10.11 display resolution problems when installed as a virtual machine

[Doc69]

I have installed the 10.11 public beta 1 and 2 as a virtual machine in VMWare Fusion. However, it only allows me to choose a 1024x768 display resolution (under "Scaled"). Any thoughts on why this is so and how to solve this?

 

[SG-]

have you installed vmware tools in your VM? there's a menu item to install that.

 

[Doc69]

have you installed vmware tools in your VM? there's a menu item to install that.

Thanks for the tip, but I have already done that. It didn't change anything.

Another strange thing is that "Icon View" in the Finder, just shows a completely black area. The other 3 views works normally.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

...Any thoughts on why this is so and how to solve this?

INSIDE THE VM

1. Disable rootless and enable the kernel extension developer mode:

sudo nvram boot-args="rootless=0 kext-dev-mode=1"

(in a Terminal window)

2. Disable Gatekeeper:
http://osxdaily.com/2015/05/04/disable-gatekeeper-command-line-mac-osx/
...and restart your Mac!

Install VMsvga2 (VMsvga2_v1.2.5_OS_10.9.pkg) and disable all sleep functions in the System Preferences (inside the VM). Then restart the VM.

This is what i did regarding my 10.9.x, 10.10.x and 10.11.x VMs. VMsvga2 allows more resolutions than the standard OS X or VMware driver.

 

[S.B.G]

Oddly enough, I have the exact same issue in the beta version of Fusion, only the issue is with Windows 10 on OS X 10.11.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...and-good-things.1796885/page-12#post-21625654

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

@Sandbox: Does this happen, if you select an older hardware version in the VMware Fusion preferences? I suspect that the older VMware Tools are not compatible with the newer (virtual) hardware.

 

[dyn]

If you are not using the current VMware Fusion Technology Preview 2015 then this is easily explained: Fusion does not officially support OS X El Capitan nor Windows 10. They do run but there are issues. See community.vmware.com for more info about this and the download for the tech preview that does have official support for both operating systems.

 

[S.B.G]

@Sandbox: Does this happen, if you select an older hardware version in the VMware Fusion preferences? I suspect that the older VMware Tools are not compatible with the newer (virtual) hardware.

Thanks, I'll look into this later tonight.

If you are not using the current VMware Fusion Technology Preview 2015 then this is easily explained: Fusion does not officially support OS X El Capitan nor Windows 10. They do run but there are issues. See community.vmware.com for more info about this and the download for the tech preview that does have official support for both operating systems.

I do have the Technology Preview of Fusion running on 10.11. Windows seems to run alright on it except for the resolution. The resolution was working properly at first until I updated Windows to the latest build.

 

[dyn]

Did you upgrade from a previous Fusion version to the tech preview? If so, how did you do the upgrade and did the Win10 vm already exist in the previous version?

 

[S.B.G]

Did you upgrade from a previous Fusion version to the tech preview? If so, how did you do the upgrade and did the Win10 vm already exist in the previous version?

No I did a fresh install of the tech preview on 10.11 after finding that the normal version, 7.1.2 IIRC didn't work.

The Windows VM was copied from my Yosemite/Fusion folder into the vm folder on 10.11. After firing up up Windows, on the tech preview of Fusion, everything seemed fine, including the resolution.

Then I used Windows Update to upgrade to the latest build and when it completed, that's when the low resolution began on Windows. I reinstalled vmware tools too and that had no effect.

 

[dyn]

That might be the reason why it is not working. Officially you need to uninstall the VMware Tools, shutdown the vm and then proceed with upgrading Fusion. Usually not doing that works out fine but sometimes you get these strange issues with VMware Tools. Uninstalling Tools, rebooting and then reinstalling might work. There doesn't seem to be any topics about this issue on the tech preview forums at vmware.com. I'll see what happens with my Win10 vm.

 

[Doc69]

This is what i did regarding my 10.9.x, 10.10.x and 10.11.x VMs. VMsvga2 allows more resolutions than the standard OS X or VMware driver.

Thanks Mr. Retrofire! That made it much better. But there were no display drivers for my 1920x1200 Apple display. Only 1600x1200 or 1920x1440. And since I never run a VM in full screen mode, either of those two display resolutions will after a while scale themselves down a bit to show the whole desktop, which makes everything fuzzy. Only way to get 1:1 pixels is to run the VM at 1440x1050. Is there a way to force the VM resolution to stay on 1600x1200, scaled 1:1, for example, and not have it scale the window, even if one side is larger than the actual display size?

Also, the black area in the "Icon View" in the Finder is still there. But still much better! Thank you!

 

[S.B.G]

That might be the reason why it is not working. Officially you need to uninstall the VMware Tools, shutdown the vm and then proceed with upgrading Fusion. Usually not doing that works out fine but sometimes you get these strange issues with VMware Tools. Uninstalling Tools, rebooting and then reinstalling might work. There doesn't seem to be any topics about this issue on the tech preview forums at vmware.com. I'll see what happens with my Win10 vm.

That did the trick. Uninstalling vmware tools, shutting down the VM, starting it back up and reinstalling vmware tools.

Resolution is fixed.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[dyn]

This is VMware's equivalent of rebooting Windows to get things sorted Good to see it worked!