How to install VMware Server on 2.6.32 kernels

90 Comments

• How to install VMware Server 2.0.x on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala :: A script for automated patch install | Radu Cotescu February 21st, 2010 at 15:32

  [...] Posted on October 30th, 2009 at 4:13, in How To, Linux, Ubuntu, VMware, Virtualization. Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic. var fbShare = {url: 'http://radu.cotescu.com/2009/10/30/how-to-install-vmware-server-2-0-x-on-ubuntu-9-10-karmic-koala/',size:'small'} UPDATE 2: The script has been updated to work with kernels 2.6.32 too. Please post your comments regarding kernel 2.6.32 here. [...]

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  aloysius February 22nd, 2010 at 20:57

  Im new to ubuntu 9.10 and linix i tried my best to understand the process but when i try to run the scrip in terminal i get command not found and i lost help.

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    Radu

    February 22nd, 2010 at 22:55

    Make the script executable. Follow the instructions because there’s nothing more to it than that.

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      thomas white March 14th, 2011 at 04:39

      i used the script to install vmware on ubuntu 10.4 and it appears that it worked as expected.
      however – i was asked about adding “administrators” not users – so i did not add my self thinking there might be a request for users – can i run the config again to change that or how do i add my UID as administrator to vmware?

      …….
      The current administrative user for VMware Server is ”. Would you like to
      specify a different administrator? [no]

      much later…..

      The current administrative user for VMware Server is ”. Would you like to
      specify a different administrator? [no]
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  JB February 23rd, 2010 at 12:13

  Hi,

  I’ve got Debian with 2.6.32-trunk and 2.6.30-2 kernel and while your patch seems to work fine I’ve got not network (hostonly/nat).
  The type of the vmnet devices in ifconfig is AMPR NET/ROM, I’ve got not MAC adress on the host.

  If I launch the vmnet-sniffer no packets from the host are going into it.

  I tried to modify the netif.c by putting the ether_setup(dev); on line 212 instead of inside the condition. I’ve got the ethernet type and mac address but doesn’t work either :/ Should miss something else.
  Do you have any input ?

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    Radu

    February 24th, 2010 at 01:04

    It seems to be almost a known problem regarding VMware Server on kernels 2.6.30 and upwards. It’s like a lottery. I haven’t played with VMware’s code and I’m sure I won’t do it soon. The patches I used in my scripts were either posted on VMware Communities, either provided to me by Ramon de Carvalho Valle. The only thing I did was the knitting of bash scripts around them to provide an automated installation. Although I can program in C, I prefer not to waste time with VMware’s bad coded products. I am sorry that I cannot help you more.

    By the way, on what kernel have you done the tests: 2.6.30 or 2.6.32? For 2.6.30-2 there’s another patch (also on VMware Communities) which I haven’t used mainly because at first I only wanted to handle the problems for 2.6.31-14 (which at that time was the default kernel for Ubuntu 9.10).

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  nathan February 26th, 2010 at 03:44

  thanks radu, I really had too many problems with 2.6.31-12 so I tried it with 2.6.32-8 but getting some weird

  ./autoconf/geninclude.c:19:28: error: linux/autoconf.h: No such file or directory
  .././autoconf/geninclude.c:19:28: error: linux/autoconf.h: No such file or directory
  Dependencies for driver.c
  In file included from .././linux/driver.c:20:
  .././include/driver-config.h:42:5: error: #error “No Module support in this kernel. Please configure with CONFIG_MODULES”

  very odd, any idea? I’m using latest script…

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  Peter Joseph Harris March 30th, 2010 at 20:58

  I got VMware Server 2.0.2 (build ?????) running WITHOUT scripts by first installing VMware Player on [kernel 2.6.31.5-127.fc12] The freeware player compiles the modules in /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source then cp v*tar modules to the same path in Server. –keep a copy at hand! (Workstation will probably work, too right?) The installer needs a tweak to recognize these extraneous modules. because it disowns them. That is, I figure more workable than using patches for every kernel, I wish dkms made VM modules, I think VMware vmx config is kind of versatile, and the secure web interface is awesome! (Tomcat, huh?) the browser console plugin is a pain, Wow I wish I had a server! I don’t (For this reason Virtual Box is more to the point for me, but I love to tinker! It just doesn’t give me enough to do!
  I imagine that ESXi would be a bit more efficient for data platform with a thick client web browser like Server. Also I thought I saw something about a VMware filesystem partition (maybe I dreamt it up?) will double check. Also I don’t code yet. but if I can help, let me know.

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    Radu

    March 30th, 2010 at 21:41

    Changing the modules every time your kernel updates with the ones from other products is a much bigger pain in the a55 comparing it to invoking vmware-config.pl to recompile them. Furthermore, those modules don’t work on VMware Server (e.g. one cannot start the defined VMs). Been there, tried that.

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  Peter Ruckdeschel April 1st, 2010 at 15:41

  Tried your patch to install VMware server on Suse 11.2 with kernel 2.6.32; thanks a lot for providing this; unfortunately the script stops with an error message:
  >>>
  Trying to compile vmmon module to see if it works
  Performing make in /home/xxx/Dokumente/vmware-server-distrib/lib/modules/source/vmmon-only
  Using standalone build system.
  cc: error trying to exec ‘cc1′: execvp: file not found
  cc: error trying to exec ‘cc1′: execvp: file not found
  Dependencies for driver.c
  cc: error trying to exec ‘cc1′: execvp: file not found
  make[1]: *** [driver.d] error 1
  make: *** [deps] error 2
  There is a problem compiling the vmmon module after it was patched.

  Would you have a clue what this is?
  Any comments welcome;
  Best, Peter

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  Ramon de Carvalho Valle April 2nd, 2010 at 06:40

  I released a new patch which brings some improvements, adds support for newer versions of the Linux kernel and fixes all aforementioned problems. The new patch is available here.

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    Poppy June 1st, 2011 at 06:09

    I tried clicking on the link http://risesecurity.org/2010/04/02/vmware-server-2-0-2-update-patch-2/ but it didn’t bring anything up. It currently looks like risesecurity.org is down. Is this temporary?

    I’m trying to install VMware-server-2.0.2-203138.i386.tar.gz on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (2.6.32-32-generic) 64 bit

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  Quentin April 9th, 2010 at 00:24

  Ya here I thought I had everything working yesterday with the script only to find I can no longer rouse the web admin interface.

  It is really frustrating to have one of the most well known virtualization softwares and one of the most well known Linux OS’s and not be able to have them work together at all.

  Went to install 8.04LTS this morning and it boots and starts the install, but only gets a little ways in before it decides it can’t find the CD-ROM.

  Well …. at least it’s not as bad as my very first experience with Linux in ’99 when I tried re-compiling a kernel to support AGP at the time. Yikes.

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  Peter Ruckdeschel April 9th, 2010 at 17:41

  as to my posting April 1st: found out that it was due to a misconfiguration of my gcc compiler; my bad! thanks a lot for providing the patches to both Radu and Ramon; with these it worked out fine in the end; best Peter

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    scottK August 4th, 2011 at 21:08

    Hi Peter,

    I have the same error, can you tell me what you did with your gcc compiler?

    Thanks!

    -Scott

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  Josh STephens April 12th, 2010 at 05:26

  Thanks, I have been trying to get this working for quite sometime. For whatever reason I could not get the patches working. However you script has worked perfectly. I am using Ubuntu 10.4 beta 2 release with kernel 2.6.32-19-generic

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