Re: VMware and Kernel 2.6.6-1.427

[Robert Locke]

> Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 10:24:54 -0700
> From: Joe Conway 
> Subject: Re: VMware and Kernel 2.6.6-1.427
> To: For users of Fedora Core releases 
> Message-ID: 
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
>
> ed wrote:
> > I am trying to compile VMware torun on the 2.6.6-1.427 kernel, but I
> > keep gettinga compile error. It worked very well with the previous 2.6
> > kernel. Here is what I am getting in the attached file.
>
> I also got this, and found that I needed to hack the vmware module 
> source to fix it. It seems a kernel struct (I don't remember which one 
> specifically now) that used to define 'count', now defines the same 
> member as '_count'.
>
> Here's what I did -- use at your own risk ;-)
>
> Find the files vmmon.tar and vmnet.tar. Mine were in
>  /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source
>
> Make a backup copy of each
>     cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source
>     cp vmmon.tar vmmon.tar.bak
>     cp vmnet.tar vmnet.tar.bak
>
> untar both files:
>     tar xf vmmon.tar
>     tar xf vmnet.tar
>  This should create two new folders -- vmmon-only & vmnet-only
>
> In each folder, find the file compat_mm.h and edit it. In both
>  cases, find the line
> #  define page_count(page) atomic_read(&(page)->count)
>
> and change it to
> #  define page_count(page) atomic_read(&(page)->_count)
>
> This was line 28 in my version of these files. Save the changes.
>
> Delete the original tar files and replace with modified tar files
>     rm vmmon.tar
>     tar cf vmmon.tar vmmon-only
>     rm vmnet.tar
>     tar cf vmnet.tar vmnet-only
>
> Now you should be able to successfully run vmware-config.pl. I get two 
> "incompatible pointer type" warnings, but I was getting those before 
> with the 2.6.5 kernel, and they didn't seem to hurt anything.
>
> HTH,
>
> Joe

Perhaps an even easier solution....

VMWare has released an update to VMWare Workstation 4.5.  Upgrade to
4.5.2 build 8848.  I simply downloaded the rpm, upgraded and re-ran
vmware-config.pl and that compile problem went away.  Seems to
incorporate some or all of the updates from
vmware-any-any-update##.tar.gz.

BTW, I had no problems with VMWare Workstation 4.5.1 build 7568 under
FC2 2.6.5-1.358 and now seem to be having success with VMWare
Workstation 4.5.2 build 8848 under FC2 2.6.6-1.427.

--Rob

VMware and Kernel 2.6.6-1.427

[Pedro Fernandes Macedo]

Robert Locke wrote:
> Perhaps an even easier solution....
>
> VMWare has released an update to VMWare Workstation 4.5.  Upgrade to
> 4.5.2 build 8848.  I simply downloaded the rpm, upgraded and re-ran
> vmware-config.pl and that compile problem went away.  Seems to
> incorporate some or all of the updates from
> vmware-any-any-update##.tar.gz.
>
> BTW, I had no problems with VMWare Workstation 4.5.1 build 7568 under
> FC2 2.6.5-1.358 and now seem to be having success with VMWare
> Workstation 4.5.2 build 8848 under FC2 2.6.6-1.427.
>
> --Rob

A question for those who are already running VMWare on Core 2: does it 
complain about the keyboard layout? When I managed to run vmware on the 
original kernel of FC2 , it complained about not finding the keyboard 
layout (probably because it may be looking for XFree86) and then it 
didnt show anything , but the VM was loaded anyway... Not very usefull 
if the VM is running windows or if you need to read the boot messages of 
a linux VM...

--
Pedro Macedo

VMware and Kernel 2.6.6-1.427

[Robert Locke]

On Sat, 2004-06-12 at 15:24, Pedro Fernandes Macedo wrote:
> > BTW, I had no problems with VMWare Workstation 4.5.1 build 7568 under
> > FC2 2.6.5-1.358 and now seem to be having success with VMWare
> > Workstation 4.5.2 build 8848 under FC2 2.6.6-1.427.
> >
> > --Rob
>
> A question for those who are already running VMWare on Core 2: does it 
> complain about the keyboard layout? When I managed to run vmware on the 
> original kernel of FC2 , it complained about not finding the keyboard 
> layout (probably because it may be looking for XFree86) and then it 
> didnt show anything , but the VM was loaded anyway... Not very usefull 
> if the VM is running windows or if you need to read the boot messages of 
> a linux VM...
>
> --
> Pedro Macedo

I don't recall any messages related to the keyboard, though, in my case,
I must admit that my guest VM (WinXPPro) was actually created under
VMWare 4.5.1 build 7568 under FC1.

My upgrade to FC2 was not exactly an upgrade.  I installed FC2 into a
new partition and then copied over the /home partition.  Re-installed
the VMWare rpm and ran vmware-config.pl - and things worked fine.

When I upgraded my FC2 kernel (427) for the first time yesterday and
tried to re-run vmware-config.pl I got the compile problems.  Went to
the vmware site and downloaded the 4.5.2 (8848) rpm and went from there.

Some of the reading I have done on the VMWare message boards seem to
always point to that vmware-any-any-update##.tar.gz that seems to solve
most folks problems.

HTH,

--Rob

VMware and Kernel 2.6.6-1.427

[Joe Conway]

Robert Locke wrote:
> > From: Joe Conway 
> > Here's what I did -- use at your own risk ;-)
>
> Perhaps an even easier solution....
>
> VMWare has released an update to VMWare Workstation 4.5.  Upgrade to
> 4.5.2 build 8848.  I simply downloaded the rpm, upgraded and re-ran
> vmware-config.pl and that compile problem went away.  Seems to
> incorporate some or all of the updates from
> vmware-any-any-update##.tar.gz.

Thanks. I didn't know that was available -- it wasn't when I first 
started playing with the 2.6.6 kernel.
> BTW, I had no problems with VMWare Workstation 4.5.1 build 7568 under
> FC2 2.6.5-1.358 and now seem to be having success with VMWare
> Workstation 4.5.2 build 8848 under FC2 2.6.6-1.427.

I've had no problems with VMWare Workstation 4.5.1 build 7568 under FC2 
2.6.5-1.358 or FC2 2.6.6-1.427 (using the above mentioned hack). I guess 
I'll be moving to vmware 4.5.2 soon though.

Joe

VMware and Kernel 2.6.6-1.427

[Joe Conway]

Pedro Fernandes Macedo wrote:
> A question for those who are already running VMWare on Core 2: does it 
> complain about the keyboard layout?

No, I haven't seen any such problem using vmware 4.5.1 under 2.6.5-1.358 
nor kernel 2.6.6-1.427.

Joe