Paul Shadwell RTFM

Black Screen After VMware Fusion 3.1.3 Upgrade (and how to fix it)

A user came to me today with a problem on his Macbook Pro. He had upgraded VMware Fusion 3.1.2 to 3.1.3. He was getting some errors which I said may well be fixed in the new version. Errors relating to Windows 7 SP1 and graphics drivers.

Anyway, he did the upgrade but when starting the Virtual Machine he could only see a black screen after the initial Windows logo boot. After Googleing the problem he found several answers, including uninstalling and reinstalling VMware Fusion. None of which helped. I suggested rebooting the Macbook Pro just in case but this failed to resolve the issue.

So I tried a few things myself, such as starting Windows in safe mode. Which worked and was able to login. So I came to the conclusion that perhaps it was the graphics drivers that were a problem. As the Fusion upgrade had new VMware Tools (which contain the graphics drivers) it was unlikely they had installed as the user was unable to get into his session.

In the Safe Boot menu (the menu you get when you press F8 while booting into Windows) there was an item called Start in low resolution (640 x 480) or something to that effect. I selected that and was able to boot and login.

At this point I uninstalled the VMware tools using the Programs and Features item in the Control Panel. After this a reboot is required. Once rebooted I selected Install VMware Tools from the Virtual Machine menu in Fusion.

This worked and now the user was able to get back into his VM.

The only difference I could find between my upgarde (that worked 1st time) and his, was that he had suspended his VM before upgrading Fusion where as I had shut mine down completely. So my recomendation is to shut down any running VMs before upgrading Fusion.

If this info helped you, let me know.

The New MacBook Pros Don't Come with BootCamp Drivers (How to find them)

For those of you, like me, who still have to have a foot in the Windows camp, having BootCamp is a great way to isolate work and play. 

Usually, the BootCamp drivers for Windows come on the OSX installation disk however, the new MacBook Pros released on the 24th of February 2011 do not have the drivers. Trouble is, you only find this out once Windows is already installed on your BootCamp partition.

This caused me a certain amount of stress while having to do an emergency build after a 13" MacBook Pro had been damaged. I was able to obtain one of the new machines, a 13" MacBook Pro with an i5 processor.

These machines have new graphics and a new chipset, so the old BootCamp drivers downloadable from Apple as BootCamp drivers version 3.2, don't work.

All is not lost. I had noticed that during the BootCamp setup I was given the option to download the drivers. During the 1st attempt I opted to use the drivers supplied on the OSX Installation DVD (That's what is says in the dialog box).

In the same dialog box is the option to download the drivers. Take this option and you get a full install of all the new drivers for the new MacBook Pros. You get the choice to either burn to a CD or copy it to an external drive. I copied them onto a USB memory stick.

Once I had booted back into Windows 7 I was able to run the startup.exe file suplied and the new drivers were installed. Support for the new graphics, chip set, network card etc etc was all there.

I could finally relax and get the install finished and backup restored for the user.

Hope this helps someone in a similar predicament.

Setting up a VLAN for use with a Drobo Pro

When using a Drobo Pro over ethernet (iSCSI) usually it is necessary to setup a 2nd ethernet port to dedicate to the iSCSI protocol. iSCSI is a bandwidth hog so best preformance is gained this way. However, if you have a computer with only one ethernet port, such as a Mac Mini or an iMac, you can setup a virtual network to isolate the iSCSI traffic while still using a single connection.
The following steps explains how to do this.

Open System Preferences

Click Network

Interfaces

1. Click the gear wheel.

Manage Virtual Interfaces...

1. Click Manage Virtual Interfaces...

Add a Virtual Interface

1. Click the Plus (+) button.
2. Select New VLAN...

VLAN Settings

1. Add a name i.e. Drobo VLAN
2. Enter a Tag number (1 is default)
3. Select the interface to use. (Usually you have only one, Mac Pros will have 2 to select from)
4. Click Create

VLAN Created

Click Done

1. Select Drobo VLAN (or the name you used) in the interface list.
2. Select Manually as the Configure IPv4 setting.
3. Enter an IP address on an unused subnet (i.e. My Ethernet 1 IP is 192.168.27.100, so I used 192.168.30.10)
4. Enter 255.255.255.0 as the Subnet Mask
5. Click Apply

VLAN is Ready

Now go to the Drobo Dashboard and set the IP address to the same subnet as your VLAN interface i.e. 192.168.30.11.