Kernel 6.13-rc1 is out, and brief details are here:   https://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/2412.0/00203.html

VMware 17.6.1 compiles OK, with patches from here: https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/?h=vmware-workstation  There are now multiple patchsets available…

NVIDIA 550.35 throws an odd error, and compile/load fails:
.....
SYMLINK nvidia/nv-kernel.o
LD [M] nvidia.o
ld: cannot find ./nvidia/nv-kernel.o: No such file or directory
make[4]: *** [/usr/src/linux-6.13-rc1/scripts/Makefile.build:387: nvidia.o] Error 1
make[3]: *** [/usr/src/linux-6.13-rc1/Makefile:1989: .] Error 2
make[2]: *** [/usr/src/linux-6.13-rc1/Makefile:251: __sub-make] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-550.135/kernel'
make[1]: *** [Makefile:251: __sub-make] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-6.13-rc1'
make: *** [Makefile:115: modules] Error 2

and then:
...........
LD [M] nvidia-modeset.o
ld: cannot find ./nvidia-modeset/nv-modeset-kernel.o: No such file or directory
make[4]: *** [/usr/src/linux-6.13-rc1/scripts/Makefile.build:387: nvidia-modeset.o] Error 1
make[3]: *** [/usr/src/linux-6.13-rc1/Makefile:1989: .] Error 2
make[2]: *** [/usr/src/linux-6.13-rc1/Makefile:251: __sub-make] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-550.135/kernel'
make[1]: *** [Makefile:251: __sub-make] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-6.13-rc1'
make: *** [Makefile:115: modules] Error 2


These are due to the (incorrect??) handling of symlink creation, which has changed due to Kbuild updates in 6.13-rc1..
Details here:  https://github.com/NVIDIA/open-gpu-kernel-modules/issues/747
There is a patch available, for an older version of the driver, at:  https://gist.github.com/joanbm/d1f89391a4b20f4b56ba931ef6ca62da and thanks are due to Joan Bruguera (joanbm) for creating the fix..
I have modified this for 550.135, and this now compiles and runs successfully..   The patched code also works with Kernel 6.12  and the previous version of Kbuild (tested with 6.12.1)

There is another – frustrating – issue with Kernel 6.11 and later, and NVIDIA drivers, which affects only-custom compiled kernels such as mine, but I will document this separately, as it does not affect distro-supplied kernels (with ‘everything’ selected)..

Robert Gadsdon.    December 4th 2024.