Same old problem: every kernel update, VMware’s module build shits the bed. This time it’s Linux 5.3. The fix is to patch the kernel’s VMMON code so it plays nice with the new kernel.

As usual, every time the Linux kernel gets an update, VMware Workstation’s vmmon and vmnet modules fail to compile. No exception this time either. The fix is blunt: just use a patch.

Kernel Linux 4.13 is out now, and you can install it through the PPA: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:canonical-kernel-team/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install linux-generic-hwe-16.04-edge

Linux kernel 4.10 is out, and supposedly it brings a lot of improvements, so let’s take it for a spin: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:canonical-kernel-team/ppa sudo apt update sudo apt install linux-headers-4.10.0-8-generic linux-image-4.10.0-8-generic linux-image-extra-4.10.0-8-generic linux-headers-4.10.0-8 A reboot should do it. Then you’ll find VMware no longer works — the modules fail to compile again.

If you’re on Intel integrated graphics, there’s a good chance VMware will tell you that 3D acceleration can’t be enabled. Even if you flip the 3D acceleration switch, it still won’t work… I looked into it and it seems to be a blacklist thing — some drivers aren’t allowed to use 3D acceleration. Drop the blacklist and it works. It’s a forced override, sure, but I haven’t run into any problems.

This method is outdated. There’s a newer, officially supported way—click here to see it /archives/5013/ Yakkety (16.10) has been out for a while, but the official Ubuntu 16.04 repos still haven’t picked this thing up. So I had to install it myself. Great.

A while back I upgraded to kernel 4.2 because of a wireless issue. That got fixed, but then 4.2 brought new problems of its own. First was the speaker popping on boot that’s specific to ThinkPad users. It showed up in early 4.2 kernels and was later patched. Which is useless to me now, since we’re on 4.3 anyway. So I bumped the kernel to 4.3 via Ubuntu’s Mainline PPA, and after that VMware started telling me it couldn’t find GCC 5.2. Side note: VMware China ran a 80% off promo for Singles’ Day, so I finally bought a legit license. And now you’re telling me it doesn’t work? Not acceptable.

VMware 12 has been out for a while now. I didn’t upgrade the desktop at home, and the laptop got upgraded but I barely use it. Today I felt like running a VM, so I pulled it out and upgraded — turned out there were two errors during install. The first was a theme error

Times change, kernels change. The old VMware build method for 3.13 stopped working after 3.16. Today I upgraded my desktop’s kernel on impulse, just to try out 3.19’s new support for the Logitech T650 touchpad. So of course VMware’s module compilation failed. When it fails, all you can do is fix it.