Upgrading VMware — 4.0.3

Today, VMware prompted me to download and install the latest new version, 4.0.3.  I always like staying at the latest and greatest, so I gave it a show.   It turned into a little more work than I expected, so I thought I would blog my experience.

Upgrade Request

This is what started it all.  I opened VMware Player, and it announced a new version 4.0.3.

Installing

I clicked Download and install, and that walked me through a very straightforward and user-friendly process.

Downloading…

Once downloaded, it showed the update was pending and launched an installer.

First, it warned about VMware being open.  Of course, it’s open because it is what checked and found the new version.  I have had trouble closing VMware while it is trying to download or install an update, so I just let this installer do the job for me.  I just clicked Next.

Now, we are ready to begin the install process:

Uninstalling the old version…

Installing the new version…

…And, the install is complete:

First Run/Compiling Kernel Module

Of couse, on the first run, you get the request to compile the kernel module:

When you click install, it will show a nice progress dialog:

The Virtual Network Device showed an error, but it seemed to keep going.

And, of course, it could not start the VMware Services:

I opened the log file, and the applicable part looked like this:

2012-05-07T09:55:44.230-05:00| vthread-3| I120: Log for VMware Workstation pid=7969 version=8.0.3 build=build-703057 option=Release
2012-05-07T09:55:44.230-05:00| vthread-3| I120: The process is 64-bit.
2012-05-07T09:55:44.230-05:00| vthread-3| I120: Host codepage=UTF-8 encoding=UTF-8
2012-05-07T09:55:44.230-05:00| vthread-3| I120: Host is Linux 3.2.0-24-generic Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
2012-05-07T09:55:44.229-05:00| vthread-3| I120: Msg_Reset:
2012-05-07T09:55:44.229-05:00| vthread-3| I120: [msg.dictionary.load.openFailed] Cannot open file “/usr/lib/vmware/settings”: No such file or directory.
2012-05-07T09:55:44.229-05:00| vthread-3| I120: —————————————-
2012-05-07T09:55:44.229-05:00| vthread-3| I120: PREF Optional preferences file not found at /usr/lib/vmware/settings. Using default values.
2012-05-07T09:55:44.230-05:00| vthread-3| I120: Msg_Reset:
2012-05-07T09:55:44.230-05:00| vthread-3| I120: [msg.dictionary.load.openFailed] Cannot open file “/root/.vmware/config”: No such file or directory.
2012-05-07T09:55:44.230-05:00| vthread-3| I120: —————————————-
2012-05-07T09:55:44.230-05:00| vthread-3| I120: PREF Optional preferences file not found at /root/.vmware/config. Using default values.
2012-05-07T09:55:44.230-05:00| vthread-3| I120: Msg_Reset:
2012-05-07T09:55:44.230-05:00| vthread-3| I120: [msg.dictionary.load.openFailed] Cannot open file “/root/.vmware/preferences”: No such file or directory.
2012-05-07T09:55:44.230-05:00| vthread-3| I120: —————————————-
2012-05-07T09:55:44.230-05:00| vthread-3| I120: PREF Failed to load user preferences.
2012-05-07T09:55:44.230-05:00| vthread-3| W110: Logging to /tmp/vmware-root/modconfig-7969.log
2012-05-07T09:55:44.402-05:00| vthread-3| I120: modconf query interface initialized
2012-05-07T09:55:44.417-05:00| vthread-3| I120: modconf library initialized
2012-05-07T09:55:44.461-05:00| vthread-3| I120: Your GCC version: 4.6

Since it was looking in the /root/ directory for settings, I thought I might try to launch VMware as root and see if that made a difference.  I ran:

sudo vmplayer

This time, I got the same error, but my output window show this error:

/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmnet-only/filter.c:60:16: error: ‘THIS_MODULE’ undeclared here (not in a function)
make[2]: *** [/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmnet-only/filter.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs….
/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmnet-only/netif.c: In function ‘VNetNetIfSetup’:
/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmnet-only/netif.c:134:7: error: unknown field ‘ndo_set_multicast_list’ specified in initializer
/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmnet-only/netif.c:134:7: warning: initialization from incompatible pointer type [enabled by default]
/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmnet-only/netif.c:134:7: warning: (near initialization for ‘vnetNetifOps.ndo_validate_addr’) [enabled by default]
/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmnet-only/userif.c: In function ‘VNetCsumCopyDatagram’:
/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmnet-only/userif.c:520:3: error: incompatible type for argument 1 of ‘kmap’
include/linux/highmem.h:48:21: note: expected ‘struct page *’ but argument is of type ‘const struct <anonymous>’
/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmnet-only/userif.c:523:3: error: incompatible type for argument 1 of ‘kunmap’
include/linux/highmem.h:54:20: note: expected ‘struct page *’ but argument is of type ‘const struct <anonymous>’
make[2]: *** [/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmnet-only/netif.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** [/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmnet-only/userif.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmnet-only] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.2.0-24-generic’
make: *** [vmnet.ko] Error 2

Fixing the Patch for 4.0.3

Thanks to Ask Ubuntu, I found that I could use the same patch from Wetal’s Blog that I used on my installation of version 4.0.2.

I adjusted the patch for version 4.0.3 by changing this line in the file:

I changed it to read plreqver=4.0.3 …

Next, I received the message that the patch was already installed:

/usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/.patched found. You have already patched your sources. Exiting

So, I deleted the file:

sudo rm /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/.patched

Finally, I ran the patch:

sudo ./patch-modules_3.2.0.sh

The patch worked successfully …

And, VMware Player is now at the latest version:

Resources

 

4 thoughts on “Upgrading VMware — 4.0.3

  1. I was able to find the sited you listed, but because I had a failed attempt, I needed to remove .patched first. I’m not sure I would have found that on my own.
    [[[
    sudo rm /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/.patched
    ]]]

    I’m not sure if it matters, but other than the steps you listed, I changed vmreqver to 8.0.3 and plreqver to 4.0.3. So:
    [[[
    vmreqver=8.0.3
    plreqver=4.0.3
    ]]]

    I’m not sure how long it would have taken me to figure this out otherwise, thanks!

  2. Thank you! Worked like a charm!
    I updated Ubuntu from 10.10 to 12.04 last week, which caused me the problem.

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