Distribution : Slackware 10.2
Old kernel : Default (bare.i) 2.4.31
New kernel : linux-2.6.5
Vmware : VMware Workstation 5.5

I am running the VMware Workstation 5.5 nicely when I use the Old kernel. But after I upgraded to the New kernel Vmware refuses to start. I have run ./vmware-config.pl so that it can compile new modules to fit the running (New) kernel. But it still doesn't works. While compiling it gives me a warning saying 'taint modules' or something like that and says 'Donot complain if something goes wrong' but it does finished successfully. Then when i again start the Vmware it again says 'Vmware has been installed but not configured for the new kernel, please do ./vmware-config.pl and blah blah ..

I can't figure out what's going wrong. While in Old kernel, The compiler for Vmware did once complained about the gcc-version saying my kernel was compiled with gcc-3.3.5 and asks me if i am sure to comile Vmware with gcc-3.3.6 blah blah.

Has anybody experienced this kinda problem and solved it.

Do you have the kernel headers and/or the full source for your running kernel available? If VMWare can't find that, it can't compile kernel modules.

For the record, VMWare 5.5 works perfectly for me on kernel 2.6.15.

yes man! if i am not mistaken i wouldn't be able to compile my own kernel if i didn't had those could i? The module builder warns that VMware is suppressing SUBDIRS while compiling new modules for the new kernel, what does that means? I would have posted the whole build process if i hadn't reverted back to the old kernel. I need VMware for testing purposes of other OS'es and their softwares.

For the record, I have the full linux kernel source for 2.6.5 in my /usr/src/linux-->linux-2.6.5 directory.

I am thinking lately maybe I missed out some options like Virtual Server and Virtual Ethernet when I compiled myself the new kernel. Maybe thats the reason why Virtual Machine for VMware always fail to start. I will be checking that out soon. Meanwhile, Kernel Hackers are requested to suggest me with this matter.

I just solved the problem. Here's how i did it:

1. First of all I used a new kernel (linux-2.6.16.5). I compiled it quite neatly selecting just enough options to support my current hardware configuration and few ones i thought would be useful for future.
2. Next I followed the following:
http://edseek.com/archives/2006/02/1...on-linux-2616/

and thats all i did and i am so happy now 'coz my machine now boots up so fast, runs so fast, mem requirement has dropped such that i have some bytes to spare. every thing is happening so fast now...

Sorry for the post here but I hate to lose information. I am really sorry if this annoys anybody.

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If you\u2019ve been trying to run VMWare v4.5 on the latest Linux release candidate kernels, you may be having trouble compiling it. Fortunately, a few quick fixes and you should be able to compile again.

First, and possibly optional, you should get the latest vmware-any-any-nn.tar.gz from the usual place. Unpack it and apply as usual. You will need to be root, sudo, or however you obtain root on your system. Abort vmware-config.pl when it starts as it will fail presently.

Second, you need to edit /usr/local/bin/vmware-config.pl and, as a quick hack, comment out the following block of code. (I used =pod and =cut to denote it as a large Perl comment block.)

=pod
if ($header_page_offset =~ /[0-9a-fA-F]{8,}/) {
# We found a valid page offset
if (defined($gSystem{'page_offset'}) and
not (lc($header_page_offset) eq lc($gSystem{'page_offset'}))) {
if ($source eq 'user') {
print wrap('The kernel defined by this directory of header files does '
. 'not have the same address space size as your running '
. 'kernel.' . "\n\n", 0);
}
return '';
}
}
=cut

Finally, as referenced in this thread at VMWare\u2019s support forum, you need to unpack two tarballs in /usr/local/lib/vmware/modules/source, vmmon.tar and vmnet.tar, and make a one line addition to each file.

# cd /usr/local/lib/vmware/modules/source
# tar -xvf vmmon.tar
# vi vmmon-only/Makefile.kernel

Replace
$(EXTRA_CFLAGS) -Iinclude2/asm/mach-default \

With
$(EXTRA_CFLAGS) -Iinclude2/asm/mach-default -DKBUILD_BASENAME=\"$(DRIVER)\"\

# mv vmmon.tar vmmon.tar.old
# tar -cvf vmmon.tar vmmon-only
# rm vmmon-only -Rf

Repeat the above process for vmnet.tar, then rerun /usr/local/bin/vmware-config.pl and it should compile without incident.
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