VMware Server Console

The Process exited with an error:

End of error message.

And tailing the log file might output stuff similar to this

foo# tail -f /var/log/vmware/vmware-serverd.log

Nov 05 20:34:38: app| Attempting to launch vmx : /var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines/Other Linux 2.6.x kernel/Other Linux 2.6.x kernel.vmx
Nov 05 20:34:38: app| Error during launch: 11, The process exited with an error:
Nov 05 20:34:38: app| End of error message
Nov 05 20:34:38: app| VmsdVmStatePendingCmdFailed: cmd status is already set
Nov 05 20:34:41: app| Msg_Post: Error
Nov 05 20:34:41: app| [msg.vmmonPosix.badVersion] Version mismatch with vmmon module: expecting 138.0, got 137.0.
Nov 05 20:34:41: app| [msg.vmmonPosix.badDriver] You have an incorrect version of the `vmmon’ kernel module.
Nov 05 20:34:41: app| Try reinstalling VMware Server.
Nov 05 20:34:41: app| [localized] Version mismatch with vmmon module: expecting 138.0, got 137.0.
Nov 05 20:34:41: app| You have an incorrect version of the `vmmon’ kernel module.
Nov 05 20:34:41: app| Try reinstalling VMware Server.
Nov 05 20:34:41: app| —————————————-
Nov 05 20:34:41: app| Msg_Post: Version mismatch with vmmon module: expecting 138.0, got 137.0.
Nov 05 20:34:41: app| You have an incorrect version of the `vmmon’ kernel module.
Nov 05 20:34:41: app| Try reinstalling VMware Server.
Nov 05 20:34:41: app|
Nov 05 20:34:41: app| Msg_Post: Error
Nov 05 20:34:41: app| [msg.vmmonPosix.initFailed] Failed to initialize monitor device.
Nov 05 20:34:41: app| [localized] Failed to initialize monitor device.
Nov 05 20:34:41: app| —————————————-
Nov 05 20:34:41: app| Msg_Post: Failed to initialize monitor device.

yea..its actually true, just reinstalling the vmware server solves the problem (no need to uninstall it first) and its pretty quick since you can skip the networking configuration (its been saved)

so in order to make it stop, i decided to try and help him with vmware server installation which he fucked up (can’t prove it, but all the evidence points to him)

Anyway, while trying to install it, one might encounter an error message like this

What is the location of the directory of C header files that match your running
kernel? [/lib/modules/2.6.23.1-foo/build/include]

Extracting the sources of the vmmon module.

Building the vmmon module.

Using 2.6.x kernel build system.
make: Entering directory `/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only’
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.23.1-dewey/build/include/.. SUBDIRS=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.23.1′
CC [M] /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o
/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c: In function âLinuxDriver_Ioctlâ:
/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:1659: error: âstruct mm_structâ has no member named âdumpableâ
make[2]: *** [/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.23.1′
make: *** [vmmon.ko] Error 2
make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only’
Unable to build the vmmon module.

For more information on how to troubleshoot module-related problems, please
visit our Web site at “http://www.vmware.com/download/modules/modules.html” and
“http://www.vmware.com/support/reference/linux/prebuilt_modules_linux.html”.

Execution aborted.

i’d like to point out a few things that you would most likely want to install to make the installation go smooth.

apt-get install libx11-6 libx11-dev libxtst6 libxtst-dev libxt6 libxt-dev wget linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential make gcc g++

i might be missing some, or some of them might not be needed, but I’m too careless to check it out, so feel free to bug me if you see something wrong.

IF it whines about the same error again, the cause of this might be that your running a newer kernel than the installer requires, if so, there’s a patch out which solves the problem. beware that when your reading this, the direct link to the patch i post, might already be outdated, so be sure to check if there’s a newer version out. currently when writing this, version 114 is out.

So lets do it.

foo:/usr/src# wget http://knihovny.cvut.cz/ftp/pub/vmware/vmware-any-any-update114.tar.gz

foo:/usr/src# tar zxfv vmware-any-any-update114.tar.gz

foo:/usr/src# cd vmware-any-any-update114

foo:/usr/src/vmware-any-any-update114# ./runme.pl

should spit out something smiliar to this

Updating /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl … already patched
Updating /usr/bin/vmware … No patch needed/available
Updating /usr/bin/vmnet-bridge … No patch needed/available
Updating /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx … No patch needed/available
Updating /usr/lib/vmware/bin-debug/vmware-vmx … No patch needed/available
VMware modules in “/usr/lib/vmware/modules/source” has been updated.

and from there, the installation should succeed