I have FC6 installed and Vmplayer was running smoothly for quite some time now. I uninstalled and reinstalled gnome and that's when vmplayer stops running. here is the error that I get:

[root@smack ~]# /usr/bin/vmplayer
vmware is installed, but it has not been (correctly) configured
for this system. To (re-)configure it, invoke the following command:
/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl.

upon running the configuration, I stumbled to this error:

The directory of kernel headers (version 2.6.20-1.2948.fc6) does not match your running kernel (version 2.6.18-1.2798.fc6). Even if the module were to compile successfully, it would not load into the running kernel.

here are some commands that I have used which might be helpful:

[root@smack ~]# uname -r
2.6.18-1.2798.fc6

[root@smack ~]# yum list kernel
Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up repositories
core 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00
updates 100% |=========================| 1.2 kB 00:00
freshrpms 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00
extras 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00
Reading repository metadata in from local files
primary.xml.gz 100% |=========================| 66 kB 00:00
################################################## 181/181
Installed Packages
kernel.i686 2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 installed
kernel.i686 2.6.20-1.2948.fc6 installed
Available Packages
kernel.i586 2.6.20-1.2948.fc6 updates

and when I try to update kernel,

[root@smack ~]# yum update kernel
Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up Update Process
Setting up repositories
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Could not find update match for kernel
No Packages marked for Update/Obsoletion


Uname -r gives the old version of the kernel (2.6.18-1.2798.fc6) but when I update the kernel through yum, it says that the most recent version is installed (2.6.20-1.2948.fc6).

I am relatively a newbie and I will appreciate any help/comments on what possible problems I am experiencing. I want to be able to run the vmplayer again as it used to but I cannot configure it.

Thanks and I am hoping to hear from you guys...

Run this command and post output.
rpm -qa | grep kernel

Looking for the kernel and kernel-devel with matching versions. If the kernel-devel does not exist then you need to install that to get vmplayer configured. If you upgrade the kernel in the future you will need to do the same again. Also once you have the kernel-devel rpm installed you may need to use the vmware-any-any-tool to install. Then use the runme.pl command from that file.

Brian

here are the results of the query:

[root@smack ~]# rpm -qa | grep kernel
kernel-devel-2.6.20-1.2948.fc6
kernel-headers-2.6.20-1.2948.fc6
kernel-2.6.20-1.2948.fc6
kernel-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6
[root@smack ~]#

Vmplayer was working fine not until I unistalled and reinstalled gnome. I have installed and updated gcc and gcc-c++, kernel-devel, kernel, and kernel-headers. I have also run ./runme.pl from vmware-any-any-tool to configure vmware. kernel, kernel-devel, and kernel headers are all version 2.6.20-1.2948.fc6 after the upgrade. and then suddenly, after the reinstallation of gnome, kernel-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 suddenly appeared. if you will run uname -r you will have this:

[root@smack ~]# uname -r
2.6.18-1.2798.fc6

It seems that the kernel is pointing to the old one. you can also see from "yum list kernel" that the old kernel is still installed. If I run "yum upgrade kernel", it is saying that I have the latest version...

thanks

also I have done this:

[root@smack ~]# package-cleanup --oldkernels
Setting up yum
No kernel related packages to remove

You are running this kernel. kernel-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 according to uname -r.
Now you do not have the kernel-devel-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 which is required to compile the vmmon dev files to run vmplayer. It can only run on a kernel it is built for.

Now you do have the following rpm files installed.
kernel-devel-2.6.20-1.2948.fc6
kernel-headers-2.6.20-1.2948.fc6
kernel-2.6.20-1.2948.fc6

Now you should be able to boot up o this kernel if it is already added to /boot/grub/grub.conf file. You will not see the new kernel unless you hit say the spacebar to display the kernels listed in the grub.conf file if the hiddenmenu option is in the grub.conf file.

Post contents of /boot/grub/grub.conf

In the file I would say it is booting number 1 which is the second kernel listed. Needs to be changed to 0 if the kernel-2.6.20-1.2948.fc6 is listed first.

Once booted in the newer kernel then use the vmware-any-any-tools file to compile vmplayer.

Brian

Thank you very much Brian...

It is just now that I have read your response. I already have made some modifications which harmed my system. I hope I'll be able to recover with your help.

Yes you're right. I have noticed two fedora core 6 options on grub.conf. But I did not notice that they are booting different kernels so what I did was I removed the first option (I edited grub.conf). So now I know that I was booting the 2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 kernel and the option to boot the newer kernel was the one that was deleted on grub.conf.

Then, this was my mistake... I have invoked 'yum remove kernel-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6' and the old kernel was removed succesfully. My problem now is that the option to boot fedora core on my machine also disappeared. I can only boot windows on my machine (second OS on grub). The option for fedora core, the first I intentionally deleted and the second which disappeared, were both gone. I cant boot to my FC6 installation.

I tried to reinstall grub from linux rescue mode. I mounted /sys/image and chroot to that directory then I run grub. Here are the commands that I run:

grub>root (hd1,0) ---- my fedora installation location
grub>setup (hd0) --- also the location of my windows

This setup used to reinstall the fedora core option on the splash screen but this time it wont work for me.

Do you have any suggestion on how I can boot again to linux? I cannot post grub.conf because I dont know how to access it.

Thanks.

Lets see what you have left.
Boot up with the install CD and type ' linux rescue ' on the boot option.
Let it mount the installed OS partitions.
Now type ' cd /mnt/sysimage/boot '
Type ' ls ' to list files. Looking for vmlinuz-***** files. Post what is present.
Then post output of ' cat /mnt/sysimage/boot/grub/grub.conf '

Brian

here are the results:

' cd /mnt/sysimage/boot '
' ls '

system.map-2.6.20-1.2948.fc6 lost+found
config-2.6.20-1.2948.fc6 symservers-2.6.20-1.2948.fc6.gz
grub vmlinuz-2.6.20-1.2948.fc6
initrd-2.6.20-1.2948.fc6

' cat /mnt/sysimage/boot/grub/grub.conf '
#grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
#Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making
#changes to this file
#NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative
# to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd1,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=
# /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
# initrd /initrd-version.img


I tried doing this:
I rebooted and entered grub. I typed 'c' to enter a command line. then,

grub> root (hd1,0)
grub> kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.20-1.2948.fc6 ro
root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
grub> initrd /initrd-2.6.20-1.2948.fc6.img
grub> boot

It started booting but had many errors, the last line read something similar to 'panic, kernel not syncing...'

Please advise...

Thanks for the support. I appreciate it very much...

I finally was able to boot FC6 and configure vmplayer. Here's how..

I edited grub.conf and added the following lines:

title Fedora Core 6
root (hd1,0)
kernel /kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.20-1.2948.fc6 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol0 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.20-1.2948.fc6.img
boot

and then I have rerun
#./runme.pl
from vmware-any-any-tool to reconfigure vmplayer.

and it was a success! Thanks for all the help!

Glad to see you have it back to working without reinstalling. You are doing very well in linux I must say. Does Vmware load up fine on a reboot. If not you may need to run this command after you rerun the ./runme.pl script.
cp -rp /dev/vm* /etc/udev/devices

Not sure if needed any more or not. Udev may have been fixed.

Brian

As of now, vmplayer boot up fine after a reboot. I have tried it a couple of times just to make sure that everything is back to normal. I have not run into any troubles yet. But I'll keep the ' cp -rp /dev/vm* /etc/udev/devices ' command just in case. By the way, what will this command do?

I have been playing with linux for more than a month now and I can say that this OS fascinates me. As of now, I have tried fedora core 6, ubuntu, and simply mepis. I find fedora to be the most useful distribution for me. But I also like mepis.

Thanks for all the help Brian. I appreciate it very much!

The command copies the /dev/vm* device blocks that the software generates based on the kernel. In older FC distros the vm* device blocks would not stay due to udev and hal. Looks like they have fixed it.

I myself perfer FC which is a Redhat based distro. I have used Redhat type distros for about 8 years. Currently using Centos 5 and Rhel 5. Very little difference compared to Fedora Core soon to be just Fedora when 7 comes out. Fedora is the next public version after Redhat 9. I pretty much have worked out all the bugs on my own and have an understanding of the distro and its scripts.

Brian

Thanks for the information Brian. I appreciate your help..