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There are currently known issues with running Serenity in VMware. Please refer to the open issue for a list of currently known problems. At the time of writing, audio and networking do not work in VMware.

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Creating the Disk Image

Before creating a disk image for VMware, you need to create a GRUB image as described in the bare metal installation guide.
Skip the final step of the bare metal guide (writing to physical drive) as that’s only relevant for real hardware.
You cannot use the same disk image created for QEMU. Using that image will halt immediately with the message FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted.

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Converting the Image

The easiest way to convert the disk image is with QEMU: 
qemu-img convert -O vmdk /path/to/grub_disk_image /path/to/output/serenityos.vmdk

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Creating the Virtual Machine

These instructions were written with VMware Player 15 in mind. Steps may not match exactly for past and future versions or VMware Workstation.
1

Create new virtual machine

  1. Open the Create a New Virtual Machine dialog
  2. Select I will install the operating system later
2

Choose guest operating system

Choose Other as the guest operating system.
3

Name and location

Give the VM any name and store it anywhere you prefer.
4

Specify disk capacity

Choose any size for the hard disk. This disk will be removed in the next steps and replaced with the converted GRUB image.
5

Finalize creation

Select Finish to create the virtual machine.

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Configuring the Virtual Machine

1

Open settings

  1. Select the newly created virtual machine
  2. Click Edit virtual machine settings
2

Set memory

Serenity requires at minimum 512 MiB of memory. Set Memory for this virtual machine to 512 MiB or above. The currently recommended size is 1 GiB (1024 MiB).
3

Remove existing hard disk

  1. Select the existing Hard Disk
  2. Click Remove
4

Add converted disk image

  1. Select Add
  2. Select Hard Disk
  3. Select IDE (Recommended)
  4. Select Use an existing virtual disk
  5. Click Browse and navigate to the converted VMDK disk image
  6. Click Finish
5

Save and power on

  1. Click Save
  2. You can now Power On the virtual machine
At the time of writing, audio and networking do not work in VMware.

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That’s It!

You should now be able to boot SerenityOS in VMware. The system should boot from the GRUB bootloader and load into the SerenityOS environment.

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Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues during boot:
  1. Verify that you created the GRUB disk image (not the QEMU image)
  2. Ensure the VMDK conversion completed successfully
  3. Check that the IDE controller is properly configured
  4. Verify sufficient memory allocation (minimum 512 MiB)
For more detailed troubleshooting, see the troubleshooting documentation.

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