VMWare Workstation 8.0.3/Player 4.0.3 on 7.0.2

[Capricorny]

Business as usual from vmware, Workstation 8.0.4+ (I think). Issues are well known, related to kernel 3.8+ (I think) - no patch from them, not even hints, and module compilation aborts with no real clue as to why. Seems like kind of mixture of planned and forced obsolescense to me.

I almost gave up this time

1. Fix "missing version.h" kernel header issue - a really old one. For example, by issuing

sudo ln -s /usr/include/linux/version.h /usr/src/kernels/$(uname -r)/include/linux/version.h

The $(uname -r) phrase will ensure to update the header tree for your currently running kernel.


2. Run module configuration from the command line

sudo /usr/bin/vmware-modconfig --icon=vmware-workstation --appname=VMware

The built-in configuration tool doesn't work - and running CLI is safer and more informative anyway. With any luck, most modules will compile just fine, except for vmci. Here is a diff of defunct original and working patched version of the culprit, driver.c:

diff driver.c  ~/Downloads/driver.c
127c127
<    .remove = __devexit_p(vmci_remove_device),
---
>    .remove = vmci_remove_device,
1744c1744
< static int __devinit
---
> static int
1972c1972
< static void __devexit
---
> static void

I found a patch on the vmware forum: http://communities.vmware.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0
using the patched driver.c provided by user HaoZhuyi there. Placed it in ~/Downloads.

3. Fix the vmci tarball: Untar, patch driver.c and tar again

cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source
sudo cp -a vmci.tar vmci.tar.806
sudo tar xf vmci.tar
cd vmci-only/linux
diff driver.c  ~/Downloads/driver.c
sudo cp -a ~/Downloads/driver.c .
cd ../..
sudo tar cf vmci.tar vmci-only

4. Run module configuration from the command line again

sudo /usr/bin/vmware-modconfig --icon=vmware-workstation --appname=VMware

Thus, I got Workstation 8.0.6 up and running on Knoppix 7.2.
BUT: I wasn't allowed to enter my Vs 8 license key - button didn't work...