VMWARE and Cinnamon

[colecrew]

Has anyone gotten VMware 14 to work in Mint 19?

[ralplpcr]

I'll presume you're asking about VMWare Workstation? I don't have version 14, but versions 11, 12 & 12.5 work flawlessly with both XFCE & Cinnamon Mint.
How are you attempting to install?

Edit: I should also ask are you attempting to install VMWare Workstation onto Mint, or install Mint into a virtual machine?

[Gmen2oo3]

I have the same issue but with VMware workstation 10.2. the install works perfectly but when I go to run it nothing happens the application never opens. I am running Cinnamon 19 as well.

I am trying to install Virtualbox and see how that works. let me know if you have any pointers for VMware workstation.

[colecrew]

Thanks for the reply,

Installing VMWare workstation by downloading installer, making executable and running installer. Program installs but I am unable to create any VMs (crashes), also when I select help about the program also crashes. When looking for a solution on the Internet, I came across a page that said that there was a problem with Cinnamon and VMWare workstation and that they got it to work by changing to Mate. I decided to install VMware player on my Mint 19 laptop, which errored out (as it has on all my systems) so I installed VMWare Workstation and it worked perfectly fine.?!?! So now I will compare the two (Laptop and Desktop) and If I don't see a major difference I will reload the Desktop.

Virtual box worked fine, but you can't run windows games on the Windows VM in Virtual box. Play on linux(wine) doesn't work at all.

[sgtor]

Virtual box worked fine, but you can't run windows games on the Windows VM in Virtual box. Play on linux(wine) doesn't work at all.

I'm just curious what aspect of the games doesn't work in virtualbox vm?

[colecrew]

From the experience I had, all games error on startup from Steam. I have seen people say that it works and others say that the graphincs card driver in Virtual Box is not compatiable. The reason that I am trying VMWare is that the games I wanted to load failed. I have a lot more research and trial and error to go. When I tried to install Steam with wine it errored almost instantly.

[ralplpcr]

Back to your original question - - it appears that you're having trouble installing VMWare Workstation onto Mint.
It's easy enough to do, though there are a few sneaky tricks you may need to know in order to make it work.

1. Open a terminal & execute the following commands. These are dependencies needed by VMWare Workstation, and eliminate many of the issues you may encounter:

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sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gcc build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)

2. During the installation, you'll be asked for the directory where you wish to save your virtual machines. By default, this directory is normally not available for writing in Mint! To fix that, copy down the location (as shown below). Then navigate to the directory and set the permissions to read/write for all. (Technically, you'd only need to do it for the VMWare user. As an alternate solution, you could instead change this entry to something like /home/colescrew/vmware - - just don't forget to create that directory, if you do!)

Virtual-Machines-path-VMware-Workstation12[1].jpg

Once you do these, you should have no more trouble getting your VMWare Workstation to happily create & run VMs under Mint.

Good luck!

[Gmen2oo3]

Thanks for the reply, your info was very informative and helpful. I have updated the rights to the folder but I am still unable to run VMware workstation. both commands run with no issue and they comeback with the info that it is already the latest version of essentials.

but I seem to be missing something when it comes to getting the app to load, it simply does not come up.

thanks for your help.

[sgtor]

From the experience I had, all games error on startup from Steam. I have seen people say that it works and others say that the graphincs card driver in Virtual Box is not compatiable. The reason that I am trying VMWare is that the games I wanted to load failed. I have a lot more research and trial and error to go. When I tried to install Steam with wine it errored almost instantly.

Yeah I figured if it was anything it would be the graphics card. I'm not a gamer so the only thing I know about it is you need powerful rigs to do it. I thought maybe it was the network card causing problems too though. By default it creates a NAT network and I encounter various problems with that setup so I usually need to switch it to bridged adapter. Just make sure you have it behind a router/firewall.

As for steam. Have you tried the Linux version in the repositories?

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sudo apt install steam

And this to see other options

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apt search steam

[colecrew]

Yea, Linux Steam and all of my Linux games (3) work fine in Linux, just wanted to be able to play AOE2HD and another windows game.

[ralplpcr]

Thanks for the reply....but I seem to be missing something when it comes to getting the app to load, it simply does not come up.

I unfortunately don't have a Mint 19 system currently where I can install VMWorkstation. I'll have to format one & give it a shot again.... I'm assuming (perhaps incorrectly?) that you uninstalled VMWare before running those terminal commands? Are you installing VMWare via sudo command, or as a regular user?

[ralplpcr]

So it turns out that this is a known bug with "modern" CPUs that was introduced in Ubuntu 17.10. Since to date I had only installed on Mint 17.x & 18.x (built on Ubuntu 14.04 and 17.04, respectively), I had not yet encountered this.

Details can be found on this page: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1715552

I haven't yet tried the workaround, since it's 11:30pm here and I have an early day, but I'll post it here from the discussion linked above.

@colescrew - if you have an opportunity, you can *try* the following. I have not yet verified it, so I can't guarantee it'll work... but it seems to make sense. The failure is in a symbolic link to mismatched versions of certain libraries. If you attempt to launch via the terminal, you'll see an error like this:

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/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-modconfig: Relink `/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libbsd.so.0' with `/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/librt.so.1' for IFUNC symbol `clock_gettime'

The (as of yet untested in Mint 19, to my knowledge) fix is as follows:

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1. Do the normal installation of VMWare Workstation. Do not run vmware yet. It will fail anyway.

2. Do a git clone (or download as zip package) of the vmware-host-modules project hosted in https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules. Make sure to read the README to understand what branch you need to checkout. Detailed instructions for doing this is in the INSTALL document. For example: If you are installing Workstation 14.1.2, then you'd do:

    git clone https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules.git
    cd vmware-host-modules
    git checkout workstation-14.1.2

 (This project is recommended by: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/VMware#Kernel_modules).

3. cd to the git repo dir (vmware-host-modules) and follow the instructions in the INSTALL document of the project to "Build and install modules - DIRECTLY", i.e., the section "2a." as of this writing. This is important, as it will ensure that your modules are build specifically for your CURRENT kernel. Follow all the steps carefully.
    For example: In my case, I want to build and install modules against my current kernel, so I just need to issue this command -from the directory to which I cd before:

   make && sudo make install

You are NOT done yet! If you run vmware at this point, you will get the error that this bug mentions. Next step, you'll fix it.

4. Enter the following sequence of commands in the console:
    cd /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libz.so.1
     sudo mv libz.so.1 libz.so.1.old
     sudo ln -s /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 .
     sudo depmod -a
     sudo /etc/init.d/vmware restart

5. If all went OK, you should be ready by now. VMware Workstation (at least 14.1.2 on (K)Ubuntu 18.04) now should work.

[Gmen2oo3]

Thanks ralplpce, I followed your instructions but it looks to try and get VmWare Workstation 14 (I only have license for version 10). as I was already trying to run a version in my kernel I followed the last set of instructions. they worked with no errors, but when i execute the last command I get the following.
Stopping VMware services:
VMware Authentication Daemon done
VM communication interface socket family done
Virtual machine communication interface done
Virtual machine monitor done
Blocking file system done
Starting VMware services:
Virtual machine monitor failed
Virtual machine communication interface done
VM communication interface socket family done
Blocking file system done
Virtual ethernet failed
VMware Authentication Daemon done

[ralplpcr]

Thanks ralplpce, I followed your instructions but it looks to try and get VmWare Workstation 14 (I only have license for version 10).....

I only have licenses for version 11, 12, and 12.5. According to the link I included, this should work with version 12.5 (which is the one I will attempt to install)...... but as I also stated, I have not attempted it yet.

All I can state for certain at this point is that versions 11, 12, and 12.5 installed without much difficulty on Mint 17.x and 18.x. As far as exactly what changed in Mint 19.x to bring about this bug, I cannot say with certainty.

[colecrew]

Nothing has worked so far. Thanks for every suggestion thus far.

[ralplpcr]

Ok, I got it working - version 12.5.2, that is. It's a pretty ugly solution, but it does work.
I used a slightly modified set of instructions that I found here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/966585/ ... ation-12-5

• 1. Run inxi -S from a terminal. Copy down the kernel version you're currently running.
  2. Open a text editor (xed) and copy/paste the following into it:

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cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source
tar xvf vmmon.tar 
tar xvf vmnet.tar
wget -O ./vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules/b50848c985f1a6c0a341187346d77f0119d0a835/vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c
vim vmnet-only/bridge.c
cd vmmon-only/
make
cd ../vmnet-only/
make
cd ..
mkdir /lib/modules/4.13.0-16-generic/misc
cp *.o /lib/modules/4.13.0-16-generic/misc
insmod /lib/modules/4.13.0-16-generic/misc/vmmon.o
insmod /lib/modules/4.13.0-16-generic/misc/vmnet.o
rm /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libz.so.1/libz.so.1
ln -s /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libz.so.1/libz.so.1
vmware-networks --start
exit

• 3. Replace each instance of 4.13.0-16 with the kernel version you are currently running
  4. In a terminal, type sudo su. Enter your password to continue.
  5. Copy/paste each line in order from the text file above into the terminal.
  6. When it completes, exit super user mode
  7. To run VMWare Workstation as a user, type /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware

Basically, what you're doing is recompiling the libraries to work with your particular kernel in order for it to work.
You can also create a launcher (shortcut) on the desktop (or wherever) using the same command in #7.

Like I said, it's ugly. And I'm sure there are things that could be done to clean it up a bit.... but it did work for me on Cinnamon 19 with VMWare Workstation 12.5.2.
I can't say for certain that the same method would work with VMWare Workstation 14, since I don't have it to try....but it's worth a shot?

VM_Mint19.jpg

[colecrew]

Gave it a shot...no joy. Many errors in the first make. Thanks for the help.

[ralplpcr]

Well, drat. Unless I can get hold of a copy of VMware Workstation 14, I'm not sure what else to tell you to try. The 12.5.2 version is working quite nicely for me now - - actually using it today.

[ralplpcr]

Downloaded a copy of VMWare Workstation version 14.1.3, and have now successfully installed on Cinnamon 19.

I ended up using the exact same instructions as I posted before. I'm not sure what "errors" you got in your make, but it worked for me. Perhaps they were just warnings?

What I ended up doing was simply copy/pasting the entire contents of my modified text file into my superuser terminal all at once. Everything else was exactly the same as version 12.5.2.

There is one caveat on my particular system, though - - the CPU itself isn't supported. The hardware requirements state that the CPU must be newer than 2011 - the one on my system is from 2009, so doesn't work by default. There is a workaround, but it's painfully slow. But if you have a newer CPU (Sandy Bridge/Westmere or newer), you should be able to follow the instructions and have it work just fine.

For reference, here is the exact set of commands I pasted in after completing the installation:

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cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source
tar xvf vmmon.tar 
tar xvf vmnet.tar
wget -O ./vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules/b50848c985f1a6c0a341187346d77f0119d0a835/vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c
vim vmnet-only/bridge.c
cd vmmon-only/
make
cd ../vmnet-only/
make
cd ..
mkdir /lib/modules/4.15.0-32-generic/misc
cp *.o /lib/modules/4.15.0-32-generic/misc
insmod /lib/modules/4.15.0-32-generic/misc/vmmon.o
insmod /lib/modules/4.15.0-32-generic/misc/vmnet.o
rm /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libz.so.1/libz.so.1
ln -s /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libz.so.1/libz.so.1
vmware-networks --start
exit

And here is a screenshot of VMWare Workstation 14.1.3 actually running on Cinnamon 19:

VM14_cinn19.jpg

For me, I'll stick with 12.5.2 - at least on this machine. But if I need to install on a machine with a newer CPU, these instructions do seem to do the trick?

[colecrew]

Thanks for all the help. I wound up re-installing MInt 19 from scratch and reloaded vmware. Installed first time. Windows VM is up and working and running the two games I wanted just fine. There are a couple of other pieces of software I want to install on Mint and will continue to work on those. HDHomerun and Cisco packet tracer are next. HDHomerun already errored out in the make process, so I have opened a ticket with them. Thanks again to all that have read and replied to this post.