How to install VMware Server on 2.6.31 kernels

How To Linux VMware Virtualization
Tuesday, January 19th 2010, 01:20
208 Comments

UPDATE: The script should also work with 2.6.32 kernels from version 1.2.

Seeing the success I have encountered with the blog post about installing VMware Server on Ubuntu Karmic Koala and helped by Ramon de Carvalho Valle with a better patch regarding the installation of the virtualization server on the newer kernels found in three of the most popular Linux distributions – Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE – I’ve managed to provide a script which should be able to install the server on all of these distros. Furthermore, by placing some trivial checks in a function of the script one may enlarge the applicability to a lot more distributions with common roots (Debian and all Debian-based distributions, Red Hat and all of its derivatives).

I have managed to test the script on both the 2.6.31-14 and 2.6.31-17 kernels which can be found in Ubuntu 9.10 and on the 2.6.31.9-174.fc12 kernel found in Fedora 12. Since I didn’t have an openSUSE machine I am not sure of what is the outcome on this distribution (regarding the kernel sources; people who commented previously on my blog had no problems installing VMware Server using the previous script) but the script is made so that it automatically determines on what kind of distribution is run and according to this information it automatically installs the needed packages. Careful though, as this requires Internet access for the specific machines.

The good news regarding Ramon’s patch is the fact that now VMware Server seems stable. No more warnings appear when compiling modules, except for vsock, which – miraculously – builds on Fedora.

Regarding the installation of VMware Server on Fedora, I have encountered some difficulties after the installation completed successfully. Basically I wasn’t able to log into the web administration interface because of multiple factors. The steps which should be followed will be reminded to the Fedora users after the script completes but I’m gonna mention them here too:

  1. edit /etc/services and replace the entry located on TCP/902 port with vmware-authd
  2. disable SELinux it by editing the /etc/selinux/config file (permissive mode isn’t enough – see comments)
  3. reboot your system

The general instructions are the same as the ones for the previous version of the script.

How to

  1. Download VMware Server (2.0.1 or 2.0.2) – gz format, not rpm. Whichever version you choose, keep the license key near.
  2. Download my script from here (right click, save as).
  3. Run the script with super user rights either in the same folder where you have downloaded the server archive, either by providing it the path to that folder. Make sure the folder where you have downloaded the server’s archive doesn’t contain spaces in its path name or the script will exit (giving you this reason as an error message). If the script exists, it will give you a decent warning from which you should be able to tell what’s wrong. On Ubuntu at least, the VSOCK module will not work (will fail to compile), giving you a hint that your kernel sources might not be the ones for your running kernel. This is not true, as the script takes care of this before doing the hard work. Anyway, VMware Server will work without it. Example: 
    chmod +x vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh
sudo ./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh [PATH _TO_VMWARE_ARCHIVE]
  4. When you are asked about adding users to the server, if you do not provide your own account, the user used for login in the web console of the server will be root (maybe you should add yourself there).
  5. Provide the license key when asked about it.
  6. For the ones installing Windows guests in VMware Server, you must pick one of the following two solutions to avoid having problems with the mouse in the console:
    • you run this script in the terminal every time you want to launch a VMware Server console, but after you have installed the VMware plug-in for Firefox
    • you export this variable in the environment right after login such that it will be set before starting Firefox: 
      VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=yes
  7. If the solution worked well for you please share this info wherever you can. :D

I am looking forward for your feedback because running the script and the server under multiple kernel versions and distributions will provide the real way to see if this latest patch really handles all the flaws in VMware Server or not. And if it does, this means that Ramon and I (but mostly Ramon) can shout a big “In your face, VMware!”.

P.S. All my open-source work can also be found on GitHUB. This is useful if you think that you have some other non up to date versions of my scripts. Anyway, the scripts which can be found on my server represent the latest version.

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208 Comments

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  • How to install VMware Server 2.0.x on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala :: A script for automated patch install | Radu Cotescu January 19th, 2010 at 01:32

    [...] made by Ramon de Carvalho Valle which provides a more stable experience. More details can be read here although the instructions presented on this page are still [...]

    Reply
  • Ramon de Carvalho Valle January 19th, 2010 at 03:00

    Thanks Radu! Now, let’s wait for feedback from users. And if any problems arise, we can correct them.

    Reply
  • RISE Security » VMware Server 2.0.2 Update Patch January 19th, 2010 at 03:31

    [...] January 18, 2009: Radu Cotescu integrated this patch to the latest version of his script, that now applies the patch automatically in Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE. The script is available here. [...]

    Reply
  • Tweets that mention How to install VMware Server on the 2.6.31 Linux kernel :: Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE | Radu Cotescu -- Topsy.com January 19th, 2010 at 03:52

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by RISE Security, Radu Cotescu. Radu Cotescu said: How to install VMware Server on 2.6.31 kernels – http://bit.ly/6aGBVs [...]

    Reply
  • OpenSuse 11.2 and VMware Server - Page 4 - openSUSE Forums January 19th, 2010 at 13:04

    [...] the right packages) could you please test it and tell me how it worked? The script is located here. Please post your comments on my post, since it will be easier for me to track them and offer a [...]

    Reply
  • Your Linux Guy .com » Blog Archive » VMware Server 2.0.2 on Opensuse 11.2 is a big pain in the…. January 19th, 2010 at 13:48

    [...] problem, and fixes are all about Ubuntu.  Do not fear.  (Post-publish update, 20100119:  See http://radu.cotescu.com/2010/01/19/how-to-install-vmware-server-ubuntu-fedora-opensuse/ for a new version that I have not tested [...]

    Reply
  • Bill Carroll January 21st, 2010 at 03:01

    Thanks for this. Worked for me on 32-bit Fedora 12 — but, if I go to rerun vmware-config.pl to reconfigure the networking, it immediately complains with:

    “The following VMware kernel modules have been found on your system that were not installed by the VMware Installer. Please remove them and run this installer again.

    vmci
    vmnet
    vmmon

    Execution aborted!”

    Not sure what to do – remove the modules as suggested and have them recompiled again?

    Reply
    • Radu January 21st, 2010 at 14:52

      Bill, I’ve tried this on my Fedora VM and it happened to me too. I don’t know how VMware checks the “authenticity” of the kernel modules but it’s safe to remove the old ones and let the script recompile them because by using my script you have the patched sources in the /lib folder. I really don’t know why is this happening.

      Reply
      • Martin August 17th, 2010 at 08:04

        This happened to me too. Agreed that it can be deleted without a problem.

        Root cause that I can find is that in Fedora 12 (Kernel 2.6.31) and Fedora 13 (Kernel 2.6.33), the /lib/modules/`uname -r`/modules.dep file contains a list of files with paths relative to that directory, whereas in Fedora 10 (2.6.27), the files listed in that file are absolute paths. As a result, there is a mismatch between the files in the VMware DB file (/etc/vmware/locations) vs. files listed in modules.dep. See the non_vmware_modules_installed() function in vmware-config.pl.

        BTW, thanks for the scripts and posting this article. Very helpful stuff!!!

        Thanks,
        Martin

      • Martin August 17th, 2010 at 10:28

        Also, for reference (that the modules.dep file changed): http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=518412

  • Franck January 21st, 2010 at 14:59

    It works fine on OpenSuse 11.2 x64 !!! Thanks a lot!!

    Reply
  • Eric January 21st, 2010 at 18:18

    Ok ! the VMWARE console work ! Very good procedure ! Thank you !
    the console asked a login. I tryed root without password => bad user name and password (I don’t provide a user name during procedure) Is it possible to provide a user name and password or do you know the default password of root ?

    My linux is UBUNTU 9.10

    Thank you very much for your help

    Reply
    • Radu January 21st, 2010 at 21:03

      Eric, you have two solutions:

      run sudo vmware-config.pl and put your user as an administrator for VMware (recommended)
      set a password for root because Ubuntu by default disables this (not recommended because your root account becomes more vulnerable)

      Reply
  • Dako January 22nd, 2010 at 17:10

    Not working :(

    [removed error messages]
    There is a problem compiling the vmci module after it was patched. :(

    Reply
    • Radu January 22nd, 2010 at 17:18

      Dako, you seem to use an old version of the script. Please download the script again and clean your system before running it so that you don’t have traces from a previous VMware installation.

      Reply
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