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VMware Workstation on Fedora 14 unable to build kernel module

November 5th, 2010 Leave a comment Go to comments

VMware 150x150 VMware Workstation on Fedora 14 unable to build kernel module

*13/04/2011 UPDATE* Just a quick note to let you all know that VMware released a few updates to VMware workstation 7.1 branch (I’m using 7.1.4 as per this note) that completely solved all compatibility problems with 2.6.35+ kernels so a good starting point is downloading the updated version from the website and you will be able to correctly install the product without the need of any patch or workaround.

As you know Fedora 14 is out and I’ve already upgraded my systems to the latest release, but as I always say adopting a new technology, or release in this case, often means dealing with undocumented problems that can arise during the usage.

I use a lot of virtual machines and for this purpose I prefer VMware products, yesterday evening while trying to install VMware workstation (but the same has been going on with the VMware player) I faced a few problems specifically an cryptic error Unable to build kernel module.

So after I’ve installed Fedora 14 I’ve proceeded installing the required dependencies needed by VMware workstation to compile the required kernel modules with the following command :

 yum install kernel-devel kernel-headers gcc

I then downloaded the installation package and proceeded with the installation, everything went smooth until I tried to launch the software task that failed with the error unable to build kernel module. See log file /tmp/vmware-root/setup…. which is reported below :

VMware error 150x150 VMware Workstation on Fedora 14 unable to build kernel moduleWhen, as suggested by the installer, I went through the log I’ve noticed the following error message which was enough to understand what was going on with my VMware on Fedora 14 :

 Failed to compile module vmmon!

After a bit of googling I’ve been able to find a script that was aimed to solve this kind of problem with kernel 2.6.35 which is exactly the kernel running on my Fedora 14. To solve the problem simply issue the following commands :

 cd /tmp/

wget http://sputnick-area.net/scripts/vmware7.1.1-patch-kernel-2.6.35.bash

chmod +x vmware7.1.1-patch-kernel-2.6.35.bash

./vmware7.1.1-patch-kernel-2.6.35.bash

Once you’ve launched the script VMware will be able to correctly compile all the needed modules for VMware Workstation/Player with the following command :

 vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

VMware will go through the compilation process and you will be able to use your favourite virtualization software. I hope you will find this post useful, please feel free to share and re-tweet helping the blog to grow.

As usual please let me know if you face any problem or need any further information.

Cheer Lethe.

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  • ramson

    thank u…..mr

  • najeeb

    hello.
    I tried your command up to
    ./vmware7.1.1-patch-kernel-2.6.35.bash
    upto here it worked successfully.
    but the command vmware-modconfig –console –install-all
    raises an error which is “gcc and kernel headers must be installed”
    Is there a solution to this problem.
    my working kernel is 2.6.35.11-83.fc14.i686

    • http://blog.tuxforge.com Lethe

      Hello Najeeb, the problem is not bound directly to VMware but to the lack of some needed packages on your machine.
      To resolve this simply open up a shell prompt (as root or using sudo) type the following :

      yum install kernel-devel gcc gcc-c++

      These packages, together with some dependencies, should be all you need to install VMware. Sorry but as I have everything installed on my machine I could have missed a package, in case no worries the installer will complain about it.

      Let me know if it works, cheers Lethe.

    • Najeeb

      hi,
      thanks for reply. I tried the command
      still the same error occurs “gcc and kernel headers must be installed”
      And i forgot to tell u that my vmware workstation version is 7.0.0

    • http://blog.tuxforge.com Lethe

      Hmmm that’s weird, can you please verify that you have even these packages installed?

      automake autoconf

      I remember something like this going on with VMware workstation 7 but have to dig through my notes to find something .

      Let me know how it goes, Lethe.

    • Najeeb

      hi lethe after all this i uninstalled vmware workstation and again installed it , thinking that it might solve the problem but the problem persist.
      By by ur last reply i don’t get it what type of package is it . well i gave it a try in add/remove software packages and found some packages missing and installed them but still it is same.
      please reply….

    • http://blog.tuxforge.com Lethe

      The packages I’ve mentioned in my previous message are used to actually compile stuff and are required by VMware to compile kernel modules used by the software.

      What I would try at this point is download the latest version of VMware workstation (7.1.4 if memory serves) which has a lot of bugfixes. If you can allow me ssh access to the machine I could have a look and see what’s wrong as honestly I’m running low on new ideas…

      Cheers Lethe.

    • Mark

      Worked great!! Thank you for this fix!

    • Najeeb

      send me ur id i will send the the info for ssh access.
      thanks for reply..

  • Bala

    I tried to install fedora 14 on vmware 7.0 Win 7 Ultimate x64. but the live cd stucks at boot. nothing is happening. I know it’s not the same topic but if u could help me that will be great.
    Thanks.
    Bala.

    • http://blog.tuxforge.com Lethe

      Hi Bala, unfortunately I don’t think I can really help in the sense that I’ve instaled/tested Fedora in VMware workstation without problems.

      First thing I would try is to download again the ISO image and try the installation again to make sure it is not corrupted, if this is not working try with another version of it (IE the full version).

      I will look around and see if I can find something else about this.

      Cheers Lethe.

  • HAL999

    You are a champ! Thanks. …. gotta have that VMware…

    • http://blog.tuxforge.com Lethe

      Glad it has been helpful, with the latest release VMware should have fixed that specific bug but in my experience with past releases that could happen again so better to keep the article handy :)

      Cheers Lethe.

  • Dan

    Thanks for this, worked like a charm

  • Travis

    Hey, this was a big help for me, thanks!

    • http://blog.tuxforge.com Lethe

      Glad that was helpful, on a side note VMware did fix this with the latest version of the product so that should not be an issue anymore.

      Cheers Lethe.

  • cody coleman

    Thanks so much! I attend college for IT and had to use VM to do our labs. Thanks for the save man.

    • http://blog.tuxforge.com Lethe

      Hey Cody glad this could help you out and thanks a lot for your comment!

      Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with :D

      Cheers Lethe.