VMware Fusion: graphics keep crashing

[chucker23n1]

I've been using VMware Fusion to virtualize Windows 10 on a late-2013 MacBook Pro for years.

Around August, I started playing around with Windows 11. This mostly worked, but I frequently ran into a bug where WPF apps would crash. Event Viewer would show something like:

Application: devenv.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException
at System.Windows.Media.Composition.DUCE+Channel.SyncFlush()
at System.Windows.Interop.HwndTarget.UpdateWindowSettings(Boolean, System.Nullable`1<ChannelSet>)
at System.Windows.Interop.HwndTarget.UpdateWindowPos(IntPtr)
at System.Windows.Interop.HwndTarget.HandleMessage(MS.Internal.Interop.WindowMessage, IntPtr, IntPtr)
at System.Windows.Interop.HwndSource.HwndTargetFilterMessage(IntPtr, Int32, IntPtr, IntPtr, Boolean ByRef)
at MS.Win32.HwndWrapper.WndProc(IntPtr, Int32, IntPtr, IntPtr, Boolean ByRef)
at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.DispatcherCallbackOperation(System.Object)
at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(System.Delegate, System.Object, Int32)
at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(System.Object, System.Delegate, System.Object, Int32, System.Delegate)
at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.LegacyInvokeImpl(System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherPriority, System.TimeSpan, System.Delegate, System.Object, Int32)
at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.SubclassWndProc(IntPtr, Int32, IntPtr, IntPtr)

In this case, that's Visual Studio, but another app where I've seen it is Fork. I think what's happening is that something about the graphics stack crashes hard. VMware's virtual GPU? macOS's Metal stack? I don't know. Probably not the latter, since I don't see anything wrong going on in macOS itself. In Windows, I see a sudden flicker of the entire screen to black, or sometimes the WPF app's main window reverting to a non-Aero style, before disappearing altogether. The kinds of signs that suggest "the GPU driver just crashed, and we're switching to software mode".

The thing is, I then installed a completely fresh Windows 10 VM because it wasn't a workable environment. And then the crashes started happening there, too!

What I find puzzling about this is that I find next to nothing about this on the Web, and that it seems to have started happening around August. Definitely before I upgraded to macOS 12 Monterey; I was on a non-beta Big Sur release. So that's not it. But I may have upgraded my VMware version at the time?

 

[chucker23n1]

(I believe I've also tried disabling VMware 3d graphics acceleration before, but I'm not sure. Trying that now. Sigh.)

(edit)

Yep. Happens with that disabled, too.

 

[bogdanw]

VMware made some changes around that time, Fusion 12.2.0 and later no longer support macOS 10.15 Catalina
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Fusion/12.2.0/rn/VMware-Fusion-1220-Release-Notes.html
You can try the official Windows 11 Enterprise VMWare image from https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/virtual-machines/ Maybe it's optimised.

 

[chucker23n1]

Maybe, but 12.2 didn't come out until October, and its predecessor 12.1.2 in May, and I kind of feel it started happening before October.

Buuuuut! In September, they released a new VMware Tools version! Looks like a minor update, but one of the components that update apparently changes? The graphics card driver. Finally, a plausible explanation.

So, I'm trying to downgrade that. Fingers crossed and thanks for the pointer.

 

[chucker23n1]

Downgrade succeeded. Important to put

tools.upgrade.policy = "manual"

in the .vmx file, or else VMware Fusion will, without asking, re-upgrade. ?

Now, to see if this crash happens again in the coming hours…

 

[chucker23n1]

…it just happened again, and I seem to be on the old driver version. Sigh.

 

[bogdanw]

Another thing to try - Disable Side Channel Mitigations https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/79832

 

[chucker23n1]

Already on, alas.

 

[bogdanw]

If you haven't already, browse the VMware forums https://communities.vmware.com/t5/V...n-Pro-12-Graphics-Perfomance-Poor/m-p/2304223