Kernel – 4.13-rc2 out – Still OK with Latest VMware (patched) and NVIDIA..

Posted on by July 24, 2017
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Kernel 4.13-rc2 has been released, and brief details of changes from -rc1 are here:  http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1707.2/06568.html

It used to be that if things were OK with the initial -rc version of the kernel, then all subsequent -rc versions were also OK, but in recent times, this has not always been the case..

I have quickly tested this with the latest NVIDIA (384.47) and VMware (12.5.7 with patched vmnet) and everything still works – the same as with -rc1..

Robert Gadsdon.  July 24, 2017.

 

VMware – Fix for Kernel 4.13-rc1 and vmnet, Already..

Posted on by July 15, 2017
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Thanks to fast work by dariusd at the VMware forum, there is already a fix for the vmnet compile failure with Kernel 4.13-rc1..

The patch can be found on this thread:  https://communities.vmware.com/message/2688967

I have tested it, and vmnet now compiles OK, and VMware 12.5.7 loads/runs on Kernel 4.13-rc1..

Robert Gadsdon.   July 15, 2017.

Kernel – 4.13-rc1 Released Early – OK with Latest NVIDIA, Breaks VMware..

Posted on by July 15, 2017
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Kernel 4.13-rc1 is out, a day earlier than usual, and brief details are here: http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1707.1/04719.html

The latest NVIDIA driver – 384.47 – compiles and loads OK:

 .....
Building modules, stage 2.
 MODPOST 4 modules
 CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.47/kernel/nvidia-drm.mod.o
 LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.47/kernel/nvidia-drm.ko
 CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.47/kernel/nvidia-modeset.mod.o
 LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.47/kernel/nvidia-modeset.ko
 CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.47/kernel/nvidia-uvm.mod.o
 LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.47/kernel/nvidia-uvm.ko
 CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.47/kernel/nvidia.mod.o
 LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.47/kernel/nvidia.ko
make[2]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-4.13-rc1'

VMware 12.5.7 vmmon compiles OK, but vmnet fails:

....................
/home/rgadsdon/kernel/vmnet-only/bridge.c: In function ‘VNetBridgeReceiveFromVNet’:
/home/rgadsdon/kernel/vmnet-only/bridge.c:639:14: error: passing argument 1 of ‘atomic_inc’ from incompatible pointer type [-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types]
 atomic_inc(&clone->users);
 ^
In file included from ./include/linux/atomic.h:4:0,
 from ./include/linux/rcupdate.h:38,
 from ./include/linux/rculist.h:10,
 from ./include/linux/pid.h:4,
 from ./include/linux/sched.h:13,
 from /home/rgadsdon/kernel/vmnet-only/bridge.c:25:
./arch/x86/include/asm/atomic.h:89:29: note: expected ‘atomic_t * {aka struct <anonymous> *}’ but argument is of type ‘refcount_t * {aka struct refcount_struct *}’
 static __always_inline void atomic_inc(atomic_t *v)
 ^~~~~~~~~~
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
make[2]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:303: /home/rgadsdon/kernel/vmnet-only/bridge.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [Makefile:1511: _module_/home/rgadsdon/kernel/vmnet-only] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-4.13-rc1'
make: *** [Makefile:120: vmnet.ko] Error 2

Robert Gadsdon.    July 15, 2017

Kernel – 4.12 Final Released – OK with Latest VMware and NVIDIA..

Posted on by July 2, 2017
1

Kernel 4.12 is out, and brief details of changes from -rc7 are here:  http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1707.0/00325.html    You can find more detailed info from the kernel git site: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/log/?h=v4.12&showmsg=1

The latest versions of VMware (12.5.7) and NVIDIA (384.47-beta and 381.22) compile and load/run OK with 4.12..

Robert Gadsdon.   July 2, 2017.

VMware – 12.5.7 Released – OK with Kernel 4.12, Still Needs GUI/GCC7 Workarounds..

Posted on by June 22, 2017
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VMware version 12.5.7 is out, and the release notes are here:  http://pubs.vmware.com/Release_Notes/en/workstation/12/workstation-1257-release-notes.html     As usual, not much actual detail, apart from “…some bug fixes and security updates.”

This version compiles OK with Kernel 4.12 (tested with 4.12-rc6), but the runtime GUI and GCC7 workarounds mentioned in previous articles are still needed, for ‘newer’ distros, such as Fedora 26….

Robert Gadsdon.   June 22, 2017.

Fedora – Fix for Broken Kodi on Fedora 25

Posted on by June 18, 2017
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More distro-specific than usual posts, but hopefully ‘useful’..

I found that Kodi on Fedora 25 would no longer play M2T/MTS files.    Frustratingly, there was no error shown, or apparent debug clue, but the program just exited without any messages, when playback of one of these file types was selected.

After checking associated libraries and not getting any clues, I did find that the Fedora 26 version played everything OK, despite the fact that the version (17.3-1) was the same as F25.      This was confirmed on four different systems..

I decided to try rebuilding the kodi rpm from source, using the ‘latest’ version, from here:

http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/development/rawhide/Everything/source/SRPMS/k/kodi-17.3-1.fc27.src.rpm

After sorting out and installing the required …devel.. rpms, the rpmbuild –rebuild on F25 completed OK, and after (force) updating with the resulting set of rpms, everything works OK again..      Slightly annoying to not have the cause of the problem, but at least this fixes it..

Robert Gadsdon.  June 18, 2017.

 

VMware – Clues for vmmon Kernel 4.12 fix?

Posted on by June 9, 2017
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In the thread on the VMware forum ( https://communities.vmware.com/thread/565157 ) there is a link to a potential patch for Kernel 4.12 support, but you are advised to not try to execute this, as – although it compiles OK – it will cause the host system to reboot without warning as soon as a client is started..   I have ‘tested’ this, and confirm that the host immediately reboots, without any console output!

I did mention in the earlier article that VirtualBox suffered from a similar problem, and it appears that they now have a solution ( https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/16725 ).    To see the changes that have been made, compare the old and new versions of memobj-r0drv-linux.c in the source tree..

Hopefully a fix will be available for VMware, soon..

Robert Gadsdon.   June 9, 2017.

VMware – Simple Fix for 12.5.6 Runtime with Fedora 26

Posted on by May 29, 2017
18

After further research, I have found a simple solution for the VMware 12.5.6 runtime, with Fedora 26, thanks to comments by ronengi and others on the Archlinux site ( https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/vmware-patch/ ).   This made sense, as the vmware-installer graphical interface still ran OK, despite the runtime vmware not doing so..

# cp -r /usr/lib/vmware-installer/2.1.0/lib/lib/libexpat.so.0 /usr/lib/vmware/lib
# cd /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libz.so.1
# mv -i libz.so.1 libz.so.1.old
# ln -s /usr/lib64/libz.so.1 .

Then just run the executable in the normal way  – # vmware

The kernel modules vmmon and vmnet still need to be manually compiled with gcc 7 and copied, as follows:

In the /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source directory, unTAR vmmon.tar and vmnet.tar, and then enter the resulting vmmon-only and vmnet-only directories and just type # make in each. Then create a /lib/modules/<kernel version>/misc directory, and copy vmmon.ko and vmnet.ko there, then # depmod -a.

I have still not found a solution for vmmon with Kernel 4.12-rc, but have reported the problem on the VMware forum..

Robert Gadsdon.   May 29, 2017

VMware – 12.5.6 Breaks Fedora 26 / GCC 7 Workaround..

Posted on by May 26, 2017
5

I had been testing VMware 12.5.6 – unsuccessfully – with Kernel 4.12-rc2, but on reverting to Kernel 4.11.3, I found that the vmware runtime workaround for Fedora 26 / GCC 7 ( see http://rglinuxtech.com/?p=1939 ) no longer worked, and produced the same result as before the modifications – no execution, and a return to the command prompt..

After further testing, I found that the only solution was to revert to VMware 12.5.5 – with the 4.11 vmmon/vmnet patches.    The workaround was successful, again..

Fedora 26 is due to be released in about six weeks time (but may slip..) and hopefully this workaround will be unnecessary, by then..

Robert Gadsdon.   May 26, 2017.

VMware – 12.5.6 Released – OK with Kernel 4.11, Still Not with 4.12, Breaks F26 Workaround..

Posted on by May 26, 2017
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VMware version 12.5.6 is out, and (brief) details are here: http://pubs.vmware.com/Release_Notes/en/workstation/12/workstation-1256-release-notes.html

In the release notes, it would be helpful if a bit more detail than just ” Bug fixes and security updates ” were given…

This version now works OK with Kernel 4.11 without any patches (tested with 4.11.1), but still fails (vmmon) with 4.12 (tested with 4.12-rc1):

...............................
/usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon-only/./include/pgtbl.h: In function ‘PgtblPGD2PTELocked’:
/usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon-only/./include/pgtbl.h:125:28: error: passing argument 1 of ‘pud_offset’ from incompatible pointer type [-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types]
 pud = compat_pud_offset(pgd, addr);
 ^
/usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon-only/./include/compat_pgtable.h:72:56: note: in definition of macro ‘compat_pud_offset’
 # define compat_pud_offset(pgd, address) pud_offset(pgd, address)
 ^~~
In file included from ./include/linux/mm.h:70:0,
 from /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon-only/./include/compat_page.h:23,
 from /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c:32:
./arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable.h:826:22: note: expected ‘p4d_t * {aka struct <anonymous> *}’ but argument is of type ‘compat_pgd_t * {aka struct <anonymous> *}’
 static inline pud_t *pud_offset(p4d_t *p4d, unsigned long address)
 ^~~~~~~~~~
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
make[2]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:303: /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon-only/linux/hostif.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [Makefile:1512: _module_/usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon-only] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-4.12-rc1'
make: *** [Makefile:120: vmmon.ko] Error 2

A similar compile failure also occurs with VirtualBox and Kernel 4.12: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/16725 , but there is no solution mentioned there – so far..

The rather messy workarounds are still needed for GCC 7 (Fedora 26 etc.) and details are here: http://rglinuxtech.com/?p=1939 , but remember that the library version numbers will now be different from the examples shown..

Update – May 26:  The workaround no longer works with 12.5.6 – see latest article..

Robert Gadsdon.   May 18, 2017.