Unable to start VMWare Workstation after upgrade to 13.04

Hit same problem here with Ubuntu 13.04 last month. At the time, upgrading to VMWare player 5.0.2 build-1031769 solved the problem. Fast forward a month, hit a new problem today after recent 13.04 updates, again VMWare would not start. Latest VM player version is still 5.0.2. Google lead me to this explanation:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/446490?start=0&tstart=0

Running the following vmware command with root privs solved the problem for me:

sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

HTH

This worked for me:

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r) open-vm-dkms
sudo ln -s /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)/include/generated/uapi/linux/version.h /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)/include/linux/version.h

then

sudo vmware-config-tools.pl

... and you are done.

I installed the suggested packages as above, but it still gave me the same error. Installing the latest VMWare Player solved the problem.

I already had the latest VMWare Player installed with the exact same problem. Simply reinstalling did help, i.e. uninstalling first and then installing again:

sudo vmware-installer -u vmware-player
sudo bash ~/Downloads/VMware-Player-5.0.2-1031769.x86_64.txt

I tried all of the solutions above including a fresh install and it still would not start. It still said, "Before you can run VMware, several modules must be compiled and loaded into the kernel CANCEL / INSTALL"

After much research, what I had to do is this: I opened a terminal and then entered:

sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools open-vm-tools-dev open-vm-dkms open-vm-toolbox open-vm-tools-dev

and then:

sudo apt-get install gcc

and then:

sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all --appname="VMware Player" --icon="vmware-player"

It started right up after that. I hope this helps.

Per the Ubuntu VMWare Player install page, use

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)

to install the headers. Then, you can either let it install or you can uninstall and reinstall vmware player.

It looks like the main issue with vmware workstation on 13.04 is compiling modules like vmci.ko. The easiest way to get these is to do apt-get install open-vm-dkms. This installs vmci.ko, and friends.

YMMV, but if you have trouble with vmci-related errors (in Linux Kernel 3.8.*), this bash script posted by vincent may work. Use it after uninstalling the VMWare product first and then installing again:

#!/bin/bash
if [[ $UID != 0 ]]; then
    echo "Please run this script with sudo:"
    echo "sudo $0 $*"
    exit 1
fi

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

cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source
sudo tar -xf vmci.tar
cd vmci-only/linux
sudo sed '127s/.*/   .remove = vmci_remove_device,/' driver.c > driver.c.tmp
mv driver.c.tmp driver.c
sudo sed '1753s/.*/static int/' driver.c > driver.c.tmp
mv driver.c.tmp driver.c
sudo sed '1981s/.*/static void/' driver.c > driver.c.tmp
mv driver.c.tmp driver.c
cd ../..
sudo tar -cf vmci.tar vmci-only/
sudo rm vmci-only/ -Rf
sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
sudo rm /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)/include/linux/version.h
echo "Done"

Also keep an eye for VMware article in Arch Linux's wiki. This article is mainly for Arch Linux but most of patches/tricks/workarounds can be applied for Ubuntu too.

First, uninstall VMWare workstation using the command

sudo vmware-installer --uninstall-product vmware-workstation  

then install the following dependencies dpkg-dev, g++, gcc, lib6-dev, libc-dev, make using the command below

sudo apt install build-essential
sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
sudo apt update
sudo reboot

Finally, reinstall VMWare workstation.