Installing VMware Workstation on Solus

SuperJC710e

Hi Folks,

Just a terse note on installing VMware Workstation on Solus. We used to have some useful references on the old forum that helped me, but those are gone. Therefore, I thought I would post some quick notes here, to help my future self and anyone else!

First of all, VMware Workstation will install fine, but will not work with the stock installation because the kernel modules will not build. To fix that you need to install a few items, as below:

sudo eopkg install -c system.devel

That will install the necessary build tools, but you need a few more items. (You might need linux-lts-headers if you are running the lts kernel.)

sudo eopkg install libelf-devel linux-current-headers linux-headers

It's best if you install those before you install VMware Workstation, however if you've already installed you could run this to build the modules:

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

You may need to restart the vmware service to activate the modules:

sudo systemctl restart vmware.service

This seems to work for the 14.0.x and 15.0.x series (at least the ones I had tried) on the 4.x.x kernel series. However, this broke with the recent upgrade to the 5.x.x kernel. There is a solution however, found here:

https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules

Just follow the instructions provided in the README.md and INSTALL.md files.

It's also useful to have the USB arbitrator service running, to do that you can copy the unit files from the wiki for Arch Linux (actually that whole page has some useful information!):

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/VMware#systemd_services

Hopefully I remembered everything because it's been a little while since I did that main install.

b2gcoder

Current install of VMWare Workstation do indeed break on the 5.x.x kernel as indicated by SuperJC710e . Compiling the fix by mkubecek as he listed does resolve the problem. Thanks SuperJC710e for bringing this to light.

SOLUSfiddler

SuperJC710e
Wow, that is super nice of you to give us guidance BEFORE horribly frustrating installation processes!
I've given up on VMs some time ago because I couldn't find out what the hell went wrong every single time I tried to run a VM and try out all those interesting distros out there.

Christ, you do have to spend some time with your computer though to get it all working nicely, can we have like three Sundays in a row for that?

Shall save your post for later now and try it - thanks!

SOLUSfiddler

SuperJC710e

b2gcoder Glad to be of assistance!

It took me a bit of searching to rediscover the great work of mkubecek with regard to those patches, so I thought it would be good to share! It seemed to work even easier than the last time I needed to use it way back on a earlier version of Solus...!

Justin

VirtualBox works just fine. But if you need VMWare player this is good. Thanks for the guide @SuperJC710e.

SuperJC710e

Since we are on a rolling release and the kernel updates often, also, one might install an updated version of VMware Workstation (or Player) I created a quick and dirty script that can be run to do the updates...

#!/bin/sh

# Uncomment this is you want some more verbose output to see what is happening
#set -x

## Variables
# Change this directory name if you want to place these somewhere else
_projectdir=~/projects
_gitrepo=https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules.git
_wsversion=$(awk '/^product.version/{gsub("\"","");print $3}' /etc/vmware/config)
#_wsversion=$(vmware --version|cut -d' ' -f3)

## Main
echo;echo "Checking out the patches for the vmware modules and installing as necessary ... ";echo
# Check for project directory and create if necessary
if [ ! -d ${_projectdir} ];then
	mkdir -p ${_projectdir}
fi
# Check if we already have the git repo cloned and clone if necessary
if [ ! -d ${_projectdir}/vmware-host-modules ];then
	cd ${_projectdir}
	git clone ${_gitrepo}
fi
# Move into the cloned repo
cd ${_projectdir}/vmware-host-modules/
# Checkout the branch for the installed version of workstation
git checkout workstation-${_wsversion}
# Make sure we are up to date
git pull
# Clean up previous attempts
make clean
# Create the tarballs
make tarballs
# Check if we've backed up the original module sources for the current version if not, then do it
if [ ! -e /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon.tar.org.${_wsversion} -a ! -e /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar.org.${_wsversion} ];then
	# This syntax might not be portable to all shells...
	sudo cp /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon.tar{,.org.${_wsversion}}
	sudo cp /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar{,.org.${_wsversion}}
fi
# Copy the created tarballs into place
sudo cp vmmon.tar vmnet.tar /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/
# Build the modules for the current kernel
# If you get errors make sure you are running the msst recently installed kernel
# If you've updated, and there was a new kernel you will get errors if you haven't rebooted to it
sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
# Completed
echo;echo "DONE";echo

Caveats: As I only use Workstation, I don't know if some changes would be needed to make it work with Player. Also, this works in bash, but may or may not work in other shells...

RAM

SuperJC710e Beautiful! Works perfectly after I installed git

anthonydouwes

SuperJC710e
Legend! Thanks

Nibb31

Thanks !
However, this script needs a couple of mods to work with free VMware Player:
(damn, how do you insert code in this forum ???)

wsversion=$(awk '/^{player.product.version/{gsub}("\"","");print $3}' /etc/vmware/config)
...
git checkout player-${wsversion}

kyrios

Nibb31 (damn, how do you insert code in this forum ???)

There are mouse hover tooltips... Look for </> or use just standard markdown .

SuperJC710e

Nibb31 Could you post the contents of your /etc/vmware/config (obfuscate any sensitive data) so we could perhaps figure out a universal script?

Nibb31

The '</>' doesn't work. not sure what I'm doing wrong. I hate markdown.

Justin

Nibb31 Markdown is great! 😀

Nibb31

To work with VMware Player, you need to change the following lines:
wsversion=$(awk '/product.version/{gsub("\"","");print $3}' /etc/vmware/config)
to
wsversion=$(awk '/player.product.version/{gsub("\"","");print $3}' /etc/vmware/config)

and

git checkout workstation-${wsversion}
to
git checkout player-${wsversion}

I'm sorry, I can't seem to post an entire script or log with this forum software, but those are the only changes I made to the script to get it to work.

SuperJC710e

Nibb31 Thanks. This might work then:

#!/bin/sh

# Uncomment this is you want some more verbose output to see what is happening
#set -x

## Variables
# Change this directory name if you want to place these somewhere else
_projectdir=~/projects
_gitrepo=https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules.git
# Check if Workstation or Player
if [ $(grep -q "workstation.product.version" /etc/vmware/config;echo $?) -eq 0 ];then
	_product=workstation
else
	_product=player
fi
# Let's assume player and workstation versions are always the same
_vmwversion=$(awk '/^player.product.version/{gsub("\"","");print $3}' /etc/vmware/config)

## Main
echo;echo "Checking out the patches for the vmware modules and installing as necessary ... ";echo
# Check for project directory and create if necessary
if [ ! -d ${_projectdir} ];then
	mkdir -p ${_projectdir}
fi
# Check if we already have the git repo cloned and clone if necessary
if [ ! -d ${_projectdir}/vmware-host-modules ];then
	cd ${_projectdir}
	git clone ${_gitrepo}
fi
# Move into the cloned repo
cd ${_projectdir}/vmware-host-modules/
# Checkout the branch for the installed version of workstation
git checkout ${_product}-${_vmwversion}
# Make sure we are up to date
git pull
# Clean up previous attempts
make clean
# Create the tarballs
make tarballs
# Check if we've backed up the original module sources for the current version if not, then do it
if [ ! -e /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon.tar.org.${_vmwversion} -a ! -e /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar.org.${_vmwversion} ];then
	sudo cp /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon.tar /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon.tar.org.${_vmwversion}
	sudo cp /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar.org.${_vmwversion}
fi
# Copy the created tarballs into place
sudo cp vmmon.tar vmnet.tar /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/
# Build the modules for the current kernel
# If you get errors make sure you are running the msst recently installed kernel
# If you've updated, and there was a new kernel you will get errors if you haven't rebooted to it
sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
# Completed
echo;echo "DONE";echo

I haven't tested it yet though...

[Edit] I tested it in a VM, it works! I noticed, at least on my pretty clean install, that the install of Player wants another package called pcsc-lite so you need to do this:

sudo eopkg install pcsc-lite

[Edit 2] Well, the script works as created. However it does not appear to let VMware Player run, so something more might be needed still...or this might be because my test machine is a VM itself...Player does open on my bare metal machine where I also have Workstation installed and updated using this script.

Siva

SuperJC710e, can you give us step by step guidance if anything has changed as of today? I am very new to any kind of programming in linux. I am trying to install VM Workstation 15 Pro. Thanks.

SuperJC710e

anthonydouwes Legend! Thanks

You're welcome!

bryangti

Hi guys, I want to know if is there a video tutorial for newbies? I like SolusOS, but i can't install VMware Player and I need it to do homework from college. if you had installed it, I'm obviously doing something wrong but I don't know what. (sorry for my english).

SuperJC710e

bryangti Sorry, I not sure if there is a video tutorial. I currently do not have the time necessary to make such a video. Maybe there's something out there if you search around?

The instructions on the Arch wiki are quite good though. Try here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/VMware#Installation.

I generally use this command line:

./VMware-Workstation-Full-<version>-<build>.<arch>.bundle --console --required --eulas-agreed

Just replace the info in the "<" ">" sections with the appropriate info. Combine that with the info in my first post, and the script from my second version. I think you should be able to get it going that way...

SuperJC710e

Siva

I have not noticed a difference. I've upgraded to WS Pro 15, and continued to use the 2nd version of the script all without issue. Of course when a new kernel is installed, you have to make sure to reboot to it and then run the script. Should just work...I think! 🤣

Did you encounter some issues?