I installed 12.3 on a VMware virtual machine. I think I also installed VMWare Tools upon installation of openSUSE, but since I was not so sure anymore, I decided to install again (as re-installing won’t hurt) when I had need of 3D tools in Gnome.
However, I faced the following issue during the installation process:
Enter the path to the kernel header files for the 3.7.10-1.1-desktop kernel?
The path "" is not a valid path to the 3.7.10-1.1-desktop kernel headers.
Would you like to change it? [yes]
Not knowing what a “valid” path would be I entered ‘No’, but I later got:
- This program could not find a valid path to the kernel headers of the running
kernel. Please ensure that the header files for the running kernel are
installed on this sytem.
What can I enter as “valid path” for the kernel headers?
Do you have them installed?
The package is “kernel-desktop-devel”. And it must have the same version as the running kernel (there are 2 newer kernels already in the update repo).
Been awhile since I’ve installed VMware on my machines, but for many years openSUSE automatically installed the open version of the Tools when the the Guest installation detects a VMware Guest install.
One way I superficially verified was whether I could configure a high display resolution in the Guest and if the clipboard was shared between Host and Guest.
The proprietary version of the Tools are slightly different but I generally found no need to replace the open version.
(A current User of VMware should be able to verify whether my observations still exist today).
> The proprietary version of the Tools are slightly different but I
> generally found no need to replace the open version.
>
> (A current User of VMware should be able to verify whether my
> observations still exist today).
AFAIK, you are correct. And to install the proprietary version you must
remove first the openSUSE version via the appropriate command.
I don’t find the hassle of installing kernel sources and development
packages worth it, considering my guest machines are limited in CPUs,
RAM, and HD space.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)
I checked and found on Yast Software Management that kernel-desktop-devel is installed; I think so anyway. I’m new with openSUSE so new with Yast as well, but I think the “store” icon next to a package means that package is installed… right?
Still I don’t have any idea what path to use for the kernel headers.
What do you mean with “store” icon?
If it is installed there should be a checkmark left to the package name.
See also the Help menu for an explanation of all symbols.
And as I said, its version must match the version of the running kernel.
As you seem to run kernel-desktop-3.7.10-1.1 according to the error message, check if the directory “/usr/src/linux-3.7.10-1.1-obj” exists.
And/or look at the output of “rpm -q kernel-desktop-devel”. That should list “kernel-desktop-devel-3.7.10-1.1.1.i586” or “kernel-desktop-devel-3.7.10-1.1.1.x86_64” respectively.
Still I don’t have any idea what path to use for the kernel headers.
Well, I never installed the guest tools before, only the host kernel modules.
The installer should find the correct path automatically, you shouldn’t have to enter anything.
It does this by checking if certain files exist. There should be a log file somewhere that tells which file it checked and didn’t find (in /tmp/vmware-root/? /var/log/vmware-installer? Or /var/log/vmware/?) AFAIR the installer should print the name of the log file as first output).
Maybe you also need kernel-source and prepare that for building kernel modules (that was the standard for older stuff):
make oldconfig
make prepare
Another possibility:
Just try VirtualBox. OpenSUSE includes the guest drivers for that and they are installed by default.
And VirtualBox can even read VMware’s disk files.
Go to directory “/lib/modules/<your installed kernel version>/build/include/generated/uapi/linux”. Copy the file “version.h” into directory “/lib/modules/<your installed kernel version>/build/include/linux”.
The directory “/usr/src/linux-3.7.10-1.1-obj” does exist, and the output of “rpm -q kernel-desktop-devel” lists “kernel-desktop-devel-3.7.10-1.1.1.x86_64”.
Also, I could not find any log file for the installation anywhere, maybe because the installation goes through to the end despite the fact that it denotes that it cannot find a valid path to the kernel headers.
As already said, the “vmware-modconfig” command was not found on the system, the commands listed which begin with vmware- are:
> So I’m still left with no path to the kernel headers. Isn’t there a
> standard path to get to the default desktop kernel header?
Yes.
The problem, normally, is not that the headers are on a different place
(unless the dates of kernel and tools are too different), but that they
are not installed.
Normally I have to install the whole kernel sources to satisfy those
scripts, and then run make cloneconfig and prepare on them, which means
about 300 MB.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))
Nevermind, I tried re-installing over and over again, until at one trial (I don’t know how it happened) but suddenly during the installation process I was offered a valid path as:
/lib/modules/3.7.10-1.1-desktop/build/include
which I confirmed promptly.
So I think I finally have VMware tools well installed on my virtual machine openSUSE. Now, on to my next problem, but I think I will start a new thread for that.