VMware player 2.5.4 - Linux Ubuntu 2.6.32

Experiencing trouble in installing the vmware player 2.5.4 on ubuntu with kernel 2.6.32? This short guide should help you in solving the problem.

The problem that I experienced with the VMware 2.5.4 (and also 2.5.3) installer was that it hung at the end of the installation process (no progress in /tmp/vmware-/setup-.log file). The last line in the setup-.log file was:

Jun 16 20:30:01.280: app| Building module with command: /usr/bin/make -C /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmnet-only auto-build SUPPORT_SMP=1 HEADER_DIR=/lib/modules/2.6.32-22-generic/build/include CC=/usr/bin/gcc GREP=/usr/bin/make IS_GCC_3=no VMCCVER=4.4.3

The problem is that there are wrong header files included by the module source code files that come with the vmware player. A workaround is pretty simple:

1) Install vmware player 2.5.4 as follows:

# ./VMware-Player-2.5.4-246459.i386.bundle --ignore-errors

2) Build and configure

a) Unpack the modules into the tmp directory:

# cd /tmp/vmware-/
# mkdir modules
# cd modules
# tar xf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar
# tar xf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmci.tar

b) Replace the included header files:

# cd vmnet-only/
# sed -i "/vnetInt.h/ a\#include \"compat_sched.h\"" vnetUserListener.c
# cd ../vmci-only/include
# sed -i "/compat_page.h/ a\#include \"compat_sched.h\"" pgtbl.h

c) Replace the original tar archives:

# cd ..
# cd ..
# tar cf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar vmnet-only
# tar cf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmci.tar vmci-only

d) Configure/compile the modules:

# vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
...

Afterwards the compilation of modules should go fine and the installation of vmware is finished properly.