[gentoo-user] Reverting VMware Server

[Chris Lieb]

I tried upgrading VMware server on one of my machines from 1.0.9 to
2.0.1 today.  After the upgrade, I couldn't get any of the modules to
insert (Invalid module format).  I decided that I would downgrade back
to vmware-server-1.0.9.156507 and vmware-modules-1.0.0.15-r2 so that I
could get the machine back into a working state.

I keyworded vmware-server-2* and masked !=vmware-modules-1.0.0.15* to
make sure that I'd downgrade the two components of VMware server.  I ran
emerge, it listed the two packages as downgrades, and let it run. 
Almost immediately it died while starting the build for vmware-modules
with the following error:

 * Could not find a usable .config in the kernel source directory.
 * Please ensure that /usr/src/linux points to a configured set of Linux
sources.
 * If you are using KBUILD_OUTPUT, please set the environment var so that
 * it points to the necessary object directory so that it might find
.config.
 *
 * ERROR: app-emulation/vmware-modules-1.0.0.15-r2 failed.
 * Call stack:
 *               ebuild.sh, line   48:  Called pkg_setup
 *             environment, line 3300:  Called vmware-mod_pkg_setup
 *             environment, line 4423:  Called linux-mod_pkg_setup
 *             environment, line 2695:  Called linux-info_pkg_setup
 *             environment, line 2671:  Called check_extra_config
 *             environment, line  653:  Called require_configured_kernel
 *             environment, line 3539:  Called die
 * The specific snippet of code:
 *           die "Kernel not configured; no .config found in ${KV_OUT_DIR}";
 *  The die message:
 *   Kernel not configured; no .config found in
/lib/modules/2.6.27-gentoo-r8/build

I looked in the directory that the .config file was supposedly missing
from, but it was right there.  Also, this message seemed a little
strange since my currently running kernel is 2.6.28-gentoo-r5, though I
kept a copy of 2.6.27-r10 around.  I don't even have a directory for
modules for 2.6.27-gentoo-r8 around anymore.

Why is the vmware-modules ebuild trying to find a .config for a kernel
that I don't have installed anywhere on my computer?

Thanks,
Chris Lieb