I'm running kernel 2.6.18-3-486. I've installed both the linux-source (linux-source-2.6.18) and linux-headers (linux-headers-2.6.18-3-486) files for my kernel but I get to this point in the install and cannot get past it:

The directory of kernel headers (version @@VMWARE@@ UTS_RELEASE) does not match
your running kernel (version 2.6.18-3-486). Even if the module were to compile
successfully, it would not load into the running kernel.

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

I hit enter here at the default given and the message just comes back. Is there some other step I need to do prior to running the install that I'm missing?

Use the latest version of vmware-any-any-update found here first and try again.

http://platan.vc.cvut.cz/ftp/pub/vmware/

Also make sure that /usr/src/linux points to /usr/src/linux-2.6.18 or wherever the kernel-source is.

Example;
$ ls -al /usr/src/linux
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 25 Jan 19 21:05 /usr/src/linux -> /usr/src/linux-2.6.20-rc5

Ok, I checked and /usr/src/linux is pointing to the linux-headers instead of linux-source. What would be the best way to re-direct it to linux-source instead.

Create a new symbolic link to the kernel source after deleting the current link. BTW you do not really need to do this, just provide the full path to the kernel source when asked;

Answer: /path/to/the/kernel/source/location/include

Ok, I provided the full path to the linux-source folder (/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.18/include) during the install and now I get the following message:

The path "/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.18/include" is a kernel header file
directory, but it does not contain the file "linux/version.h" as expected. This
can happen if the kernel has never been built, or if you have invoked the "make
mrproper" command in your kernel directory. In any case, you may want to
rebuild your kernel.

So do what is suggested, go to the kernel source location /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.18/ and do; make oldconfig

Then try again.

Ugh, same result.

Next step is to build but not install the kernel, from where the kernel source is as root do; make

Thanks for all the help so far...

I ran the make command, everything finished and I went back and tried to run the installer again and I'm still stuck at the same point.

Did you try using the any_any_update?

Vmplayer and vmserver work just fine for me, but I had to use the any_any_update

Here is what I get when I run the any_any_update:

Updating /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl ... now patched
Unable to copy the source file ./vmmon.tar to the destination file
/usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon.tar.

Execution aborted.

Are you root for this???

Yeah, I made sure to run that as root.

(ignore this post)

It looks as though the version.h file in recent kernel source code no longer contains a definition for UTS_RELEASE, which is what the install code is probably looking for.

The UTS_RELEASE definition can now be found in /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/include/linux/utsrelease.h. If you append that file to version.h in the same directory, chances are VMware will then be able to find the kernel version correctly.