The Unofficial Fusion 13 for Apple Silicon

Companion Guide

The manual that VMware didn’t publish

and the one that you will need…

Revision 19 (1-July-2023)
Edited by Paul Rockwell (@Technogeezer)
Table of Contents

1 Introduction 1
1.1 This guide is an unofficial publication 1
1.2 This guide only covers Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon Macs 1
1.3 “Some assembly is required” when using this guide 1
1.4 Document conventions 2
1.5 Acknowledgements 2
2 General Notes 4
2.1 Review the Fusion documentation 4
2.2 Review VMware KB article 90364 4
2.3 Use macOS Sonoma betas at your own risk 4
2.4 Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon does not run Intel virtual machines 5
2.5 Unsupported features of Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon 6
2.6 Arm64 operating systems known to work on Fusion 13 6
2.7 Linux 3D graphics acceleration 7
2.8 Some arm64 Linux installers do not boot on Fusion 13 8
2.9 Use open-vm-tools with arm64 Linux 8
2.10 “Start pxe over ipv4” message displayed during guest power up 9
2.11 Unable to change the display resolution of a Linux virtual machine 10
2.12 Shared folders do not automatically mount in a Linux virtual machine 10
2.13 Erratic behavior when multiple virtualization products are in use 11
2.14 Printing from virtual machines on Linux and Windows 11
2.15 Sound issues in Linux virtual machines 11
2.16 Importing Parallels virtual machines 11
3 Arch Linux 13
3.1 General notes 13
4 CentOS Stream 14
4.1 General notes 14
4.2 CentOS 8 Stream does not work 14
5 Debian 15
5.1 General notes 15

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 5.2 Obtaining newer kernel versions for Debian 11 15
5.3 open-vm-tools are now available for Debian 11 16
5.4 Upgrading Debian 11 to Debian 12 17
6 Fedora 18
6.1 General notes 18
7 Gentoo 19
7.1 General notes 19
8 Kali Linux 20
8.1 General notes 20
8.2 Installation fails at “Select and install software” 21
8.3 Console resolution fails to change when resizing the VM’s window 21
9 macOS 22
9.1 macOS virtualization is not supported by Fusion on Apple Silicon 22
10 OpenSUSE Leap 23
10.1 General notes 23
10.2 Leap 15.4 installer hangs at “Starting udev” 23
10.3 Installing from ISO error - the VM needs x86 architecture 24
11 OpenSUSE Tumbleweed 25
11.1 General notes 25
11.2 Creating an OpenSUSE Tumbleweed VM 25
12 Oracle Linux 26
12.1 General notes 26
12.2 No open-vm-tools for Oracle Linux 8.7 26
13 Red Hat Enterprise Linux and downstream distros 27
13.1 General notes 27
13.2 RHEL 8 and earlier do not work 27
14 Ubuntu 28
14.1 General notes 28
14.2 Do not use Ubuntu 22.04 and 22.04.1 LTS installers 28
14.3 Ubuntu Desktop 22.04.2 daily builds now boot 28
14.4 23.10 Desktop daily builds will not allow login 28
14.5 Blank console display issues in Ubuntu 22.04.2 HWE kernels are fixed 28

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 14.6 Blank console display issues in Ubuntu 22.10 kernels are fixed 29
14.7 Unable to find an Ubuntu Desktop for ARM installer 29
14.8 How to convert Ubuntu Server to Ubuntu Desktop 29
14.9 Links to Ubuntu downloads 31
14.10 Making Ubuntu always show the GRUB boot loader menu 32
14.11 How to find and install Ubuntu “mainline” kernels 33
15 Windows 11 ARM 35
15.1 General notes 35
15.2 Video walk through of installation procedures 35
15.3 Windows 11 ARM licensing 36
15.4 Obtaining Windows 11 ARM ISO installation media 36
15.5 Creating the VM and installing Windows 11 from ISO 40
15.6 Windows 11 ARM VMs can’t be enrolled in Windows Insider 52
15.7 Microsoft Store app doesn’t exist or crashes in a newly installed VM 53
15.8 Fusion folder sharing with the Mac host is not supported 53
15.9 Copy/paste and drag/drop does not work 54
15.10 Enabling/disabling Secure Boot on Fusion Player 54
15.11 iCloud app fails to install from the Microsoft Store 58
Appendix A. Glossary 60
Appendix B. Archived Topics 65
B.1. FIXED: RHEL 9.0 installation ISOs will not boot 65
B.2. FIXED: Blank screen when text mode installation is selected 66
B.3. FIXED: Unable to change graphics resolution in a RHEL 9.0 VM 66
B.4. FIXED: Kali 2022.2 VM fails to boot after initial installation 67
B.5. FIXED: Installing Fedora 36 from ISO 68
B.6. Unable to change screen resolution in a KDE Plasma session 69

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1 Introduction

Knowledge is good.
- Inscription on the statue of Emil Faber at Faber College, “Animal House”
The Unofficial Fusion 13 for Apple Silicon Companion Guide (the “Companion Guide”) is an
unofficial addition to the VMware Fusion 13 documentation. It contains a collection of useful tips
and techniques for building and running virtual machines under Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon
(M1/M2) Macs. These tips were submitted by users on the VMware Fusion Discussions and 22H2
Tech Preview Discussions forums.
The Companion Guide may contain hyperlinks to external web sites. It is best viewed in Adobe
Reader or any other PDF viewer. It can be printed for reference if desired (URLs to external web
sites are visible in their entirety).

1.1 This guide is an unofficial publication

The Companion Guide is not a VMware official publication and is not endorsed by VMware. Its
content is sourced from user posts in the VMware Community forums for VMware Fusion.
While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of content contained in the Companion
Guide, no guarantees or warranties of accuracy are offered by either the editor or VMware. The
editor’s intent is to keep the Companion Guide as accurate as possible so that it is useful to the
broader community. Any inaccuracies should be reported to the Fusion forums, and they will be
addressed in future versions of this document.

1.2 This guide only covers Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon Macs

The editorial decision was made to focus the Companion Guide on the Apple Silicon platform
because of the newness of arm64 operating systems and the drastic changes to the expectations of
Mac users introduced by Apple’s decision to switch from Intel CPUs. Users are more likely to
encounter the issues and “peculiarities” described in the Companion Guide on Fusion 13 on
M1/M2 Macs. The issues in the Companion Guide are unlikely to be observed by users of Fusion
on Intel Macs.

1.3 “Some assembly is required” when using this guide

Some of the procedures in this Guide can be categorized as “some assembly required”. They
require system administration or other "command line" (non-GUI) operations to complete the
tasks. The Companion Guide tries to walk you through the procedures in as straight-forward a
manner as possible without the need to be an expert programmer or sysadmin to complete the
tasks.
If you are unsure about how to perform these tasks, please post a question in the VMware Fusion
Discussions forum. You are also encouraged to search the web for documentation and tutorials on
your operating system environment.

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1.4 Document conventions
Commands to be entered into a terminal prompt will be preceded by the appropriate shell prompt.
If you copy/paste the command, do not include the shell prompt character(s).
• Commands to be executed with normal user privileges on Linux/macOS will appear as
follows:
$ command arg1 arg2
• Commands to be executed with elevated privileges (sudo to root) will appear as follows:
# command arg1 arg2
• Commands to be executed in the Windows command line app will appear as follows:
C:> command arg1 arg2
• Commands to be executed in Windows Powershell will appear as follows:
PS> command arg1 arg2
Command output or text that a procedure asks to be included in files will appear as follows:
Output line 1
Output line 2

1.5 Acknowledgements
The content of the Companion Guide is the work of the many Fusion community members that
have contributed these valuable tips. Many thanks go out to those whose efforts make it possible.
Apologies to anyone that I may have missed.
Special thanks go out to:
• @Mikero (Michael Roy, VMware Fusion/Workstation product manager) – for
providing the Tech Preview, its documentation, and for keeping watch over the
Discussions forum.
• @ColoradoMarmot – For comments and experiences on using prior versions of the Tech
Preview, a heads-up on running multiple virtualization products at the same time.
• @k_ronny – For inspiration on how to modify RHEL 9 configurations to increase the
default graphics resolution until Red Hat fixes it.
• @palter – for independently confirming how to get CentOS 9 Stream working on the
Tech Preview, and for noting that UTM 4.0 now enables virtualization of macOS
Monterey and Ventura.
• @JamesRule – for reporting issues with resizing Kali Linux windows
• @adf43r3rfe – for reporting issues in booting a newly installed Kali Linux VM
• @mvreijn – for pointing out an omission of instructions for installing openSUSE Leap
• @toce – for pointing out an error in earlier versions of the commands used to install a
Debian backport kernel that results in installation failures,

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• @treee – for pointing out inaccuracies in revision 2 of this document, and suggesting
changes for clarity
• Burke Azbill (Twitter: @TechnicalValues) – for discovering issues with Fedora 36
updates.
• @bogdan – For providing information on how to obtain ESD distributions from
Microsoft (https://gist.github.com/b0gdanw/e36ea84828dbd19e03eff6158f1fc77c).
This information was used in the creation of the tool that creates an ISO from ESD.
• @santhonysasse – for providing a most excellent video walkthrough for installing
Windows 11 ARM on Fusion using the instructions found in the Companion Guide.
• @gsmgmt – for reporting that Ubuntu Desktop 22.04 daily builds are broken.
• @itris666 – for pointing out that Fusion Player does not have the ability to change
Secure Boot state in the GUI once a Windows 11 ARM VM is created.
• @AFerrit (Dan Mahoney – for reporting issues with the installation of the iCloud app
on Windows 11 ARM and for providing a solution.
• @gnttz79xro – for a solution to stuttering sound on Linux virtual machines.
• @neanti – for a procedure to manually convert a Parallels VM to Fusion

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2 General Notes

2.1 Review the Fusion documentation

VMware provides in-product, web-based and PDF documentation for Fusion 13. It should be your
first point of reference when you have questions about how to do something with Fusion.
Fusion documentation can be found:
• Within Fusion itself. From the Fusion menu bar, select Help > VMware Fusion Help
• Using a web browser to navigate to: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-
Fusion/13/com.vmware.fusion.using.doc/GUID-F2874B79-A32A-4B83-914F-
9838372D47CD.html
• In a PDF document that can be downloaded from https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-
Fusion/13/fusion-13-user-guide.pdf

2.2 Review VMware KB article 90364

VMware has published the KB article “Compatibility considerations for Arm guest operating
systems in Fusion VMs on Apple silicon” https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/90364. This article
describes in more detail:
• The generic requirements and limitations for all Arm guest operating systems
• Detailed information on the virtual hardware devices for officially supported ARM guest
operating systems, and
• Operating systems that are NOT supported by Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon. This includes a
statement that NO x86 (Intel) operating systems and NO macOS versions are supported.
The information in this KB article is an important addition to the official Fusion 13
documentations. It should be considered mandatory reading before attempting to create any virtual
machine on Apple Silicon Macs.

2.3 Use macOS Sonoma betas at your own risk

macOS 14 Sonoma beta releases are not officially supported by Fusion 13. Initial anecdotal reports
are that Fusion 13 does run on Sonoma.
As with any beta software, use Sonoma at your own risk. Beta releases can (and usually do) break
things, and you should expect that it may happen to you. If you depend on your Mac for any reason
and can’t afford the potential instability that beta releases can bring, wait to use Sonoma until
Apple releases it and VMware announces official Fusion support for Sonoma.
If you do use Sonoma beta releases, be prepared to collect feedback on any issues and report them
to both Apple and VMware. Don’t rely on others to do it for you – reporting issues is part of the
deal when running beta software.

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2.4 Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon does not run Intel virtual machines
As stated in KB article https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/90364, operating systems built for Intel
32- or 64-bit processors will not run on Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon Macs.1
Parallels running on Apple Silicon Macs has the same behavior.
If you:
• have virtual machines created with Fusion running on Intel Macs,
• want to run older versions of Windows client or any version of Windows Server, and
• want to run older versions of macOS.
then you should consider:
• Using an Intel CPU emulator such as QEMU or UTM. Be aware that the performance
of emulated Intel CPUs on Apple Silicon may not be acceptable.
• Continuing to run virtual machines on an Intel Mac.
• Using an Intel/AMD PC to run Windows or Linux VMs with VMware Workstation2
• For the more technically inclined, using a computer with an Intel/AMD CPU to run
Windows or Linux VMs with the free version of the VMware ESXi hypervisor3.
Some community members indicate that there is a developer preview of Oracle VirtualBox for
Apple Silicon. The VirtualBox developers consider it to be highly experimental and potentially
buggy with “modest performance” 4 . From what information is available it appears they have
included a rudimentary Intel x86 (32-bit) emulator which will not run any 64-bit Intel operating
systems. Community feedback on this VirtualBox release would be appreciated.

1
While Rosetta 2 allows applications compiled for Intel Macs to run on Apple Silicon CPUs, it does not enable
hypervisors to run Intel operating systems. This is a documented Apple restriction.
2
VMware does not support or allow macOS VMs to run on VMware Workstation. Apple’s macOS licensing
prohibits the use of macOS on non-Apple hardware.
3
VMware does not support macOS VMs when running ESXi on non-Apple hardware. macOS VMs are only
allowed by Apple’s macOS licensing when running ESXi on Apple hardware.
4
Editor’s comment: I read this as a kind way of saying “poor performance”.

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2.5 Unsupported features of Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon
The Fusion 13 release notes and documentation do not clearly describe where Fusion 13 on Apple
Silicon Macs differs from Fusion 13 on Intel Macs. In some cases, you must closely read release
notices and the VMware Fusion documentation, and in others it’s not clear at all.

Features not available in Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon

• Running of virtual machines requiring • Fusion shared folders for Windows 11

Intel x86 or x64 CPUs ARM guests (workaround available)
• Virtualization of any version of macOS • “Soft” power options for Windows 11
• Importing or exporting a virtual ARM guests
machine using .ova or .ovf formatted • Synchronizing time between host and
files guest for Windows 11 ARM guests.
• Conversion of virtual machines from • 3D accelerated graphics for Windows
Parallels 11 ARM guests
• Virtual Printer (ThinPrint) sharing with • Changing the screen resolution of a
the host Mac (workaround available) Windows 11 ARM guest by resizing
• Nested virtualization the guest’s window (must change
resolution from inside guest)
• Copy/Paste/Drag/Drop for Windows 11
ARM guests • Unity for Windows 11 ARM
• Multiple monitor support

If you need any of these features, consider remaining on an Intel Mac where these features are still
supported by Fusion 13.

2.6 Arm64 operating systems known to work on Fusion 13

If you’re starting out with Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon, here’s a few suggestions for arm64
operating systems. This is not a comprehensive list.

Operating systems known to work with Fusion 13 VMs on Apple Silicon Macs

• AlmaLinux 9.1, 9.2 • OpenSUSE Tumbleweed

• CentOS 9 Stream • Oracle Linux 8.7, 9.1, 9.2
• Fedora 36, 37, 38, Rawhide • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.1, 9.2
• Debian 11.7 (bullseye), 12 (bookworm) • Rocky Linux 9.1. 9.2
• Kali Linux 2022.3 and later • Ubuntu 20.04.5, 22.04.2, 22.10, 23.04,
• OpenSUSE Leap 15.4, 15.5 23.10
• Windows 11 ARM 22H2

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Please see other sections within this guide for details on any observed issues with these releases.
Later versions of the above distributions will generally work. Older versions likely will not work.
See the remainder of the Companion Guide for more detailed discussions on releases that work
well and ones that don't.
VMware has implemented a “standard” virtual hardware environment that is certified to ARM
System Ready specifications. This means other arm64 Linux distributions with reasonably current
kernels (5.19 and later) and packages will likely work with Fusion 13. You are encouraged to try
them and report your experiences back to the broader Fusion community.

2.7 Linux 3D graphics acceleration

Fusion 13 supports OpenGL 4.3 for 3D accelerated graphics on arm64 Linux virtual machines
through the Mesa 3D libraries. Fusion 13 does not currently support Vulkan.
The Fusion 13 documentation and the Display settings do not clearly specify the requirements for
3D acceleration on arm64 Linux. They simply state “Linux kernel and Mesa 3D versions that
support 3D accelerated graphics are required”.
3D acceleration for an arm64 Linux VM on Fusion 13 requires:
• Virtual hardware version of 20. This is the default for new virtual machines with Fusion
13 on Apple Silicon.
• A VM with a 5.19 or later Linux kernel. These versions contain the VMware graphics
driver enhancements needed to support 3D acceleration on arm64 virtual machines.
• Mesa 3D 22.1.1 or later installed in the VM.
3D acceleration will work on the following arm64 Linux distributions:
• Ubuntu 22.10 and 23.04
• Fedora 36 (with latest kernel updates), 37, 38 and Rawhide
• Debian 12 “bookworm”
• OpenSUSE Tumbleweed snapshot 20230403 and later
• Kali Linux 2023.1
3D acceleration will not work on the following arm64 Linux distributions:
• Ubuntu 22.04.2 and earlier
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux - all versions and all downstream derivatives such as Rocky
Linux and AlmaLinux.
• Oracle Linux – all versions
• CentOS 9 Stream
• Debian 11 “bullseye”
• OpenSUSE Leap 15.x

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Do not enable 3D acceleration on guests that do not meet the prerequisites. There have been reports
of Fusion crashing early in the boot process when 3D acceleration is enabled for distributions that
do not support it.

2.8 Some arm64 Linux installers do not boot on Fusion 13

Some older arm64/aarch64 installation ISOs may not boot on Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon Macs.
They will display a blank screen with either no cursor or a static non-blinking cursor.
A common cause of this problem for distributions other than Ubuntu is a Linux kernel that contains
an older version of the VMWare SVGA virtual graphics driver (vmwgfx). This driver appears to
have issues when running under Fusion 13.
Ubuntu releases may also exhibit this failure to boot. Their difficulties are due to other issues their
kernels have with Fusion 13. Please see the section on Ubuntu for more information.
For distributions other than Ubuntu, see if the installer has an option to boot with a generic graphics
adapter. If it doesn't, try disabling the vmwgfx driver at boot time using the following procedure
so that the kernel will not load it. In many cases these will allow the installer or virtual machine to
boot using the default Linux frame buffer graphics driver.
Procedure: Disabling the VMware vmwgfx graphics driver in Linux
1. Boot the virtual machine to the GRUB boot loader menu and use the keyboard
up/down arrow keys to highlight the desired kernel.
Do not press ‘Enter’. Instead, press ‘e’. This will display the details of the GRUB
booting commands for that kernel.

2. See the documentation for GRUB and your distribution for complete instructions on
how to block kernel drivers from loading.
For many non-Debian Linux distributions, adding the following to the kernel
arguments will prevent the vmwgfx driver from loading:
modprobe.blacklist=vmwfgx

For Debian-derived releases (including Kali Linux), add the following instead:
module_blacklist=vmwfgx

3. Press Ctrl-x to boot the kernel with the updated arguments.

The kernel should now boot to the graphical login screen or installer. If it doesn’t, the vmwgfx
driver may not be the problem and additional troubleshooting needs to be performed.

2.9 Use open-vm-tools with arm64 Linux

The Fusion GUI menu item to “Install VMware Tools” is greyed out for arm64 Linux VMs. That's
because VMware doesn't provide traditional VMware Tools packages for arm64 Linux.

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open-vm-tools are the VMware-recommended in-guest tools for all current Linux operating
systems and are the only in-guest tools available for arm64 Linux VMs. These tools are provided
by the operating system vendors, not VMware. Install both open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-
desktop packages from the distribution’s repositories where available.
VMware provides VMware Tools with Fusion on Intel Macs, VMware Workstation, and
vSphere/ESXi. However, these tools are only supported on older Intel (not arm64) Linux
distributions that do not provide open-vm-tools. These tools will not run on arm64 virtual
machines.

2.10 “Start pxe over ipv4” message displayed during guest power up
“Start pxe over ipv4” is a message displayed when the guest is attempting to boot from a network
interface. In almost all cases, this means that the guest cannot find a bootable operating system
from either the hard disk or the CD/DVD drive.
If this message appears, check to see if one of the following has occurred:

Cause What to do

The virtual CD/DVD drive is not Configure the installation ISO to the virtual CD/DVD
configured to use the installation ISO. drive and connect the drive to the guest.

The virtual CD/DVD drive is not Connect the virtual CD/DVD to the guest and
connected to the guest. restart the guest.

Corrupt or invalid ISO file. Verify that you have installation media that contains
a bootable ARM architecture operating system.

Trying to install from ISO If you are installing Windows, you must use
installation media that is built for Windows 11 ARM ISO installation media. See the
use on 32 or 64-bit Intel PCs. topic Obtaining Windows 11 ARM ISO installation
media.
If you are installing Linux, download arm64/aarch64
ISO installation media for your distribution.

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 Cause What to do

When installing Windows 11 ARM, Restart the guest using the Fusion GUI. Immediately
the “Press any key to start from CD set keyboard focus to the virtual machine by either
or DVD” prompt timed out. clicking the mouse in the VM’s console window or
by pressing Command-G. Then press any key on the
keyboard before the prompt times out.
You may perform this action as many times as
necessary until you get the Windows ISO installer to
boot.

2.11 Unable to change the display resolution of a Linux virtual machine

Changing the resolution of a Linux virtual machine display requires a Linux kernel that contains
the VMware SVGA (vmwgfx) driver. VMware provided the vmwgfx driver to the Linux kernel
source tree, and it should be included out-of-the-box in most vendor distributions with a 5.14
kernel or later.
This issue will be seen most often in Debian 11 releases. The kernel that is released with these
distributions is a 5.10 version which does not contain the VMware driver.

2.12 Shared folders do not automatically mount in a Linux virtual machine

This issue is seen when the shared folder client is implemented using the FUSE user-space file
system framework. open-vm-tools on arm64 Linux uses this type of shared folder client. See the
following VMware KB article for more information: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/60262.
The standard documented workaround is to disable and enable the Shared Folders feature of the
virtual machine from the Fusion GUI while the VM is running. However, this workaround is not
persistent, and must be repeated after each reboot of the virtual machine.
A persistent solution is to add an entry to /etc/fstab in the virtual machine that mounts the shared
folders automatically on boot.

Procedure: Mounting shared folders at boot of a Linux VM

1. Log into the VM and sudo to root.

2. Verify the mount point directory /mnt/hgfs exists in the VM. If it doesn’t, create the
empty directory.

3. Edit /etc/fstab. Add the following line to the file:

vmhgfs-fuse /mnt/hgfs fuse defaults,allow_other,_netdev 0 0

4. Reboot the virtual machine

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Shared folders configured in the Fusion GUI for the virtual machine should now mount at boot
time.
Another persistent solution for distributions using systemd can be found in the following VMware
Knowledge Base article: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/74650.

2.13 Erratic behavior when multiple virtualization products are in use

(Thanks to @ColoradoMarmot for finding this)
Erratic behavior has been observed when running Fusion at the same time as running another
virtualization product (in the reported case, Parallels). The issue reported is that host crashes have
occurred when under heavy load.
A prudent practice would be to avoid running multiple virtualization products at the same time.
See this post for more details: https://communities.vmware.com/t5/Fusion-22H2-Tech-
Preview/Warning-about-running-multiple-hypervisors-at-once/td-p/2921430.

2.14 Printing from virtual machines on Linux and Windows

Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon does not implement Fusion virtual printing (ThinPrint) functionality
that allows the virtual machine to automatically share the printers defined on the host Mac.
Workarounds include (these apply to both Linux and Windows guests):
• Guests using Bridged networking can connect directly to any reasonably modern network
printer supported by AirPrint or Windows network printing. The printers are discovered
and configured by the printer configuration utilities in the virtual machine.
• Guests using NAT networking can connect to any printer that has printer sharing enabled
by the macOS host. Use the printer setup utilities provided by the guest operating system
to configure these printers. This works for any printer regardless of whether it is directly
connected or wirelessly connected to the Mac host.
•

2.15 Sound issues in Linux virtual machines

Some Linux distributions are reported to have issues playing sounds when run in a Fusion virtual
machine. The reported issues usually include stuttering and lags of the sound output.
Many current Linux distributions have switched from using PulseAudio to pipewire for sound
support. The distributions that have done this appear to be the ones that are exhibiting the issue.
@gnttz79xro reports that the issues can be fixed in Fedora 38 using the instructions in the article
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/wikis/Troubleshooting#stuttering-audio-in-
virtual-machine. These instructions may be useful for other Linux distributions as well.

2.16 Importing Parallels virtual machines

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Fusion 13 does not implement the importing of virtual machines from Parallels. User @neanti
provides a work-around for a Linux virtual machine that uses the qemu-img utility that is part of
QEMU to perform a virtual disk conversion. This procedure was tested for a OpenSUSE Leap
VM; it may work for other Linux distributions.
Manual conversion of Linux VM from Parallels
1. Install qemu from either Homebrew or MacPorts

2. Clone the Parallels openSUSE VM (so that all snapshots and Parallels guest tools can
be removed without disturbing the existing VM)

3. Delete all VM snapshots in the clone.

4. Start the cloned VM and remove Parallels tools in the clone.

5. Turn off VM.

6. Open a Terminal and cd to Parallels VM directory where the VM .hds file is located,

7. Convert the Parallels virtual disk to VMware vmdk format using the qemu-img
command similar to the following:
$ qemu-img convert -f parallels p-disk.hds -O vmdk -o compat6 v-disk.vmdk

Where
• p-disk.hds is the input Parallels virtual disk, and
• v-disk.vmdk is the output converted VMware virtual disk

8. Create a new custom virtual machine in Fusion

Choose the appropriate Linux version when prompted.
When asked for a virtual disk, opt to use an existing virtual disk. Pick the .vmdk file
created from the qemu-img command above.

The new VM may not boot due to virtual hardware differences between a Parallels virtual machine
and a Fusion virtual machine. But it will contain all settings and all apps from the previous
installation.
If the VM fails to boot, use the Linux installer ISO for the distribution you initially used to install
Linux on Parallels and boot it to rescue mode. You will then be able to fix any issues preventing
the OS from booting. Sample instructions on how to perform this kind of repair for OpenSUSE
can be found here: https://forums.opensuse.org/t/repair-a-broken-uefi-grub2-opensuse-boot-
scenario/129018. Similar instructions may be able to be found for other distributions.

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3 Arch Linux

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

- Dante, “Inferno”

3.1 General notes

The Fusion Community is reporting that the Arch Linux ARM port has not been successfully
installed on Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon. Unlike the Intel versions of Arch, the ARMv8 supported
platforms and images for the Arch ARM port are either single-board computers (Raspberry
Pi/ARM development boards) or Chromebooks. The installation images assume the hardware
contains devices that are not provided by Fusion’s virtual hardware. For example, most of the
supported boards have MicroSD cards, which Fusion 13 does not provide.
Arch Linux ARM does not provide a port for open-vm-tools. That will limit the availability of
Fusion features such as shared folders and copy/paste/drag/drop even if you can get it to run.
Unless you are an experienced developer and have lots of time on your hands, avoid Arch Linux
on Fusion 13. And petition the Arch developers to port to a real ARM computer with NVMe disks.

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4 CentOS Stream

Note: This section discusses CentOS Stream releases that are “upstream” from Red Hat
Enterprise Linux. See the section Red Hat Enterprise Linux and compatible/downstream distros
for discussion of CentOS Linux 8 and earlier versions that are re-spins (downstream versions) of
Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

4.1 General notes

CentOS 9 Stream will install and run on Fusion 13.
• 3D acceleration is not available.
• open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop are both available from the CentOS repos.
• The console resolution can be changed from within the VM or by resizing the console
window.
Choose “Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 64-bit Arm” as the operating system type when creating the
virtual machine.

4.2 CentOS 8 Stream does not work

CentOS 8 Stream does not work on Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon. The kernels for ARM systems are
incompatible with the Apple Silicon hardware. They exhibit the same issue as noted in the topic
RHEL 8 and earlier do not work.
There is no workaround. Use CentOS 9 Stream instead.

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5 Debian

5.1 General notes

Debian 11 “bullseye” 11.4 through 11.7 work on Fusion 13.
• 3D acceleration is not available.
• Resizing of the screen resolution is not available out-of-the-box. See the topic Obtaining
newer kernel versions for Debian 11 for a work-around.
• open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop are not in the standard repos. See the topic
open-vm-tools are now available in Debian repos.
Debian 12 “bookworm” works on Fusion 13.
• Console resolution change is supported.
• 3D acceleration works.
• Open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop are available in the “bookworm” repos and
are installed by default.

5.2 Obtaining newer kernel versions for Debian 11

Note:
This topic applies to Debian 11 only. Debian 12 ships with a 6.1 kernel that supports console
resolution change.

Debian 11 on aarch64 platforms ships with a 5.10 version of the Linux kernel. While this kernel
works with Fusion 13, it does not contain a VMware virtual graphics adapter driver that will allow
resizing of the console resolution.
Installing a 5.18 or later kernel from the “bullseye-backports” repository will allow the screen
resolution to be changed. To access this repository, it must be added to the list of available
repositories for installation. Full instructions on how to do this can be found at
https://backports.debian.org/Instructions. A short version follows:
Procedure: Short version of installing a bullseye-backports kernel

1. Open your terminal application and sudo to root.

2. Add the following line to /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports main contrib non-free

3. Run the following command to update the available package information:

# apt update

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 Procedure: Short version of installing a bullseye-backports kernel

4. Run the following command to list kernels available for installation.

# apt list 'linux-image*'

Anything with "bullseye-backports" attached to the name is available from the

backports repo.

5. Install a 5.18 or later kernel from the bullseye-backports repo. Example:

# apt install linux-image-5.19.0-0.deb11.2-arm64/bullseye-backports

Note: be sure to specify the exact name of the package. A command such as
# apt install linux-image-5.19.0-0.deb11.2/bullseye-backports

will attempt to install all variants of the given kernel and will result in an installation
failure.

Kernels available in the bullseye-backport repository that are known to work include:
• linux-image-6.0.0-0.deb11.2-arm64/bullseye-backports
• linux-image-5.19.0-0.deb11.2-arm64/bullseye-backports
• linux-image-5.18.0-0.deb11.4-4-arm64/bullseye-backports
• linux-image-5.18.0-0.bpo.1-arm64/bullseye-backports

5.3 open-vm-tools are now available for Debian 11

Note:
This topic applies to Debian 11 only. Debian 12 includes open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-
desktop in its repos.

Debian has made open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools desktop packages available for Debian 11 in
the "bullseye-backports" repository.
To install open-vm-tools
• Add the “bullseye-backports” repository to /etc/apt/sources.list as noted in the topic
Obtaining newer kernel versions for Debian 11.
• Install the open-vm-tools packages from the backports repository. Here’s an example:
# apt install -t bullseye-backports open-vm-tools open-vm-tools-desktop

Best results have been reported when using open-vm-tools with a “bullseye-backports” 5.18 or
later kernel.

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5.4 Upgrading Debian 11 to Debian 12
Debian supports the in-place upgrading of an existing Debian 11 “bullseye” system to Debian 12
“bookworm”. See the Debian 12 release notes for guidance on how to perform this upgrade.
Debian recommends that systems to be upgraded should remove packages installed from bullseye-
backports repos before attempting the upgrade. If you have installed a kernel or open-vm-tools
packages into a Debian 11 VM from using the information in this section, please remove them and
revert the sources.list file to its standard contents before upgrading.

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6 Fedora

6.1 General notes

While Fedora 35 and 36 will work with Fusion 13, they have reached their EOL dates of December
2022 and May 2023 respectively. Please use Fedora 37 or later.
Fedora 37 (released 2022-11-15) boots and installs with no issues.
Fedora 38 (released 2023-04-17) boots and installs with no issues.
Fedora Rawhide (rolling development version) boots and installs with no issues.
For all these releases:
• Console resolution can be changed from within the VM and by resizing the console
window.
• 3D acceleration is supported.
• open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop are available from Fedora repos.

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7 Gentoo

Hic sunt dracones (Latin to English translation: Here be dragons)

- inscribed on the Hunt-Lenox Globe (c. 1504)

7.1 General notes

Gentoo for arm64 has been reported to install on a Fusion 13 virtual machine. But note that it is
somewhat experimental and not as polished as the other Gentoo supported architectures.
Use the arm64 Minimal Installation CD boot media.
The Stage 3 archives containing systemd are known to work. OpenRC has not been tested at this
time, but there should be no reason why it won’t work.
There is no Gentoo Handbook for arm64. Use the Handbook for amd64 architectures as your guide.
When building a VM for Gentoo:
• Create a custom virtual machine. Do not drag/drop the ISO to create the VM.
• Set the virtual machine operating system to “Other 5.x Linux kernel 64-bit Arm”.
• Assign 2 cores and 4096 MB of memory to the VM.
• Create a virtual disk of 20 GB or more (40 GB if you are attempting to install a desktop
profile with a GNOME or KDE desktop as 20 GB is insufficient for compilation of the
packages).
• Assign the boot media ISO to the virtual CD/DVD drive and connect it to the virtual
machine.

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8 Kali Linux

8.1 General notes

Kali Linux has been confirmed to run using Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon Macs.
• Console resolution can be changed from within the VM. It can’t be changed by resizing
the console window when using the default XFCE window manager. See the topic
Screen resolution fails to change when resizing the VM’s window.
• 3D acceleration is supported.
• open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop are available from Kali repos.
Either Bare Metal or Live Boot media from the Kali web site can be used to install and run Kali.
When downloading from Kali’s web site, ensure you select media labelled for “Apple M1”. Media
labelled as “32-bit” or “64-bit” are for Intel CPUs.
Use Kali Linux 2022.3 or later releases. Earlier releases have issues with the bootable installer.
Do not use any pre-packaged virtual machines, even if they are labelled for use under VMware.
Those are for Intel CPUs and will not run on Apple Silicon Macs.
When creating a new virtual machine, do not drag and drop the Kali ISO file on the “Create a
virtual machine” dialog. Kali Linux is not an officially supported Linux ARM distribution, and the
virtual machine may be configured incorrectly. Instead, use the option to “Create a custom virtual
machine”.
The recommended minimum virtual machine configuration for Kali Linux is:
• Guest operating system type of “Debian 11.x 64-bit Arm”
• 2 Virtual CPUs
• 4096 MB memory
• 20 GB virtual hard drive

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8.2 Installation fails at “Select and install software”
If the installation of Kali Linux fails during the “Select and install software” phase with the
following message:

check the size of your virtual hard drive. The installation will fail with this error message if there
is insufficient space to install all the Kali software components. Typically, a 20GB virtual hard
drive will allow the installation to complete successfully.

8.3 Console resolution fails to change when resizing the VM’s window
(Thanks to @JamesRule and @Mikero for reporting and explaining this)
Resizing the window of a Kali Linux VM will not change the console resolution. The console
resolution can be changed within the VM, which will then change the window size.
According to @Mikero, this is an issue with the XFCE window manager that Kali uses by default.
The console resolution will change when resizing the VM’s window in KDE, GNOME, and
Cinnamon, but not XFCE.

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9 macOS

You can’t get there from here.

- common New England (United States) idiom

9.1 macOS virtualization is not supported by Fusion on Apple Silicon

Per VMware KB article https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/90364, Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon does
not support virtualization of any macOS version.
If you want to run a VM with a macOS version older than macOS 12 Monterey, you must use an
Intel Mac5.
If you want to virtualize macOS 12 Monterey or macOS 13 Ventura on an Apple Silicon Mac,
your options include:
• UTM (https://mac.getutm.app), free from the website or $9.99 from the Mac App Store;
Both versions are functionally identical, but the App Store version provides automatic
updates and a donation to the author to fund future development.
• VirtualBuddy (https://github.com/insidegui/VirtualBuddy), open source, free. You
don’t have to build it, there is an installer for a pre-built application available on the web
site.
• Parallels Desktop, commercial product, paid.
All three of these products have identical capabilities for virtualizing macOS. They all use Apple’s
high level Virtualization Framework to run macOS VMs on Monterey (and later) hosts. Because
of this, the following capabilities are not supported by these products:

• Virtualization of macOS 11 Big Sur • Suspend/resume of VMs6

• Resizing of virtual disks • Connection of USB devices to the VM
• Virtual disk snapshots • Inability to sign in with an Apple ID in
• Drag/drop of files between host Mac and the VM
VM. • Running of more than 2 macOS VMs at
once

5
Apple’s EULA for macOS prohibits the use of macOS on non-Apple hardware. VMware does not support macOS
VMs on non-Apple hardware. They also do not allow discussions of running macOS on non-Apple hardware on
their VMware Community forums.
6
Apple states this will be available starting in macOS Sonoma. Virtualization applications may need to be updated
to support it.

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10 OpenSUSE Leap

10.1 General notes

OpenSUSE Leap (“Leap”) versions 15.3 and earlier have reached their End-of-Life and should not
be used. Use Leap 15.5 (preferred) or 15.4.
Both Leap 15.4 and 15.5 will install and run on Fusion 13.
• Console resolution can be changed from within the VM.
• No 3D acceleration support.
• open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop are available from Leap repos.
• Leap 15.4 installers may hang at “Starting udev”. The topic Leap 15.4 installer hangs at
“Starting udev” contains a workaround to this issue.
Note that during the installation of any version of Leap you must create a custom virtual machine.
Do not drag/drop the ISO on the “New Virtual Machine” dialog. See the topic Installing from ISO
error - the VM needs x86 architecture.

10.2 Leap 15.4 installer hangs at “Starting udev”

(thanks to @mvreijn for reporting this)

Note:
This topic applies to Leap 15.4 only. It is fixed in Leap 15.5

When installing from Leap 15.4 ISO media, the guest may hang at “Starting udev”.
To work around this, disable the vmwgfx driver as follows:
Procedure: Disabling the vmwgfx driver for Leap 15.4
1. Boot the ISO installation media

2. Select “Installation”, but do not press return.

Instead, press ‘e’ to edit the GRUB command line.

3. Add the following to the kernel boot arguments (the line starting with “linux
/boot/aarch”):
modprobe.blacklist=vmwgfx

4. Press Ctrl-x to boot the installer.

Note that the disabling of vmwgfx will persist into the installed VM. The installer writes the kernel
boot argument into the GRUB boot commands where it will be used on all future boots.

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After installation and application of software updates, the installed VM will have a newer kernel
that supports the use of the vmwgfx driver. Once the newer kernel is installed, use the Boot Loader
module of YaST to remove the kernel boot argument added in step 3 above and reboot the VM.

10.3 Installing from ISO error - the VM needs x86 architecture

When creating a new virtual machine by dragging and dropping any version of the Leap
installation ISO onto the Fusion "Select the Installation Method" dialog, an error message stating
that the virtual machine requires an x86 machine architecture is displayed. This appears even
though the installation media has been confirmed to be an arm64 architecture version. The virtual
machine operating system type will also be set to "OpenSUSE”, which is not one of the available
choices in the Fusion GUI for a new virtual machine on Apple Silicon.
This behavior is a bug in Fusion 13. The “drag/drop” method does not properly recognize the
arm64 install ISO and is creating an improper VM configuration. To work around this issue, use
the following procedure to create and install a virtual machine for Leap:
Procedure: Installing Leap 15.4/15.5 Beta from ISO installation media
1. From the Fusion GUI menu bar, select File -> New.

2. In the “Select the Installation Method” dialog:

• Click on “Create a custom virtual machine”.
• Click “Continue”.

3. In the “Choose Operating System” dialog:

• Select a Linux operating system of “Other Linux 5.x kernel 64-bit Arm”.
Note the lack of a “OpenSUSE” option here.

4. In the “Choose a Virtual Disk” dialog:

• Accept the default answer to create a new virtual disk.
• Click “Continue”.

6. Select a name for the new virtual machine and save it.

7. The “Settings” dialog for the new virtual machine will appear. Make the following
changes:
• Processors and Memory: 2 virtual processors and at least 2048 MB of memory.
• Hard Disk (NVMe): Increase the disk size to at least 20 GB.
• CD/DVD (SATA): Configure the virtual CD/DVD device to use the OpenSUSE
Leap installation ISO and check the “Connect CD/DVD Drive” checkbox.

8. Power on the virtual machine to start the installer

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11 OpenSUSE Tumbleweed

11.1 General notes

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed (“Tumbleweed”) is a continually updated or rolling distribution. It is
released as “snapshots”7. See the Tumbleweed documentation for a more detailed explanation of
how Tumbleweed is released and updated.
Tumbleweed will install and run on Fusion 13.
• Console resolution can be changed.
• 3D acceleration is supported by the kernel and Mesa3D.
• open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop are available from Tumbleweed repos.

11.2 Creating an OpenSUSE Tumbleweed VM

Unlike OpenSUSE Leap, a Tumbleweed VM can be created by dragging/dropping the installation
ISO on the Fusion “Select the Installation Method” dialog.
In the “Choose Operating System” dialog, set the operating system type to “Other Linux 5.x kernel
64-bit Arm”.
The resulting VM configuration of an 8 GB hard disk and 768 MB of memory is not sufficient for
running Tumbleweed. Before powering on the virtual machine, modify the VM’s configuration:
• Set the VM’s memory to a minimum of 4096 MB.
• Increase the hard disk size to 20GB or more. This will give sufficient space for future
upgrades.

7
A Tumbleweed “snapshot” is not to be confused with Fusion’s ability to create a snapshot or point-in-time
representation of its virtual disks. And we won’t even talk about the snapshots of a btrfs file system.

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12 Oracle Linux

12.1 General notes

The only kernel available for Oracle Linux on aarch64 (ARM) architectures is Oracle’s
Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK). The Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) is only available
for x86_64 (Intel) architectures.
UEK R6 and earlier kernels will not run on Apple Silicon CPUs as they are incompatible with
Apple Silicon hardware. The UEK R6 kernels have the same issues that prevent RHEL 8 from
working. See the topic RHEL 8 and earlier do not work for more information. Oracle Linux
versions 8.6 and earlier ship with these incompatible kernels and therefore will not work with
Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon.
UEK R7 kernels are compatible with and will run on Apple Silicon CPUs. Oracle Linux versions
starting with 8.7 (including all Oracle Linux 9.x versions) ship with UEK R7 kernels. These
versions will all run in a Fusion 13 VM on Apple Silicon.
When creating the virtual machine, elect to create a custom virtual machine. Confiture the virtual
machine with:
• Operating system type set to “Other 64-bit Linux 5.x kernel 64-bit Arm”
• Minimum 2 virtual CPUs and 4096 MB memory
• Minimum virtual disk size of 20 GB

12.2 No open-vm-tools for Oracle Linux 8.7

Oracle does not provide open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop for Oracle Linux 8.7 in their
repositories. No copy/paste/drag/drop is available between the host and guest, nor is there support
for Fusion folder sharing between host and guest.
Both open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop packages are available in Oracle’s repositories for
Oracle Linux 9.

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13 Red Hat Enterprise Linux and downstream distros

Note:
References to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in this section also apply to “compatible” or
“downstream” distributions based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux such as:
• Rocky Linux
• CentOS Linux 8 and earlier (before the switch to CentOS Stream)
• AlmaLinux

Oracle Linux differs enough from RHEL to warrant its own discussion. See the section Oracle
Linux.

13.1 General notes

RHEL 9.1 and later provide the best experiences when running under Fusion 13. RHEL 9.0 will
run but has issues which have been fixed in RHEL 9.1.
• Console resolution can be changed.
• 3D acceleration is not supported.
• open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop are available from RHEL 9 repos.
When creating a RHEL 9 (or compatible/downstream distribution) virtual machine, set the
operating system type to "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 64-bit Arm".

13.2 RHEL 8 and earlier do not work

Per VMware KB article https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/90364, RHEL 8 and earlier are not
supported on Apple Silicon and will not work. They will fail to boot on Fusion 13. Attempts to
use these distributions will get into a “boot loop”. A kernel selected in the GRUB boot menu will
fail to boot, and the GRUB boot menu will reappear.
This is caused by Red Hat’s decision to compile arm64 kernels for RHEL 8.x and earlier with a
64 KB page size. Apple Silicon CPUs only support 4 KB and 16 KB page sizes. This
incompatibility makes these RHEL releases unable to run on Apple Silicon and Fusion 13.
No workaround is available to make these kernels boot. VMware has no plans or ability to make
them work.
This issue is fixed starting with RHEL 9. Red Hat now compiles their ARM kernels with a 4 KB
page size, which is compatible with Apple Silicon CPUs.

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14 Ubuntu

Well, Jane, it just goes to show you, it's always something – if it’s not one thing, it's another.
- Roseanne Roseannadanna, “Saturday Night Live”

14.1 General notes

Ubuntu arm64 releases known to work on Fusion 13 are:
• 20.04.5 LTS (Focal Fossa).
• 22.04.2 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)
• 22.10 (Kinetic Kudu)
• 23.04 (Lunar Lobster)
• 23.10 (Mantic Minotaur)

According to VMware KB article https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/90364 earlier releases of

Ubuntu are not supported and are generally known not to work. Their kernels have bugs and other
deficiencies that prevent them from working properly on Fusion 13.

14.2 Do not use Ubuntu 22.04 and 22.04.1 LTS installers

The installation ISOs for Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS and 22.04.1 LTS will not boot on Fusion 13.
Use the installer for Ubuntu Server 22.04.2 LTS to install Ubuntu 22.04 virtual machines.

14.3 Ubuntu Desktop 22.04.2 daily builds now boot

Starting on 11-June-2023, daily builds of Ubuntu Desktop 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish) now boot. It is
still recommended to use the released 22.04.2 Server ISO, then convert it to Ubuntu Desktop.

14.4 23.10 Desktop daily builds will not allow login

The daily builds of 23.10 Desktop (Mantic Minotaur) will boot, but will not let you log in. This is
due to a packaging error on the part of Canonical, and not related to Fusion.
Use the daily build of 23.10 Server to install 23.10 and “convert” it to Ubuntu Desktop using the
instructions in the topic How to convert Ubuntu Server to Ubuntu Desktop.

14.5 Blank console display issues in Ubuntu 22.04.2 HWE kernels are fixed
Use of the Ubuntu 22.10 HWE (Hardware Enablement) kernel on Ubuntu 22.04.2 is optional on a
Fusion 13 virtual machine. The standard 5.15 series kernel works fine in a VM.
If you decide that you want to use the HWE kernel, install the 5.19.0-45 HWE kernel found in
package “linux-image-genreic-hwe-22.10” starting on 15-June-2023. This version fixes the “blank
console screen” issue that was discovered in the 5.19 series kernels found in Ubuntu 22.10. This
kernel can be installed in an existing 22.04 VM running the standard 5.15 series kernel.

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The Ubuntu 22.04.2 installation ISO boots to a broken 5.19.0-32 kernel if you choose the installer
option “Ubuntu Server with HWE kernel” at the GRUB boot loader menu. Do not use this boot
selection. Instead, install the standard kernel and then add the HWE kernel once the VM is
operational.

14.6 Blank console display issues in Ubuntu 22.10 kernels are fixed
Ubuntu 22.10 VMs that installed kernel version 5.19.0-31 through 5.19.0-43 result in a blank
display on the VM’s console window. You will think that the VM has failed to boot since nothing
displays on the VM’s console. The virtual machine has booted and will be running “headless”
behind the scenes.
Canonical has fixed this issue in kernel version 5.19.0-45 and later. New VMs should install this
kernel version during initial Ubuntu installation. Existing VMs should receive this update as part
of normal software updates starting on 15-June-2023.
If you installed either a mainline kernel or the 5.19.0-29 kernel as work-around to this issue, you
may remove it after you have verified that the 5.19.0-45 kernel has been installed and working.

14.7 Unable to find an Ubuntu Desktop for ARM installer

Canonical does not provide a GA (generally available) version of Ubuntu Desktop for ARM. The
only GA releases that you will find for ARM on their Ubuntu download pages are for Ubuntu
Server.
Daily development builds of Ubuntu Desktop for arm64 architectures have become increasingly
harder to find. If you do happen to find one, there’s a probability that it won’t work because of
issues with the distribution (most are not Fusion related) that Canonical has yet to address.
If you want Ubuntu Desktop, the most reliable way to obtain it for ARM is to install a released
Ubuntu Server arm64, then “convert” it to an Ubuntu Desktop equivalent using the procedure in
the topic How to convert Ubuntu Server to Ubuntu Desktop.

14.8 How to convert Ubuntu Server to Ubuntu Desktop

By adding a few packages and making a configuration change, Ubuntu Server VMs can be
“converted” into the equivalent of an Ubuntu Desktop VM. Use the following procedure to
perform the conversion.
Credit: The process to convert the networking configuration from using systemd.networkd to
NetworkManager was sourced from https://www.configserverfirewall.com/ubuntu-linux/ubuntu-
network-manager/ .

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Procedure: “Converting” Ubuntu Server to Ubuntu Desktop
1. Boot the Ubuntu Server VM and log in.

2. Install Ubuntu Desktop packages.

$ sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop open-vm-tools-desktop
$ sudo snap install snap-store

3. Disable the use of systemd-networkd for networking management.

$ sudo systemctl disable systemd-networkd.service
$ sudo systemctl mask systemd-networkd.service
$ sudo systemctl stop systemd-networkd.service

4. Save a copy of the .yaml file found inside the /etc/netplan directory.
$ cp /etc/netplan/*.yaml ./

5. Edit the .yaml file found inside the /etc/netplan directory (there should be only one,
and its name may vary between Ubuntu releases). Use the editor of your choice; you
will need to execute the editor with sudo as the .yaml file is owned by root.
Example using the vi text editor:
$ cd /etc/netplan
$ sudo vi 00-installer-config.yaml

6. Replace the entire contents of the .yaml file with the following:
network:
version: 2
renderer: NetworkManager

7. Set the system to use NetworkManager for networking management.

$ sudo netplan generate
$ sudo systemctl unmask NetworkManager
$ sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager
$ sudo systemctl start NetworkManager

8. Update boot files

$ sudo update-initramfs -u -k all

9. Reboot the VM
$ sudo systemctl reboot

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Upon reboot, the VM should display a graphical login. Logging in will now start a graphical
session.

14.9 Links to Ubuntu downloads

Here are direct links to Ubuntu installer ISOs that will work on Fusion 13.

Notes:
These links were verified as of 11-Jun-2023. They may change without notice.
In general if you want Ubuntu Desktop, install the corresponding Ubuntu Server version,
then “Convert” your Ubuntu Server installation to Ubuntu Desktop.
Some Ubuntu Desktop daily builds have had their issues addressed by Canonical. The links
to those fixed Ubuntu Desktop daily builds have been returned to this list.

Ubuntu Version Download Link

20.04.5 LTS (Focal Fossa) https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/20.04.5/rel

Server ease/ubuntu-20.04.5-live-server-arm64.iso

22.04.2 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/22.04.2/release/ub

Server untu-22.04.2-live-server-arm64.iso

22.04.2 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)

https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/jammy/daily-
Desktop daily development
live/current/jammy-desktop-arm64.iso
build

22.10 (Kinetic Kudu) https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/kinetic/rele

Server ase/ubuntu-22.10-live-server-arm64.iso

23.04 (Lunar Lobster) https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/23.04/release/ubu

Server ntu-23.04-live-server-arm64.iso

23.10 (Mantic Minotaur) https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-server/daily-

Server development build live/current/mantic-live-server-arm64.iso

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14.10 Making Ubuntu always show the GRUB boot loader menu
The GRUB boot loader’s boot menu is useful in situations where a kernel update (or other
circumstance) requires a manual modification to the Linux boot process. Unfortunately, Ubuntu
may not display the GRUB boot prompt by default - especially if you have installed Ubuntu from
a daily desktop version build.
Ubuntu documentation does describe how to display the GRUB boot loader menu during boot, but
these instructions are inconvenient and rely on manual dexterity and “just right” timing to get it to
work. Most people can’t get the process to work for them reliably.
The boot process can be changed to always display the GRUB boot loader menu without using the
error-prone documented methods. This gives you more time to select either the default kernel or
an alternate kernel for booting.

Procedure: Modifying Ubuntu boot defaults to always show the GRUB menu

1. Log into the VM.

2. Sudo to a root shell, and edit /etc/default/grub:

3. Change the line containing

GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden

to
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu

This will allow GRUB to always display its menu at boot.

4. Change the line containing

GRUB_TIMEOUT=0

to
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10

GRUB_TIMEOUT is the delay (in seconds) until the default kernel is booted once the
boot menu appears. During the delay, an alternate boot selection can be made by using
the keyboard up/down arrow keys. A delay of 10 seconds is recommended; another
value can be used if desired.

5. Save the changes and exit the editor.

6. Update the grub configuration:

# update-grub

From this point onward, the GRUB boot menu will always appear at VM boot. You will have 10
seconds to select an alternative to booting the default kernel.

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14.11 How to find and install Ubuntu “mainline” kernels
Ubuntu has alternative kernel builds that they refer to as “mainline” kernels. These kernels are
builds of Linux kernels directly from upstream Linux kernel repositories using Ubuntu kernel
configuration files. They are not officially supported by Ubuntu for production use and receive no
security updates. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/MainlineBuilds for more information.
In most cases these kernels can be used instead of the standard Ubuntu kernel. In some cases, they
can be used to work around problems introduced by Ubuntu in their standard kernels until those
problems are officially fixed.
"Mainline" kernels can be found at https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline. They are
organized by kernel versions.

Note:
Mainline kernel versions 5.19 and later can be installed on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, and 22.10. Do
not attempt to install a 5.19 or later mainline kernel on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. These kernels have
dependencies that are not met by 20.04 and will not install.

Instead of downloading the packages from the Ubuntu web site and installing them manually, the
open source “mainline” utility provides a simpler way to list, install, and uninstall these kernels.
There is no pre-built package for “mainline” available for arm64 Linux, so you’ll need to build it
yourself. Use the following procedure to download and build the “mainline” utility.

Procedure: Building and installing the "mainline" utility

1. Log into the VM.

2. Install pre-requisite packages for building and running the “mainline” utility:
$ sudo apt install libgee-0.8-dev libjson-glib-dev libvte-2.91-dev
$ sudo apt install valac aria2 lsb-release aptitude
$ sudo apt install make gettext dpkg-dev

3. Download the sources for "mainline"

$ git clone https://github.com/bkw777/mainline.git

4. Build and install the "mainline" utility. The utility will be installed in /usr/bin.
$ cd mainline
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ make clean

The “mainline” utility has two versions:

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 • A command line version “mainline”
• A GUI version “mainline-gtk”

Examples for the command line version of mainline

• List options for the “mainline” utility.
$ mainline --help

• List all of the mainline kernels available:

$ mainline --list

• Install the 6.1.12 mainline kernel:

$ sudo mainline --install 6.1.12

• Uninstall the 6.1.12 mainline kernel (this assumes you are not currently running on the
6.1.12 kernel):
$ sudo mainline --uninstall 6.1.12

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15 Windows 11 ARM

15.1 General notes

According to VMware KB article https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/90364, Windows 11 ARM is
the only version of Windows supported with Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon Macs8.
Fusion 13 provides the virtual hardware features required by Windows 11 (both UEFI Secure Boot
and Trusted Platform Module) as well as Windows 11 ARM device drivers for the VMware 2D
virtual graphics adapter and virtual network adapter.

Note:
Microsoft does not currently provide Windows 11 ARM ISOs for consumer download. ISOs
downloaded from Microsoft's web site will only work on 64-bit Intel/AMD PCs. Attempting to
use these ISOs to create a virtual machine on Apple Silicon will not work.

You can obtain installation media for your Windows 11 ARM virtual machine by
• using the procedure in the topic Obtaining Windows 11 ARM ISO installation media to
build the ISO from Microsoft’s ESD distribution, or
• using ISO media generated by Parallels Desktop 18.

Warning:
Do not use either of the following to install your VM:
• ISO media built from uupdump.net, or
• Converted Windows 11 ARM Insider Preview VHDX files.
Internet videos and guides that tell you to use either of these two installation methods are
obsolete and you will run into problems using them.
Instructions for these two installation procedures been removed from the Companion Guide as
of version 12. The current procedures easier to use, faster, and more reliable. They also give
you an official, released version of Windows 11 ARM – not a preview release.

15.2 Video walk through of installation procedures

A community member (thank you @santhonysasse) has provided a video that walks you through
the steps found in this Guide for installing Windows 11 ARM in Fusion 13. The video can be
found at https://youtu.be/FUSLJnxKa_4.

8
Windows 10 ARM isn’t supported, and users have failed to get it to work. It goes without saying that Windows 8,
8.1, 7, Vista, XP, NT, 98, 95, NT, and any Windows Server release won’t run as these all require an Intel compatible
CPU.

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Skip over the sections in the video that instruct you to install Homebrew and additional open source
packages. These steps are no longer required starting with version 3.0 of the w11arm_esd2iso
utility that builds the Windows 11 ARM ISO file.

15.3 Windows 11 ARM licensing

Microsoft Windows is not a free product. Please respect Microsoft licensing policies and obtain
licenses for Windows 11 ARM VMs that you use under Fusion 13.
Microsoft allows retail licenses for Windows 11 Home or Professional (even if purchased for PCs)
to activate Windows 11 ARM. These licenses will activate Windows 11 installed on a Fusion VM.
If you don't have a license, purchase it from any Microsoft authorized seller (for your protection).
You also can purchase a license directly from Microsoft from within the VM once it is running.
Windows 10 retail licenses can also be used to activate Windows 11 ARM.
Windows OEM licenses such as those bundled with PC hardware cannot be moved and used on a
virtual machine. Microsoft states these licenses are only valid for the hardware they were
purchased with.
Windows 11 ARM can be used without activation, but some features such as personalization are
not available. You will also be nagged about having an inactivated copy of Windows. This is no
different than running an inactivated copy of Windows 11 on an Intel PC.

15.4 Obtaining Windows 11 ARM ISO installation media

Notes:
Ensure you have a minimum of 12 GB of free disk space on your Mac before starting this
procedure. The tool used to create the ISO media will enforce this.
This procedure requires macOS Ventura (or later) running on an Apple Silicon Macs.
Use of Homebrew or MacPorts to install open source utility packages is no longer required. The
w11arm_esd2iso utility bundles everything it needs starting with version 3.0. Appendices that
described how to install utilities from Homebrew or MacPorts have been removed from the
Companion Guide as they are no longer necessary
If using Safari, uncheck the ‘Open “safe” files after downloading’ option found in the General
section of Safari’s Preferences. It is considered best practice to have this option unchecked for
security reasons.

Use the following procedure on your Mac to create an installation ISO of Windows 11 ARM from
an ESD (electronic software distribution) file obtained from Microsoft:

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 Procedure: Creating Windows 11 ARM ISOs from Microsoft ESD

1. Download the w11arm_esd2iso ISO creation utility version 4.0 or later from the
VMware Fusion Documents forum at the following link:
https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Fusion-Documents/w11arm-
esd2iso-a-script-to-create-Windows-11-ARM-ISOs-from/ta-p/2957381
The downloaded file will be named w11arm_esd2iso-V4.0.zip. The exact name
represents the version of the utility contained in the zip file.
Do not use the Finder to open and extract this zip file.

2. Use the Finder to create a folder named "Build" on the desktop.

3. Move the downloaded zip file from the Downloads folder to the Build folder.

4. Open the Terminal app and change the working directory to the Build folder on the
Desktop
$ cd ~/Desktop/Build

5. Extract the contents of the zip file from the Terminal using the unzip utility. Do not
use the Finder to perform this extraction process.
$ unzip w11arm_esd2iso-V4.0.zip

6. Verify that the following files and folders exist in your current working directory.
README
w11arm_esd2iso
w11arm_esd2iso_manpage.pdf9 (documentation)
bin/ (folder containing additional required utilities)
doc/ (folder containing additional documentation and copying info)
lib/ (folder containing additional required utilities)

7. Execute the utility to download and create the ISO file:

$ ./w11arm_esd2iso

Procedure continues on the next page

9
Please take the time to read both the README and the documentation pdf. They contain more detailed
information about the utility and its operation.

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Procedure: Creating Windows 11 ARM ISOs from Microsoft ESD (continued)

8. The utility will ask you which Windows 11 ARM ISO you will want to create:

Answer the question with the desired ISO type (you don’t need to type the quotes).
Recommendation: Unless you are using Windows 11 Enterprise, answer the
question with h
Entering q here, will exit the utility without creating an ISO.

9. The utility will download some information from Microsoft, display a list of
available languages for Windows 11 ARM, and ask you to choose a language.

Reply to this prompt with the “Language tag” found in the first column of the list
that matches the language of the ISO you wish to create.
Example: For “English (United States)”, enter en-us
Entering list at this prompt will re-print the list of languages.
Entering quit at this prompt will exit the utility without creating an ISO.

Procedure continues on the next page

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 Procedure: Creating Windows 11 ARM ISOs from Microsoft ESD (continued)

10. Sit back and wait for the utility to download the ESD file from Microsoft and create
the ISO for you.
The first step of the utility that downloads the ESD file from Microsoft can take as
little as 2 minutes on a 500Mbit fiber Ethernet connection. Your time will vary
based on your Internet connection speed and stability. Once the utility downloads
the ESD file from Microsoft, the remaining steps of the ISO creation process take
about 4-7 minutes.10

If the download of the ESD file from Microsoft is interrupted due to network issues, the utility will
retry the download up to 20 times. If the download can’t be completed after 20 tries, the utility
will exit and print a command line that can be copied and pasted to resume the download/build
process.

The ISO will be found in the folder where w11arm_esd2iso was executed. The utility will clean
up any temporary files that it used during the ISO creation process after it completes.
Once the ISO is created, continue with the topic Creating the VM and installing Windows 11 from
ISO.

10
These times should be on-par with the time it takes Parallels to download installation media "from Microsoft"
when creating a Windows 11 VM. It's not surprising since they use a similar process.

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15.5 Creating the VM and installing Windows 11 from ISO
Use the following procedure to create the virtual machine and install Windows 11 ARM from ISO
media.

Procedure: Creating the VM and installing Windows 11 from ISO

1. Create a new virtual machine by clicking “File > New…” in the Fusion menu bar.

2. In the “Select the Installation Method” dialog, drag and drop the Windows 11
ARM ISO from the Finder to the area marked “Install from disc or image”.

Click “Continue”.

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Procedure: Creating the VM and installing Windows 11 from ISO

3. The ISO will be detected as a Windows 11 ARM ISO in the “Create a New
Virtual Machine” dialog that follows:

Make sure your Windows 11 ISO is highlighted and click “Continue”.

4. The “Choose Firmware Type” dialog will appear:

Check the “UEFI Secure Boot” check box. There’s no reason not to. This is
especially important if you’re using Fusion Player, as there’s no ability in the
Fusion Player GUI to change this setting later.
Click “Continue”.

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Procedure: Creating the VM and installing Windows 11 from ISO

5. The “Choose Encryption” dialog will appear.

Select “Only the files needed to support a TPM are encrypted”. This option only
encrypts the portions of the VM needed to support the TPM and does not degrade
VM performance.
Do not choose the “All the files” option unless you really, really need to. Choosing
this option will degrade VM performance as every read and write to the virtual disk
must be decrypted and encrypted by Fusion.
Enter a password for the VM either by typing one in yourself or by clicking the
“Auto Generate Password” button.
Select “Remember Password and store it in Mac’s Keychain”. This is especially
important if you auto-generate the password. With this option enabled a forgotten
password can be found using the Mac’s Keychain Access app. Fusion also will
automatically unlock a virtual machine for you when necessary if you store the
password in the Keychain.
This process will automatically add the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) device
required by Windows 11 to the virtual machine configuration.
Click “Continue”.

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Procedure: Creating the VM and installing Windows 11 from ISO

6. At the “Finish” screen, click “Customize Settings" rather than “Finish”. This will
allow you to modify settings of your virtual machine before starting the installation.

After clicking “Customize Settings”, name your VM and select the folder where
the VM is to be stored.

7. The virtual machine’s Settings panel will appear. Make any changes to the number
of processors, memory, and virtual hard disk size that are desired.
Note that the minimum hardware requirements for Windows 11 are 2 CPUs, 4 GB
of memory and a 64 GB hard drive. Windows 11 will fail to install if these
minimum requirements are not met.
When finished, power on the virtual machine.

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Procedure: Creating the VM and installing Windows 11 from ISO

8. The virtual machine will boot, and the console window will display the message:
Press any key to boot from CD or DVD

Quickly set keyboard focus to the VM by clicking the mouse pointer in the virtual
machine’s window (or by pressing Command-G) and then press any key on the
keyboard to continue the boot process from the ISO. Once the installer boots, go to
step 9.
This prompt will time out after about 5 seconds. If it does, the installer will not start
and VM will attempt to boot from the network (the “Start PXE over ipv4”
message will be displayed). If this happens, power off the virtual machine using the
Fusion GUI and power it on again. Repeat step 8.

9. Windows Setup will start from the installation media.

Choose your language, time/currency format, and keyboard/input method.

Click “Next” to continue.

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Procedure: Creating the VM and installing Windows 11 from ISO

10. At this screen, click “Install now”.

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Procedure: Creating the VM and installing Windows 11 from ISO

11. Setup will display a message asking to activate Windows:

Click “I don’t have a product key” at the bottom of the window. Windows can be
activated with your product key once the installation is completed.

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Procedure: Creating the VM and installing Windows 11 from ISO

12. Select the Windows 11 edition you wish to install from this screen. If you already
have a Windows product key, the edition you select here must match the edition of
your product key.

Click “Next” once you have selected the desired Windows edition.

13. Accept the Microsoft license terms on the next screen and click “Next”.

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Procedure: Creating the VM and installing Windows 11 from ISO

14. When prompted for the type of installation:

Choose “Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)” to perform a full

installation.

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Procedure: Creating the VM and installing Windows 11 from ISO

15. When asked “Where do you want to install Windows?”, choose “Drive 0
Unallocated Space” which is your empty virtual hard drive.

Click “Next”.
At this point, Windows Setup will copy files to your virtual hard drive, and reboot
the VM to continue the setup process.

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Procedure: Creating the VM and installing Windows 11 from ISO

16. After the VM reboots, you will see this Windows Setup screen:

Do not click on the country/region or the “Yes” button.

17. From the Fusion menu bar, select “Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools”.
Click “Install" on the next dialog when prompted.
Wait a few moments (no more than a minute or so) while the VMware Tools ISO is
being mounted to the VM.
No feedback will be given that the tools ISO has been mounted to the VM. No
dialogs will appear asking to install the tools like you see on Intel PCs.
Don’t worry, though. The installer will be mounted to the VM as the D: drive.

18. Return to the VM’s console window and click the mouse anywhere other than the
country/region prompts or the “Yes” button. Then press Shift-Fn-F10 to open a
command line prompt.

18. In the command line prompt, use the following command to start PowerShell
C:> powershell

The Windows command line prompt will be replaced by a PowerShell prompt.

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 Procedure: Creating the VM and installing Windows 11 from ISO

19. At the PowerShell prompt, install VMware Tools by executing the following three
commands:
PS> cd D:\
PS> Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
PS> .\setup.ps1

The setup.ps1 script will install both the VMware graphics driver and the
VMware network driver. The screen may blank out briefly while this happens.

20. When the installation of the drivers completes, close the window that’s running
Powershell. You will be returned to the Windows Setup screen from step 16:

21. Continue with Windows Setup by selecting your country/region, then clicking the
“Yes” button.
You will not be prompted for a network connection because the network should
now be discovered and operational with the installed VMware driver.

Once Windows is installed and you’ve successfully logged in, run Windows Update to obtain the
most recent updates for Windows 11. You may need to do this more than once.

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Download all available updates from the Microsoft Store after installation. The first time the
Microsoft Store is executed, it may take a few moments to open as it is being downloaded from
Microsoft and installed. You can track the progress of this installation from the Windows
notification widget found by clicking on the "bell" icon in the lower right-hand corner of the
console screen to the right of the date and time display.
If the Microsoft Store doesn’t seem to work properly after it installs (e.g., it crashes on open) see
the topic Microsoft Store app doesn’t exist or crashes in a newly installed VM.

15.6 Windows 11 ARM VMs can’t be enrolled in Windows Insider

If an attempt is made to enroll a Fusion Windows 11 ARM virtual machine in the Microsoft
Windows Insider program via Settings > Windows Update -> Windows Insider Program, the
following message will be displayed:

Technically this is correct behavior. Microsoft does not consider Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon CPUs
to be a certified solution for Windows 11 ARM. The registration for the Windows Insider Program
appears to be checking the CPU identification present in the Fusion VM and does not recognize it
as a valid supported platform.
Do not try to install Windows 10 as the notice recommends. Windows 10 is not supported by
Fusion 13 on Apple Silicon.
Most users should not need to run Windows Insider builds of Windows 11. The recommended
procedures in this Guide install a Windows 11 ARM Retail release sourced directly from
Microsoft. The resulting VM will be kept up to date through Windows Update. Just like a “regular”
Intel PC.
Note that Windows 11 Insider Preview Channel, Beta Channel, Dev Channel, or Canary Channel
releases can be used with Fusion 13. If you really need to run them (and you should really think
twice about it), ISOs for these other channels can be built from uupdump.net and installed on a
Fusion 13 VM. Procedures for building these ISOs from uupdump.net are outside the scope of the
Companion Guide.

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Given Microsoft’s recent change to certify Parallels on Apple Silicon for Windows 11 ARM and
VMware’s statements that they will be working toward the same goal, we hope that this restriction
will go away in the future.

15.7 Microsoft Store app doesn’t exist or crashes in a newly installed VM

Normally the Microsoft Store will be automatically installed for you by Windows 11 the first time
that you open it. Occasionally though, the Microsoft Store app may not exist in a newly installed
VM, or it may crash if you try to start it. If this happens, try this procedure to install the Microsoft
Store:

Procedure: Installing the Microsoft Store app if missing

1. Open a Windows command prompt or Powershell as administrator.

2. Execute the following command:

PS> wsreset.exe -i

3. Wait for the Microsoft Store to install. This may take a while (longer than you might
expect), so please be patient.
Up to 2 items may be installed:
• Store Experience Host
• Microsoft Store app
Windows will provide notifications as these components are installed.

When the procedure completes, the Microsoft Store should be installed and able to be opened.

15.8 Fusion folder sharing with the Mac host is not supported
The Sharing option is not available in the VM’s Settings panel for a Windows 11 ARM VM. The
VMware Tools included with Fusion do not currently support Fusion's Shared Folders on
Windows 11 ARM.
Consider one of the following workarounds to share files between the Mac host and a Windows
11 ARM VM:
• Configure macOS Windows file sharing
Consult macOS Help (found in the Finder’s Help menu bar) or Internet resources for
instructions on how configure macOS Windows file sharing, and then add the folders
you wish to share with your VM to the configuration. This will allow the Windows VM
to access the host via standard Windows file sharing.

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 This workaround should only be used when connected to a trusted network such as a
home network. The use of macOS file sharing when connected to an untrusted network
such as public or hotel Wi-Fi is a security risk. To mitigate this risk, disable file sharing
in macOS when connected to an untrusted network.
• Use a Remote Desktop client
Access the VM that is running Windows 11 Pro or Enterprise with a Remote Desktop
Protocol (RDP) client such as Microsoft Remote Desktop on the Mac and utilize its
folder redirection capabilities. Consult Windows documentation on how to configure
Windows for remote console access, and your RDP client documentation on how to
enable folder redirection.
• Install Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, or a similar cloud file sharing client in both the
VM and the Mac
Using cloud file sharing services in a VM allows content to be shared to Macs and any
other platform that supports the service.
• Use a network file transfer utility such as WinSCP to transfer files between the Windows
VM and the Mac host.

15.9 Copy/paste and drag/drop does not work

Copy/paste and drag/drop does not currently work between the Mac host and a Windows 11 ARM
virtual machine. This is due to Fusion 13’s current lack of a full VMware Tools implementation
for Windows 11 ARM.
A workaround provided by the Fusion community is to connect to the virtual machine using an
RDP client such as Microsoft Remote Desktop for the Mac (which does run on Apple Silicon
Macs). This will allow copy/paste between the Mac and the Windows virtual machine. Note that
this will only work on Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise editions. It will not work on Windows 11
Home Editions because Microsoft does not support enabling remote desktop access on the Home
Edition.

15.10 Enabling/disabling Secure Boot on Fusion Player

Both Fusion Pro and Fusion Player will allow you to configure a Windows 11 ARM VM for UEFI
Secure Boot at the time the VM is created. After the VM is created, Fusion Pro will allow you to
enable or disable Secure Boot through the Advanced panel of a VM’s Settings. Unfortunately,
Fusion Player doesn’t.
If you are running Fusion Player and need to change the Secure Boot state (usually to enable Secure
Boot because you didn’t use the recommended VM configuration), follow one of the following
two procedures depending on the choice of encryption for the VM.

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Option 1: VM is encrypted with “Only the files needed to support a TPM

Procedure: Change Secure Boot on Fusion Player when the VM is encrypted with “Only the
files needed to support a TPM”

1. Shut down the VM and close any open Settings windows for the VM. Do not shut down
the Fusion GUI.

2. Right-click the VM’s name in the Virtual Machine Library, and then press the Option
key. Then select “Open Config File in Editor”
The contents of the config file (.vmx file) will be opened in the Mac’s TextEdit app.

3. Search for a line in the file starting with:

uefi.secureBoot.enabled =

If it doesn’t exist, add the following line to the file (type it in exactly as shown, and the
spaces around the "=" sign are required)
uefi.secureBoot.enabled = "FALSE"

4. To enable Secure Boot, change the line to read:

uefi.secureBoot.enabled = "TRUE"

To disable Secure Boot, change the line to read:

uefi.secureBoot.enabled = "FALSE"

5. Save the file and exit the TextEdit app.

You may now restart your VM.

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Option 2: VM is encrypted with “All the files”

Warnings:
Shut down (do not suspend) the virtual machine, shut down Fusion, then make a backup copy of the
entire VM bundle to another disk before using this procedure.
This procedure will decrypt then re-encrypt your VM. Make sure you have sufficient disk space to
hold a complete copy of the VM's virtual disk during the decryption and re-encryption processes
This procedure deletes the TPM for the VM. If you enabled Bitlocker in the Windows 11 VM, do
not start this procedure unless you verify that you have the Bitlocker recovery key. See the following
Microsoft articles for information on backing up and finding your Bitlocker recovery key:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/back-up-your-bitlocker-recovery-key-e63607b4-
77fb-4ad3-8022-d6dc428fbd0d
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/where-to-look-for-your-bitlocker-recovery-key-
fd2b3501-a4b9-61e9-f5e6-2a545ad77b3e

Procedure: Change Secure Boot on Fusion Player when the VM is encrypted with “All the files”

1. Start the VMware Fusion application. Make sure the VM is shut down (not suspended)
and that no Settings window for the VM is open.

2. Open the VM's Settings.

3. Click on “Trusted Platform Module” and then click the “Remove Trusted Platform
Module” button that appears. Confirm that you want the device removed.

4. Click the “Show All” button at the top of the window, then click on “Encryption”.
In the panel that appears, the current encryption state of the VM should be displayed.
Select “The virtual machine is not encrypted” to remove the VM’s encryption.
Enter the password for the virtual machine if requested.

5. Be patient and wait for the virtual machine's encryption to be removed.

6. Close the VM's settings.

Procedure continues on the next page

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Procedure: Change Secure Boot on Fusion Player when the encryption setting is “All the files”
(continued)

7.. Right-click the VM’s name in the Virtual Machine Library, the press the Option key.
Then select “Open Config File in Editor”
The contents of the config file (.vmx file) will be opened in the Mac’s TextEdit app.

8. Search for a line in the file starting with:

uefi.secureBoot.enabled =

If it doesn’t exist, add the following line to the file (type it in exactly as shown, and the
spaces around the "=" sign are required.:
uefi.secureBoot.enabled = "FALSE"

9. To enable Secure Boot, change the line to read:

uefi.secureBoot.enabled = "TRUE"

To disable Secure Boot, change the line to read:

uefi.secureBoot.enabled = "FALSE"

10. Save the file and exit the TextEdit app.

11. Open the VM’s Settings.

12 Re-encrypt the VM. This is required to support the TPM device that Windows 11
needs. Click on “Encryption” and select the desired type of encryption to apply to the
VM. It is recommended to choose “Only the files needed to support a TPM”.
Choose a password and opt to save it in the Mac’s Keychain.

13. Wait for the VM to re-encrypt itself (if you chose “All the files” it will take a while, so
be patient).

14. Click “Show All” to return to the main Settings page.

15. Click the “Add Device” button in the upper right-hand corner. A list of devices will
appear.

Procedure continues on the next page

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Procedure: Change Secure Boot on Fusion Player when the encryption setting is “All the files”
(continued)

16. Click on “Trusted Platform Module”, then click “Add”.

17. Close the VM’s Settings.

You may now restart your VM. If you had Bitlocker enabled in the VM before starting this
procedure, Windows may ask you for the Bitlocker recovery key to restore access to your VM.
Provide the Recovery Key that you located before starting the procedure.
Verifying Secure Boot settings in a Windows 11 VM
See the following Microsoft article for how to check the status of Secure Boot in your virtual
machine: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune/user-help/you-need-to-enable-secure-
boot-windows

15.11 iCloud app fails to install from the Microsoft Store

Thanks to Dan Mahoney (@AFerrit) for reporting this.
Installing the iCloud app from the Microsoft store in a Windows 11 ARM VM may fail with the
following messages being displayed:

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These errors occur because the iTunes app requires components from the Microsoft Visual C++
Redistributable. By default, this software is not installed on Windows 11 ARM, and the iTunes
app installer does not install this software for you. No checking appears to be done by either the
Microsoft Store or the iTunes app installer for the existence of the C++ runtimes before the
installation is performed, so the installation fails.
To fix this error, download the installer for the Visual C++ Redistributable package for ARM64
from Microsoft at https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.arm64.exe (permalink to the latest
version) and install it. Then reinstall the iCloud app from the Microsoft Store.
Other software may exhibit similar issues if the Visual C++ Redistributable is not installed on your
system.

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Appendix A. Glossary

Apple Silicon Apple’s term for its in-house developed SoC (system on a chip) CPUs
based on the ARM architecture. Apple Silicon chips are used in Macs,
iPhones, iPads, Apple TV, and Apple Watch.
The M1 and M2 CPU chips are Apple Silicon CPUs.
ARM The RISC CPU architecture used by Apple as the basis for its Apple
Silicon CPUs. It is different from and incompatible with Intel/AMD
CPU architectures.
Also refers to the company (Arm Ltd.) that develops the ARM CPU
architectures and licenses them to vendors such as Apple or
Qualcomm that produce ARM CPU chips.
arm64/aarch64 Refers to the 64-bit ARM CPU architecture or instruction set.
Incompatible with x86 or x64/x86_64 architectures.
Blacklisting a driver The process of preventing the Linux kernel from using a specific
device driver module that has been included with the kernel. It is most
often used to disable the use of a graphics adapter driver that is not
working correctly, and forces the use of an alternate, generic graphics
device driver.
This document prefers the term “disabling the use of a driver”, even
though the mechanisms used to accomplish the task still use the term
“blacklist”.
Bridged networking A virtual network configuration that connects the virtual machine
network directly to a network that the host is using. There is no
isolation of the virtual machine from network traffic.
The IP address for a VM configured for a bridged network will be a
unique address on the same network as the host.
Compare with 'NAT networking’.
Emulation The ability to simulate a different architecture and instruction set on
the current hardware. An example is QEMU - software that emulates
an Intel CPU on Apple Silicon hardware and allows Intel based
operating system to run. Typically runs emulated CPU instructions
more slowly than native instructions.
Compare with ‘Virtualization’.
ESXi VMware’s enterprise-class hypervisor software that runs on Intel or
AMD computers. It is part of the vSphere product line. A free version
with restricted functionality is available.

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EULA Shorthand for End User License Agreement. EULAs are a legal
contract between a software provider and customer. They specify the
rights and restrictions that apply to the use of the software by the
customer.
GRUB Software that manages the early stages of the boot process for a Linux
operating system. It is a de-facto standard for almost all Linux
operating systems.
GRUB is shorthand for ‘GRand Unified Bootloader’ in case you were
wondering.
Guest A virtual machine that runs under the control of a hypervisor.
See ‘Host’.
Homebrew A software package manager obtained from https://brew.sh that
allows the installation of many popular Linux open source programs
and utilities on the Mac.
Host An operating system that runs a hypervisor that permits the use of
virtual machines. Example: A Mac that is running VMware Fusion is
considered the host.
See ‘Guest’.
Hypervisor From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervisor
A hypervisor is a type of computer software, firmware or hardware
that creates and runs virtual machines. The hypervisor presents the
guest operating systems with a virtual operating platform and
manages the execution of the guest operating systems. Unlike an
emulator, the guest executes most instructions on the native hardware.
ISO Colloquial term for an industry-standard, cross-platform disk image
format that is typically used for the distribution and installation of
software such as operating systems.
The term is derived from the ISO 9660 international standard that
describes the format of the disk image.
KB article Shorthand for “Knowledge Base” article or tech note.

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Kernel From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_(operating_system):
The kernel is a computer program at the core of a computer's
operating system and generally has complete control over everything
in the system It is the portion of the operating system code that is
always resident in memory and facilitates interactions between
hardware and software components.
The term ‘kernel’ is typically used in Linux environments to refer to
the memory resident portion of the Linux operating system that is
loaded into the computer’s memory by the boot loader.
M1 and M2 Apple Silicon CPU chips used by Apple in Macs beginning in late
2020. The original M1, M1 Max, M1 Pro, M1 Ultra, and M2 are the
current Apple ‘M series’ CPUs.
MacPorts A software package manager obtained from https://macports.org that
allows the installation of many popular Linux open source programs
and utilities on the Mac.
NAT networking A virtual network adapter configuration that creates a unique
localized network that’s isolated from the host’s network. This is like
what you would find on a home wireless router to isolate you from a
broadband provider’s network.
The IP address for a VM connected to a bridged network will be on a
different network than the host. A NAT firewall implemented by
Fusion routes network traffic from virtual machines running within
the NAT network to the host’s configured network.
Also known as ‘Shared with my Mac’ in the Fusion virtual machine
network adapter configuration.
Compare to ‘Bridged networking’
Nested virtualization The ability to run a hypervisor application in a virtual machine, which
in turn allows virtual machines to run using that hypervisor inside the
virtual machine
Thinking of the film ‘Inception’ may help you understand this
concept. Or the “gangster movie within a movie” from ‘Home Alone’.

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open-vm-tools Open source versions of VMware’s in-guest hypervisor tools for
Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems. open-vm-tools are
created and maintained by VMware and donated to the open source
community.
Open-vm-tools packages are available in most Linux distributions
(including arm64 versions) through their repositories. They are the
preferred tools for Linux guests running under VMware products.
See ‘VMware Tools’.
.ova/.ovf A vendor-neutral virtual machine interchange format. Allows a
virtual machine to be more easily transported from one virtualization
product to another while retaining important settings and
configuration.
Virtualization The ability to share hardware resources of a computer to run
additional operating system environments of the same CPU
architecture. Typically runs most CPU instructions at native CPU
speed.
See ‘Hypervisor’.
Compare with ‘Emulation’.
VM Shorthand for virtual machine or guest.
VHDX file The file format used by Microsoft Hyper-V for its virtual disk files.
Can be converted for use under Fusion.
Compare with ‘VMDK file’.
VMDK file The file format used by VMware Fusion for its virtual disk files.
Compare with ‘VHDX file’.
VMware SVGA 3D The graphics adapter that is presented to virtual machines by Fusion
(and other VMware hypervisors).
Virtual machines do not have direct access to a host’s graphics card.
The VMware SVGA 3D adapter provides a graphics display to the
virtual machine that can be shared with the host’s graphics adapter.
VMware Tools Proprietary versions of VMware’s in-guest hypervisor integration
tools provided directly by VMware for Windows and older x86/x64
Linux distributions that do not support open-vm-tools.
See ‘open-vm-tools’.
vmwgfx The Linux kernel device driver that provides support for the VMware
SVGA 3D virtual graphics adapter.
See ‘VMWare SVGA 3D’

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Windows 11 ARM The version of Windows 11 produced by Microsoft to run on ARM
architecture PCs. It is the Windows version that is used in Microsoft
Surface devices with Microsoft SQ CPU chips and OEM devices that
use Qualcomm Snapdragon CPUs such as those from Lenovo, HP,
Acer, and Samsung
x64/x86_64 Refers to the 64-bit Intel or AMD CPU architecture or instruction set.
Incompatible with arm64/aarch64 architectures.
x86 Refers to the 32-bit Intel or AMD CPU architecture or instruction set.
Incompatible with arm64/aarch64 architectures.

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Appendix B. Archived Topics

The topics in this section contain workarounds for issues that were reported in older versions of
Linux operating systems. The issues have been fixed in current Linux operating system releases.
These topics are archived here in case you are running an older Linux operating system that is
impacted by these issues.

B.1. FIXED: RHEL 9.0 installation ISOs will not boot

This issue is fixed in RHEL 9.1.
RHEL 9.0 installation ISOs will fail to boot on Fusion 13. The symptom is that the VM’s console
goes blank with a blinking cursor at the upper left corner of the window.
The cause of this behavior is described in the topic Some arm64 Linux kernels do not boot on
Fusion 13 This issue does not exist with RHEL 9.1.
To boot RHEL9.0 installers, follow the procedure in the topic above to disable the vmwgfx driver
from being loaded by using the following kernel argument:
modprobe.blacklist=vmwgfx
The resulting GRUB command should look something like this:

Press “Ctrl-x” to boot the installer using these arguments.

The disabling will persist into the virtual machine. The driver can be re-enabled for use after
upgrade to RHEL 9.1 by commenting out the line containing “blacklist vmwgfx” from the file
/etc/modprobe.d/anaconda-blacklist.conf.

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B.2. FIXED: Blank screen when text mode installation is selected
This issue was seen with RHEL 9.0 and older CentOS 9 Stream ISO installation media. ISO
installers for RHEL 9.1 and current releases of CentOS 9 Stream fix this issue.
When booting into the text mode installer, the installer OS appears to boot but the console screen
remains blank.
To work around this, edit the GRUB boot entry for text mode installation and add
“console=tty0” to the kernel boot parameters.

B.3. FIXED: Unable to change graphics resolution in a RHEL 9.0 VM

This issue is fixed in RHEL 9.1.
(Thanks to @k_ronny for the inspiration for this work-around).
Using the procedure in the topic RHEL 9.0 Installation ISOs will not boot results in the installer
persisting the disabling of vmwgfx into the installed VM. This results in a graphical display whose
resolution cannot be changed from the defaults of 1024x768.
The disabling of vmwgfx cannot be removed for RHEL 9.0 because the kernels do not allow
proper operation of the vmwgfx driver.
Until the VM is upgraded to RHEL 9.1, the following workaround can be used to provide a larger
screen resolution. While the screen resolution is larger with this workaround, it is still static and
cannot be dynamically resized.

Procedure: Changing the static graphics resolution of a RHEL 9.0 VM

1. Boot the VM, log in, open a Terminal session and sudo to root.

2. Open the file /etc/default/grub in your favorite text editor.

3. Add the following line to the top of the file to set the graphics resolution to
1920x1200.
GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1200

4. Find the following line in the file

GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="console"

and change it to:

GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="gfxterm"

5. Save the changes and exit the editor.

Procedure continues on the next page

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 Procedure: Changing the static graphics resolution of a RHEL 9.0 VM (continued)

6. Upgrade the GRUB menus by executing the following command:

# grub2-mkconfig --output /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

7. Reboot the virtual machine. Graphics resolution will now be set to 1920x1200.

This workaround and any vmwgfx disabling can be removed once the VM is upgraded to RHEL
9.1.

B.4. FIXED: Kali 2022.2 VM fails to boot after initial installation

After a fresh installation of Kali from the 2022.2 ISO, the VM displays a blank screen after a
successful installation. The 5.16 kernel installed by the Kali Linux 2022.2 ISO contains a VMware
SVGA (vmwgfx) driver that is incompatible with Fusion 13.
This issue is fixed by updating to or installing Kali 2022.3 or later.
A freshly installed Kali 2022.2 installation can be booted by temporarily disabling the use of the
vmwgfx driver using the following procedure. At that point, Kali can be updated to obtain a newer
kernel that eliminates the need for this procedure in the future.

Procedure: Fixing Kali 2022.2 initial installations from ISO media

1. Power on the VM.

2. At the GRUB menu, highlight the Kali Linux entry and press 'e' to edit the boot
commands.

3. Add the following kernel argument to prevent the vmwgfx driver from loading
module_blacklist=vmwgfx

4. Press “Ctrl-x”. The VM should now boot, and the graphical session login will
appear.

5. Log into the VM, open the Terminal application, and sudo to root.

(Procedure continues on the next page)

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Procedure: Fixing Kali 2022.2 initial installations from ISO media (continued)

6. From the Terminal session, update the Kali Linux installation.

# apt update
# apt full-upgrade -y

The package updates will include an update to the kernel to version 5.18.5 or later
that fixes the issue.

7. After the updates have finished installing, reboot the VM. The VM should start
normally without need for this procedure.

B.5. FIXED: Installing Fedora 36 from ISO

Installation from Fedora 36 ISOs may hang at the boot screen. Follow this procedure to install both
releases from ISO if this occurs.
Procedure: Installing Fedora 36 from ISO
1. Create the virtual machine as you normally would from ISO installation media.

2. Power on the virtual machine and disable the vmwgfx video driver from loading using
the procedure in the topic Some arm64 Linux installers do not boot on Fusion 13. This
blocks the VMware driver, allows the installer to boot, and persists the block into the
Fedora installation on the virtual machine’s hard drive.

3. The Fedora live environment will now become active. Install Fedora to the virtual hard
drive from this environment.

4. When the installation finishes, shut down the VM and use the Fusion GUI to take a
snapshot. This snapshot will be useful if something does not work properly during the
execution of steps 5 through 10.

5. Restart the virtual machine. The virtual machine’s console will be set to a fixed
1024x768 resolution and cannot be changed at this time.

6. Log in, execute Terminal, and sudo to a root shell.

Procedure continues on the next page

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 Procedure: Installing Fedora 36 from ISO (continued)
7. Issue the following command:
# dnf list 'grubby*'

If this command shows that both the “grubby” and “grubby-deprecated” packages are
installed, software updates will fail with a file conflict. One of these two packages must
be removed to allow software updates to install. Choose one (and only one) of the
following options:
Option 1: (Recommended) Remove the “grubby-deprecated” package using the
following two commands
# dnf remove grubby-deprecated
# grub2-switch-to-blscfg

Option 2: Remove the “grubby” package with the following command:

# dnf remove grubby

8. Perform a software update to obtain the latest Fedora packages. Since a root shell is
already active, use the command line version:
# dnf upgrade

This process will install an updated kernel that will allow changing of the screen
resolution.
Do not reboot yet.

9. Remove the blocking of the vmwgfx driver that the Fedora installer persisted into the
virtual machine. Open the file /etc/modprobe.d/anaconda-denylist.conf in your
favorite text editor and find the line that reads:
blacklist vmwgfx

Comment out the line. The line should now read:

# blacklist vmwgfx

Save your changes and exit the editor.

10. Reboot the virtual machine and verify screen resolution can be changed.
If the reboot is successful, delete the snapshot taken in step 4.

B.6. Unable to change screen resolution in a KDE Plasma session

There is a bug in KDE Plasma releases prior to 5.24.2 that causes any attempt to change screen
resolution in the virtual machine to switch briefly to the new value, then switch back immediately
to the defaults. The issue is fixed in later KDE Plasma releases starting with 5.24.2.
Use the following procedure to work around this issue in KDE Plasma releases prior to 5.24.2:

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 Procedure: Enable screen resolution change in KDE Plasma releases prior to 5.24.2
1. In the guest OS, open the System Settings app.

2. Under the “Workspace” category, click on the “Startup and Shutdown” icon.

3. Click on the “Background Services” icon, then scroll down the list of “Background
Services” until you see “KScreen 2” under the “Startup Services" category.

4. Uncheck "KScreen 2” to disable it from automatically running. If KScreen2 is already

running, stop it using the pause button on the right.
Click the “Apply” button in the lower right hand corner.
5. Log out and log back in again.

The screen resolution can now be changed using the appropriate KDE Plasma control panels.

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Note that when using the workaround, the updated resolution will not persist across login sessions.
The resolution must be reset to the desired values after session logout or reboot. This issue is also
fixed in KDE Plasma 5.24.2 and later.

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