Failed to run WMware workstation player 16

English Virtualization
#1

Hi Folks,

[size=3]The error nitification appears when running WMware station player:[/size]
[FONT=arial black]‘Cannot open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory. Please make sure that the kernel module `vmmon’ is loaded’.

[/FONT]

WMware explained:
On Linux host with secure mode enabled, it is not allowed to load any unsigned drivers. Due to this, VMware drivers, such as vmmon and vmnet, are not able to be loaded which prevents virtual machine to power on.

But I’m sure I disabled the ‘secure boot’ during the installation stage.

The solution is:

Sign the modules using the generated key by running these commands:
$sudo /usr/src/linux-headers-uname -r/scripts/sign-file sha256 ./MOK.priv ./MOK.der $(modinfo -n vmmon)

But there is no ‘sign-file’ command available in tOpensuse Leap 15.3.

Could you please assist me on this issue, any advise would be appreciated.

#2

What is the output from:

mokutil --sb-state
#3

SecureBoot disabled

#4

The the module signature is not the problem.

I’m not a VMWare user, so I don’t have any experience with this.

Is the “vmmon” module installed? Have you tried manually loading it with “modprobe”? Perhaps there’s a problem with how you installed VMWare.

#5

I downloaded VMware-Player-e.x.p-xxxx-xxxx.architecture**.bundle from official web
and **followed the instruction https://tutorialforlinux.com/2021/02/03/vmware-workstation-16-player-opensuse-installation/2/ to install the VMware.

What is the right way you recommend to install the VMware workstation player ? Please advise.

#6

I’ll wait and see if someone with experience using VMWare is able to help.

#7

Hi i use VMWorkstation 16.2 on some Leap 15.3 machines installed from official bundles with no problem. If secure boot is not enabled the signing fun is not the cause of the problem.
The vmware kernel modules have to be recompiled for each new kernel update. I do not use VMPlayer-UI but i think it will ask for root password and recompile the modules on startup if required like the VMWorkstation-UI.
Versions form my main machine:


~> uname -a  
Linux blackbox 5.3.18-59.37-default #1 SMP Mon Nov 22 12:29:04 UTC 2021 (d10168e) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 
GNU/Linux

[FONT=monospace]~> vmware -v 
VMware Workstation 16.2.1 build-18811642[/FONT]

Every now and then this recompile/install of the modules fails. You could check if the vmmon, vmnet modules are installed for the current kernel with:


/sbin/modinfo vmmon 
filename:       /lib/modules/5.3.18-59.37-default/misc/vmmon.ko 
supported:      external 
license:        GPL v2 
description:    VMware Virtual Machine Monitor. 
author:         VMware, Inc. 
suserelease:    SLE15-SP3 
srcversion:     6C24029C7F7D015269F749E 
depends:         
retpoline:      Y 
name:           vmmon 
vermagic:       5.3.18-59.37-default SMP mod_unload modversions  
sig_id:         PKCS#7 
signer:         Secure Boot Signing 
sig_key:        64:A8:E3:92:FC:84:61:B9:7F:5B:DA:C7:03:DA:42:C1:A0:1B:11:0F 
sig_hashalgo:   sha256 
signature:      42:D5:D1:FE:AA:79:82:FA:66:03:C3:A6:B5:BA:AB:10:72:17:71:C2:
....

If vmmon is not present the vmware-modconfig command can be used to recompile/install the modules from the console. Not sure if it is included in the VMPlayer bundle too but if so the output of


sudo vmware-modconfig --install-all
...

could give us some hints.

#8

I too am experiencing the vmmon as well as vmnet modules not loaded issue on Leap 15.3. For me recompiling and installing the modules work as @rawar explained and it happens every restart. I have not had any compilation issues thus far. I am using VMware 16.1.2.