Knowledge Base

The VMware Knowledge Base provides support solutions, error messages and troubleshooting guides
 
Search the VMware Knowledge Base (KB)   View by Article ID
 

Troubleshooting Fusion startup issues

Details

  • A license expiration message appears
  • You are asked to register Fusion every time you start it
  • You see any of these errors:

    • Could not open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory.
    • Failed to connect to peer process.
    • Cannot find a valid peer process to connect to.
    • Failed to lock main memory file
    • The following install step failed: run postflight script for VMware Fusion. Contact the software manufacture for assistance
    • Error: Module version mismatch 4 != 5. Please update host. Failed to connect virtual device Ethernet0.

Solution

Note: This article applies only to Fusion startup issues. It does not discuss Windows or Linux startup issues. The steps described here help if you are unable to open the Fusion application itself. If Fusion starts, but you cannot start a virtual machine, see Troubleshooting Fusion virtual machine startup issues (1014534).

If Fusion itself cannot start, there may be a problem with the application.

To troubleshoot this issue, try each of these steps, and then try to open Fusion again:

  1. Restart your Mac.
  2. Reinstall Fusion.
  3. Repair the disk permissions.

Restart your Mac

To begin troubleshooting this issue, restart your Mac. If, after the Mac restarts, Fusion still presents the same error, manually reinstall Fusion.

Reinstall Fusion

To manually reinstall Fusion:

  1. Uninstall VMware Fusion. For more information, see Manually uninstalling VMware Fusion (1017838) . This article contains a video that may be helpful.

    Note    : This procedure does not affect the contents of your virtual machine.

  2. Download and install the latest version of Fusion from the VMware website . For more information, see Downloading and Installing Fusion (1005466).

    Note    : A VMware Fusion serial number obtained from VMware is required to complete installation. If you do not have your Fusion serial number (licence key), please see Finding your VMware licenses on the Account Management Portal (1005509) for instructions on obtaining your key.

  3. Install or update VMware Tools in all of your virtual machines. For more information, see Overview of VMware Tools for VMware Fusion (1022048).

Repair the disk permissions

If VMware Fusion startup problems persist, repair the Mac's disk permissions using the Disk Utility, then restart your Mac again.

To repair the disk permissions:

  1. Open the /Applications/Utilities folder.
  2. Double-click Disk Utility.
  3. Select the system hard drive (usually called Macintosh HD).
  4. Click Repair Disk Permissions.

    Note: If your virtual machine resides on a volume other than the system hard drive, select that volume and repeat step 4.

Tags

application-launch cannot-connect cannot-connect fusion-application misconfigured-application program-launch start-up

Update History

05/12/2010 - Updated title and clarified scope to indicate that this article deals exclusively with Fusion issues. 02/08/2011 - Made the need to restart, as a first step, clearer 02/11/2011 - Added /dev/vmmon symptom 05/05/2011 - Added memory lock symptom, reordered symptoms.

Request a Product Feature

To request a new product feature or to provide feedback on a VMware product, please visit the Request a Product Feature page.

Feedback

Did this article help you?
This article resolved my issue.
This article did not resolve my issue.
This article helped but additional information was required to resolve my issue.
What can we do to improve this information? (4000 or fewer characters)
Actions
  • Bookmark Document
  • Email Document
  • Print Document
  • Subscribe to Document
  • Bookmark and Share