Filed under: Software
VMware updates Fusion to 2.0.1
It's not as big a jump as an upgrade from v3 to v4, but VMware's fetish for releasing upgrades late on Friday continues with the 2.01 build of VMware Fusion, now available for download. The new version's DMG sizes up at a healthy 246 MB, and the list of enhanced features and fixed bugs is reasonably long. Standouts include several improvements to mirrored folder performance and a safety check that pauses snapshot creation when your virtual machine is active.
Version 2.0.1 is a free upgrade for all VMWare Fusion owners. If you spend your Friday night upgrading it (we know you, and we know you will) please let us know how it goes. Note that there is still an incompatibility between Fusion and the CheckPoint SecureClient software noted on the release notes page.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
vanaheim7 said 12:37AM on 11-15-2008
I just updated to 2.0.1 from 2.0 on MacBook. Windows XP Professional is running from the Boot Camp partition. Everything seems fine. VMware tools were installed, too. Uneventful update after seeing a BSOD on my desktop today due to an eSATA card installation was a big relief.
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umijin said 12:43AM on 11-15-2008
What update? It doesn't autoupdate on my copy of VMWare (v2.0).
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daba said 1:20AM on 11-15-2008
has anyone running ubuntu 8.10 on vmware installed the update? are the 'vmwaretools' installation problems fixed?
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daba said 1:27AM on 11-15-2008
found the answer on vmware support site:
Easy Install doesn't work for Ubuntu 8.10. Ubuntu 8.10 is not officially supported and Easy Install is not available for the guest installation due to the lack of pre-built tools. Perform the standard installation, and install VMware Tools following the Guest Operating System Installation Guide. After VMware Tools is installed, many features should work. If you experience issues with your mouse not ungrabbing, run the Ubuntu Update Manager and ensure that you are running with the latest Ubuntu updates.
daba said 1:27AM on 11-15-2008
found the answer on vmware support site:
Easy Install doesn't work for Ubuntu 8.10. Ubuntu 8.10 is not officially supported and Easy Install is not available for the guest installation due to the lack of pre-built tools. Perform the standard installation, and install VMware Tools following the Guest Operating System Installation Guide. After VMware Tools is installed, many features should work. If you experience issues with your mouse not ungrabbing, run the Ubuntu Update Manager and ensure that you are running with the latest Ubuntu updates.
Brian Sexton said 8:01AM on 11-15-2008
Proper support for Ubuntu 8.10 would be nice; it's all kinds of wonky in VMware Fusion 2 (and on my dedicated Ubuntu system, where the login screen doesn't even appear). For that matter, it would be nice if the menu bar didn't mostly stop responding in full-screen mode while running Ubuntu 8.04 *OR* Ubuntu 8.10. I didn't see the menu bar issue in the release notes, but here's hoping it will be gone after my installation of VMware Fusion is updated.
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Pat Lee said 9:15AM on 11-15-2008
Brian,
We updated VMware Tools so they compile and work for Ubuntu 8.10. Ubuntu 8.10 is not officially supported due to lack of time for full qualification and pre-built module.
After running through the installer for Ubuntu 8.10 tools and doing the tools compile, all basic features should work as expected except for the mouse which is an Ubuntu downstream issue.
To resolve the issue with mouse not ungrabbing, run the Ubuntu Update Manager and ensure that you are running with the latest Ubuntu updates which includes the latest vmmouse driver (which we opensourced to add to the distros).
With regards to the menu bar coming down in full screen mode, this is an Apple issue with how they handle their Kiosk mode APIs that there is no way to add a delay on how long to wait to show the menu bar. We will look into a way around this issue in a future major release.
Pat Lee
VMware
David said 8:36AM on 11-15-2008
Anyone know where to download the XP wallpaper used on VMware fusion product boxes and screenshots?
This one: http://www.vmware.com/files/images/screens_fusion/f2/imac_xpsinglewindowcam-lg.jpg
Parallels have started using it too now with their 4.0 release. Have looked everywhere and can't find it.
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macxprt said 9:33AM on 11-15-2008
that wallpaper looks like the standard desktop for windows xp.
David said 9:35AM on 11-15-2008
Looks similar but it's not.
Tony said 10:04AM on 11-15-2008
You're right.. compared to http://www.guidebookgallery.org/pics/gui/desktop/empty/winxppro.png it's definately different.
I presume it's a stock library image that looks similar enough to be used for advertising.. MS may not give them the rights to use the original.
darkg33k said 12:10PM on 11-15-2008
Just curious on reader opinions here... What would make someone want to use VMware vs. Parallels?
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Christina Warren said 2:23PM on 11-15-2008
I've been working on a comparison for the last couple of days doing just that. 2.0.1 just came out so I'm rerunning some tests (I want to be as accurate as possible and since the update just came out, it makes sense to do some stuff over) but we should have the article up tomorrow or Monday.
darkg33k said 3:24PM on 11-15-2008
Cool Beans Christine!
I would definitely be interested in having a look when your finished.
daba said 3:30PM on 11-15-2008
parallels concentrates on Windows and other operating systems don't work as well as they do on fusion.
(mind you, but ubuntu 8+ doesn't work great on fusion either)
Patrick said 7:36PM on 11-15-2008
Darkgg33k,
I'm sure the article that Christina has mentioned will be extremely helpful, but I can tell you this right now:
- VMware Fusion runs bootcamp partitions flawlessly (at least it did for me).
- Parallels couldn't boot the partition without the need for Windows to be re-registered because of dramatic changes in the hardware configuration.
I haven't done any testing, so this might have just been an issue for me, but looking around the web seems to show the same results I had. If you already have a bootcamp partition, then VMware will probably be your best bet.
rickz said 12:28PM on 11-15-2008
just "updated" my 3.0 trial installation. All seems fine. My XP VM runs my work PC image and Cisco VPN, Outlook, McAfee all appear to work fine. I have yet to discover whether the cloned system is still running the installed PointSec encryption that was on the laptop I cloned it from
Vmware Tools update requires a reboot of the PC VM, but it also seems to go fine.
One small nit. After my original Vmware install I had moved the Vmware app to another folder where I keep all my secondary apps, so restarting from "Recent Applications" caused the 2.0 version to be re-run. It complained that it was out of date. Firing up the 2.01 version worked fine - it found the virtual system (which had been suspended) and just carried on.
My next task will be to figure out how to keep the VM and my "real" PC in some state of reasonable sync without a lot of work on my part.
r
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Mark S said 11:12AM on 11-17-2008
Unity seems to work now in Red Hat Enterprise 5. Unfortunately, I still get errors with the suspend script in FreeBSD 7. I have to click on suspend a second time before it works.
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dionboye said 3:21AM on 11-19-2008
A fab webcam fix: logitech's easycam 9000 didn't play in the last version; but it does now! Well, it does in Win XP; I still can't get it going in Vista.
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