macOS VM won’t start, Stuck in a boot loop

Recently, I upgraded VMware Workstation Pro from version 17.0 to 17.5, and following the update, my macOS virtual machines ceased to function properly. Upon starting the VMs, they automatically enter into a restart loop.

I successfully powered on other Windows-based VMs without any issues. I resolved the problem by following the steps below:

Step 1 – Check VMWARE.log file

• The VMWARE.log file is stored in the same folder as the other files on the virtual machine. To locate the virtual machine’s folder, right-click on your VM within the VMware Workstation console, and select ‘Settings‘.

• Under the “Hardware” tab, select “Hard Disk” and on the right-hand side, locate the “Disk File Location“. This indicates where your VM is stored. Navigate to that location.

• In that location, you will find a file named vmware.log. Open the file and review the logs.

You may encounter the following errors in the file:

2023-10-20T16:54:42.194Z In(05) vcpu-5 SMC_Open: Unable to open MacHALDriver: 0x00000002.
2023-10-20T16:54:42.199Z In(05) vcpu-5 Chipset: The guest has requested that the virtual machine be hard reset.
2023-10-20T16:54:42.202Z In(05) vcpu-0 DEVICE: Resetting device 'ALL'.

2023-10-20T16:53:10.574Z In(05) vmx FeatureCompat: No EVC masks.

2023-10-20T16:57:29.038Z In(05) vmx GuestRpcSendTimedOut: message to toolbox-dnd timed out.
2023-10-20T16:57:37.922Z In(05) vcpu-2 Chipset: The guest has requested that the virtual machine be hard reset.
2023-10-20T16:57:37.988Z In(05) vcpu-0 DEVICE: Resetting device 'ALL'.

Step 2 – Update Unlocker for VMWARE Workstation

• Download Unlocker from https://github.com/paolo-projects/unlocker/releases.

• Right-click on this file and select “Extract All“. This action will extract all the contents of the zip file into a separate folder.

• Ensure that all VMs are powered off, and VMware Workstation is closed.

• Right-click on the Command Prompt and select “Run as Administrator“.

• Change the folder location to the extracted folder location in the command prompt.

• Execute the Win-install.cmd script to resolve this issue.

• Launch the macOS VM again; this time, it should boot up without any issues.