Adding tests for Fedora Linux on VMware Workstation/Fusion

[Neal Gompa]

Hey folks,

I'd like to ask if we could consider adding regular tests for running
Fedora Linux on VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion. Both products
are now available for use at no-cost for any purpose[1]. Notably,
VMware Fusion is the only reasonably supportable hypervisor for Fedora
Linux VMs on Apple Silicon Macs, and the Fedora KDE SIG *explicitly*
supports this use-case for Fedora KDE.

(The other option is Parallels Desktop, but we don't have Parallels
guest tools in Fedora, and I'm pretty sure we can't because it uses
its own kernel modules and might not be fully FOSS.)

Is there a path forward to adding it as a test-case, maybe even with
some automated testing?

[1]: https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2024/11/11/vmware-fusion-and-works...

--
真実はいつも一つ！/ Always, there's only one truth!

[Adam Williamson]

On Fri, 2024-11-22 at 11:53 -0500, Neal Gompa wrote:
> Hey folks,
>
> I'd like to ask if we could consider adding regular tests for running
> Fedora Linux on VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion. Both products
> are now available for use at no-cost for any purpose[1]. Notably,
> VMware Fusion is the only reasonably supportable hypervisor for Fedora
> Linux VMs on Apple Silicon Macs, and the Fedora KDE SIG *explicitly*
> supports this use-case for Fedora KDE.
>
> (The other option is Parallels Desktop, but we don't have Parallels
> guest tools in Fedora, and I'm pretty sure we can't because it uses
> its own kernel modules and might not be fully FOSS.)
>
> Is there a path forward to adding it as a test-case, maybe even with
> some automated testing?

It's already a test case:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Results:Fedora_42_Rawhide_20241120.n.0_I...
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Testcase_Install_to_VMware

automating it is harder. openQA doesn't have a VMware backend, so we
can't use our existing automation system for it as-is, someone would
have to write one (not me). And even that would only test it on Linux,
which arguably is a bit pointless as I'm not sure most people run
VMware *on Linux*, it is much more commonly used on Windows or macOS.
We have no kind of of framework at all for running automation on
Windows or macOS at present, and I'm not really interested in building
one. If anyone else is, though, fire away :)

[Marko Jokinen]

VMware is a mess on Linux especially if you run secure boot enabled since you need to get and sign VMware modules and yhen hope all kernel packages matches that it can build it is no worth for VMware to use on Linux since there is so much easier ways and faster virt-manager and boxes...

I have to agree on macOS and windows it is highly used one still, but not on linux

Sent from Proton Mail Android

-------- Original Message --------
On 11/23/24 00:35, Adam Williamson  wrote:
> On Fri, 2024-11-22 at 11:53 -0500, Neal Gompa wrote:
> > Hey folks,
> >
> > I'd like to ask if we could consider adding regular tests for running
> > Fedora Linux on VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion. Both products
> > are now available for use at no-cost for any purpose[1]. Notably,
> > VMware Fusion is the only reasonably supportable hypervisor for Fedora
> > Linux VMs on Apple Silicon Macs, and the Fedora KDE SIG *explicitly*
> > supports this use-case for Fedora KDE.
> >
> > (The other option is Parallels Desktop, but we don't have Parallels
> > guest tools in Fedora, and I'm pretty sure we can't because it uses
> > its own kernel modules and might not be fully FOSS.)
> >
> > Is there a path forward to adding it as a test-case, maybe even with
> > some automated testing?
>
> It's already a test case:
>  https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Results:Fedora_42_Rawhide_20241120.n.0_I...
>  https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Testcase_Install_to_VMware
>
> automating it is harder. openQA doesn't have a VMware backend, so we
>  can't use our existing automation system for it as-is, someone would
>  have to write one (not me). And even that would only test it on Linux,
>  which arguably is a bit pointless as I'm not sure most people run
>  VMware *on Linux*, it is much more commonly used on Windows or macOS.
>  We have no kind of of framework at all for running automation on
>  Windows or macOS at present, and I'm not really interested in building
>  one. If anyone else is, though, fire away :)
>  --
>  Adam Williamson (he/him/his)
>  Fedora QA
>  Fedora Chat: @adamwill:fedora.im | Mastodon: @[e-mail]
>  https://www.happyassassin.net
>
> --
>  _______________________________________________
>  test mailing list -- [e-mail]
>  To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
>  Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
>  List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
>  List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail]
>  Do not reply to spam, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue

[Derek Enz]

Yes that’s been my experience as well. VMware seemed kinda buggy. Not so
much on Mac OS X.

With Linux it’s one reason why I’ve reverted to Boxes.
It’s been awhile though and I am open to trying whatever we need to do.

Derek Enz

On Fri, Nov 22, 2024 at 7:46 PM Marko Jokinen via test <
[e-mail]> wrote:
> VMware is a mess on Linux especially if you run secure boot enabled since
> you need to get and sign VMware modules and yhen hope all kernel packages
> matches that it can build it is no worth for VMware to use on Linux since
> there is so much easier ways and faster virt-manager and boxes...
>
> I have to agree on macOS and windows it is highly used one still, but not
> on linux
>
> Sent from Proton Mail Android
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> On 11/23/24 00:35, Adam Williamson  wrote:
> > On Fri, 2024-11-22 at 11:53 -0500, Neal Gompa wrote:
> > > Hey folks,
> > >
> > > I'd like to ask if we could consider adding regular tests for running
> > > Fedora Linux on VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion. Both products
> > > are now available for use at no-cost for any purpose[1]. Notably,
> > > VMware Fusion is the only reasonably supportable hypervisor for Fedora
> > > Linux VMs on Apple Silicon Macs, and the Fedora KDE SIG *explicitly*
> > > supports this use-case for Fedora KDE.
> > >
> > > (The other option is Parallels Desktop, but we don't have Parallels
> > > guest tools in Fedora, and I'm pretty sure we can't because it uses
> > > its own kernel modules and might not be fully FOSS.)
> > >
> > > Is there a path forward to adding it as a test-case, maybe even with
> > > some automated testing?
> >
> > It's already a test case:
>
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Results:Fedora_42_Rawhide_20241120.n.0_I...
> > https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Testcase_Install_to_VMware
> >
> > automating it is harder. openQA doesn't have a VMware backend, so we
> >  can't use our existing automation system for it as-is, someone would
> >  have to write one (not me). And even that would only test it on Linux,
> >  which arguably is a bit pointless as I'm not sure most people run
> >  VMware *on Linux*, it is much more commonly used on Windows or macOS.
> >  We have no kind of of framework at all for running automation on
> >  Windows or macOS at present, and I'm not really interested in building
> >  one. If anyone else is, though, fire away :)
> >  --
> >  Adam Williamson (he/him/his)
> >  Fedora QA
> >  Fedora Chat: @adamwill:fedora.im | Mastodon: @[e-mail]
> >  https://www.happyassassin.net
> >
> > --
> >  _______________________________________________
> >  test mailing list -- [e-mail]
> >  To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
> >  Fedora Code of Conduct:
>
> https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
> > List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
> >  List Archives:
>
> https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail]
> > Do not reply to spam, report it:
>
> https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue
> >
>
> --
> _______________________________________________
> test mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
> Fedora Code of Conduct:
> https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
> List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
> List Archives:
> https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail]
> Do not reply to spam, report it:
> https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue

[Marko Jokinen]

i actually have to retract my previous post/answer since today i went on testing latest VMware 17.6.1 on F41 KDE and it seems it has improved alot on now with hands of Broadcom... installer is simple and easy it shows more details on process. the issue comes on VMNET and VMMON sinse those need to be signed if using secure boot, but there is fixed the modules as for now those are now included so just need to create signing keys and sign and import to kernel

what i did is created directory /etc/pki/vmware
sudo openssl req -new -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout MOK.priv -outform DER -out MOK.der -nodes -days 36500 -subj "/CN=VMware/"

after that on current directory signing VMNET and VMMON
sudo /usr/src/kernels/6.11.10-300.fc41.x86_64/scripts/sign-file sha256 ./MOK.priv ./MOK.der $(modinfo -n vmmon)
sudo /usr/src/kernels/6.11.10-300.fc41.x86_64/scripts/sign-file sha256 ./MOK.priv ./MOK.der $(modinfo -n vmnet)

then import and reboot and sign
sudo mokutil --import MOK.der

the process is much simpler and actually fast and easy now to do
here is also really good broadom guide now how to do stuff install, reinstall remove and sign
https://bobcares.com/blog/could-not-open-dev-vmmon-no-such-file-or-directory....