Running VMware-server on x86_64 Fedora 9

[Gene Czarcinski]

There are some "problems" running VMware-server on x86_64 Fedora 9.  While 
VMware-server needs to run on a 64 bit (x86_64) host OS in order to run 64 
bit guests, the application itself is a 32 bit (i386) application which does 
some "magic" to run 64 bit guests.

With x86_64 Fedora 9, the install (and update) do not install i386 packages in 
addition to the x86_64 packages (at least as compared to Fedora 8).

While googling did provide some information, there was no succinct description 
of what needed to be done to run VMware-server on x86_64 Fedora 9. Note: this 
applies to VMware-server 1.0.6 but may also be applicable to other versions.

The real problem is that the VMware-server rpm provided by VMware does NOT 
include "requires" for the libraries it needs.

1.  Install x86_64 Fedora 9 with development packages (e.g, compilers, etc.).

2.  Install the following x86_64 packages:

    - kernel-devel
    - xinetd
    - perl-ExtUtils-Embed

3. Install the following i386 packages (e.g., yum install zlib.i386):

    - libXtst
    - libXt
    - libSM
    - libICE
    - zlib
    - libXrender
    - libXi
    - gtk-nodoka-engine

4. Then install the VMware-server rpm, run vmare-config.pl and vmware.

This worked for me but your mileage may vary.

Gene