Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

Nightwulf · 2016-05-08 10:43:26

Hi there,

today the updates for gcc and the kernel came across and since then the VMWare Player stopped working because the modules could not be recompiled.
If I try to do it manually, it complains as follows:

vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
Failed to get gcc information.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Nightwulf

mingumo · 2016-05-08 15:30:48

Try to manually compile the modules.

# create a temp folder and copy the module files to the folder.
mkdir ~/vmmodules
cp /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon.tar ~/vmmodules/

# make the modules manually
tar -xvf vmmon.tar
cd vmmon-only
make
cd ..
sudo cp vmmon.o /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/misc/vmmon.ko.gz

tar -xvf vmnet.tar
cd vmnet-only
make
cd ..
sudo cp vmnet.o /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/misc/vmnet.ko.gz

#Then reload the modules and restart vmware service, vmplayer should works now.
sudo depmod -a
sudo systemctl restart vmware

Nightwulf · 2016-05-08 15:46:00

Partly solved.

hence the vmware-modconfig tool doesn't work, I tried to build the modules by hand. This works for the vmmon and vmnet modules:

cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source
tar xvf vmmon.tar
cd vmmon-only
make
gzip vmmon.ko
cp vmmon.ko.gz /lib/modules/4.5.2-1-ARCH/kernel/drivers/misc/
cd ..
rm vmmon.o
rm -Rf vmmon-only

Same procedure for vmnet.tar.

The other modules fail with some errors. The vmware-player starts now but has no networking :-(

I'll report if I succeed building the rest of the modules.

TheChickenMan · 2016-05-08 15:51:23

Have you tried compiling with the switch to ignore minor errors?

vmware-modconfig --gcc-ignore-minor

Nightwulf · 2016-05-08 15:57:12

I need to set the GTK-2.0 path manually, otherwise it will complain about libcanberra-gtk-module.so not found. It then runs without complaining but doesn't build the modules...it returns in one second without building anything.

[root@nightwulf source]# GTK_PATH=:/usr/lib/gtk-2.0 vmware-modconfig --gcc-ignore-minor
[root@nightwulf source]#

edward.81 · 2016-05-08 16:35:27

TheChickenMan wrote:

Have you tried compiling with the switch to ignore minor errors?
vmware-modconfig --gcc-ignore-minor

I get stuck too with vmplayer 12
With this switch i get:
$ vmware-modconfig --gcc-ignore-minor --console --install-all
[...]
/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-modconfig-console: unrecognized option '--gcc-ignore-minor'
[...]

bstaletic · 2016-05-08 18:26:31

There's been one signifcant change in gcc behavior in gcc-6.1.0, namely it doesn't check if "this" pointer is null by default. This shouldn't prevent compiling, but be cautious when using gcc-6.1. Or one could reenable those check and forget about them.

If I were using gcc-6 I'd check the exact parameter to reenable the checks.

Ambyjkl · 2016-05-08 20:12:19

I was facing the same issues. The quickest fix I could think of was downgrading gcc and gcc-libs. You can use the downgrade package from AUR or you can directly download gcc and gcc-libs 5.3.0-5 from some arch package mirror and use pacman -U to install them. Then vmware works like a charm.

Last edited by Ambyjkl (2016-05-08 20:12:49)

bstaletic · 2016-05-08 20:40:05

Has anyone reported the regression upstream?

Nightwulf · 2016-05-08 21:40:06

bstaletic wrote:

Has anyone reported the regression upstream?

I'm not quiet sure whom to report. VMWare isn't an official arch package. So report to the kernel guys or the gcc guys?

Nightwulf · 2016-05-08 21:47:04

Ok, Downgrade of gcc and gcc-libs did the job. But the problem itself isn't solved, so I don't mark the thread as "solved".

TheChickenMan · 2016-05-08 22:47:58

Nightwulf wrote:

bstaletic wrote:
Has anyone reported the regression upstream?
I'm not quiet sure whom to report. VMWare isn't an official arch package. So report to the kernel guys or the gcc guys?

It would need to be reported to the VMWare guys.

mingumo · 2016-05-09 03:05:53

btw, I reinstalled VMWare Player 12.1.1 before I manually compiled vmmon and vmnet, I did not compiled other modules, and now It works good with network.
Maybe the VMWare installer did something.

rakotomandimby · 2016-05-09 06:55:10

mingumo wrote:

btw, I reinstalled VMWare Player 12.1.1 before I manually compiled vmmon and vmnet, I did not compiled other modules, and now It works good with network.
Maybe the VMWare installer did something.

I'll try that. Also encountering this problem...

rakotomandimby · 2016-05-09 07:05:12

By the way, this vmware forum entry about "gcc 5.1: Failed to get gcc information." would also help.

glavin · 2016-05-09 12:59:00

mingumo wrote:

btw, I reinstalled VMWare Player 12.1.1 before I manually compiled vmmon and vmnet, I did not compiled other modules, and now It works good with network.
Maybe the VMWare installer did something.

Reinstalling VMware Player worked for me too, ofcourse had to manually compile vmmon and vmnet. Now all modules are starting and working properly.

Cheers

Scimmia · 2016-05-09 13:02:01

I'd bet it would work fine with kernel 4.5.3 in testing

TheChickenMan · 2016-05-09 13:58:37

Scimmia wrote:

I'd bet it would work fine with kernel 4.5.3 in testing

I'm sorry but could you explain this? Why would the kernel upgrade cause VM Workstation to compile differently?

Scimmia · 2016-05-09 15:47:33

TheChickenMan wrote:

Scimmia wrote:
I'd bet it would work fine with kernel 4.5.3 in testing
I'm sorry but could you explain this? Why would the kernel upgrade cause VM Workstation to compile differently?

Because 4.5.2 was built with gcc 5.3. 4.5.3 was built with gcc 6.1. This matters when building modules for the kernel.

rakotomandimby · 2016-05-09 15:51:18

I manually built "vmmon" and "vmnet" with the installed gcc 6.1 and it works now.

But, now it's Thunderbird that doesnt buid... :-( (yet another topic, off here)

TheChickenMan · 2016-05-09 19:38:44

Scimmia wrote:

TheChickenMan wrote:
Scimmia wrote:
I'd bet it would work fine with kernel 4.5.3 in testing
I'm sorry but could you explain this? Why would the kernel upgrade cause VM Workstation to compile differently?
Because 4.5.2 was built with gcc 5.3. 4.5.3 was built with gcc 6.1. This matters when building modules for the kernel.

Thank you.

netadmin · 2016-05-10 14:27:24

This was fixed for me today with taking kernel and headers 4.5.3-1. After taking the upgrade and then allowing PACMAN to install GCC 6.1.1-1 VMWARE started fine.

andav · 2016-05-16 11:03:01

netadmin wrote:

This was fixed for me today with taking kernel and headers 4.5.3-1. After taking the upgrade and then allowing PACMAN to install GCC 6.1.1-1 VMWARE started fine.

i can confirm that vmware player is also working for me now without a problem.

Arch Linux

#1 2016-05-08 10:43:26

Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#2 2016-05-08 15:30:48

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#3 2016-05-08 15:46:00

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#4 2016-05-08 15:51:23

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#5 2016-05-08 15:57:12

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#6 2016-05-08 16:35:27

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#7 2016-05-08 18:26:31

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#8 2016-05-08 20:12:19

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#9 2016-05-08 20:40:05

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#10 2016-05-08 21:40:06

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#11 2016-05-08 21:47:04

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#12 2016-05-08 22:47:58

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#13 2016-05-09 03:05:53

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#14 2016-05-09 06:55:10

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#15 2016-05-09 07:05:12

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#16 2016-05-09 12:59:00

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#17 2016-05-09 13:02:01

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#18 2016-05-09 13:58:37

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#19 2016-05-09 15:47:33

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#20 2016-05-09 15:51:18

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#21 2016-05-09 19:38:44

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#22 2016-05-10 14:27:24

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

#23 2016-05-16 11:03:01

Re: Update of kernel to 4.5.2 and gcc to 6.1 causes VMWare Player to fail

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