I'm a Linux newbie. I'm trying to install VMware Workstation 4 on my machine (my Linux release is Suse 8.2 (i586).
The installation notes suggest to make some adjustments to the OS configuration before installing:

- the real time clock function must be compiled into the kernel;
- the parallel port PC-style hardware option (CONFIG_PARPORT_PC) must be built and loaded as a kernel module.

How can I check and eventually modify the OS configuration?

For your current kernel do:
egrep /usr/src/linux/.config -e "^CONFIG_(PARPORT|RTC)"
RTC and PARPORT should have =y and PARPORT_PC =m
Check if it's loaded: lsmod | grep parport_pc
If RTC support is not compiled in then you'll have to rebuild the kernel.

I’m also a Linux newbie and I have the same problem. So I looked for the /usr/src/linux map, but I couldn’t find it. I think the sources of my kernel wasn’t copied during the installation, or it was deleted after… I found “CONFIG_PARPORT” and “CONFIG_RTC” in my /boot/vmlinuz.config file, I hope this is a similar file to the config file in the /usr/src/linux map. Can someone say if this is the configuration that I should have? I doubt about it because in the answer above config_parport should have =y and mine is =m. I also did the lsmod, but I didn’t find parport* or rtc, so I think this is not compiled into my kernel and I have to recompile it? Am I right or wrong? Please tell me how to make the changed that are necessary and recompile my kernel …


Before Installing on a Linux Host (can be found in the installation manual of Vmware Workstation 4.0.5)
Before you install and run VMware Workstation, check the following notes and make any necessary adjustments to the configuration of your host operating system.
* The real-time clock function must be compiled into your Linux kernel.
* VMware Workstation for Linux requires that the parallel port PC-style hardware
option (CONFIG_PARPORT_PC) be built and loaded as a kernel module (that is, it
must be set to m when the kernel is compiled).


egrep /boot/vmlinuz.config -e "^CONFIG_(PARPORT|RTC)"

CONFIG_PARPORT=m
CONFIG_PARPORT_PC=m
CONFIG_PARPORT_PC_CML1=m
CONFIG_PARPORT_SERIAL=m
CONFIG_PARPORT_PC_FIFO=y
CONFIG_PARPORT_PC_SUPERIO=y
CONFIG_PARPORT_PC_PCMCIA=m
CONFIG_PARPORT_OTHER=y
CONFIG_PARPORT_1284=y
CONFIG_RTC=y

lsmod

8139too 15752 1
Module Size Used by Tainted: P
agpgart 38656 3 (autoclean)
cdrom 30304 0 [sr_mod ide-cd]
evdev 4192 0 (unused)
fat 31640 0 (autoclean) [vfat]
ide-cd 31964 0
ide-scsi 10384 0
ieee1394 36496 0 [raw1394]
input 3264 0 [mousedev joydev evdev]
ipv6 144980 -1 (autoclean)
isa-pnp 31560 0 (unused)
joydev 5792 0 (unused)
lvm-mod 67812 0 (autoclean)
mii 2528 0 [8139too]
mousedev 4372 0 (unused)
nls_cp437 4348 4 (autoclean)
nls_iso8859-1 2844 6 (autoclean)
ntfs 80620 2 (autoclean)
nvidia 1630592 11 (autoclean)
raw1394 15828 0 (unused)
reiserfs 217364 1
sg 27804 0 (autoclean)
snd 40900 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event snd-seq snd-via686 snd-pcm snd-timer snd-ac97-codec snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device]
snd-ac97-codec 35696 0 [snd-via686]
snd-mixer-oss 15704 1 (autoclean) [snd-pcm-oss]
snd-mpu401-uart 3840 0 [snd-via686]
snd-pcm 71168 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-via686]
snd-pcm-oss 50144 0 (autoclean)
snd-rawmidi 15584 0 [snd-seq-midi snd-mpu401-uart]
snd-seq 44496 0 [snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event]
snd-seq-device 4512 0 [snd-seq-midi snd-seq snd-rawmidi]
snd-seq-midi 5088 0 (unused)
snd-seq-midi-event 3176 0 [snd-seq-midi]
snd-timer 13376 0 [snd-seq snd-pcm]
snd-via686 14916 1
soundcore 3748 0 [snd]
sr_mod 13720 0 (autoclean)
st 29716 0 (autoclean) (unused)
usb-uhci 23664 0 (unused)
usbcore 63116 1 [usb-uhci]
vfat 10476 4 (autoclean)
videodev 6176 0 (autoclean)

Plz check it and tell me what to do!
Thankz

ps: if somebody knows a simple/easy guide/tutorial of how to recompile a kernel, what is needed for it and so on... please let me know it!