Kernel 4.12-rc1 is out – one day early – and brief details are here:  http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1705.1/03964.html

The release includes the reverted GPL/MIT licence changes in refcount.c, and the latest NVIDIA drivers compile/load OK, now:

 ...........................
Building modules, stage 2.
 MODPOST 4 modules
 CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-381.22/kernel/nvidia-drm.mod.o
 LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-381.22/kernel/nvidia-drm.ko
 CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-381.22/kernel/nvidia-modeset.mod.o
 LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-381.22/kernel/nvidia-modeset.ko
 CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-381.22/kernel/nvidia-uvm.mod.o
 LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-381.22/kernel/nvidia-uvm.ko
 CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-381.22/kernel/nvidia.mod.o
 LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-381.22/kernel/nvidia.ko
make[2]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-4.12-rc1'
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-4.12-rc1'

4.11-patched VMware 12.5.5 fails to compile..   vmnet is OK, but vmmon fails:

............................
In file included from /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon-only/./include/pgtbl.h:25:0,
 from /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c:99:
/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)
 ^~~~~~~~~~

Robert Gadsdon.    May 13, 2017.