The trick to installing OpenSolaris on VMWare Fusion is to change the RAM allocation from 580 to 768 MB. I also chose to use NAT networking when setting up OpenSolaris 2009.06.

When trying to install VMTools, you might get this error message:

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Unable to copy the source file
/usr/lib/vmware-tools/configurator/autostart-vmware-user.sh
to the destination file
/usr/dt/config/Xsession.d/9999.autostart-vmware-user.sh.

To correct that problem, su -s into root and issue the following command:

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pfexec mkdir -p /usr/dt/config/Xsession.d

In order top prevent the black screen issue after installing VMTools, do the following:

(1) Before running the vmtools installer, do the following as root:

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cd /usr/X11/lib/modules/drivers/
mv vmware_drv.so vmware_drv.so-before-vmtools

(2) Next you’ll run the vmtools installer. At some point the perl script based installer will create the vmware-tools directory, and then wait for additional input. At this point do the following:

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cd /usr/lib/vmware-tools/configurator/XOrg
ln -s 7.1 7.4

For OpenSolaris 2009.06 its 7.4.3, but future versions of OpenSolaris the number will change. Put in the number corresponding to your version of OpenSolaris (don’t include the minor revision number).

Thats it! You should have a working version of OpenSolaris running under VMWare Fusion with VMTools installed.