Cannot instal VMware Tools on openSUSE 12.1 (x86_64)

I would like to use Shared Folders.

I have installed openSUSE 12.1 (x86_64) as guest system on VMware Workstation 7.x.
After installation, creating shared folder in VMware and rebooting, there was no directory /mnt/hgfs, so I tried to mount it manually(as root):

mount -t vmhgfs .host:/ /mnt/hgfs/

What produced an error:

Error: cannot mount filesystem: No such device

So I checked if packages with vmware support are installed:

zypper se -i *vm*
Wczytywanie danych repozytorium...
Odczytywanie zainstalowanych pakietów...

S | Nazwa                    | Podsumowanie                                   | Typ   
--+--------------------------+------------------------------------------------+-------
i | libvmtools0              | Open Virtual Machine Tools - shared library    | pakiet
i | lvm2                     | LVM2 Tools                                     | pakiet
i | open-vm-tools            | Open Virtual Machine Tools                     | pakiet
i | open-vm-tools-gui        | Open Virtual Machine Tools - GUI               | pakiet
i | vmware-guest-kmp-desktop | Open Virtual Machine Tools                     | pakiet
i | yast2-vm                 | Configure Hypervisor and Tools for Xen and KVM | pakiet

And if there are correct kernel modules:

rpm -ql vmware-guest-kmp-desktop
/lib/modules/3.1.0-1.1-desktop
/lib/modules/3.1.0-1.1-desktop/updates
/lib/modules/3.1.0-1.1-desktop/updates/vmblock.ko
/lib/modules/3.1.0-1.1-desktop/updates/vmci.ko
/lib/modules/3.1.0-1.1-desktop/updates/vmhgfs.ko
/lib/modules/3.1.0-1.1-desktop/updates/vmsync.ko
/lib/modules/3.1.0-1.1-desktop/updates/vmxnet.ko
/lib/modules/3.1.0-1.1-desktop/updates/vsock.ko

Everything seems OK, so I tried to load vmghfs kernel module manually(as root):

modprobe vmhgfs
FATAL: Error inserting vmhgfs (/lib/modules/3.1.0-1.2-desktop/weak-updates/updates/vmhgfs.ko): Invalid argument

Then I gave up, installed kernel-desktop-devel, gcc, g++, and tried to install proprietary VMware Tools.
But compiling kernel modules by the script vmware-config-tools.pl also generated errors:
SUSE Paste

I am running openSUSE 12.1 64 bit as a guest of a openSUSE 11.4 copy running the latest version of VirtualBox. Here are the stpes I took with an already loaded copy of VirtualBox on my host:

  1. Install openSUSE 12.1 into a VM of VirtualBox

  2. I installed the kernel sources next into my guest based on these instructions:

Open YaST / Software / Software Management - Select the View Button on the top left and pick Patterns. Now, you will see several Patterns listed and you want to select:

   Development 

[X] Base Development
[X] Linux Kernel Development
[X] C/C++ Development

Then Press the Accept button on the bottom right and allow these applications to install.

  1. Next I had to install the latest version of the tools VBOXADDITION 4.1.6 into my guest downloaded from the Oracle site.

  2. Next I added the VirtualBox mount commands to the after.local file. See the following blog on how to do this:

systemd and using the after.local script in openSUSE 12.1 - Blogs - openSUSE Forums

After these four steps, openSUSE 12.1 works great in a VM and it will also work for you.

Thank You,

On 2011-11-18 02:56, jdmcdaniel3 wrote:
> After these four steps, openSUSE 12.1 works great in a VM and it will
> also work for you.

He is not using VirtualBox, but vmware. Your instructions are not valid for
him.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

On 2011-11-18 02:56, jdmcdaniel3 wrote:
> After these four steps, openSUSE 12.1 works great in a VM and it will
> also work for you.

He is not using VirtualBox, but vmware. Your instructions are not valid for
him.


Cheers / Saludos,

Yes I see that this morning, perhaps actually reading the OP message would be best. :shame: Still, it could be an opportunity (with the right instructions) to switch to something (like VirtualBox) that does work.

Thank You,

Reading thread title at least would be helpful.
You want me to install all packages from pattern:devel_basis, devel_C_C++, devel_kernel?? RLY?! 151,2 MiB + 806,7 MiB?! With git, subversion etc.?!
Please do not write on topics about which you have no idea.

Reading thread title at least would be helpful.
You want me to install all packages from pattern:devel_basis, devel_C_C++, devel_kernel?? RLY?! 151,2 MiB + 806,7 MiB?! With git, subversion etc.?!
Please do not write on topics about which you have no idea.

So I am sorry you are having a problem with VMWare and openSUSE 12.1. openSUSE 12.1 is using kernel 3.1 and may require a VMWare update to work with that version. In your post it keeps saying “Using 2.6.x kernel build system.”. openSUSE 12.1 is using systemd for system startup and so many bash scripts, needed for startup may not be running properly.

I also noticed this output:

  1. The filesystem driver (vmhgfs module) is used only for the shared folder
  2. feature. The rest of the software provided by VMware Tools is designed to work
  3. independently of this feature.
  4. If you wish to have the shared folders feature, you can install the driver by
  5. running vmware-config-tools.pl again after making sure that gcc, binutils, make
  6. and the kernel sources for your running kernel are installed on your machine.
  7. These packages are available on your distribution’s installation CD.
  8. Press Enter key to continue ]

So, I could not tell if you satisfied this requirement. Following the advice to load these items does not take up a lot of space and normally permits the ability to compile any program in openSUSE:

   Development 

[X] Base Development
[X] Linux Kernel Development
[X] C/C++ Development

In any event we are only trying to help here and wish you the best in finding the problem with VMware.

Thank You,

On 2011-11-19 00:46, morfis wrote:
> Please do not write on topics about which you have no idea.

He has idea. Please stay polite.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

zypper se -i gcc binutils make kernel-devel
Wczytywanie danych repozytorium...
Odczytywanie zainstalowanych pakietów...

S | Nazwa          | Podsumowanie                                         | Typ   
--+----------------+------------------------------------------------------+-------
i | binutils       | GNU Binutils                                         | pakiet
i | gcc            | The system GNU C Compiler                            | pakiet
i | gcc-c++        | The system GNU C++ Compiler                          | pakiet
i | gcc46          | The GNU C Compiler and Support Files                 | pakiet
i | gcc46-c++      | The GNU C++ Compiler                                 | pakiet
i | kernel-devel   | Development files needed for building kernel modules | pakiet
i | libgcc46       | C compiler runtime library                           | pakiet
i | libgcc46-32bit | C compiler runtime library                           | pakiet
i | make           | GNU make                                             | pakiet

And what requirement I didn’t satisfied in your opinion?

When I run the following command in openSUSE 12.1 after following my advice:

zypper se -i gcc binutils make kernel-devel

I find that these programs are not present in your listing…

i | automake       | A Program for Automatically Generating GNU-Style Makefile.in Files | package
i | binutils-devel | GNU binutils (BFD development files) 
i | gcc-info       | The system GNU Compiler documentation  
i | gcc46-info     | Documentation for the GNU compiler collection 

And this is not to say this is the issue. Do you know that your present version of VMWare is:

  1. The most recent release?
  2. Compatible with kernel 3.1 ?
  3. Runs a required script file on startup?

For the last question, I do have some info that might help. Now with these questions, it is more of a trying to help you help yourself, but I am none the less trying to help.

Thank You,

On 2011-11-19 01:06, jdmcdaniel3 wrote:

> So I am sorry you are having a problem with VMWare and openSUSE 12.1.

I think that the problem is that the version of workstation that he is
using is old.

> openSUSE 12.1 is using kernel 3.1 and may require a VMWare update to
> work with that version.

Very possible. On another post I read the vmware do not consider 11.4 as a
supported version, so even less 12.1 I tried to install their version of
the tools, but in the end I decided keeping openSUSE version instead.

But I have not tried shared folders. What I use when I need is NFS.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

Following your advice I installed packages from patterns devel_basis devel_C_C++ devel_kernel, as you can see:

zypper se -i -t pattern devel_basis devel_C_C++ devel_kernel
Wczytywanie danych repozytorium...
Odczytywanie zainstalowanych pakietów...

S | Nazwa        | Podsumowanie                         | Typ    
--+--------------+--------------------------------------+--------
i | devel_C_C++  | Programowanie w języku C/C++         | wzorzec
i | devel_basis  | Podstawowe narzędzia programistyczne | wzorzec
i | devel_kernel | Programowanie jądra systemu Linux    | wzorzec

Output for /usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl remain the same as in first post.
Installing packages from patterns you suggested, change nothing but hardware occupancy(about 800MiB).
Because only packages required for VMware Tools(not counting basic system packages), AS YOU QUOTED, are gcc, binutils, make and kernel-devel.

Ad. 1. I do not have the most recent release of VMware Workstation. I have 7.1.5 build-491717, what is the most recent update. Buying version 8.x is not solution for me.

Ad. 2. I do not know if VMware Workstation 7.x is compatible with kernel 3.1. /usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl output suggest that VMware Tools are created against 2.6.x kernel, but considering kernel backwards compatibility it should works with newer kernel.

  1. Runs a required script file on startup? Do not know.

But in first post I said that I tried load open source modules, which ARE compatible with kernel 3.1. And they not works too.

So I found some info after searching on your version of VMWare that some patches may help.

Found at link: vmware workstation 7.1.4 fixes to use linux 3.1 | Weltall’s blog

http://weltall.heliohost.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/patch3031vmware741.patch

http://weltall.heliohost.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/fullvmwarelinux310patch.tar.gz

So, based on what I see, the issue is with kernel 3.1 and VMWare 7. Normally, you would look to the manufacturer for such support.

Now consider that we know VirtualBox works with openSUSE 12.1 as a VM and its free for individuals to use. I guess its not free for a company though. If you can’t get VMware to work and can look at alternatives, consider VirtualBox.

Thank You,

On 2011-11-19 02:36, morfis wrote:

> Ad. 1. I do not have the most recent release of VMware Workstation. I
> have 7.1.5 build-491717, what is the most recent update. Buying version
> 8.x is not solution for me.

I understand that, but it may be a problem.

> Ad. 2. I do not know if VMware Workstation 7.x is compatible with
> kernel 3.1. /usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl output suggest that VMware
> Tools are created against 2.6.x kernel, but considering kernel backwards
> compatibility it should works with newer kernel.

I’m not sure of that. I had a look at your compilation attempt in
susepaste, and I think that vmware is trying to do or use things that are
not there.

/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmhgfs-only/request.c:45:32: error:
‘SPIN_LOCK_UNLOCKED’ undeclared here (not in a function)

/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmxnet-only/vmxnet.c: In function
‘vmxnet_remove_device’:
/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmxnet-only/vmxnet.c:1383:32: error: ‘struct
net_device’ has no member named ‘priv’

> But in first post I said that I tried load open source modules, which
> ARE compatible with kernel 3.1. And they not works too.

Yes, they load because someone at suse probably worked on them. However, it
is probably reportable in bugzilla that one of the modules do not load.

I think I saw that failed module here but I did not investigate.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

It looks like the patch for VMware Workstation to compile it on Host, but I have problem with compiling VMware Tools i.e. kernel modules on Guest OS- openSUSE 12.1.

It looks like the patch for VMware Workstation to compile it on Host, but I have problem with compiling VMware Tools i.e. kernel modules on Guest OS- openSUSE 12.1.

Yes, since your host in Windows 7, perhaps a similar update exists for Windows 7? Have you tried to search on such a combination?

Thank You,

Problem with loading vmhgfs.ko kernel module from package vmware-guest-kmp-desktop looks similar to https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=678037, but it was reported for 11.4. Should I reopen it or create newer one?

Because this is openSUSE 12.1, I would open a new bug report. It would be fine to say its similar to the other bug report, but can’t be the same as its a newer version of openSUSE, at least it would be in my opinion.

Thank You,

I saw a thread here on VMWare 8 you might want to read:

12.1 guest on vmware 8.0.1 vmware tools NULL pointer using vmhgfs

Its hard to know if anything in it might be helpful or not when using version 7.

Thank You,

There are still VMware Tools compilation errors after modifying vmhgfs-only/filesystem.c as in instructions. SUSE Paste
I know that support and updates for that should be given by VMware, and any patches for that are manifestation of goodwill of community (which can be done, because some modules are on GPL).

But there is still bug in vmhgfs.ko file in package vmware-guest-kmp-desktop, which is maintained in Oss repo, so there are openSUSE developers, who are responsible for maintaining it.
I am not developer nor tester so I think I am not the correct person to report this bug on bugzilla.

We have a new forum for VM questions that you can find here and its brand new:

Virtualization

Please use it to post any new questions on Virtualizations.

Thank You,