Knowledge Base

When the Solaris 10 guest detects the host processor's 64-bit capability during installation, it attempts to enter longmode, and Workstation displays an error message indicating that you do not have a supported 64-bit processor. You may be able to work around this problem by suppressing the longmode feature. Try adding the following line to the guest virtual machine's configuration (.vmx) file:
monitor_control.disable_longmode = 1

Once you have successfully installed Solaris 10 in 32-bit mode, VMware recommends that you remove the line from the configuration file, since this setting might cause problems with some applications. To force Solaris 10 to boot in 32-bit mode on a 64-bit host, execute the following command from a command line prompt within the guest:
eeprom boot-file=kernel/unix
This command requires superuser privileges.

Note: If you upgrade the guest operating system (for example, from Solaris 10 Upgrade 1 to Solaris 10 Upgrade 2), you need to re-execute the eeprom command because the entry is automatically removed on upgrade.

The Sun Web site provides more information on this issue. Go to
docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/817-1985/6mhm8o5nb?a=view.