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watkipet

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 11, 2018
42
22
I'm attempting to get VMware Fusion working on a cMP 5,1. I have version 11.5.3 installed. When I launch it, I get this error:
1605042401405.png

From VMware's website, they say my machine isn't supported. However, I read another post from people trying to run VMware Fusion 12. One person suggested downgrading to 11--which is what I have. Can VMware Fusion 11 be made to work?

---------------

Mac Pro 4,1 flashed to 5,1, 16 GB RAM
Sapphire Pulse RX580
macOS 10.14.6
Nehalem 2.66 GHz 4-core Xeon
 
Last edited:

t8er8

macrumors 6502
Dec 4, 2017
252
100
Quebec, Canada
What CPU do you have? 4,1 Nehalem CPU’s lack VT-d virtualization, which is normally required for a lot or VM stuff. Xeon X56xx westmere series CPU’s from the genuine 5,1 Mac Pro’s have VT-d, you’d need to upgrade your CPU for VMware to work AFAIK (I had this issue with VM’s too).

As for software versions, I am sure there is an older version with some legacy support for those CPU’s.
 
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AaronShep

macrumors newbie
Apr 23, 2009
8
0
I'm running 11.5.3 on a 5,1 Mac Pro with a Xeon processor, which I had to install to get support for Fusion 11. But this is the last version of Fusion that supports this configuration. Even the later updates of Fusion 11 don't support it.

You may have better luck with Parallels.
 

watkipet

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 11, 2018
42
22
@t8er8 --Thanks for the info on the processor. I think that's the problem. I updated the description in my question to include my processor.
 

watkipet

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 11, 2018
42
22
@Objectivist-C -- Thanks for the part numbers. That's probably the best option. I've done this before on PCs. Somehow I feel squeamish doing it on a Mac. :)
 

haralds

macrumors 68030
Jan 3, 2014
2,994
1,259
Silicon Valley, CA
My 5,1 is using 2x 3.06 GHz 6-core "Westmere-EP" (X5675) Intel Xeon processors. It run the latest Vmware 12 under Catalina. Mojave tops out at VMware 11.5.5.
Big Sur uses the new hypervisor not supported by Westmere due to lack of instructions like XSAVE.
I switched to Parallels on that.
 
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