VMware and Kernel 2.6.6-1.427

[Robert Locke]

> Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 10:24:54 -0700
> From: Joe Conway <mail at joeconway.com>
> Subject: Re: VMware and Kernel 2.6.6-1.427
> To: For users of Fedora Core releases <fedora-list at redhat.com>
> Message-ID: <40CB3C66.5000107 at joeconway.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
> 
> ed wrote:
> > I am trying to compile VMware torun on the 2.6.6-1.427 kernel, but I
> > keep gettinga compile error. It worked very well with the previous 2.6
> > kernel. Here is what I am getting in the attached file.
> 
> I also got this, and found that I needed to hack the vmware module 
> source to fix it. It seems a kernel struct (I don't remember which one 
> specifically now) that used to define 'count', now defines the same 
> member as '_count'.
> 
> Here's what I did -- use at your own risk ;-)
> 
> 1. Find the files vmmon.tar and vmnet.tar. Mine were in
>     /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source
> 
> 2. Make a backup copy of each
>        cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source
>        cp vmmon.tar vmmon.tar.bak
>        cp vmnet.tar vmnet.tar.bak
> 
> 3. untar both files:
>        tar xf vmmon.tar
>        tar xf vmnet.tar
>     This should create two new folders -- vmmon-only & vmnet-only
> 
> 5. In each folder, find the file compat_mm.h and edit it. In both
>     cases, find the line
> 
>        #  define page_count(page) atomic_read(&(page)->count)
> 
>     and change it to
> 
>        #  define page_count(page) atomic_read(&(page)->_count)
> 
>     This was line 28 in my version of these files. Save the changes.
> 
> 6. Delete the original tar files and replace with modified tar files
>        rm vmmon.tar
>        tar cf vmmon.tar vmmon-only
>        rm vmnet.tar
>        tar cf vmnet.tar vmnet-only
> 
> Now you should be able to successfully run vmware-config.pl. I get two 
> "incompatible pointer type" warnings, but I was getting those before 
> with the 2.6.5 kernel, and they didn't seem to hurt anything.
> 
> HTH,
> 
> Joe
> 

Perhaps an even easier solution....

VMWare has released an update to VMWare Workstation 4.5.  Upgrade to
4.5.2 build 8848.  I simply downloaded the rpm, upgraded and re-ran
vmware-config.pl and that compile problem went away.  Seems to
incorporate some or all of the updates from
vmware-any-any-update##.tar.gz.

BTW, I had no problems with VMWare Workstation 4.5.1 build 7568 under
FC2 2.6.5-1.358 and now seem to be having success with VMWare
Workstation 4.5.2 build 8848 under FC2 2.6.6-1.427.

--Rob