Unfortunately the latest kernel included in Gutsy (2.6.22-10) isn't supported by VMware yet, so you'll run into a few problems when attempting to install VMware Server. If you're running 64bit Gutsy and you haven't already installed the ia32 libraries then you'll probably see this message to start with:
The correct version of one or more libraries needed to run VMware Server may be missing. This is the output of ldd /usr/bin/vmware: linux-gate.so.1 => (0xffffe000) libm.so.6 => /lib32/libm.so.6 (0xf7f93000) libdl.so.2 => /lib32/libdl.so.2 (0xf7f8f000) libpthread.so.0 => /lib32/libpthread.so.0 (0xf7f76000) libX11.so.6 => not found libXtst.so.6 => not found libXext.so.6 => not found libXt.so.6 => not found libICE.so.6 => not found libSM.so.6 => not found libXrender.so.1 => not found libz.so.1 => /usr/lib32/libz.so.1 (0xf7f60000) libc.so.6 => /lib32/libc.so.6 (0xf7e16000) /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xf7fc6000) This program cannot tell for sure, but you may need to upgrade libc5 to glibc
before you can run VMware Server.
which is easily remedied by running:
sudo apt-get install ia32-libs
The next error message occurs when the vmware-config script attempts to build the vmmon modules:
None of the pre-built vmmon modules for VMware Server 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)? [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? [/lib/modules/2.6.22-10-generic/build/include] Extracting the sources of the vmmon module. Building the vmmon module. Using 2.6.x kernel build system. make: Entering directory `/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only' make -C /lib/modules/2.6.22-10-generic/build/include/.. SUBDIRS=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. modules make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.22-10-generic' CC [M] /tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o In file included from /tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:80: /tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/./include/compat_kernel.h:21: error: expected declaration specifiers or ‘...’ before ‘compat_exit’ /tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/./include/compat_kernel.h:21: error: expected declaration specifiers or ‘...’ before ‘exit_code’ /tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/./include/compat_kernel.h:21: warning: type defaults to ‘int’ in declaration of ‘_syscall1’ make[2]: *** [/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o] Error 1 make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.22-10-generic' make: *** [vmmon.ko] Error 2 make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only' Unable to build the vmmon module. For more information on how to troubleshoot module-related problems, please visit our Web site at "http://www.vmware.com/download/modules/modules.html" and "http://www.vmware.com/support/reference/linux/prebuilt_modules_linux.html". Execution aborted.
To get around this we need to apply a patch called vmware-any-any (see here for more info). I used version 113 as it seems to be the latest; it can be downloaded here. Extract the contents of the archive, navigate to their location and simply run:
./runme.pl to install the patch. You’ll see the following: Updating /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl ... now patched Updating /usr/bin/vmware ... No patch needed/available Updating /usr/bin/vmnet-bridge ... No patch needed/available Updating /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx ... No patch needed/available Updating /usr/lib/vmware/bin-debug/vmware-vmx ... No patch needed/available VMware modules in "/usr/lib/vmware/modules/source" has been updated. Before running VMware for the first time after update, you need to configure it for your running kernel by invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl". Do you want this script to invoke the command for you now? [yes]
Hit enter to invoke vmware-config.pl and the rest of the installation should now run smoothly. Note that you will need a C++ compiler to build the vmmon modules. Enter the following to install such development tools:
sudo apt-get install build-essential sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`
The final message you should see is:
The configuration of VMware Server 1.0.3 build-44356 for Linux for this running kernel completed successfully.
and you should now have a fully-functional version of VMWare Server; launch it by typing vmware at the command line, or from the menu entry.