I m using Ubuntu Desktop 14.0.4. Due to some reasons I need to upgrade to kernel 4.2.5. But after that VMWare Player(i believe version 12.x 64 bit linux) is not working. At the time of start up it is trying to compile the modules for the the new kernel. I uninstalled it and did a fresh install of VMWare Player but the same issue. It is looking for particular version of gcc which is not available.
Looked into this thread also another thread but not able to located gcc-5.2.1 version. Also not able to uninstall the previous version of gcc
This is my current version of gcc
root@ashu-HP-ENVY-Notebook:/var/log/vmware# gcc -v
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=gcc
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.8/lto-wrapper
Target: x86_64-linux-gnu
Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Ubuntu 4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04' --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.8/README.Bugs --enable-languages=c,c++,java,go,d,fortran,objc,obj-c++ --prefix=/usr --program-suffix=-4.8 --enable-shared --enable-linker-build-id --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.8 --libdir=/usr/lib --enable-nls --with-sysroot=/ --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-libstdcxx-time=yes --enable-gnu-unique-object --disable-libmudflap --enable-plugin --with-system-zlib --disable-browser-plugin --enable-java-awt=gtk --enable-gtk-cairo --with-java-home=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-gcj-4.8-amd64/jre --enable-java-home --with-jvm-root-dir=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-gcj-4.8-amd64 --with-jvm-jar-dir=/usr/lib/jvm-exports/java-1.5.0-gcj-4.8-amd64 --with-arch-directory=amd64 --with-ecj-jar=/usr/share/java/eclipse-ecj.jar --enable-objc-gc --enable-multiarch --disable-werror --with-arch-32=i686 --with-abi=m64 --with-multilib-list=m32,m64,mx32 --with-tune=generic --enable-checking=release --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --host=x86_64-linux-gnu --target=x86_64-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.8.4 (Ubuntu 4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04)
And here are the vmware logs
2016-01-24T02:40:12.095-07:00| usbArb| I125: Log for VMware USB Arbitration Service pid=2248 version=12.1.0 build=build-3215723 option=Release
2016-01-24T02:40:12.095-07:00| usbArb| I125: The process is 64-bit.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.095-07:00| usbArb| I125: Host codepage=UTF-8 encoding=UTF-8
2016-01-24T02:40:12.095-07:00| usbArb| I125: Host is Linux 4.2.5-040205-generic Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS
2016-01-24T02:40:12.094-07:00| usbArb| I125: VTHREAD initialize main thread 3 "usbArb" tid 2248
2016-01-24T02:40:12.094-07:00| usbArb| I125: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "/usr/lib/vmware/settings": No such file or directory.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.094-07:00| usbArb| I125: PREF Optional preferences file not found at /usr/lib/vmware/settings. Using default values.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.094-07:00| usbArb| I125: Could not expand environment variable HOME.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.094-07:00| usbArb| I125: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "~/.vmware/config": No such file or directory.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.094-07:00| usbArb| I125: PREF Optional preferences file not found at ~/.vmware/config. Using default values.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.094-07:00| usbArb| I125: Could not expand environment variable HOME.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.094-07:00| usbArb| I125: PREF Disabling user preferences because disableUserPreferences is set.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.094-07:00| usbArb| I125: PREF Failed to load user preferences.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT --- GLOBAL SETTINGS /usr/lib/vmware/settings
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT --- NON PERSISTENT
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT --- USER PREFERENCES
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT --- USER DEFAULTS ~/.vmware/config
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT --- HOST DEFAULTS /etc/vmware/config
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT NETWORKING = "yes"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT VMBLOCK_CONFED = "yes"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT gksu.rootMethod = "sudo"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT libdir = "/usr/lib/vmware"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT VMCI_CONFED = "yes"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT VSOCK_CONFED = "yes"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT initscriptdir = "/etc/init.d"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT authd.fullpath = "/usr/sbin/vmware-authd"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT bindir = "/usr/bin"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT installerDefaults.componentDownloadEnabled = "yes"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT installerDefaults.autoSoftwareUpdateEnabled.epoch = "8058385214"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT vix.config.version = "1"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT player.product.version = "12.1.0"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT installerDefaults.dataCollectionEnabled.epoch = "7384059603"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT installerDefaults.dataCollectionEnabled = "yes"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT installerDefaults.transferVersion = "1"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT installerDefaults.autoSoftwareUpdateEnabled = "yes"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT product.buildNumber = "3272444"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT --- SITE DEFAULTS /usr/lib/vmware/config
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.help = "introduction.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.configurationEditor = "config_editor_newvm.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.ideConfig = "devices_virtualdrive.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.floppyConfig = "devices_floppy.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.mouseConfig = "devices_mouse.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.netConfig = "devices_netadapter.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.parallelConfig = "devices_parallel.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.serialConfig = "devices_serial.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.soundConfig = "devices_sound.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.memConfig = "configvm_memory.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.miscConfig = "configvm.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.usbConfig = "devices_usb.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.displayConfig = "configvm_display-problems.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.tools = "vmtools.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: USBArbRuleStore: Loading device rules from '/etc/vmware/usbarb.rules'.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: VMware USB Arbitration Service Version 15.1.7
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: USBGL: USB Sysfs found at /dev/bus/usb
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: USBArb: Attempting to connect to existing arbitrator on /var/run/vmware/usbarbitrator-socket.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: SOCKET creating new socket, connecting to /var/run/vmware/usbarbitrator-socket
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: SOCKET connect failed, error 2: No such file or directory
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: USBArb: Failed to connect to the existing arbitrator.
This answer was lifted from the vmware community forum and describes manually compiling the VMWare services because the kernel being used is newer than the distro available.