I am finally tackling this... I am running the installer for VMWare Server and have hit a wall. Seems like it can't find some C Headers and gives the error way below.

BTW I had to create a symbolic link to another directory since the /usr/src/linux/include did not exist.

ln -s /usr/lib/syslinux/com32/include /usr/src/linux/include

I also installed the latest kernel:

Installed: kernel.i686 0:2.6.18-53.1.4.el5
Complete!

Also I am running CentOS 5



The path "/usr/src/linux/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.

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

You need to have the matching kernel-devel and kernel-headers rpm packages installed for your running kernel.

uname -a
rpm -qa 'kernel*'
yum install kernel-devel kernel-headers

All three packages must match by version number exactly. One must also specify the location for VMWare to find these files, use the directory: /usr/src/kernels/<kernel version #>/include

All versions match (version 2.6.18-53.1.4.el5) but the VMware installer says this below:


The directory of kernel headers (version 2.6.18-53.1.4.el5) does not match
your running kernel (version 2.6.18-8.1.10.el5). Even if the module were
to compile successfully, it would not load into the running kernel.


On boot when I select the kernel to boot into I selected version
2.6.18-8.1.10.el5 because when I select version 2.6.18-53.1.4.el5
(the one with matching headers and devel) it won't show me my desktop
it just shows me the black login screen and I tried saying startx but
it says it's already running. I think I messed something up cause it
doesn't like the latest kernel I installed

Thanks for you help!

I recommend use Gentoo because last year, I have helped provide a work-around fix for VMware modules and it works just fine. Also it is now dependable, so when VMware modules are first installed it will not give you problems before. Of course the vmmon and vmnet have to be compiled on the upgraded kernel. I an not sure if other maintainers for each distribution spies on Gentoo bug reports to add my fix to their package.

I can not help you configure your kernel because I do not know your setup and what kernel options you selected before compiling time. You probably have a framebuffer from the kernel conflicting with some Xorg driver. Check your logs.

The running kernel is as you just stated is 2.6.18-8.1.10.el5, this means that you must to have the matching kernel-devel and kernel-headers installed. The newer 2.6.18-53.1.4.el5 packages will not work.

You can try installing the kernel-headers and kernel-devel packages for this 2.6.18-8.1.10.el5 kernel;

yum remove kernel-devel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5 kernel-headers-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5
yum install kernel-devel-2.6.18-8.1.10.el5 kernel-headers-2.6.18-8.1.10.el5
yum install kernel-devel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5 kernel-headers-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5

Do you have an nVidia or ATI graphics interface and perhaps forgot to re-install the third party driver for the new 2.6.18-53.1.4.el5 kernel???

Thanks for the info guys...

She finally started working with the latest kernel. I don't think I did
anything other than booting into the old kernel, then shutting down,
then restarted and booted into the new kernel. She hung there for a
moment thinking about it and then the GNome Desktop appeared!

Then I ran the VMware installer and everything installed just fine as
well, I only needed to upgrade my gcc to the version the kernel was
compiled for and the installer knew of the new location for those
C Headers.

I also installed kernel-PAE (which has the same version as the new
kernel) so if I understand correctly I will need to boot into that kernel
so that when I start up all the vm images they can access there alotted
2GB of virtual memory each.

Forgot to ask you guys... I thought there was a free version of VMWare Server? The version I installed asks for the serial key, which is not a problem because we have a license for VMWare Server at work which I think should work with this version.

There was VMware Server GSX, ESX, etc., etc., are there major differences
between some of these versions?

Then you will need the kernel-PAE-devel-2.6.18-53.el5.i686.rpm package installed.

One can request a free license key for VMWare Server from VMWare, no reason to use your work site's key;

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/0...tion-software/
http://register.vmware.com/content/registration.html

.

Thanks Lenard... I got a new key.

VMware server is up and running!

Thanks to everyone who helped me out on this.

Please help me
i have linux(kernel 2.6.9) 32 bit with 4GB of RAM install on my machine and want check whether PAE is enable on my linux or not.
If not enable then how to enable it

From the virtual console or xterm session type:

uname -a
rpm -qa 'kernel*'

The kernel is an installation choice.

yum enabled system: yum install kernel-PAE
up2date system: up2date -d install kernel-PAE
from the media: rpm -ivh kernel-PAE*.rpm

Be sure to select or set the PAE kernel as the default choice when booting.