iMac keeps freezing while using VMware

Question

iMac keeps freezing while using VMware

Hi,

I am running Vmware Fusion 5.0.1 and while I am using Windows 7 the iMac freezes. So the only way to oevrcome this to turn off

the mac from the power switch and start again.

I looked in the console and I found this error:

28/10/2012 16:40:34.792 distnoted[142]: # distnote server agent absolute time: 143.340084379 civil time: Sun Oct 28 16:40:34 2012 pid: 142 uid: 501 root: no

28/10/2012 16:40:34.784 loginwindow[42]: Connection with distnoted server was invalidated

This error has always been recorded with the crashing issue and that it happens with Vmware fusion only.

Any ideas or has someone come across this issue? I am using Mountain Lion 10.8.2. The SP update makes no difference as this use to happen with

10.8.1 as well.

Many thanks,

vnayak

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Oct 28, 2012 10:07 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Jan 7, 2017 2:06 PM in response to Community User

Same issue, on El Capitan host, Windows 7 guest, started when I updated Fusion to the latest version. When I look in the log, it indicates an error with the AMD accelerator causing a stall. I have turned off 3D acceleration, to see if that is the root of the problem.

Reply

Answer 2

sig

Level 8

35,862 points

Oct 28, 2012 12:08 PM in response to Community User

What do the folks at VMWare have to contibute?

Reply

Answer 3

Oct 28, 2012 2:32 PM in response to sig

Hi Sig,

I have not raised it with just yet. Will be doing that in a moment.

Regards,

vnayak

Reply

Answer 4

p_hrouda

Level 1

0 points

Oct 29, 2012 12:37 AM in response to Community User

Just to mention that I have the exact same problem - but on a MacBook Pro.

I'm running OS X 10.8.2 and VMware Fusion 5.0.1.

The only VM that appears to freeze the Mac is Windows 7.

I have Windows XP, Ubuntu and Fedora VMs, that - at least so far - have not shown the same problems.

It has happened more frequently after updating to OS X 10.8.x and Fusion 5.x.

Regards

Preben

Reply

Answer 5

Oct 29, 2012 2:37 AM in response to p_hrouda

Hi p_hrouda,

I have not got a support contract with vmware so I have raised it with one of their community forums. I check on the site to see if anyone's replied.

Disnoted seems to be the distributed notification server from what I have researched from the other posts. So maybe its related to that perhaps.

vnayak

Reply

Answer 6

etresoft

Level 8

46,366 points

Oct 29, 2012 5:07 AM in response to Community User

How much RAM do you have allocated to Windows 7? It is extremely resource greedy. On my machine it requires twice the resources as XP. Even then, it runs twice as slow.

Reply

Answer 7

Oct 29, 2012 7:57 AM in response to etresoft

Hi Etresoft,

I have allocated 8gb and speed-wise it runs perfectly fine.

vnayak

Reply

Answer 8

etresoft

Level 8

46,366 points

Oct 29, 2012 8:03 AM in response to Community User

How much RAM do you have? You had better say either 12 or 16 🙂

I assume you mean it runs perfectly fine until it locks up. It could just be a VMWare issue. I suggest asking on the VMWare support forums.

Reply

Answer 9

Oct 29, 2012 9:01 AM in response to etresoft

Hi Etresoft,

I have 8gb RAM. I use vmware 4 with Windows 7 64bit on 10.8.2 at work. This one I have allocated 8gb s well and is perfectly fine.

I have raised the issue on the community forum for VMware and so far I have someone asking me to re-install Fusion and repair disk permissions. I will try that solution but thats so far what I have from them.

Regards,

vnayak

Reply

Answer 10

etresoft

Level 8

46,366 points

Oct 29, 2012 10:14 AM in response to Community User

Reduce the size of your VM to 4 GB and see if you have any problems then.

Reply

Answer 11

p_hrouda

Level 1

0 points

Oct 29, 2012 10:54 AM in response to Community User

My MacBook Pro has 8GB memory (unfortunately maximum, but thats another issue...).

4GB was originally assigned to Windows 7, but since the Windows task manager showed that this was not used 100%, I lowered it to 3GB. But I still have the problem.

Actually, it should not be possible for a guest OS to freeze the host OS - but this seems to be the case.

VMware tools is updated of course - and since this is the only software part that interacts with both host and guest OS'es, maybe this could be the problem?

But still - Mac OS should be in total control of the hardware - including the keyboard. And if so, you would be able to at least swap into Mac OS and shut down the virtual machines - or kill the Fusion process. But only the power button helps ....

I ran a test with different VMs:

Ubuntu 12.04:

Assigned 2GB memory. Activity Monitor shows, that

- Mac OS kernel process uses 603MB

- vmware-vmx process uses 2.11GB

- VMware Fusion process uses app. 137MB

Windows 7:

Assigned 3GB memory. Activity Monitor shows, that

- Mac OS kernel process uses 603MB

- vmware-vmx process uses 3.34GB

- VMware Fusion process uses app. 110MB

Fedora 14:

Assigned 1GB memory. Activity Monitor shows, that

- Mac OS kernel process uses 633MB

- vmware-vmx process uses 920MB

- VMware Fusion process uses app. 142MB

Windows XP:

Assigned 2GB memory. Activity Monitor shows, that

- Mac OS kernel process uses 603MB

- vmware-vmx process uses 1.99GB

- VMware Fusion process uses app. 167MB

So plenty of memory resources available. (Of course other processes use memory, but Activity Monitor showed app. 3GB Inactive/available).

p_hrouda

Reply

Answer 12

etresoft

Level 8

46,366 points

Oct 29, 2012 12:39 PM in response to p_hrouda

p_hrouda wrote:

Mac OS should be in total control of the hardware

It should be, but when you install system modifications like VMWare, Parallels, etc. - anything with a kernel extension or runs as root - you essentially have multiple cooks in the kitchen.

Reply