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While testing out Slackware64 13.1, I found that VMWare Workstation doesn’t like kernel 2.6.33.4.

Installing VMWare workstation from the bundle worked fine, but it won’t run because the VMWare modules don’t compile.  Running vmware-modconfig –console –install-all gives the cryptic message: “gcc and kernel headers must be installed.”

Um, gcc and the kernel headers are installed!

After a little digging, I found this VMware Fusion 3 on Mac OSX howto posted by Chris Willing at The University of Queensland Visilab: http://www.vislab.uq.edu.au/howto/vmware.html

This gave me my first clue: the files autoconf.h and utsrelease.h have moved from include/linux to include/generated.  As much as I hate to hack my kernel source, I opted to link these files in include/linux.

cd /usr/src/linux/include/linux/
ln -sf ../generated/autoconf.h .
ln -sf ../generated/utsrelease.h .

Now vmware-modconfig –console –install-all runs, but fails on compiling the vmnet stuff:

/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmnet-only/vnetUserListener.c:240: error: ‘TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE’ undeclared (first use in this function)

To fix this, I found the define for TASK_INTERUPTABLE (in /usr/src/linux/include/linux/sched.h). Now, to tell vnetUserListener.c about it:

cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/
cp vmnet.tar was_vmnet.tar
cd ~/tmp
tar xf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar
cd vmnet-only

In vnetUserListener,c, add the line:
#include <linux/sched.h>
after
#include "vnetInt.h"

cd ..
tar cf vmnet.tar vmnet-only
mv vmnet.tar /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/

Now vmware-modconfig –console –install-all dies on the vmci stuff.  As Chris Willing noted in the VMware Fusion 3 on Mac OSX (see above), adding a line to pgtbl.h fixes this:

cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/
 cp vmci.tar was_vmci.tar
 cd ~/tmp
 tar xf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmci.tar
 cd vmci-only/include

In pgtbl.h, add the line:
 #include <linux/sched.h>
 after
#include "compat_page.h"

cd ../..
tar cf vmci.tar vmci-only
mv vmci.tar /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/

Finally, it all compiles and we have a working VMWare Workstation install!