VMWare on Leopard: Error messages from nowhere/re-install VMWare?

[budgetboy]

All of a sudden, I'm getting the following when I try running VMWare:

Unable to retrieve kernel symbols
Failed to initialize monitor device
Cannot find valid peer process to connect to

I recently did an OS reinstall of Leopard, and I suspect this is where the error stems from, but I'm not certain of that. I hadn't touched the Windows XP side of my Mac in a while.

Can I just do a VMWare uninstall/reinstall, or will I have to reinstall Windows XP? Does a reinstall of VMWare stand a chance of solving these errors, or is this a bigger problem?

Thank you--anyone!

[Giaguara]

If you reinstall Fusion, your virtual machines will not be touched. They will stay safe.

If you reinstalled Mac OS X and did not reinstall Fusion after that, that could be the reason for that. Fusion will need a few kernel extensions for e.g. vmnet drivers, and if the system is reinstalled those drivers will need to be replaced with a new installation. Dragging and dropping Fusion from another drive or backup will not replace these missing kext.

[budgetboy]

Thank you for your reply to my post. I lost bluetooth keyboard connectivity recently, and was unable to try your solution until today.

I did an uninstall and a re-install. No luck. Same error messages.

Any other thoughts?

[Giaguara]

Are you in Fusion 2 or 1.1.x?
And which exact 10.5 version you have? Can you upgrade the OS to 10.5.4 first, then update Fusion to either 1.1.3 or 2, and reinstall the VMware Tools on the affected VMs.

If it still would occur.. is it immediately when you start the VM? What happens in the vm log? (from that virtual machine's log) does the VM power down?

[budgetboy]

Are you in Fusion 2 or 1.1.x?
I'm in the latest Fusion Build, but I'm downloading Fusion 2.0 Beta as I type this.

And which exact 10.5 version you have? Can you upgrade the OS to 10.5.4 first, then update Fusion to either 1.1.3 or 2, and reinstall the VMware Tools on the affected VMs.
I'm running Leopard 10.5.3. Interesting that you ask if I can update to 10.5.4, because I've tried that twice today and received an error message that says "You cannot install Mac OS X Update on this volume. This volume does not meet the requirements for this update." Another mystery.

If it still would occur.. is it immediately when you start the VM? What happens in the vm log? (from that virtual machine's log) does the VM power down?
I'll have more answers tomorrow. I'll install Fusion 2 then see what happens. But as for VM log... I have no idea about this. And as for the VM powering down... I'm not understanding your question or VMWare or Fusion, or all of the above, because as far as I can tell since I haven't been able to run VMWare I haven't been able to run Windows/the virtual machine (VM). Is this what you meant?

[budgetboy]

Well, I couldn't go to sleep without trying to get this resolved.

I installed Fusion 2.0. I opened up the app and. Immediately got the same, original error messages. Then I figured I should restart my iMac. Interestingly, my HP photoprinter (which stopped working around the time my VM stopped working) came to life and printed out something I tried to print 3 weeks ago. Then Windows XP came online. No Mac came online.

Restarted again with the Option key held down and selected the Mac hard drive. That results in an immediate circle-slash symbol, and XP boots up again. And since XP needs to be activated again (and again and again), which requires an Internet connection that apparently the Windows VM can't find, I'm now stuck with a Mac running Windows that won't allow me to log into.

[budgetboy]

help?

[Giaguara]

A few options..
File a SR in VMware (for Fusion 2) and PM the SR number for me and I'll have someone have a look at it.
- Other - is the host Mac OS X by any chance full? The Mac should have at least 15 % space free..
- Inside the VM (right click on the XP vm in finder, 'show package contents') there may be some .lck files left. You can remove these files when Fusion and the VM is not running.