Install VMware Workstation 6.5.3 on openSUSE 11.2

Finally, I've managed to get VMware Workstation to be installed and configured properly on openSUSE Milestone 7. There has been a problem when compiling the modules, the installer keeps complains that the kernel headers version does not match the running kernel. No matter how you direct the installer to the correct path, it just won't accept the headers.

So, I decided to look through the directory where VMware is installed (/usr/lib/vmware) and found the module sources. Then I go on to compile the modules manually and then copy them to the kernel modules directory. And of course, VMware Workstation can be started normally.

So this are the procedures:

First create a temp directory to hold the module sources.

mkdir -p /tmp/vmware-root/modules

Change to that directory and untar all the modules from vmware directory.

cd /tmp/vmware-root/modules
tar -xvf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmblock.tar
tar -xvf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmci.tar
tar -xvf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon.tar
tar -xvf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar
tar -xvf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vsock.tar

Then compile them one by one.

make -C /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only auto-build SUPPORT_SMP=1 HEADER_DIR=/lib/modules/2.6.31-rc9-7-desktop/build/include CC=/usr/bin/gcc GREP=/usr/bin/make IS_GCC_3=no VMCCVER=4.4

make -C /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmci-only auto-build SUPPORT_SMP=1 HEADER_DIR=/lib/modules/2.6.31-rc9-7-desktop/build/include CC=/usr/bin/gcc GREP=/usr/bin/make IS_GCC_3=no VMCCVER=4.4

make -C /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmmon-only auto-build SUPPORT_SMP=1 HEADER_DIR=/lib/modules/2.6.31-rc9-7-desktop/build/include CC=/usr/bin/gcc GREP=/usr/bin/make IS_GCC_3=no VMCCVER=4.4

make -C /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmnet-only auto-build SUPPORT_SMP=1 HEADER_DIR=/lib/modules/2.6.31-rc9-7-desktop/build/include CC=/usr/bin/gcc GREP=/usr/bin/make IS_GCC_3=no VMCCVER=4.4

make -C /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vsock-only auto-build SUPPORT_SMP=1 HEADER_DIR=/lib/modules/2.6.31-rc9-7-desktop/build/include CC=/usr/bin/gcc GREP=/usr/bin/make IS_GCC_3=no VMCCVER=4.4

Copy them to the kernel modules directory and create symlinks

cp /tmp/vmware-root/modules/*.o /usr/lib/`uname -r`/misc/
ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -r`/misc/vmblock.o vmblock.ko
ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -r`/misc/vmci.o vmci.ko
ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -r`/misc/vmmon.o vmmon.ko
ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -r`/misc/vmnet.o vmnet.ko
ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -r`/misc/vsock.o vsock.ko

Re-probe all modules

depmod -a