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Ulf Klose
Asked: 2010-03-04 17:04:31 +0800 CST

VMware Tools in Ubuntu guest on VMware Server 2 do not build

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When trying to build the VMware tools in my Ubuntu 9.10 64 bit guest on a VMware Server 2.0.2 host with Debian 5 I'm getting strange errors like:

Building the vmmemctl module.

Using 2.6.x kernel build system.
make: Gehe in Verzeichnis '/tmp/vmware-config8/vmmemctl-only'
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.31-19-server/build/include/.. SUBDIRS=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. modules
make[1]: Betrete Verzeichnis '/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.31-19-server'
  CC [M]  /tmp/vmware-config8/vmmemctl-only/backdoorGcc64.o
In file included from /tmp/vmware-config8/vmmemctl-only/backdoor.h:29,
             from /tmp/vmware-config8/vmmemctl-only/backdoorGcc64.c:38:
/tmp/vmware-config8/vmmemctl-only/vm_basic_types.h:108:7: warning: "__FreeBSD__" is not defined
  CC [M]  /tmp/vmware-config8/vmmemctl-only/os.o
In file included from /tmp/vmware-config8/vmmemctl-only/os.c:51:
/tmp/vmware-config8/vmmemctl-only/compat_wait.h:78: error: conflicting types for ‘poll_initwait’
include/linux/poll.h:70: note: previous declaration of ‘poll_initwait’ was here
make[2]: *** [/tmp/vmware-config8/vmmemctl-only/os.o] Fehler 1 
make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/vmware-config8/vmmemctl-only] Fehler 2
make[1]: Verlasse Verzeichnis '/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.31-19-server'
make: *** [vmmemctl.ko] Fehler 2
make: Verlasse Verzeichnis '/tmp/vmware-config8/vmmemctl-only'
Unable to build the vmmemctl module.

I googled half the Internet but couldn't come to a solution. None of the kernel modules seems to build correctly.

While googling I read something about a bug in this kernel tree.

ubuntu vmware-server kernel vmware-tools

5 Answers

  1. Ubuntu and VMWare do not, in my experience, play well together.

    http://chrysaor.info have done a bunch of work to create various Ubunutu VMWare Images that you can simply install and run. If you can start with a fresh image, I highly recommend them.

    They also have scripts to build and install VMTools onto Ubuntu: http://chrysaor.info/?page=faq but do not seem to have a script for 9.10 available.

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  2. You probably want something like this: http://communities.vmware.com/message/76957

    Older VMware products that do not support these newer distros will often have trouble compiling the VMware Tools against the newer kernels. The kernel headers can change a bunch and the source VMware ships for the various Tools modules doesn't change unless you upgrade to a new version.

    • 1

  3. Try to change the locale before running vmware-config-tools.

    export LC_ALL=C

    sudo vmware-config-tools.pl

    • 0

  4. Why not just use open-vm-tools and open-vm-source?

    • 0

  5. Try the vmware tools package from a later version of VMweare (player 3 for example) Server 2.02 isn't supported with Ubuntu 9.10

    • 0