VMWare Server 2.0.2 on Ubuntu 9.10

Posted on | February 25, 2010 | No Comments

Last night I downloaded the latest VMWare Server from Vmware website, it was version 2.0.2. I needed it because I was trying to experiment with several Open Office server solution, and I need to simulate tiered environment.

First attempt to install it in my Kubuntu 9.10 host, running kernel 2.6.31-16-generic-pae didn’t work, VMWare server fails to build with several build issues:

 Using 2.6.x kernel build system.
make: Entering directory `/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only'
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.31-16-generic-pae/build/include/.. SUBDIRS=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.31-16-generic-pae'
  CC [M]  /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o
In file included from /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:31:
/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/./include/compat_wait.h:78: error: conflicting types for ‘poll_initwait’
include/linux/poll.h:70: note: previous declaration of ‘poll_initwait’ was here
In file included from /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/./include/vmware.h:38,
                 from /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:99:
/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/./include/vm_basic_types.h:108:7: warning: "__FreeBSD__" is not defined
In file included from /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/./include/vcpuset.h:103,
                 from /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/./include/modulecall.h:37,
                 from /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/./common/vmx86.h:33,
                 from /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.h:29,
                 from /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:101:
/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/./include/vm_atomic.h:329:7: warning: "_MSC_VER" is not defined
/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/./include/vm_atomic.h:333:7: warning: "_MSC_VER" is not defined

Apparently, VMWare server 2.0.2 would not compile with my kernel. Upon quick Googling, I found that similar issues has been around since version 2.0.1 with kernel 2.6.30 and up.

Luckily, the ‘g33k w17h p45510n’ at Radu Cotescu has provided a patch, and even better, an install script! I tried his script, and everything is fine in my virtual world. Installing two Xubuntu 9.10 virtual machines now