Re: [gentoo-user] vmware problem

[David Relson]

On Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:45:46 +0930
Iain Buchanan wrote:

> Hi,
>
> On Wed, 2008-06-11 at 20:12 -0400, David Relson wrote:
> > Greetings,
> >
> > I've got vmware-server installed on my AMD64x2 workstation with
> > kernel 2.6.25-gentoo-r4.  It used to work fine with kernel
> > 2.6.22-gentoo-r9.
> >
> > My current versions are:
> >
> >    vmware-server:  1.0.5.80187
> >    vmware-modules: 1.0.0.15-r1
> >
> > Today vmware won't start up.  It's complaining:
> >
> >   vmware is installed, but it has not been (correctly) configured
> >   for this system. To (re-)configure it, invoke the following
> > command: /opt/vmware/server/bin/vmware-config.pl.
> >
> > I've run vmware-config.pl and accepted the default answers to all
> > questions -- the same thing I've done several times over the past
> > year.  The run ends with the following messages:
> >
> >      * Starting VMware services:      [ ok ]
> >      *   Virtual machine monitor      [ !! ]
> >      *   Virtual ethernet      [ !! ]
> >      *   Module vmnet is not loaded. Please verify that it is loaded
> > before [ !! ]
> >      *   running this script.      [ !! ]
> >
> >     The configuration of VMware Server 1.0.5 build-80187 for Linux
> > for this running kernel completed successfully.
> >
> > Given the "module vmnet" message, I've run "emerge --oneshot
> > vmware-modules" and verified that /lib/modules/2.6.25-gentoo-r4/misc
> > has new versions of vmmon.ko and vmnet.ko.  When I run "modprobe
> > vmnet", it reports:
> >
> >     FATAL: Error inserting vmnet
> >     (/lib/modules/2.6.25-gentoo-r4/misc/vmnet.ko): Invalid module
> >     format
> >
> > What detail am I missing about building vmnet.ko ??
>
> I have various vmware module problems, and there are a number of
> tweaks I try when I get to a brick wall:
>
> sometimes just `rm /etc/vmware/not_configured` is enough, but given
> you can't load it manually, maybe not!
>
> try both:
> /etc/init.d/vmware stop
> /etc/vmware/init.d/vmware stop
> and make sure all vm* modules are unloaded.
>
> run vmware-config, but say no to everthing.  Then start start the
> vmware init.d service, see if it works.  (don't run vmware).
>
> stop vmware, run vmware-config again, and then add in your options.
> Start the vmware service again... and cross your fingers :)
>
> There might also be some useful messages in dmesg, or syslog (can't
> remember where they go) about why the module isn't loading - perhaps
> there's a deprecated kernel option you have to compile in?
>

/var/log/messages says:

   vmnet: disagrees about version of symbol struct_module

So I upgraded linux-headers from 2.6.23-r3 to 2.6.25-r4, then emerged
vmware-modules again, ran "modprobe vmnet", and (again) got the above
message 

Attempted to upgrade vmware-modules from 1.0.0.15-r1 to 1.0.0.17-r1 and
found it blocked by vmware-server-1.0.5.80187:

    emerge --oneshot vmware-modules
      Calculating dependencies... done!
      [ebuild     U ] app-emulation/vmware-modules-1.0.0.17-r1 [1.0.0.15-r1] 
      [blocks B     ] >=app-emulation/vmware-modules-1.0.0.16 (is blocking
         app-emulation/vmware-server-1.0.5.80187)

It seems that the vmware-server ebuild only permits modules-1.0.0.15 ...

Is any of this ringing any bells???

Also, reading the google translation of the German posting, it seems to
say there was a conflict with dual core and vmmon and (perhaps)
disabling SMP, then building vmmon, then enabling SMP gave a working
module. This is a guess and I've not yet tried it.
 
Regards,

David
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