Installing VMware server 2.0.2 on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala 64bit

by Craig Mayhew on Nov.03, 2009, under Guides/Fixes, Linux/Ubuntu

I recently upgraded to Ubuntu Karmic Koala and fully expected this to break my VMWare server install. Sure enough I got plenty of errors when trying to compile VMWare Server with the latest kernel. Here’s the solution:

Download VMware Server (2.0.1 or 2.0.2) – in gz format. You will also need a license key.

If you have tried to install vmware server already and something went wrong during the install, then do these two steps first:

first, delete the vmware modules

rm -rf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/

if needed (you’ll know if you need to do this one):

rm -rf /lib/modules/2.6.31-13-server/misc/vm*

Install:

Run vmware-install.pl. Somewhere in the installation process you should be asked:
Do you want this program to invoke the command for you now? [yes]
you should answer: no

Then run the patch vmware-server.2.0.1_x64-modules-2.6.30.4-fix.sh.

sudo ./vmware-server.2.0.1_x64-modules-2.6.30.4-fix.sh

After this, run

/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl

If the vmware-config.pl aborts, because it couldn’t shut down all vmware services then kill them manually and then rerun vmware-config.pl:

kill -9 $( grep -i vm | awk '{ print $2 }' )

And hopefully that should work!

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16 Comments for this entry

  • Will

    Im kind of new at this but how do you patch?

  • Craig Mayhew

    Hi Will, thanks for spotting that. I’ve added the line “sudo ./vmware-server.2.0.1_x64-modules-2.6.30.4-fix.sh” which I had previously missed from the post.

  • forbzie

    Does this work for 32bit ?

    when running shell script i get

    vmware-server.2.0.1_x64-modules-2.6.30.4-fix.sh: 30: Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting “do”)

  • Wil

    When I try to run that command I get ‘command not found’

    ?????

  • ubuntuvwmareuser

    @Wil

    patch pkg should be installed : pkg-add install patch

  • debmalya

    Hello Craig,

    Whenever I am trying to execute “sudo ./vmware-server.2.0.1_x64-modules-2.6.30.4-fix.sh” it’s showing…

    sudo: ./vmware-server.2.0.1_x64-modules-2.6.30.4-fix.sh: command not found

    Can you please help me out of this?

  • tony

    Thanks Craig, that worked perfectly 1st time around. You’ve saved me tons of time!

    Cheers! :)

  • fixer

    The “command not found” error is because of Microsoft end of line characters in the shell script. (How did that happen?) Anyway, if you try to run the shell script without sudo, you will see:

    bash: ./vmware-server.2.0.1_x64-modules-2.6.30.4-fix.sh: /bin/sh^M: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

    To fix the shell script, first run:
    perl -pi -e ’s/\r\n/\n/;’ vmware-server.2.0.1_x64-modules-2.6.30.4-fix.sh

  • Sam

    Thanks, worked fine.

    Make sure you follow instructions to the letter or it will fail.

  • cyqotiq

    You, sir, are a saint! I’ve been trying to find the fix for the 64-bit karmic kernel. The closest I came was finding the 2.6.30 patch, which failed miserably. This worked like a charm!

  • Craig Mayhew

    @fixer Thanks for spotting that. I must have uploaded it from a windows machine (won’t make that mistake again!). I’ve now uploaded a corrected version of the patch.

  • Craig Mayhew

    If you need to rerun vmware-config-tools and know you only want the default values then this command will make it much quicker by automatically using the defaults:

    /usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl –default

  • macke

    Am I right when i think i need to download the patch before i am able to patch my vmware? Unfortunately there is no file appearing after i click the link. How can i find it again?

  • Ian Justman

    This procedure does NOT work with my install of Ubuntu 9.10 x86-64. The kernel in use is 2.6.31-19 and I get the following at link-time:

    LD [M] /tmp/vmware-config1/vsock-only/vsock.o
    Building modules, stage 2.
    MODPOST 1 modules
    WARNING: “VMCIDatagram_CreateHnd” [/tmp/vmware-config1/vsock-only/vsock.ko] undefined!
    WARNING: “VMCIDatagram_DestroyHnd” [/tmp/vmware-config1/vsock-only/vsock.ko] undefined!
    WARNING: “VMCI_GetContextID” [/tmp/vmware-config1/vsock-only/vsock.ko] undefined!
    WARNING: “VMCIDatagram_Send” [/tmp/vmware-config1/vsock-only/vsock.ko] undefined!
    CC /tmp/vmware-config1/vsock-only/vsock.mod.o
    LD [M] /tmp/vmware-config1/vsock-only/vsock.ko
    make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.31-19-server’
    cp -f vsock.ko ./../vsock.o
    make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config1/vsock-only’
    Unable to make a vsock module that can be loaded in the running kernel:
    insmod: error inserting ‘/tmp/vmware-config1/vsock.o’: -1 Unknown symbol in module

  • Craig Mayhew

    @macke I’ve fixed that, I had an error with the downloads section.

  • Ian Justman

    I found something that allows vsock to be built; it involves patching the vmware-config.pl file. There’s a patch attached to this post on a thread on the very subject:

    http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=6267637&postcount=17

    Worked just fine here once I applied your patch and this one.

    –Ian.

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