VMWare being truly "special" and not installing. HELP!

shassouneh · 06-10-2003, 10:38 AM

VMWare is asking for my kernel source headers. I made sure I installed the kernel sources that came with my distribution (SUSE) since I have NOT compiled my own kernel. See the output below. The two paths entered are THE ONLY path where i have any kernel source. Can someone please help?

Thanx beforehand

Code:

Fallasteeni:~ # vmware-config.pl
Making sure VMware Workstation's services are stopped.

Stopping VMware services:
   Virtual machine monitor                                             done

Trying to find a suitable vmmon module for your running kernel.

None of VMware Workstation's pre-built vmmon modules is suitable for your
running kernel.  Do you want this program to try to build the vmmon module for
your system (you need to have a C compiler installed on your system)? [no] yes

Using compiler "/usr/bin/gcc". Use environment variable CC to override.

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

The directory of kernel headers (version 2.4.20-4GB) does not match your running
kernel (version 2.4.20-4GB-athlon).  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] /usr/src/linux-2.4.20.SuSE/include

The directory of kernel headers (version 2.4.20-4GB) does not match your running
kernel (version 2.4.20-4GB-athlon).  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] /lib/modules/2.4.20-4GB-athlon/build/include

The directory of kernel headers (version 2.4.20-4GB) does not match your running
kernel (version 2.4.20-4GB-athlon).  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]

peter_robb · 06-11-2003, 06:24 PM

You have kernel version 2.4.20-4GB-athlon running, so vmware, being picky, wants to find the kernel sources for only that version.

If you want to use the other kernel version, boot into that first then run the vmware install again.

You should have a softlink in /usr/src pointing to /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-4GB-athlon.
Inside that directory will be the links to /build/include

When vmware spits this back..."What is the location of the directory of C header files that match your running
kernel? [/usr/src/linux/include]"
it usually means it couldn't find the /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-4GB-athlon directory or the softlink.

Make sure they exist or make a softlink called /usr/src/linux pointing to the 2.4.20-4GB-athlon source files.

shassouneh · 06-14-2003, 09:02 PM

Please read above carefully. The ONLY version of the kernel I have is the one that came by default with SuSE. I installed that kernel's sources form the SuSE CDs using YaST. As I mentioned earlier, I provided vmware's setup wit the EXACT location to where source headrers are available and it still complained.

Thanx for the reply though.

peter_robb · 06-15-2003, 11:44 AM

BeXplosive · 06-29-2003, 11:13 AM

I finally got the Vmware "C Header File" problem fixed. So everybody out there having the same problem, listen up. This was in RH9, by the way.

in /usr/src if there is not a /linux.2.4 or /linux.2.4.20-8 or something of that nature, then you MUST install the kernel development tools. This will install the kernel-source correctly. I tried just installing the kernel-source rpm, but it didnt work.

for you newbies, you can find the "add-remove applications" under system settings and run that. it's a nice graphical tool. scroll down and check the kernel development. fyi: you will need disk 2 and 3 if you are in RH9.

after you install that, head back to the /usr/src and you will see you a couple new folders. head into the /usr/src/linux.2.4.20-8/include and you will see all the good stuff that vmware is looking for, like the asm, net, and linux.

so when it asks, where are the c header files? [/usr/src/linux/include]

obviously that is not the right place, just type in the path correctly, and you will be rockin! hope that helps!

shassouneh · 06-29-2003, 08:02 PM

I will try it as soon as I boot back. Thanx for the tip.

jluckett · 07-16-2003, 03:09 PM

BeXplosive,

While I definitely appreciate the help, unfortunately I'm not sure how that applies to the problem shassouneh and I are experiencing? To give you the benefit of the doubt - as all help is appreciated and I can almost guarantee that you know far more about this than I do - I went ahead and tried following your suggestion.

Here is what I ran into:

Quote:

in /usr/src if there is not a /linux.2.4 or /linux.2.4.20-8 or something of that nature, then you MUST install the kernel development tools. This will install the kernel-source correctly. I tried just installing the kernel-source rpm, but it didnt work.

I already have the "normal" SuSE kernel's source in /usr/src. The actual path to it (on my system is) /usr/src/linux-2.4.20.SuSE. This, however, does me no good as it's not the compiled kernel I'm currently using (according to VMware, at least).

Quote:

for you newbies, you can find the "add-remove applications" under system settings and run that. it's a nice graphical tool. scroll down and check the kernel development. fyi: you will need disk 2 and 3 if you are in RH9.

This doesn't appear to apply in my and shassouneh's situations. Neither he nor I are using Red Hat and I'm not quite sure where to look in YAST for "kernel development". Using YAST's "Install and Remove Software" tool, the installed almost everything I could find regarding development but that didn't seem to be what I was hoping to accomplish and VMware had the same problem when it came to finding the correct source code after.

So, to sum all of this up, does anyone know where I can find SuSE's source code to the kernel with the Athlon optimizations? I found a host of other kernel sources to download but none were the ones I'm using. If I can download the source to the kernel with the Athlon customizations, this will solve our problem (I think, at least).

jluckett · 07-16-2003, 03:33 PM

I can't say I actually recommend this... but... it seemed to resolve the problem and VMware did, in fact, start and it appeared to operate normally.

What I did was really simple and, possibly, dumb but it worked...

I went to the following path and found the "version.h" file:
/usr/src/linux-2.4.20.SuSE/include/linux

My file read as...

Code:

#define UTS_RELEASE "2.4.20-4GB"
#define LINUX_VERSION_CODE 132116
#define KERNEL_VERSION(a,b,c) (((a) << 16) + ((b) << 8) + (c))

The first line is the key.

Change...

Code:

#define UTS_RELEASE "2.4.20-4GB"

to...

Code:

#define UTS_RELEASE "2.4.20-4GB-athlon"

Then, save the file and allow VMware to use the default path for the source code and it should work as it did on mine.

DISCLAIMER:

I have not yet had the chance to actually install anything inside a VM yet. However, the vmware-config.pl script did run successfully so, if you're first to try it, please post the results for others to know?

If my suggestion does not ultimately resolve our problems or causes another and we have to return to try something else, my question regarding where to download the "2.4.20-4GB-athlon" kernel source still stands.

dirth · 07-17-2003, 04:43 PM

Thank you bexplosive

Worked for me... Vmware config defaulted to the right dir...

cheers