything ran fine, so it must have
been some network problem. What made this really nasty was that:

1. I've had no other obvious network problems on the machine (host) on
the same subnet and

2. I only ran into this on Windows machines, not on Linux or Mac hosts
on the same subnet.

The other odd thing I noticed is that when I tried copying working,
powered off VMs from other machines to the laptop (telling VMware it
was "moved" or "copied"- I tried both), changing the IP address to
something appropriate, the networking in the guest was broken no
matter what I tried- this was on the same subnet where I had the
problem. Yet after I was able to do the PXE install upstairs, the
PXE-installed VM worked fine on the "problem" subnet.

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Image Added

Choosing Take Ownership does nothing but pop up the alert again.
You must choose Cancel and hand-delete the lock file directory from your copy.

This issue has been reported to VMware and a remedy is expected in the next major release.

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This defect is also known to VMware and will be fixed in an upcoming release.

To get Quit working again, use the File->Close command and re-run vmware-config.pl

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• Time Machine, Mac OS X 10.5's built-in backup solution, will duplicate any virtual machine that has been run since the last backup.  As virtual machines tend to be large, they might take up a considerable amount of space on your backup drive.  For more information see the release announcement from the Fusion Blog.
• Full screen mode interfers with opening the spotlight search dialog and Spaces.  These bugs have been reported to Apple.
• For additional known issues, see the VMware Fusion Release Notes

Please list any known issues you discover here. 

If you rename a virtual machine, you will be presented with this warning that next time it is started: Image Removed
Select I moved it 
 

VMware Fusion Known issues: (taken from the release notes)

For networking to work properly in your virtual machines, reboot your Mac after upgrading its operating system, or after using the Migration Assistant.
After upgrading from Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) to Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard), you must to reboot your Mac for networking to work properly in virtual machines running under VMware Fusion. Similarly, after using Apple's Migration Assistant to move your data and applications from one Mac to another, you will need to reboot the new Mac for networking to work properly in virtual machines running under VMware Fusion.

Unity view in VMware Fusion can disrupt the operation of Spaces virtual desktops in Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).
If you are running VMware Fusion in Unity view in one space but working in another space, the appearance of a popup window (for instance, an Outlook calendar event reminder) in the VMware Fusion virtual machine can cause Spaces to jump back and forth between the two virtual desktops.

Conflict in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) between VMware Fusion and anti-virus software can cause memory corruption.
Running a virtual machine in VMware Fusion creates a .vmem file either inside the virtual machine's package, or in /tmp/vmware-. If you are running Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger), and the Norton AntiVirus' Auto-Protect feature scans the .vmem file while the virtual machine is running, host memory corruption can occur. The problem described here has been reproduced with Norton AntiVirus, but it is possible that the problem could occur with other anti-virus or backup software as well.

Upgrade to Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) to avoid this problem altogether.

To prevent this conflict from occurring in Mac OS X 10.4, exclude both the Virtual Machines folder and the /tmp/vmware-<YourUserName> folder from the Norton AntiVirus SafeZones (System Preferences > Norton Auto-Protect > Safe Zones > Everywhere EXCEPT in).

A typical symptom of this problem is that when you try to suspend the virtual machine, it gets stuck, and VMware Fusion can no longer run virtual machines. To recover from that situation:
Shut down the host operating system as soon as possible and restart it.
Prevent the conflict from occuring as described above.
Discard the .vmss file for the affected virtual machine. Note: Whatever state was saved in the last suspend is lost.
Boot up the virtual machine.

Microsoft Windows sometimes fails when you attempt to run the Boot Camp partition as a virtual machine.
In some cases, attempting to run your Boot Camp partition as a VMware Fusion virtual machine might result in Windows failing. If this happens, editing the Boot Camp virtual machine .vmx file might possibly fix the problem. One thing to try is to open the .vmx file and delete the line that reads
scsi0.present = "TRUE".

To find the .vmx file for the Boot Camp virtual machine, go to the virtual machine's package at
<your home folder>/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Boot Camp/<disk identifier>/Boot Camp partition.vmwarevm.
Right-click on the package, choose Show Package Contents, and open the .vmx file shown in the package.

Some Applications menu items do not work if VMware Tools has not been updated.
If you run a Microsoft Windows virtual machine in VMware Fusion 1.1 with VMware Tools installed from version 1.0, the Applications menu items My Computer, My Documents, My Network Places, Control Panel, and Run do not work. Upgrade VMware Tools to fix this problem.

Easy Install of a Vista guest operating system fails if the user name on the Mac is Administrator.
If you create a virtual machine in this manner, it cannot be logged into because it acts as if no valid user was created. Trying to log in as administrator results in a message saying the account has been disabled.
To avoid this problem when you create a virtual machine: in the Windows Easy Install panel of the New Virtual Machine Assistant, change the entry in the Name field from the default entry Administrator.

If you have already created the virtual machine with Administrator entered in the Name field on the Windows Easy Install panel, take the following steps to work around the problem:
Start the virtual machine in safe mode by pressing F8 during the boot.
Once the virtual machine is booted in safe mode, Vista permits you to log on to the system as administrator, which it does not permit in non-safe mode.
In start > run type manage.
Expand the local users and groups area, and select users.
Select administrator in the right pane.
Choose action > properties.
Deselect Disable this account in the General tab.

Cannot select anything on the guest desktop with the mouse when in Unity view if you select Show the Desktop from the Taskbar.
To recover from this problem, do one of the following:
Select any of the Unity windows, which are minimized to the dock in this situation.
Use Alt-Tab to select a window in the guest.
Use the Applications menu to launch an application.

Changes to the shared folder settings might not take effect.
When you make changes in the settings window to the Shared Folders window, sometimes the changes will not take effect. To ensure that the changes you make actually happen, use the Apply button rather then the OK button. If the changes you made did not properly take effect, please repeat them and click Apply.
Note: The check box that indicates the shared folders feature is enabled can only become enabled when the virtual machine is powered on. The enabled check box to permit access to a specific shared folder can be enabled and disabled at any time.

No audio can be heard in virtual machines created with some very old guest operating systems.
Old operating systems, such as DOS, Windows 3.1, and Windows 95, may not have drivers for the virtual ES1371 sound device that Fusion presents. Other VMware products optionally present a Sound Blaster 16 device for these guests, but Fusion does not have this capability. This clarification also applies to previous versions of VMware Fusion.

The Mac stops responding or experiences a kernel panic if you run two virtual machines on a RAID 0 disk.
RAID 0 volumes are not a tested configuration for VMware Fusion 1.1. Work is in progress on this problem.

Installing VMware Tools in Fusion for a virtual machine created in Japanese Workstation 6 might cause the installer to fail.
In Fusion, if you open a virtual machine created in Japanese Workstation 6 and try to install VMware Tools, the installation might fail with an error message.
Workaround: Uninstall the tools from within the virtual machine and then install the Fusion 1.1 tools.
Open the virtual machine.
Choose Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools to display the VMware Tools wizard.
Select Remove, and click Next and Remove.
Choose Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools to go to the VMware Tools wizard and install a fresh version of VMware Tools.

In new virtual machines, the VMware Shared Folders shortcut is not created on certain French or Japanese Windows desktops.
Ordinarily, when creating a new virtual machine, VMware Fusion creates a shared folders shortcut on the guest operating system desktop. However, in the case of virtual machines created with French or Japanese Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2 as the guest operating system, this does not occur.
Workaround: Create your own shortcut.
Open the Explorer.
Type
.host in the Address field.
Press Enter.
Right-click on the Shared Folders icon.
Choose Create a Shortcut.
Click Yes to the message Windows cannot create a shortcut here. Do you want the shortcut to be placed on the desktop instead?
A shortcut to Shared Folders is now available to the user on the French or Japanese Windows XP virtual machine.

Creating a new virtual machine with Solaris 10 might fail if there is insufficient memory.
Before creating a new virtual machine with Solaris 10 as its guest operating system, ensure that you have enough memory assigned to the virtual machine to complete the process. You need 490MB and an additional 50MB for each NIC. For instance, if you were creating a virtual machine with two NICs, you would need to assign a minimum of 590MB to have a successful virtual machine creation.

Turbolinux 10 Server does not reboot automatically after installation in a virtual machine.
At the end of the installation of Turbolinux 10 Server in a virtual machine, when you click Finish the system does not reboot and the screen becomes black. This results from a problem Turbolinux has switching from X to VGA. Workaround: Press the Enter key to continue with the reboot.

After upgrading to VMware Fusion 1.1, 3-D works only after you install the latest version of VMware Tools in the virtual machine and reboot.
If you do not install the latest version of VMware Tools, which updates the SVGA driver, 3-D will not work in the virtual machine. To get 3-D to work, go to the Virtual Machine menu and choose Install VMware Tools. Reboot the virtual machine.
Note: This also applies when reverting to a snapshot taken from an earlier version of VMware Fusion before the upgrade to version 1.1. 3-D will not work, and you must update VMware Tools and reboot the virtual machine.

Using the Boot Camp partition as a virtual machine can, in a few rare instances, result in a 07B failure when the virtual machine is booted.
If this happens, boot into Boot Camp natively, immediately hold down F8 and select boot into last known good state. This will restore the functionality of your Boot Camp partition only in native mode.
To help VMware better understand what happens in this case, please file a support incident that includes your Boot Camp logs. The logs can be found in your home folder as the file
~/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Helper/naos-1.0.vmwarevm/vmware.log
Please note that the folder naos-1.0.vmwarevm is a package. If you are opening it with Finder, right-click the icon and select Show Package Contents.

When you use the Mac dock to launch an application from a powered-off virtual machine, VMware Fusion does not always successfully restore the virtual machine to Unity view.
In this situation, the dock can incorrectly indicate that an application is running, even though the virtual machine is in Single Window view. After you power off the virtual machine, the dock continues to incorrectly show that the application is running. To work around this problem, Control-click or right-click the application icon in the dock, and select Quit. This problem has been observed frequently on Mac Minis, and less frequently on Macbook Pros.

Changing the host Mac resolution while a virtual machine is in Unity view causes mouse and display problems.
In virtual machines running in Unity view, if you change the host Mac to a display resolution higher or lower than the resolution of the virtual machine, the mouse can become inoperable or the display can become corrupted. To avoid this problem, do not change the host Mac resolution while a virtual machine is in Unity view.

Plugging in or unplugging an external display while a virtual machine is in Unity view causes display problems.
In virtual machines running in Unity view, if you plug in or unplug an external display, the display can become corrupted and cause the Unity windows to disappear. To avoid this problem, do not plug in or unplug an external display while a virtual machine is in Unity view.

On dual-monitor host systems, when you switch from Unity view to Full Screen view, virtual machines displayed on the secondary monitor do not have the correct screen resolution.
To work around this problem, switch to Single Window view, and then switch to Full Screen view.

When you copy or move a virtual machine to a new location, the virtual machine does not retain information from the original virtual machine about applications displayed in the Mac dock in Unity view.
To work around this problem, delete the Applications folder from the copied or moved virtual machine:
Power off the virtual machine.
Control-click or right-click the virtual machine in the Finder and select Show Package Contents.
Locate the Applications folder, move this folder to the Trash, and empty the Trash.
Power on the virtual machine.

Some file systems, such as FAT and UFS, are unable to support very large files.
If you are creating a virtual machine that will be used in a hard drive with a file system that does not support very large files, select the New Virtual Machine Assistant option Split disk into 2GB files. This option is in Advanced disk options, in the Virtual Hard Disk panel of the New Virtual Machine Assistant.

Applications that use Multiple Document Interface (MDI), such as Microsoft Excel, might not display correctly in Unity view.

In Unity view, VMware Fusion does not support multiple monitors.
All virtual machine windows displayed in Unity view must be in a single-monitor display.

When a virtual machine application is displayed in Unity view, quitting the application from the Mac dock does not work.
For this release, in Unity view, when you Control-click or right-click a virtual machine application in the dock and select Quit, the application icon is removed from the dock, but the application itself continues to run.

Unity view is not supported when more than one user is logged in to Windows.
Fast User Switching is not compatible with Unity view.

In Windows virtual machines, if you uninstall the VMware pointing device driver, and then Control-click or right-click to select an option from an application displayed in Unity view, the virtual machine might quit unexpectedly.
This problem can occur if you uninstall the VMware pointing device in My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager, and then, in a virtual machine application window displayed in Unity view, Control-click or right-click and select any option, for example, Properties.

Switching to Unity view while a snapshot operation is in progress may result in unpredictable display behavior.
Do not switch views while a snapshot operation is in progress. To recover from this situation, switch to Single Window view and then back to Unity view.

When you cancel a drag-and-drop operation between the Mac host and a virtual machine, it may take several seconds before another drag-and-drop operation is possible.
The virtual machine guest operating system can require several seconds to cancel a drag-and-drop operation. When you attempt a drag-and-drop operation, a plus sign should appear on the file or folder you are dragging and dropping. If the plus sign does not appear, the virtual machine could be processing a prior operation. Wait a few seconds and try again.

In rare circumstances, a virtual machine can fail to detect any bootable CD in the CD/DVD drive, including the Windows XP installation CD.
To work around this problem, try the following:
In the virtual machine, open Virtual Machine > Settings > Removable Devices > CD/DVD.
Change the setting from Automatically detect physical CD/DVD drive to Specify physical CD/DVD drive, and select cdrom0.
Click OK.

If the antivirus software Alwil avast! 4.7 is installed in a virtual machine, when you access VMware Fusion shared folders through a Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) path (rather than through a mapped drive letter) it can cause Windows Explorer to become unresponsive or quit unexpectedly.
To work around this problem, access VMware Fusion Shared Folders through a mapped drive letter and not through a UNC path. You could also use a different antivirus program: this problem has not been observed with other antivirus programs.

If the antivirus software Alwil avast! 4.7 is installed in a virtual machine, the virtual machine might become unresponsive when you open a document from a VMware Fusion Shared Folder with permissions set to read/write.
To work around this problem, move the document from the VMware Fusion Shared Folder to a local folder in the virtual machine. You could also use a different antivirus program: this problem has not been observed with other antivirus programs.

If the virtual machine configuration (.vmx) file contains the line monitor = "debug", deselecting the option Diagnostics: Enable debugging checks has no effect.
To work around this problem, open the virtual machine configuration file in a text editor and remove the line monitor = "debug".

Files in DivX digital media format versions higher than 6.3 do not display correctly in Windows Media Player in VMware Fusion virtual machines.
To work around this problem:
With Windows Media Player open, click the down-facing triangle in the upper right of the Windows Media Player window to display the applications menus, and choose Tools > Options.
In the Options window, select the Performance tab, and click Advanced.
Deselect the option Use video mixing renderer.

Powering on a virtual machine within a host window that has a scrollbar might cause the virtual machine to respond to mouse input incorrectly or incompletely.
To work around this problem, click the host window's scrollbar to scroll the display up or down.

In virtual machines running Linux distributions with kernel versions lower than 2.4, VMware Fusion does not support drag and drop operations between the virtual machine and the host.

The VMware Fusion BIOS posts too quickly to access.
Most users will not need to access the BIOS, but advanced users might want to do so, to change the boot order, set a boot password, or enable a second floppy drive. To work around this problem, use a text editor to add the following line to the configuration (.vmx) file of the virtual machine:
bios.forceSetupOnce = "TRUE"
The next time you boot up the virtual machine, it will automatically boot into the BIOS. This configuration option then reverts to FALSE. You must set the option to TRUE each time you want to boot the virtual machine into the BIOS.

If you are installing Microsoft Windows Vista from multiple installation disks, Windows Easy Install does not work.
To install Vista from multiple installation disks, use the standard installation: in the New Virtual Machine Assistant, when the Windows Easy Install panel is displayed, deselect Use Easy Install and click Continue to proceed with the standard installation.

In virtual machines running on Macs with two monitors, each with its own video card, if you run a 3-D application with 3-D acceleration enabled, VMware Fusion fails with an ASSERT.
VMware Fusion does not support 3-D acceleration for this configuration. If your Mac has two monitors, each with its own video card, do not enable 3-D acceleration.

Powering on multiple virtual machines (whose combined memory allocation exceeds that of the host physical system) can slow the system.
If the memory allocated to running virtual machines approaches or exceeds the physical memory available on the host, the system can become very slow. This can happen with one or more virtual machines running. Make sure to only power on virtual machines that have memory allocations that your host machine can handle. If you encounter this problem, close one or more virtual machines. You might also consider reducing the memory allocation of some of your virtual machines (Virtual Machine > Settings > System Hardware > Memory).

Using iSight in Mac OS X versions lower than 10.4.8 after using it in a virtual machine might require shutting down and restarting the host machine.
VMware Fusion does not support Mac OS X versions lower than 10.4.8. After disconnecting the built-in iSight camera from a Windows XP virtual machine, you might experience issues with corrupted video when using the camera in Mac OS X versions 10.4.7 and lower.

If this occurs, shut down your host machine and turn it back on to reset your iSight camera. Rebooting is not sufficient to completely reset the iSight camera. To avoid this problem, upgrade your Mac OS X system software to version 10.4.9 or higher.

On Macs with more than one CD-ROM drive (internal or external), physical CD-ROM drives cannot be moved between running virtual machines.
This occurs when two or more virtual machines are powered on, and one of the physical CD-ROM drive is connected to one of the powered-on virtual machines. If you disconnect the physical CD-ROM drive from the virtual machine, and then attempt to connect the CD-ROM drive to one of the other powered-on virtual machines, the connection fails.

To work around this problem, reset the virtual machines.

Guests with extremely high display resolutions (2360 x 1770) may display as a solid white screen.
This issue might occur with a Mac mini or Macbook. To work around this problem, set the display in the guest to a lower resolution.

Virtual machines stored on drives formatted with FAT32 may crash in VMware Fusion.
This problem is accompanied by the error message: Argument list too long.
Testing suggests that this problem may indicate a corrupted disk.

Migrating Linux virtual machines between Intel and AMD hosts.
VMware recommends you do not migrate a Linux virtual machine between hosts when one host is running on an AMD processor and the other is running on an Intel processor.

During installation, many distributions of Linux choose a kernel that is optimized for the specific processor on which it is being installed, and some distributions install a generic kernel by default, but provide architecture-specific kernels that the user can choose to install. The kernel might contain instructions that are available only on that processor. These instructions can have adverse effects when run on a host with the wrong type of processor.

For 64-bit SUSE Linux versions lower than 10.1, VMware virtual machines support the X graphical windows system only if you have installed VMware Tools in the virtual machine.

Fixing sound problems in virtual machines running Vista 32-bit edition
When you install Microsoft Vista 32-bit edition in a VMware Fusion virtual machine, there is no sound output. To correct this problem, run Windows Update to update the sound driver from within Vista.

To update the sound driver in a VMware Fusion virtual machine running Windows Vista 32-bit edition:
In the virtual machine, from the Windows start menu, right-click Computer and select Properties.
In the left pane, under Tasks, select Device Manager.
When prompted for your permission to continue, click Continue.
Windows displays the Device Manager.
Right-click the Multimedia Sound Adapter with a warning symbol (indicating that there is no driver) and select Update Driver Software.
At the prompt How do you want to search for driver software?, select Search automatically for updated driver software.
Windows finds and installs the appropriate driver for your virtual sound card.
When you are prompted to restart, click Restart Now.
Sound should now work in your Microsoft Vista 32-bit virtual machine.

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