Hello Suse/vmware Linux Gurus,

How can I fix my system so that VMware config can reconfigure my VMware setup? VMware was working perfectly before I updated my 64-bit, dual core system.

I recently did a system update using default settings in Yast. Upon rebooting and trying to restart VMWare workstation (installed from 5.5.1 rpm)I was told that I needed to reconfigure vmware for the new kernel.

After going along through the update tool process, the critical message that I got was:

The directory of kernel headers (version 2.6.13-15-smp) does not match your
running kernel (version 2.6.13-15.13-smp). Even if the module were to compile
successfully, it would not load into the running kernel.

I've tried installing kernel source from Yast, as suggested in other posts to this site, but the only option is source from 2.6.13-15. I have kernel version 2.6.13-15.13, now after the update.

I installed the any-any tool but it did not help.

Using Yast, I installed the kernel-source package, but it only give me the option to install source from 2.6.13-15

Here is package information that shows the mis-matched versions of kernel and kernel source:
ppearman@pcdee4309:~> rpm -qa kernel* gcc* make
kernel-smp-2.6.13-15.13
gcc-32bit-4.0.2_20050901-3
gcc-4.0.2_20050901-3
kernel-source-2.6.13-15
gcc-info-4.0.2_20050901-3
gcc-fortran-4.0.2_20050901-3
make-3.80-188
kernel-update-tool-0.9-10
gcc-fortran-32bit-4.0.2_20050901-3
gcc-c++-4.0.2_20050901-3
kernel-smp-nongpl-2.6.13-15.13

I checked out the installation directions at:
http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/15963.html

but while they specify that the version numbers must match, I don't see how to do it with the options I have in Yast.

Can anyone please give me some (good?) advice on what I need to do?

Peter

Here is a direct link to the kernel src.rpm file you cannot locate;

ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/suse/x86_64...-15.13.src.rpm

To install type: rpm -ivh kernel-source-2.6.13-15.13.src.rpm

Dear Lenard,
Thanks for writing.

I downloaded the source and as root did:

pcdee4309:/downloads # rpm -ivh kernel-source-2.6.13-15.13.src.rpm
1:kernel-source ########################################### [100%]

pcdee4309:/usr/src # ls
. .. kernel-modules linux-2.6.13-15 linux-2.6.13-15.13-obj packages

from vmware-config.pl I was asked:

What is the location of the directory of C header files that match your running
kernel? [/usr/src/linux/include]

[ret]

The path "/usr/src/linux/include" is not an existing directory.

I did:
pcdee4309:/usr/src # ls
. .. kernel-modules linux-2.6.13-15 linux-2.6.13-15.13-obj packages

Then I did:
pcdee4309:/ # find . -type f -iname *2.6.13-15.13*
./home/ppearman/downloads/kernel-source-2.6.13-15.13.src.rpm
find: WARNING: Hard link count is wrong for ./sys/devices: this may be a bug in your filesystem driver. Automatically turning on find's -noleaf option. Earlier results may have failed to include directories that should have been searched.
find: ./media/floppy: No medium found
./boot/symvers-2.6.13-15.13-x86_64-smp.gz
./boot/System.map-2.6.13-15.13-smp
./boot/config-2.6.13-15.13-smp
./boot/vmlinux-2.6.13-15.13-smp.gz
./boot/vmlinuz-2.6.13-15.13-smp
./boot/initrd-2.6.13-15.13-smp

The vmware config program is looking for C header files that match my kernel. How can I find them?

I tried and found:
pcdee4309:/ # find . -type d -iname linux
find: WARNING: Hard link count is wrong for ./sys/devices: this may be a bug in your filesystem driver. Automatically turning on find's -noleaf option. Earlier results may have failed to include directories that should have been searched.
find: ./media/floppy: No medium found
./usr/X11R6/lib64/modules/input/linux
./usr/X11R6/lib64/modules/drivers/linux
./usr/X11R6/lib64/modules/linux
./usr/share/susehelp/meta/Administration/Linux
./usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.7/x86_64-linux-thread-multi/linux
./usr/include/linux
./usr/src/linux-2.6.13-15/include/linux
./lib/modules/linux

In the vmware-config.pl script I did and got:
What is the location of the directory of C header files that match your running
kernel? [/usr/src/linux/include] /usr/src/linux-2.6.13-15/include

The directory of kernel headers (version 2.6.13-15-smp) does not match your
running kernel (version 2.6.13-15.13-smp). Even if the module were to compile
successfully, it would not load into the running kernel.

So, I did and found:
pcdee4309:/ # find . -type d -iname include
./home/ppearman/downloads/netcdf-3.6.0/include
./home/ppearman/R_home/R-2.2.1/src/include
./home/ppearman/R_home/R-2.2.1/include
find: WARNING: Hard link count is wrong for ./sys/devices: this may be a bug in your filesystem driver. Automatically turning on find's -noleaf option. Earlier results may have failed to include directories that should have been searched.
find: ./media/floppy: No medium found
./usr/X11R6/include
./usr/share/YaST2/include
./usr/share/kbd/keymaps/i386/include
./usr/share/kbd/keymaps/include
./usr/share/kbd/keymaps/mac/include
./usr/share/samba/swat/include
./usr/share/samba/swat/lang/ja/include
./usr/share/samba/swat/lang/tr/include
./usr/lib/qt3/include
./usr/lib/xemacs/21.5.21.20050721/x86_64-suse-linux/include
./usr/include
./usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-suse-linux/4.0.2/include
./usr/local/include
./usr/local/lib64/R/include
./usr/src/linux-2.6.13-15/include
./usr/x86_64-suse-linux/include
./opt/gnome/lib64/gtkmm-2.0/include
./opt/gnome/include
./opt/kde3/include

So I tried in the config program... and got:

What is the location of the directory of C header files that match your running
kernel? [/usr/src/linux/include] /usr/include

The header files in /usr/include are generally for C libraries, not for the
running kernel. If you do not have kernel header files in your /usr/src
directory, you probably do not have the kernel-source package installed. Are you
sure that /usr/include contains the header files associated with your running
kernel? [no]

In fact, I'm not sure, but I assume that they are C-libs. There are a lot of .h files in the directory, but I only recognize a few C-libs, like math.h But if I found the C-header files somewhere, I'm not sure if I would recognize them.

I'm about to decide that I either don't have C-header files that match my kernel, or I don't know what I'm looking for. Any suggestions?

Peter

Looks like the SuSE kernel-source does not install into the "default textbook" location. Create a symlink from where the source is to /usr/src/linux

pcdee4309:/usr/src # ls
. .. kernel-modules linux-2.6.13-15 linux-2.6.13-15.13-obj packages

Lenard,

Thanks for your help. I set up the link. It worked, but the VMware setup program still didn't work. I solved the problem by going back to the old kernel. Now things are fine.

Giving up IS a workaround.

Best,

Peter