Fedora 20 and VmWare

Wed Feb 5 18:57:04 UTC 2014

On 05/02/14 05:57, John Austin wrote:
> On Wed, 2014-02-05 at 05:19 -0500, Bob Goodwin - Zuni, Virginia, USA
> wrote:
>> On 04/02/14 20:42, Rick Stevens wrote:
>>>> For VMware Workstation 10 there's no patch needed.  Or at least I
>>>> haven't needed one.  I'm running Windows 7 in a VM with no issues.
>>> I run Win7 and Win8 using libvirt straight out of the box on 64-bit F19
>>> with no issues. Granted, I don't do anything fancy with Windows (I only
>>> use it when the bosses hold a gun to my head and even then I protest a
>>> lot).
>>>
>>> I haven't moved up to F20 yet. It scares me a bit.
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> - Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer, AllDigital ricks at alldigital.com -
>>
>> Well maybe VMware 10 is different?  It was installed from
>> VMware-Workstation-Full-9.0.2-1031769.x86_64.txt, bought from an on-line
>> vendor that appeared to be legit. Harry Reindl seemed to know where to
>> find the patch, never indicated it was unusual to have to do?
>>
>> When I start VMware, from the XFCE menu, now I get only an error message
>> block that says: "Before you can run VMware several modules must be
>> compiled and installed in the running kernel, Cancel/Install"  I can
>> click on Install and nothing happens after that, just a bare desktop
>> display, no activity on-line in my router real time display so it's not
>> trying to download anything from them?
>>
>>   From the command line:
>>
>> [bobg at box10 ~]$ vmware
>> Logging to /tmp/vmware-bobg/vmware-modconfig-4445.log
>> and then the same error message block pops up.
>>
>> I used it to run F-20 beta and this released version for a while from
>> F-19 before doing this F-20 install and each updated kernel required a
>> patch,  e.g. 3.10 to 3.11 to 3.12 etc.
>>
>> Does that indicate a problem with my VMware install, am I unique? I
>> bought it not expecting those problems and I believe they offer an
>> upgrade for additional money which I would hesitate to buy knowing what
>> I know now ... I would appreciate hearing that I've done something
>> wrong, contact with their sales operation before I bought it was not
>> productive. Still waiting for a call back many months later ...
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Bob
>>
>> -- 
>> http://www.qrz.com/db/w2bod
>> Box10 Fedora-20/64bit Linux/XFCE
>>
> Hi
> I made some notes to myself last Dec - They may be useful
> I am running fully updated F20 with VM Workstation 9.0.2 with
> Windows 7 with no problems.
> I use USB programmers a lot from the virtual machine and several years
> ago had to use VMware for them to work. Maybe the alternatives are
> better now.
>
> John
>
> 2013_12_27
> Compiling patched modules for WS-9.0.2 and kernel 3.12 (F20)
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> The main source of info is here - also source of vmblock-3.12-patch
> http://dominator008.com/constructionyard/2013/10/03/vmware-9-0-2-vmblock-patch-for-linux-kernel-3-12/
> Other sites
> http://pkgbuild.com/git/aur-mirror.git/plain/vmware-patch/
> https://sites.google.com/site/mysticalzerotmp
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Remove any lurking versions of vmware workstation
> vmware-installer -u  vmware-workstation
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Install version 9.0.2
> /global/db/sw/VMware_9.0/VMware-Workstation-Full-9.0.2-1031769.x86_64.txt
> (Python errors given - ignore) It still seems to complete successfully !
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Down load the patches
> cd /global/db/sw/F20/VMware_Patches
> wget
> http://pkgbuild.com/git/aur-mirror.git/plain/vmware-patch/vmnet-9.0.2-5.0.2-3.12-3.11-3.10.patch
> wget https://sites.google.com/site/mysticalzerotmp/vmblock.3.10.patch
> wget https://sites.google.com/site/mysticalzerotmp/vmblock.3.11.patch
> wget http://dominator008.com/crate/vmblock-3.12-patch
> Note the hyphons in vmblock-3.12-patch !
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Apply the patches
> cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source
>
> tar -xvf vmblock.tar
> cd vmblock-only
> patch -p1 -i /global/db/sw/F20/VMware_Patches/vmblock.3.10.patch
> patch -p1 -i /global/db/sw/F20/VMware_Patches/vmblock.3.11.patch
> patch -p1 -i /global/db/sw/F20/VMware_Patches/vmblock-3.12-patch
> cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source
> tar -cf vmblock.tar vmblock-only
> rm -rf vmblock-only
>
> tar -xvf vmnet.tar
> cd vmnet-only
> patch -p1
> -i /global/db/sw/F20/VMware_Patches/vmnet-9.0.2-5.0.2-3.12-3.11-3.10.patch
> cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source
> tar -cf vmnet.tar vmnet-only
> rm -rf vmnet-only
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Build the modules from the CL
> vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
> or via gui
> vmware

Well I thank you for the information but I can't believe any rational 
Fedora Linux user would want to go through this to use VMware! Since 
this is a new installation on a new Linux release it appears I would 
have to run the patches for the earlier kernels first? At this point I 
don't even want to run it running kernel:

[bobg at box10 ~]$ uname -a
Linux box10 3.12.9-301.fc20.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Jan 29 15:56:22 UTC 2014 
x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

If it was readily available I would run the patch for 3.12, but I 
haven't had much success finding it and even then when the next kernel 
comes along I'm back searching for a patch again. It's not worth it to 
me as long as virtualbox works. I just made a bad purchase, it's another 
company I will avoid.
The application appears to be intended primarily for Windows users who 
need to run Linux, etc. Linux users are not supported. Am I wrong?

Again I thank you for responding,

Bob

-- 
http://www.qrz.com/db/w2bod
Box10 Fedora-20/64bit Linux/XFCE