I would like to start by thanking Michal Kubeček for his many years of expert support of the VMware vmmon/vmnet modules for later kernel versions.. Since the Broadcom takeover of VMware, his patches have been forked multiple times, for 17.5.2 and now 17.6 support, with varying degrees of success.. I have tested most of these and – … Continue reading →
After the Broadcom takeover, the ‘Player’ versions of VMware are discontinued, and Workstation Pro is now ‘free for personal use’… It has been updated to version 17.5.2, but the changes are all for security patches, and overall functionality is unchanged. There has been some discussion as to whether this product is now ‘functionally stabilised’, with some commenting … Continue reading →
After much testing, over several weeks, the ‘get_user_pages‘ solution for Kernels 6.5 and later is now in the default patchset, at: https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules/tree/workstation-17.0.2 . For more details, see the comments at the start of the patch code for the vmmon changes.. vmmon: use get_user_pages to get page PFN Robert Gadsdon. September 30th 2023. … Continue reading →
As there is almost always a need to apply the most recent patchset to releases of VMware vmmon/vmnet to support the latest kernels, it might be useful to document a process for making this (relatively..) easy: VMMON and VMNET are picked up during the vmware-modconfig… command, from /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source, and this process expects to find vmmon.tar and vmnet.tar … Continue reading →
Kernel 6.5 is due to be released soon, but there has been an ongoing issue with vmmon, and there is now a workaround/fix included with the updated patchset, at https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules/tree/tmp/workstation-17.0.2-k6.5 I have tested this with Kernel 6.5-rc7, and everything appears to work as it should.. There may be other changes in the future, as the solution is … Continue reading →
Thanks to Jeff Chua, there is a practical workaround for vmmon with Kernel 6.5, and this can be found at: https://github.com/jeffersonchua/linux-6.5.0/blob/main/patch-17.0.2-6.5.0 My apologies to Jeff, for the WordPress mangling of code in his previous comments on my earlier article… I have applied this patch, and VMware Workstation 17.0.2 now loads/runs OK with Kernel 6.5-rc5 on my test system.. … Continue reading →
Updated to Kernel 6.5-rc5, and – as expected – vmmon still fails to compile: CC [M] /tmp/modconfig-s9HCQR/vmmon-only/bootstrap/vmmblob.o LD [M] /tmp/modconfig-s9HCQR/vmmon-only/vmmon.o MODPOST /tmp/modconfig-s9HCQR/vmmon-only/Module.symvers ERROR: modpost: “__pte_offset_map” [/tmp/modconfig-s9HCQR/vmmon-only/vmmon.ko] undefined! make[3]: *** [scripts/Makefile.modpost:144: /tmp/modconfig-s9HCQR/vmmon-only/Module.symvers] Error 1 make[2]: *** [/usr/src/linux-6.5-rc5/Makefile:1984: modpost] Error 2 make[1]: *** [Makefile:234: __sub-make] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory ‘/usr/src/linux-6.5-rc5’ make: *** [Makefile:117: vmmon.ko] Error 2 I did … Continue reading →
I had been struggling for some considerable time with guest (Win10) performance issues with VMware – including application (Photoshop CS6) ‘freezing’ for a time, and overall very sluggish responses.. I had found several articles that suggested cause/effect/fix for this, but none really worked.. I made changes to control khugepaged: …………………….. [root@rglinux820 ~]$ echo never | tee /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag … Continue reading →
VMware have released Workstation Pro 16.2.0, and details are here: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workstation-Pro/16.2.0/rn/VMware-Workstation-1620-Pro-Release-Notes.html Compiles – with multiple warnings – with Kernel 5.15-rc5: # vmware-modconfig –console –install-all [AppLoader] GLib does not have GSettings support. Stopping vmware (via systemctl): [ OK ] make: Entering directory ‘/tmp/modconfig-sAzCOh/vmmon-only’ Using kernel build system. /usr/bin/make -C /lib/modules/5.15.0-rc5/build/include/.. M=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. \ MODULEBUILDDIR= modules make[1]: Entering directory … Continue reading →
I have been carrying out some preliminary tests to see how feasible it is to compile the Linux Kernel, and NVIDIA drivers, and VMware, using the ‘alternative’ to GCC – CLANG.. The kernel compile is relatively easy, and well documented: # make CC=clang HOSTCC=clang -j8 (for a 4-core system) The compile seems to be slower than GCC, … Continue reading →