Kernel 5.17-rc1 is due out soon, and so I tested the latest (Jan 16th) Github version, to see if there were any surprises..

The latest NVIDIA driver – 510.39.01 – compiled and loaded/ran OK:
………….
ld -r -o /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-510.39.01/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nv-modeset-interface.o /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-510.39.01/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nvidia-modeset-linux.o /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-510.39.01/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nv-kthread-q.o
MODPOST /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-510.39.01/kernel/Module.symvers
CC [M] /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-510.39.01/kernel/nvidia-drm.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-510.39.01/kernel/nvidia-drm.ko
CC [M] /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-510.39.01/kernel/nvidia-modeset.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-510.39.01/kernel/nvidia-modeset.ko
CC [M] /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-510.39.01/kernel/nvidia-peermem.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-510.39.01/kernel/nvidia-peermem.ko
CC [M] /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-510.39.01/kernel/nvidia-uvm.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-510.39.01/kernel/nvidia-uvm.ko
CC [M] /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-510.39.01/kernel/nvidia.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-510.39.01/kernel/nvidia.ko
make[1]: Leaving directory ‘/usr/src/linux-5.17-rc0’

There is already a ‘testing’ patch available for VMware 16.2.1 and Kernel 5.17,  at https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules/tree/tmp/workstation-16.2.1-k5.17 .
This also compiled and loaded/ran OK..   and will (eventually) become part of the ‘standard’ 16.2.1 patchset..

Of course, there is still plenty of time for more 5.17 changes to break stuff, so YMMV…

Robert Gadsdon.   January 17th 2022.