Just updated the test system to Kernel 3.14-rc1, and did the usual tests with the latest VMware (10.0.1) and NVIDIA (331.38).

VMware compile failed with the VMware version of vmci, but this can be fixed by selecting the kernel.org versions of these modules, from the standard 3.14-rc1 source tree.   The vmci module can be found under ‘Misc devices‘, and the resulting module will be called vmw_vmci.ko, to distinguish it from the VMware version (vmci.ko)..   You will also need to select/install the kernel.org version of vsock, which can be found under ‘Networking options / Virtual Socket protocol‘  (The ‘VMware VMCI transport for Virtual Sockets’ is only for Linux guests).   Confusingly, the resulting module is called vsock.ko – the same as the VMware one..   You have to select both these kernel.org versions of the modules, as the VMware version of vsock will fail to compile with the kernel.org version of vmci..

When the 3.14-rc1 kernel with these two kernel.org versions of the modules is compiled and installed / running, then run

# vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

– and this script is able to detect the previously-compiled modules, and only compile the remaining VMware modules, and install everything correctly..

The NVIDIA 331.38 driver (with the 3.13 patch) fails to compile:

.........
/usr/src/linux-3.14-rc1/include/acpi/acpi_drivers.h:98:43: warning: its scope is only this definition or declaration, which is probably not what you want [enabled by default]
/home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-331.38-custom/kernel/nv-acpi.c:58:21: error: variable ‘nv_acpi_driver_template’ has initializer but incomplete type
 static const struct acpi_driver nv_acpi_driver_template = {
                     ^
/home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-331.38-custom/kernel/nv-acpi.c:59:5: error: unknown field ‘name’ specified in initializer
     .name = "NVIDIA ACPI Video Driver",
     ^
/home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-331.38-custom/kernel/nv-acpi.c:59:5: warning: excess elements in struct initializer [enabled by default]
/home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-331.38-custom/kernel/nv-acpi.c:59:5: warning: (near initialization for ‘nv_acpi_driver_template’) [enabled by default]
/home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-331.38-custom/kernel/nv-acpi.c:60:5: error: unknown field ‘class’ specified in initializer
     .class = "video",
     ^
/home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-331.38-custom/kernel/nv-acpi.c:60:5: warning: excess elements in struct initializer [enabled by default]
/home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-331.38-custom/kernel/nv-acpi.c:60:5: warning: (near initialization for ‘nv_acpi_driver_template’) [enabled by default]
/home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-331.38-custom/kernel/nv-acpi.c:65:5: error: unknown field ‘ids’ specified in initializer
     .ids = ACPI_VIDEO_HID,...   etc. etc.......

Hopefully there will be a patch for this soon…    I am getting to the stage where I might be tempted to try nouveau, again, but only if it will work correctly with VMware guests, as previously I found that VMware still complained about ‘No 3D Acceleration’, despite the fact that nouveau was configured OK, and 3D was ‘available’ and working for other applications, and ”Enable S3TC texture compression” had been selected..

Robert Gadsdon.  February 3, 2014.