[SOLVED] Installing VMware Tools in Fedora 13 Guest

bosschaert · #1 26th May 2010, 03:00 PM

I'm trying to install the vmware tools in Fedora 13.
I've run the following commands as root:

yum install gcc -y
yum install kernel-devel -y

./vmware-install.pl
...

when it asks for the location of the directory of the C header files that match my running kernel I entered:
/usr/src/kernels/2.6.33.4-95.fc13.i686/include

but vmware-install.pl says:
The path to "/usr/src/kernels/2.6.33.4-95.fc13.i686/inc" is not valid..

Anyone an idea?

lethologica · #2 26th May 2010, 04:54 PM

Same problem here. I think VMWare Tools might not be ready for the 2.6.33.4-95 kernel just yet.

swappa · #3 27th May 2010, 12:07 PM

This is what I did;
yum install kernel-headers kernel-devel gcc

Worked fine.

bosschaert · #4 27th May 2010, 04:14 PM

After installing all the pending updates it now works for me too.
Thanks!

Malachai · #5 27th May 2010, 06:15 PM

All I did was install the rpm that was in the vmware tool folder. Everything is working fine.

tshinnic · #6 29th May 2010, 10:32 PM

Perhaps because I installed 64-bit version, but I had to do one tiny little step more. :-) This with VMWare 6.5.4

cd /usr/src/kernels/2.6.33.4-95.fc13.x86_64/include
cp -p generated/utsrelease.h linux/utsrelease.h

The vmware-config-tools.pl is looking for define UTS_RELEASE within either version.sh or utsrelease.h under ./linux/ Unfortunately it wasn't there yet.

igordcard · #7 3rd June 2010, 02:11 PM

This is happening to me too, using kernel 2.6.33.5-112.fc13.i686 ..
gcc, kernel-devel, kernel-headers, gcc-c++ all of them installed and up-to-date. The whole system is up-to-date right now, however vmware refuses the directory:

The path "/usr/src/kernels/2.6.33.5-112.fc13.i686/include/" is not valid.
Would you like to change it? [yes]

Anyone else? Any solution?
Thanks

tshinnic · #8 3rd June 2010, 10:38 PM

Did you also copy the missing/misplaced include file?

(Having just updated the kernel I am getting the original messages, so have copied them below as I workaround the problem)

= = = First I get:

What is the location of the directory of C header files that match your running
kernel? [/usr/src/linux/include] /usr/src/kernels/2.6.33.5-112.fc13.x86_64/include

The directory of kernel headers (version @@VMWARE@@ UTS_RELEASE) does not match
your running kernel (version 2.6.33.5-112.fc13.x86_64). Even if the module
were to compile successfully, it would not load into the running kernel.

= = = Then over in another session at
/usr/src/kernels/2.6.33.5-112.fc13.x86_64/include

[Tom@tlsf13a include]$ find . -iname '*relea*'
./config/kernel.release
./generated/utsrelease.h
[Tom@tlsf13a include]$ sudo cp -p generated/utsrelease.h linux/

= = = Then back in first session:

What is the location of the directory of C header files that match your running
kernel? [/usr/src/linux/include] /usr/src/kernels/2.6.33.5-112.fc13.x86_64/include

Extracting the sources of the vmmemctl module.

= = = and the vmware-config-tools.pl runs ....
(well, all but vmci builds ... :-/ )

lbyrd33 · #9 4th June 2010, 09:13 PM

I had the same problem on i686, the above solution corrected the problem-Thanks

volkerb · #10 4th June 2010, 09:33 PM

Did anyone get the official vmware tools installed with latest fedora 13 kernel 2.6.33.5-112.fc13.x86_64 ?! I also tried without success the following: http://www.r71.nl/kb/technical/265-f...d-error-vmware

...but after I get the include directory accepted I get compile errors for every module...

Code:

[root@fds13a ~]# vmware-config-tools.pl 

Stopping VMware Tools services in the virtual machine:
   Guest operating system daemon:                          [  OK  ]
None of the pre-built vmmemctl modules for VMware Tools is suitable for your 
running kernel.  Do you want this program to try to build the vmmemctl 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/2.6.33.5-112.fc13.x86_64/build/include] 

Extracting the sources of the vmmemctl module.

Building the vmmemctl module.

Using 2.6.x kernel build system.
make: Entering directory `/tmp/vmware-config12/vmmemctl-only'
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.33.5-112.fc13.x86_64/build/include/.. SUBDIRS=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.33.5-112.fc13.x86_64'
  CC [M]  /tmp/vmware-config12/vmmemctl-only/backdoorGcc64.o
In file included from /tmp/vmware-config12/vmmemctl-only/backdoor.h:29,
                 from /tmp/vmware-config12/vmmemctl-only/backdoorGcc64.c:38:
/tmp/vmware-config12/vmmemctl-only/vm_basic_types.h:108:7: warning: "__FreeBSD__" is not defined
  CC [M]  /tmp/vmware-config12/vmmemctl-only/os.o
In file included from /tmp/vmware-config12/vmmemctl-only/os.c:51:
/tmp/vmware-config12/vmmemctl-only/compat_wait.h:78: error: conflicting types for ‘poll_initwait’
include/linux/poll.h:70: note: previous declaration of ‘poll_initwait’ was here
make[2]: *** [/tmp/vmware-config12/vmmemctl-only/os.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/vmware-config12/vmmemctl-only] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.33.5-112.fc13.x86_64'
make: *** [vmmemctl.ko] Error 2
make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config12/vmmemctl-only'
Unable to build the vmmemctl module.

Could also someone anyone enligthen me about the difference between

/lib/modules/2.6.33.5-112.fc13.x86_64/build/include/
/usr/src/kernels/2.6.33.5-112.fc13.x86_64/include/

I tried with Vmware Server 2.0.2 and its shipped VMwareTools-7.7.6-203138.i386.rpm. Is there a newer version available? I only found this site: http://packages.vmware.com/tools ...and apparently some 8.0.2 is the latest?! At least the RHEL-rpms cannot be installed because of libc.so.6 missing / dependancy...

igordcard · #11 4th June 2010, 11:32 PM

I still can't make it accept my kernel c header files...

" The path "/usr/src/kernels/2.6.33.5-112.fc13.i686/include" is not valid. "

I've already copied generated/utsrelease.h to linux/utsrelease.h ...

I'm running VMware Workstation 7.1 with the default VMware Tools...

volkerb · #12 5th June 2010, 08:38 AM

To make the perl script accept the include path it was helpful for me to add the define for UTS_RELEASE to the version.h file (like posted here), but then the compile did not work.

Copying the utsrelease.h had also NO effect for me. Apparently the perl script looks in the version.h file.

Maybe also try the following?
ln -s /usr/src/kernels/2.6.33.5-112.fc13.i686 /usr/src/linux

And also add the UTS_RELEASE to both version.h files? Why are both there in the first place?
/lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/include/linux/version.h
/usr/src/kernels/`uname -r`/include/linux/version.h

ThomasE66 · #13 9th June 2010, 03:57 PM

I'm having the same problem, and the workarounds here haven't worked for me either. I haven't had time to look at the vmware config script to see if there's a way to force a workaround there.

dpasdar · #14 20th June 2010, 04:23 AM

Copying the utsrelease.h for me didn't have any effect also, but the problem can be easily solved by fooling vmware-config-tools.pl into thinking that the path you typed is correct anyway. In order to do so, open the /usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl and search for getValidKernelHeadersPath , under that you will see a while(1) { ......
just remove the while(1) keyword without removing the brackets. Afterward your file should look something like this :

....
sub getValidKernelHeadersPath {
my $kh_path = shift;
my $modconfig = shift;
my $appLoaderArgs = shift;
my $answer;
my $query;
my $default;

{
if (system("$modconfig --validate-kernel-headers \"$kh_path\" " .
"$appLoaderArgs >/dev/null 2>&1") == 0) {
$query = "The path \"$kh_path\" appears to be a valid path to the " .
"kernel headers of the running kernel.";
$default = 'no';
} else { .......
.....

you can now save and manually run vmware-config-tools.pl and when asked for kernel headers select yes for changing and give the correct path (in my system /usr/src/kernels/2.6.33.5-124.fc13.i686/include/), it will then compile correctly.

MarkyGoldstein · #15 21st June 2010, 07:00 PM

All these problems suck... it is really time to replace all closed source virtualization technology with open source technology because then such issues can be fixed by the community.

So ok, I got my machine to accept the path, but now I am missing vmware-config-tools.pl ... where do I get this? I did not come with vmware Server 2.0.2