How can I mount vmdk in 10.7?

Question

I'm using OSX Lion and want to mount a VMDK-File which I've created on my VMWare Fusion 4.0.2.

Is it possible?!

I asked Google, it means I should mount the VMDK with an app under '/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/VMDKMounter.app', but this app isn't there. So I installed MacFuse (and later OSXFuse) like suggested, but there is still no VMDKMounter.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

You need a copy of Fusion 3.1.3 and Pacifist 2.6.4, download them from:

http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_fusion/3_0

http://www.charlessoft.com

Drag the Pacifist application to your /Applications or /Utilities folder.

Instead of installing, mount the VMware-Fusion-3.1.3-416484.dmg disk image, right-click on the Install VMware Fusion application and click on Show Package Contents: then, in the Finder, navigate to Contents -> Resources -> Install VMware Fusion.mpkg, right-click on it and do an Open With -> Pacifist.

In Pacifist, navigate to Contents of Install VMware Fusion.mpkg -> Contents of Install Vmware Fusion.pkg -> Library -> Application Support -> VMware Fusion, then select only VMDKMounter.app and click the Install button in the Pacifist toolbar.

After the installation has completed, you will find the VMDKMounter application in the "/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion" folder (but probably you can also extract it elsewhere, or move it afterwards; BTW, that folder isn't used by Fusion 4, anymore: everything now is inside the main application bundle).

The VMDKMounter now should work as usual (from the Finder context menu).

PS: MacFuse is just a driver to access 3rd party file systems build on top of OSX, but in any case you need to install it since VMDKMounter requires that. As MacFuse project page on Google tells that there is no further support/development. So, thats why VMware dropped it from latest version. This version of MacFuse works: http://www.tuxera.com/mac/macfuse/MacFUSE-Tuxera-2.2.dmg.

UPDATE: FUSE for OS X allows you to extend OS X's native file handling capabilities via third-party file systems. See answer by Dave_R for more details.

Answer 2

Just wanted to add if you are looking at Zee's answer and you are running 10.8 (Mountain Lion) Get OSX Fuse instead of MacFUSE. Also, when you install, click the checkbox for compatibility layer.

FUSE for OS X allows you to extend OS X's native file handling capabilities via third-party file systems. OSXFUSE is a successor to MacFUSE, which has been used as a software building block by dozens of products, but is no longer being maintained. Visit http://osxfuse.github.com for more details...

Answer 3

I can't believe they STILL haven't resurrected VMDKMounter, now that Fuse for OS X is in full development and works like a charm under OS X 10.7. I had switched to VMWare because Parallels had fallen behind, but I guess it's time to switch back. VMWare's suggestion that I mount the images as a second drive in a virtual machine, instead of directly to my actual workstation is a bit insulting and ridiculous.

Answer 4

A variation on Zee + Dave_R's answer if what you have handy is an old installation of Fusion rather than a fresh download of the 3.1 installer:

1. Install OSX Fuse from http://osxfuse.github.com (clicking the checkbox for the compatibility layer)

2. Copy /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/VMDKMounter.app from your backup to your current system

3. Restore the set-UID permission on the vmdkMounterTool inside:

   cd Applications/VMDKMounter.app/Contents/MacOS
   sudo chown root vmware-vmdkMounterTool
   sudo chmod u+s vmware-vmdkMounterTool
   

Read across the internet on the evils of setUID programs, but it's fairly appropriate here…

Also remember some limitations of VMDKMounter if it's been a while since you used it: it will refuse to mount a read-only VM (it wants to lock the VMDK against other writers), and that mounting an actual .vmdk file doesn't work; you need to "mount" the VM containing it.

Answer 5

Use libvmdk.

libvmdk is a library to access the VMware Virtual Disk (VMDK) format.

First mount using vmdkmount, then attach the image as a "raw disk image" using OS X' builtin hdiutil.

vmdkmount image.vmdk /mnt/vmdkimage/
hdiutil attach -imagekey diskimage-class=CRawDiskImage -nomount /mnt/vmdkimage/vmdk1

The image should then be listed in OS X' Disk Utility application, but in this case partitions won't be automatically mounted because of -nomount. If you are trying to mount Ext4 partitions on Mac, you might want to look at using ext4fuse; more common formats are handled by OS X' mount.

Answer 6

There is no VMDKMounter anymore.

Here is a KB article for Attaching an existing virtual disk as a second hard disk in Fusion.

Answer 7

If you have a FUSE system installed you can still download Fusion 3(.1.3) and extract the VMDK mount tool from it.

You will have varied levels of success depending on what you want to do with the mounted image.