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.
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.
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.
In Full Screen mode with a Mac OS host machine, it's not possible to open the spotlight search.
When in full screen view, and I move the cursor to the top of the window, I can't open spotlight but can open other things such as the clock and any other shortcut icons I
have open in the menu bar. Neither method works to get into the spotlight search bar [clicking on the icon or Command-Space]. I tried using the Control-Command option to 'exit' out of the VMWare window and return to the Mac side and I still can't open spotlight via clicking on the icon or using Command-Space. If I switch to a
different window it works again. It doesn't necessarily need to be a VMWare window as shown [I can use expose to switch windows or use a window on my external monitor and it'll work]. The problem only occurs in full screen
view.
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.
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.
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:
- Go to vmware.com
- Click on downloads (top right)
- Click on desktop virtualization products (in menu on right)
- Click on vmware workstation.
- You will need to login (email address and create a password)
- Once you login, or create a new account then login, you will be able to download v6.0.3.
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.
There have been problems reported using the student installer of Windows XP.
[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.
[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.
[alexp, Athena VM] I've had problems running the VPN in the host OS. Running it in the guest seems to work for me.
Time sync is wonky with VMs. ADDR This should be explored further and documented. Early reports are that it can get out of sync by significant amounts (hours) fairly quickly. [alexp, Athena VM] This has been seen to happen at times even if the VMware Tools time synchronization option is enabled. On Athena virtual machines, this kills Kerberos and AFS since these depend sensitively on time.
[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).
[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.
[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
VMware Fusion Virtual Machines are automatically excluded from Time Machine backups. This appears to be in response to an apple bug in 10.5 that may have been resolved in 10.5.2, though there is no formal word from VMware.See http://communities.vmware.com/message/882448#882448 for more info.
If you rename a virtual machine, you will be presented with this warning that next time it is started:
Select I moved it
If you copy a Virtual image while VMware Workstation is running, even if the Virtual Machine is not running, there may be a lock file directory present in the folder containing the
Virtual Machine files (that folder ends with .lck). If you copy that folder along with all the other files you will see the alert box:
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.