Problem with installing VMware

[Robert Locke]

On Wed, 2005-10-05 at 15:00 +0100, Paul Smith wrote:
> On 10/5/05, Paul Smith <phhs80 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > > When trying to install the version 5.5 beta, I get the following error:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > # rpm -ihv VMware-workstation-5.5.0-16958.i386.rpm
> > > > > > Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
> > > > > >
> > > > > > error: %pre(VMwareWorkstation-5.5.0-16958.i386) scriptlet failed, exit status 1
> > > > > > error:   install: %pre scriptlet failed (2), skipping
> > > > > > VMwareWorkstation-5.5.0-16958
> > > > >
> > > > > rpm -qp --scripts VMware-workstation-5.5.0-16958.i386.rpm
> > > > > will tell you what it is trying to do - look for the preinstall script
> > > > >
> > > > > if you try running the command itself you may get a better idea what is
> > > > > going on.
> > > > > Incidentally this doesn't necessarily mean that the packages was *not*
> > > > > installed. I would check this if I were you.
> > > >
> > > > Thanks, Stuart. I got this:
> > > >
> > > > # rpm -qp --scripts VMware-workstation-5.5.0-16958.i386.rpm | grep preinstall
> > > > preinstall scriptlet (using /bin/sh):
> > > > #
> > >
> > > That is true. It is installed, but it says that I have to configure it
> > > using vmware-config.pl. I am trying to locate vmware-config.pl to do
> > > the needed configuration.
> >
> > I get the following error when running vmware-config.pl:
> >
> > «make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.13-1.1526_FC4-i686'
> > cp -f vmnet.ko ./../vmnet.o
> > make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config1/vmnet-only'
> > Unable to make a vmnet module that can be loaded in the running kernel:
> > insmod: error inserting '/tmp/vmware-config1/vmnet.o': -1 Unknown
> > symbol in module
> > There is probably a slight difference in the kernel configuration between the
> > set of C header files you specified and your running kernel.  You may want to
> > rebuild a kernel based on that directory, or specify another directory.
> >
> > For more information on how to troubleshoot module-related problems, please
> > visit our Web site at "http://www.vmware.com/download/modules/modules.html" and
> > "http://www.vmware.com/support/reference/linux/prebuilt_modules_linux.html".
> >
> > Execution aborted.»
> 
> I forgot to say that I am using kernel 2.6.13-1.1526_FC4.
> 
> Paul
> 

One other thought...

The installation does require the ability to "make modules" - which
implies that there needs to be several other packages installed on your
system.  For one, do you have "kernel-devel" installed?  That is what we
now use instead of installing the entire kernel source tree.

The reason we need to let VMWare "make" is because it is not an
"officially" supported kernel release that you are installing this on.
Though I will say that I have had no problems with VMWare 5.0 and the
vmware-any-any-update getting it to compile....

--Rob