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MP 7,1 MacPro 2019 shutdown after external USB drive connect in VMware Fusion

MacFlaX

MacFlaX

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 15, 2019
69
28
Just trying to install Win 10 Pro on Mac Pro 2019 via VMware Fusion 11.5.1. After connect of an external USB drive (SATA SSD with SATA-USB-C adapter) via USB/TB back connector the MacPro 2019 shuts down. Fans at max after restart. After SMC ok again. But another shutdown after 2nd trial to connect USB drive via top USB/TB connector. USB drive works normal in MacOS.
Any idea what to do or isn't VMware optimized for Mac Pro 7.1 yet? But even in this case I expected MacOS sandboxing to prevent such shut downs...
 
I posted the question in VMware Communities as well. My last shutdown report seams to be unrelated.
 
MacFlaX said:
I posted the question in VMware Communities as well. My last shutdown report seams to be unrelated.
Click to expand...
Normally you would get a popup detailing that your Mac had shutdown improperly when the Mac restarts.

Without that report it's going to be hard to say what failed, tho VMware Fusion is a closed source, for profit, project, so there isn't a whole lot we could do, other than to tell you to forward the report to them.

I say, let the people you paid for support from, support their product.

Not trying to be a jerk, there just isn't a whole lot we can do.

I understand that this is a public forum, and it's useful to find if others have seen similar issues, and may know how to fix it, or work around it.

My best advice is to use an open source project for virtualization if you can, at least if it breaks you maybe able to get more help from the community, or fix it yourself.

I don't know if Vmware has a bug reporting system, but that would be better than to post hoping for help to public forums, because it would be handled by the developers that have access to the source code.

If VMware doesn't have a public bug tracking system, all the more reason to go open source.
 
latest episode of ATP podcast covers Siracusa's T2 issues with Windows on his 7,1 - have you enabled booting from external devices?
 
Agree, will follow up with VMware directly and will try other virtualization software
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yes, "booting from external devices" was enabled
 
mattspace said:
latest episode of ATP podcast covers Siracusa's T2 issues with Windows on his 7,1 - have you enabled booting from external devices?
Click to expand...

Virtualization isn't booting on bear metal, "enabling booting from external devices" is for booting native on the bear metal.

It shouldn't have anything to do with running VMware Fusion on a macOS host.
 
DearthnVader said:
Virtualization isn't booting on bear metal, "enabling booting from external devices" is for booting native on the bear metal.

It shouldn't have anything to do with running VMware Fusion on a macOS host.
Click to expand...

shouldn't isn't often a reliable guide as to how things do behave these days, however. :p
 
Note that I created a VMware Fusion Windows 10 VM on my 2019 using Microsoft’s official install ISO image (file) rather than a USB drive. It has worked with just one issue related to the network NAT setting (fixed thus far by stopping and restarting the vmxnet service — a bug I intend on reporting). So it is possible to create the VM. In the mean time I’d suggest using that install method instead of trying to use a (physical) USB drive.
 
The install of a VMware Fusion Windows 10 VM using Microsoft’s official install ISO image went well too. The shut down occurred when I tried to connect an USB drive with the VM. (Remark: My objective was to create a Win 10 Bootcamp partition on that external drive. But I didn't came as far...)
 
MacFlaX said:
The install of a VMware Fusion Windows 10 VM using Microsoft’s official install ISO image went well too. The shut down occurred when I tried to connect an USB drive with the VM. (Remark: My objective was to create a Win 10 Bootcamp partition on that external drive. But I didn't came as far...)
Click to expand...
Ok. Thanks for the clarification. Now, what I just did a moment ago is start the Windows 10 VM and then insert a 60GB Alcor Micro flash drive into the back of the system via the USB-A slot. Fusion prompted me whether I wanted to connect it to the Mac or the Windows 10 VM. I selected the Windows 10 VM. The Windows 10 VM then prompted me what to do. I selected view files. The drive mounted without incident. I then proceeded to copy a folder to it, unmount it, and remount it on another Mac to verify the file copy was successful (it was). So at the bare minimum a USB flash drive works when connected, at least for me.

So exactly how and when did the system shut down? Also, if you have a flash drive lying around, I'd try plugging that in to see what happens. It'd be valuable to know if your experience is different from mine.

By the way, did you install VMware Tools in the VM? Also, bring up the Fusion About box. What's the exact version? The one I'm using is "VMware Fusion Professional Version 11.5.1 (15018442)".
 
thomast0001 said:
By the way, did you install VMware Tools in the VM?
Click to expand...
Why would anyone not install VMware Tools (or open-vm-tools in Linux) in a VM?

Maybe VMware should refuse to run without the tools??

Start, but with an option to either:
  • Install VMware Tools (open-vm-tools)
  • Shutdown
 
Last edited:
AidenShaw said:
Why would anyone not install VMware Tools (or open-vm-tools in Linux) in a VM?

Maybe VMware should refuse to run without the tools??

Start, but with an option to either:
  • Install VMware Tools (open-vm-tools)
  • Shutdown
Click to expand...
Requiring tools would break software layering, creating unnecessary dependencies and introducing additional fatal points of failure. (That is, a good hardware virtualization model makes the OS unaware of the virtualization. Requiring a “special” install would break that model.)

In addition, how do you propose installing tools before the OS has fully booted? I don’t even want to think how complicated and fragile that code would be.

However, this is besides the point, and is unrelated to OP’s issue. I was asking if he’d installed tools to get more information regarding the execution environment. It wasn’t a criticism one way or the other. The OS can run with and without tools installed. In fact, if there are bugs in VMware tools you can end up with issues. I know because just today I reverted tools to an earlier version because the latest version has a broken graphics driver with an El Capitan VM. (Shared folders were also broken.)
 
AidenShaw said:
Why would anyone not install VMware Tools (or open-vm-tools in Linux) in a VM?
Click to expand...
I use VMware (Workstation) to create master images for Windows PCs for deployment. These images are created from a virtual machine and then deployed to physical PCs, so the VMware Tools features are of no use when the image is then deployed to actual PCs.
 
chrfr said:
I use VMware (Workstation) to create master images for Windows PCs for deployment. These images are created from a virtual machine and then deployed to physical PCs, so the VMware Tools features are of no use when the image is then deployed to actual PCs.
Click to expand...
Good example. Since you aren't actually running on the VMs, no need for the performance enhancements that the tools provide.
 
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