VMware Workstation and 3.X Kernels
A little while ago (and again more recently) I updated my kernel to 3.7.3-101 and was stumped as to why VMware Workstation was unable to find the matching kernel headers, despite confirming they were indeed correct and installed. After lots of searching and some reading, I found the following command:
ln -s /usr/src/kernels/3.7.3-101.fc17.x86_64/include/generated/uapi/linux/version.h /usr/src/kernels/3.7.3-101.fc17.x86_64/include/linux/version.h
This basically creates a symbolic link in the /usr/src/kernels/<version>/include/linux/ directory for the version.h file that the VMware Workstation compiler is looking for. After running this command, I started VMware Workstation again and was greeted by the GUI compiling the necessary modules to run VMware Workstation.
I suspect the requirement for this command has something to do with re-arrangement of kernel source files in recent releases. It seems likely that VMware will update the compiler in new releases of their Workstation product.
Here’s a more recent upgrade, using the same step:
ln -s /usr/src/kernels/3.7.9-101.fc17.x86_64/include/generated/uapi/linux/version.h /usr/src/kernels/3.7.9-101.fc17.x86_64/include/linux/version.h
So long as you have the matching kernel headers installed, the above command should work for you just fine.
Note: On the second time around, I had troubles when running VMware Workstation as a normal user (just the compiling step, afterwards it was fine). For some reason there was an issue elevating the user to root (this happened to me on Fedora 17 x86_64) to complete the compiler process. To work around this, I simply opened a console/terminal, became root (sudo, or su – , whatever suits you) and then typed just: vmware – The compiler GUI appeared and completed, followed by VMware Workstation starting. I then closed ‘that’ VMware Workstation and started it my usual way (KDE menu for me) and it worked just fine.
Update (2013-03-25): VMware has recently released VMware Workstation 9.0.2 (2013-03-07) which has the above issue resolved. I am currently running VMware Workstation 9.0.2 build-1031769 on Fedora 17 (Kernel 3.8.3-103) and I did not have to carry out any additional steps to compile the kernel modules.
Update 2 (2013-07-10): I updated my kernel today, all the way up to 3.9.6-200-fc18 – Afterwards I was unable to compile the module again. After much searching, trouble-shooting and attempts to roll back to previous kernels, I checked something a little more fundamental; was gcc installed? Nope! It wasn’t! A quick browse through my yum logs showed it removed as a dependency when I removed something else earlier in the year. After installing gcc again, the kernel module compiled normally again 😉
Update 3 (2013-08-30): I updated my kernel again today, just a standard yum update with all the usual packages. My kernel ended up on 3.10.9-200.fc18.x86_64 (I haven’t upgraded to Fedora 19 yet). This time, the vmware kernel modules kept failing to compile (different to the previous issues). I did a quick google search for “vmware kernel 3.10.9-100” and found this article. If you follow the instructions, verbatim, the issue is solved straight away. For reference, I’ve copied the main content of the article below. Kudos to the author at http://guide.ecsmy.com/ for getting this one out there!
# tar xf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar
# cd vmnet-only
# wget http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/2239207-108590/procfs.patch
# patch -p1 < procfs.patch
# cd ..
# tar -cvf vmnet.tar vmnet-only/
# cp vmnet.tar /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/This will patch the procfs interface.
Secondly download the vmnet patch from http://mysticalzero.blogspot.com/2013/07/vmblock-patch-for-linux-310-vmware.html. The link of the patch is here.
Or you can use the following command:
# tar xf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmblock.tar
# cd vmblock-only
# wget https://sites.google.com/site/mysticalzerotmp/vmblock.3.10.patch
# patch -p1 < vmblock.3.10.patch
# cd ..
# tar -cvf vmblock.tar vmblock-only/
# cp vmblock.tar /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/Then, issue this command to compile and install the vmware player module
# sudo vmware-modconfig –console –install-all
I know it says ‘vmware player’ but trust me, it works for VMware Workstation just the same.
Update 4 (2013-10-20): I updated my kernel again today, just a standard yum update with all the usual packages. My kernel ended up on 3.11.4-101.fc18.x86_64 (I haven’t upgraded to Fedora 19 yet). This time, the vmware kernel vmblock module kept failing to compile (similar but different to the previous issue). I did a quick google search for “vmware kernel 3.11” and found this article. If you follow the instructions, verbatim, the issue is solved straight away. For reference, I’ve copied the main content of the article below. Kudos to the author (dibl) at siduction.org for getting this one out there!
The VMware module source needs to be patched to build on kernel 3.11. If you have already patched for 3.10, then only a single patch is needed. Here is the procedure:
Download the “vmblock.3.11.patch” from here.
In a root terminal, give these commands:
# cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source
# tar xvf vmblock.tar
# cd vmblock-only
# patch -p1 < /path/to/vmblock-3.11.patch
# cd ..
# tar cvf vmblock.tar vmblock-only/
# vmware-modconfig –console –install-all
You should see an error-free completion of the build.
Update 5 (2013-12-14): While still on Fedora 18 (I know, Fedora 19 is well and truly out, and Fedora 20 (celebrating 10 years of Fedora Linux!) is less than three weeks away from release!), I just upgraded to Kernel 3.11.10-100. I also upgrade from VMware Workstation 9.0.2 to VMware Workstation 10.0.1 – After a reboot, no additional work required. VMware Workstation 10.0.1 simply worked ‘straight out of the box’ so to speak 😉
