VMware
Related articles
This article is about installing VMware in Arch Linux; you may also be interested in VMware/Installing Arch as a guest.
Contents
- 1 Installation
- 2 Configuration
- 3 Launching the application
- 4 Tips and tricks
-
5 Troubleshooting
- 5.1 /dev/vmmon not found
- 5.2 Kernel headers for version 4.x-xxxx were not found. If you installed them[...]
- 5.3 USB devices not recognized
- 5.4 The installer fails to start
- 5.5 Unable to download VMware Tools for Guests
- 5.6 Incorrect login/password when trying to access VMware remotely
- 5.7 Issues with ALSA output
- 5.8 Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is running
- 5.9 Segmentation fault at startup due to old Intel microcode
- 5.10 Guests have incorrect system clocks or are unable to boot: "[...]timeTracker_user.c:234 bugNr=148722"
- 5.11 Networking on Guests not available after system restart
- 5.12 GUI doesn't show after upgrade
- 5.13 Kernel modules fail to build after Linux kernel 4.7
- 5.14 Workstation Server service does not start
- 6 Uninstallation
Installation
Install the correct dependencies:
-
fuse - the
vmware-vmblock-fuse
service is favored over thevmblock
module, and the vmblock module not built anymore without disabling fuse in the kernel - gtkmm - for the GUI
- linux-headers - for module compilation
- ncurses5-compat-libsAUR - needed by at least the installer
Download the latest VMware Workstation Pro or Player (or a beta version, if available).
Start the installation:
# sh VMware-edition-version.release.architecture.bundle
For the System service scripts directory
, use /etc/init.d
(the default).
Configuration
Kernel modules
- VMware Workstation 12.5 supports kernel 4.6 and 4.7 out of the box.
- VMware Workstation 12 and 12.1 only supports kernels up to 4.4. For 4.6 and later, a source modification is needed, see #Kernel modules fail to build after Linux 4.7.
- VMware 11 and older require patching the VMCI/VSOCK sources. This is automated by installing the vmware-patchAUR package.
systemd services
(Optional) Instead of using /etc/init.d/vmware
(start|stop|status|restart
) and /usr/bin/vmware-usbarbitrator
directly to manage the services, you may also use .service
files (also available in the vmware-systemd-servicesAUR package, and also included in vmware-patchAUR):
/etc/systemd/system/vmware.service
[Unit] Description=VMware daemon Requires=vmware-usbarbitrator.service Before=vmware-usbarbitrator.service After=network.target [Service] ExecStart=/etc/init.d/vmware start ExecStop=/etc/init.d/vmware stop PIDFile=/var/lock/subsys/vmware RemainAfterExit=yes [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target
/etc/systemd/system/vmware-usbarbitrator.service
[Unit] Description=VMware USB Arbitrator Requires=vmware.service After=vmware.service [Service] ExecStart=/usr/bin/vmware-usbarbitrator ExecStop=/usr/bin/vmware-usbarbitrator --kill RemainAfterExit=yes [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target
Add this service as well, if you want to connect to your VMware Workstation installation from another Workstation Server Console:
/etc/systemd/system/vmware-workstation-server.service
[Unit] Description=VMware Workstation Server Requires=vmware.service After=vmware.service [Service] ExecStart=/etc/init.d/vmware-workstation-server start ExecStop=/etc/init.d/vmware-workstation-server stop PIDFile=/var/lock/subsys/vmware-workstation-server RemainAfterExit=yes [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target
After which you can enable them on boot.
Launching the application
To open VMware Workstation Pro:
$ vmware
or Player:
$ vmplayer
Tips and tricks
Entering the Workstation Pro license key
From terminal
# /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx-debug --new-sn XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
Where XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
is your license key.
From GUI
If the above does not work, you can try:
# /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-enter-serial
Extracting the VMware BIOS
$ objcopy /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx -O binary -j bios440 --set-section-flags bios440=a bios440.rom.Z $ perl -e 'use Compress::Zlib; my $v; read STDIN, $v, '$(stat -c%s "./bios440.rom.Z")'; $v = uncompress($v); print $v;' < bios440.rom.Z > bios440.rom
Extracting the installer
To view the contents of the installer .bundle
:
$ sh VMware-edition-version.release.architecture.bundle --extract /tmp/vmware-bundle/
Using the modified BIOS
If and when you decide to modify the extracted BIOS you can make your virtual machine use it by moving it to ~/vmware/Virtual_machine_name
:
$ mv bios440.rom ~/vmware/Virtual_machine_name/
then adding the name to the Virtual_machine_name.vmx
file:
~/vmware/Virtual_machine_name/Virtual_machine_name.vmx
bios440.filename = "bios440.rom"
Using DKMS to manage the modules
The Dynamic Kernel Module Support (DKMS) can be used to manage VMware modules and to void from re-running vmware-modconfig
each time the kernel changes. The following example uses a custom Makefile
to compile and install the modules through vmware-modconfig
. Afterwards they are removed from the current kernel tree.
Preparation
First, install the dkms package.
Then create a source directory for the Makefile
and the dkms.conf
:
# mkdir /usr/src/vmware-modules-12/
Build configuration
Fetch the files with git or use the ones below.
1) Using Git
$ cd /tmp $ git clone git://github.com/bawaaaaah/dkms-workstation.git $ sed -i 's/9/12/' dkms-workstation/dkms.conf # cp dkms-workstation/Makefile dkms-workstation/dkms.conf /usr/src/vmware-modules-12/
2) Manual setup
The dkms.conf
describes the module names and the compilation/installation procedure. AUTOINSTALL="yes"
tells the modules to be recompiled/installed automatically each time:
/usr/src/vmware-modules-12/dkms.conf
PACKAGE_NAME="vmware-modules" PACKAGE_VERSION="12" MAKE[0]="make all" CLEAN="make clean" BUILT_MODULE_NAME[0]="vmmon" BUILT_MODULE_LOCATION[0]="modules" BUILT_MODULE_NAME[1]="vmnet" BUILT_MODULE_LOCATION[1]="modules" BUILT_MODULE_NAME[2]="vmblock" BUILT_MODULE_LOCATION[2]="modules" BUILT_MODULE_NAME[3]="vmci" BUILT_MODULE_LOCATION[3]="modules" BUILT_MODULE_NAME[4]="vsock" BUILT_MODULE_LOCATION[4]="modules" DEST_MODULE_LOCATION[0]="/extra/vmware" DEST_MODULE_LOCATION[1]="/extra/vmware" DEST_MODULE_LOCATION[2]="/extra/vmware" DEST_MODULE_LOCATION[3]="/extra/vmware" DEST_MODULE_LOCATION[4]="/extra/vmware" AUTOINSTALL="yes"
and now the Makefile
:
/usr/src/vmware-modules-12/Makefile
KERNEL := $(KERNELRELEASE) HEADERS := /usr/lib/modules/$(KERNEL)/build/include GCC := $(shell vmware-modconfig --console --get-gcc) DEST := /lib/modules/$(KERNEL)/vmware TARGETS := vmmon vmnet vmblock vmci vsock LOCAL_MODULES := $(addsuffix .ko, $(TARGETS)) all: $(LOCAL_MODULES) mkdir -p modules/ mv *.ko modules/ rm -rf $(DEST) depmod $(HEADERS)/linux/version.h: ln -s $(HEADERS)/generated/uapi/linux/version.h $(HEADERS)/linux/version.h %.ko: $(HEADERS)/linux/version.h vmware-modconfig --console --build-mod -k $(KERNEL) $* $(GCC) $(HEADERS) vmware/ cp -f $(DEST)/$@ . clean: rm -rf modules/
Installation
The modules can then be installed with:
# dkms install vmware-modules/12 -k $(uname -r)
Enable 3D graphics on Intel and Optimus
Some graphics drivers are blacklisted by default, due to poor and/or unstable 3D acceleration. After enabling Accelerate 3D graphics, the log may show something like:
Disabling 3D on this host due to presence of Mesa DRI driver. Set mks.gl.allowBlacklistedDrivers = TRUE to override.
This means the following:
~/.vmware/preferences
mks.gl.allowBlacklistedDrivers = TRUE
Troubleshooting
/dev/vmmon not found
The full error is:
Could not open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory. Please make sure that the kernel module `vmmon' is loaded.
This means that at least the vmmon
module is not loaded. See the #systemd services section for automatic loading.
Kernel headers for version 4.x-xxxx were not found. If you installed them[...]
Install the headers (linux-headers).
USB devices not recognized
If not using the systemd service to automatically handle the services, you need to manually start the vmware-usbarbitrator
binary as root each time.
To start:
# vmware-usbarbitrator
To stop:
# vmware-usbarbitrator --kill
The installer fails to start
If you just get back to the prompt when opening the .bundle
, then you probably have a deprecated or broken version of the VMware installer and it should removed (you may also refer to the uninstallation section of this article):
# rm -r /etc/vmware-installer/
Unable to download VMware Tools for Guests
If after #Preventing crashes and freezes when checking for updates[broken link: invalid section] you are still unable to download the VMware Tools ISOs, you may either try running vmware
or vmplayer
as root, or downloading them directly from the VMware repository.
Navigate to: "application name / version / build ID / linux / packages/" and download the appropriate Tools.
Extract with:
$ tar -xvf vmware-tools-name-version-buildID.x86_64.component.tar
And install using the VMware installer:
# vmware-installer --install-component=/path/vmware-tools-name-version-buildID.x86_64.component
If the above does not work, try installing ncurses5-compat-libsAUR.
Incorrect login/password when trying to access VMware remotely
VMware Workstation provides the possibility to remotely manage Shared VMs through the vmware-workstation-server
service. However, this will fail with the error "incorrect username/password"
due to incorrect PAM configuration of the vmware-authd
service. To fix it, edit /etc/pam.d/vmware-authd
like this:
/etc/pam.d/vmware-authd
#%PAM-1.0 auth required pam_unix.so account required pam_unix.so password required pam_permit.so session required pam_unix.so
and restart the vmware
systemd service.
Now you can connect to the server with the credentials provided during the installation.
Issues with ALSA output
To fix sound quality issues or enabling proper HD audio output, first run:
$ aplay -L
If interested in playing 5.1 surround sound from the guest, look for surround51:CARD=vendor_name,DEV=num
, if experiencing quality issues, look for front:CARD=vendor_name,DEV=num
. Finally put the name in the .vmx
:
~/vmware/Virtual_machine_name/Virtual_machine_name.vmx
sound.fileName="surround51:CARD=Live,DEV=0" sound.autodetect="FALSE"
OSS emulation[broken link: invalid section] should also be disabled.
Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is running
To disable KVM
on boot, you can use something like:
/etc/modprobe.d/vmware.conf
blacklist kvm blacklist kvm-amd # For AMD CPUs blacklist kvm-intel # For Intel CPUs
Segmentation fault at startup due to old Intel microcode
Old Intel microcode may result in the following kind of segmentation fault at startup:
/usr/bin/vmware: line 31: 4941 Segmentation fault "$BINDIR"/vmware-modconfig --appname="VMware Workstation" --icon="vmware-workstation"
See Microcode for how to update the microcode.
Guests have incorrect system clocks or are unable to boot: "[...]timeTracker_user.c:234 bugNr=148722"
This is due to incomplete support of power management features (Intel SpeedStep and AMD PowerNow!/Cool'n'Quiet) in VMware Linux that vary the CPU frequency. In March 2012, with the release of linux 3.3-1 the maximum frequency Performance governor was replaced with the dynamic Ondemand. When the host CPU frequency changes, the Guest system clock runs too quickly or too slowly, but may also render the whole Guest unbootable.
To prevent this, the maximum host CPU frequency can be specified, and Time Stamp Counter (TSC) disabled, in the global configuration:
/etc/vmware/config
host.cpukHz = "X" # The maximum speed in KHz, e.g. 3GHz is "3000000". host.noTSC = "TRUE" # Keep the Guest system clock accurate even when ptsc.noTSC = "TRUE" # the time stamp counter (TSC) is slow.
Networking on Guests not available after system restart
This is likely due to the vmnet
module not being loaded [1]. See also the #systemd services section for automatic loading.
GUI doesn't show after upgrade
The following affects VMware Workstation and Player versions before 12.1.0. After upgrading to kernel 4.2 an existing installation of VMware does not start any of its GUI applications. This is because the LD library path no longer points to a compatible library. To fix this set your LD_LIBRARY_PATH in a terminal from which you run VMware.
$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libglibmm-2.4.so.1/:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
To make this change permanent only when running VMware Workstation add the following line at the beginning of the executable file:
/usr/bin/vmware
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libglibmm-2.4.so.1
For VMware Player make the same change in /usr/bin/vmplayer
.
Kernel modules fail to build after Linux kernel 4.7
As of VMware Workstation Pro 12.1, the module source needs to be modified to be successfully compiled [2][3]. Depending on the kernel version, execute the following commands.
Linux kernel 4.7
# cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source # tar xf vmmon.tar # mv vmmon.tar vmmon.old.tar # sed -r -i -e 's/get_user_pages(_remote)*/get_user_pages_remote/g' vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c # tar cf vmmon.tar vmmon-only # rm -r vmmon-only
# tar xf vmnet.tar # mv vmnet.tar vmnet.old.tar # sed -r -i -e 's/get_user_pages(_remote)*/get_user_pages_remote/g' vmnet-only/userif.c # sed -i -e 's/dev->trans_start = jiffies/netif_trans_update\(dev\)/g' vmnet-only/netif.c # tar cf vmnet.tar vmnet-only # rm -r vmnet-only
Linux kernel 4.8
# cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source # tar xf vmmon.tar # mv vmmon.tar vmmon.old.tar # sed -r -i -e 's/get_user_pages(_remote)*/get_user_pages_remote/g' vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c # sed -r -i -e 's/NR_ANON_PAGES/NR_ANON_MAPPED/g' vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c # tar cf vmmon.tar vmmon-only # rm -r vmmon-only
# tar xf vmnet.tar # mv vmnet.tar vmnet.old.tar # sed -r -i -e 's/get_user_pages(_remote)*/get_user_pages_remote/g' vmnet-only/userif.c # sed -i -e 's/dev->trans_start = jiffies/netif_trans_update\(dev\)/g' vmnet-only/netif.c # tar cf vmnet.tar vmnet-only # rm -r vmnet-only
Workstation Server service does not start
If you see this error ( Could not find administrative user. Error 127 ) in the output of
# systemctl status vmware-workstation-server
You may need to execute the following:
$ ln -s /usr/lib/vmware/bin/wssc-adminTool /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-wssc-adminTool $ chmod +x /usr/lib/vmware/bin/wssc-adminTool
Uninstallation
To uninstall VMware you need the product name (either vmware-workstation
or vmware-player
). To list all the installed products:
$ vmware-installer -l
and uninstall with (--required
skips the confirmation):
# vmware-installer -u product --required
Remember to also disable and remove the services:
# rm /etc/systemd/system/vmware.service # rm /etc/systemd/system/vmware-usbarbitrator.service
You may also want to have a look at the module directories in /usr/lib/modules/kernel_name/misc/
for any leftovers.