This document summarizes notes taken while to make the VMWare Tech preview work on Apple M1 Pro, it originated from discussions in hashicorp/vagrant-vmware-desktop#22
Created on: November 1, 2021 Updated on: September 17, 2022
First install Rosetta if not already done, this is needed to run x86 code:
/usr/sbin/softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license
Install Vagrant via brew or install it manually. The version is important. DO NOT use 2.2.19
brew install [email protected]
You will need to create an account on vmware as it needs user and key information that are user specific. The registration process is kinda convoluted. Be careful about passwords as the password needs to be less than 20 characters and there are no error messages for this.
You can download the tech preview via the download page.
Once this is installed you will NEED to create a symlink as the vagrant vmware utility etc.. assumes that vmware is installed in a specific directory and the tech preview is installed in a different one.
ln -s /Applications/VMWare\ Fusion\ Tech\ Preview.app /Applications/VMWare\ Fusion.app
It requires two steps. This is detailed in the documentation but follow the steps below:
It is now available via brew, so you can do
brew install --cask vagrant-vmware-utility
Otherwise, go to Vagrant vmware Utility and download the binary and install it. The direct link is vagrant-vmware-utility_1.0.21_x86_64.dmg.
It needs to be version 1.0.21
Next install the provider:
vagrant plugin install vagrant-vmware-desktop
Create a file Vagrantfile
Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
config.vm.box = "spox/ubuntu-arm"
config.vm.box_version = "1.0.0"
end
vagrant up
and then
vagrant ssh
Hopefully this should work and you should find yourself with mostly everything working.
I have observed various issues that makes the whole experience unstable or creating conflicts.
Everytime macOS install a software update, this will break your vmware utility driver. You will need to reinstall the vmware utility driver as documented above.
Vagrant encountered an unexpected communications error with the
Vagrant VMware Utility driver. Please try to run the command
again. If this error persists, please contact [email protected]
I have had issues trying to run vagrant 2.2.19. Use 2.3.0
If you declare forwarding port on your box, for some reasons the provider persists them and keeps it bound in LISTEN state even after you do a vagrant halt.
You can check this using something like:
sudo lsof -i -P | grep LISTEN | grep 'vagrant-v'You can see the ports are stored in:
cat /opt/vagrant-vmware-desktop/settings/portforwarding.jsonTo stop the provider use:
sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.vagrant.vagrant-vmware-utility.plistTo start it again, use load instead of unload.
If your vagrant box uses nfs, it seems to pollute the /etc/exports file with duplicate or stale entries over time which will cause vagrant to get angry at you at some point. You may need to prune the entries. It seems related to vagrant#11418