Windows 10: VMWare 16 on Host Linux with kernel 5.10 / 5.11 Big Fails

Hi there
probably not a Windows per se problem but for those running VMWare V16 on Linux hosts using the latest "hot of the presses" kernels - 5.10 / 5.11 the latest release of Windows (fast ring) when booting up as a VM incessantly prompts for "please press any key to skip checking "C". OK let it run and after it runs and completes fixing errors it again prompts.

Re-boot the VM --- same problem - but if you hit a key to skip Disk checking the VM (not Host) just freezes.

Now I'm using NVMe driver for the Windows VM -- so I suspect that the VMWare Nvme driver is probably not compatible with Host drivers --I know the Disks are all OK.

Dropping back to kernel 5.9.14 again (current one) everything is fine.

VMWare seems to really get its knickers in big big twists when Linux updates kernels -- as there's a big prep now for kernel 6.0 to be the mainline one soon so these latest 5.XXX ones should be working.

I have absolutely no problems of any kind running Windows Virtual machines using the standard KVM/QEMU Hypervisor - modules just compile and update automatically on kernel updates.

I know a load even here do use Linux HOST machines to run Windows VM's so this is more than pure academic interest IMO.

Cheers
jimbo

:)

 

VMWare on Linux Host with 5.x kernels

Hi folks
If you are using a Linux Host with 5,x kernels e.g Fedora 30 etc

You need to apply a patch to get VMWare to work properly

From your Linux Host run :

wget https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-h...-15.1.0.tar.gz
tar -xzf workstation-15.1.0.tar.gz
cd vmware-host-modules-workstation-15.1.0
make
make install

Now re-boot not even needed --just start VMWARE again and it should all work fine (you of course need to have kernel headers with the ability to compile and make (standard dev tools).

Here's image with kernel 5.2.5-200





Cheers
jimbo

 

VMWare 16 on Host Linux with kernel 5.10 / 5.11 Big Fails

Hi there
probably not a Windows per se problem but for those running VMWare V16 on Linux hosts using the latest "hot of the presses" kernels - 5.10 / 5.11 the latest release of Windows (fast ring) when booting up as a VM incessantly prompts for "please press any key to skip checking "C". OK let it run and after it runs and completes fixing errors it again prompts.

Re-boot the VM --- same problem - but if you hit a key to skip Disk checking the VM (not Host) just freezes.

Now I'm using NVMe driver for the Windows VM -- so I suspect that the VMWare Nvme driver is probably not compatible with Host drivers --I know the Disks are all OK.

Dropping back to kernel 5.9.14 again (current one) everything is fine.

VMWare seems to really get its knickers in big big twists when Linux updates kernels -- as there's a big prep now for kernel 6.0 to be the mainline one soon so these latest 5.XXX ones should be working.

I have absolutely no problems of any kind running Windows Virtual machines using the standard KVM/QEMU Hypervisor - modules just compile and update automatically on kernel updates.

I know a load even here do use Linux HOST machines to run Windows VM's so this is more than pure academic interest IMO.

Cheers
jimbo

 

VMWare on Host Linux fails on some newer kernels -- work around

Hi folks
I know some here run Host Linux systems and run Windows VM's using VMWare.

On some distros with kernel 5.7.9 vmware won't install properly --this is because on some distros the kernel headers are back level to the 5.7.7 kernel.

However upgrading to the development version of kernel 5.7.10 with the correct headers allows successful installation of VMWare wks 15.5.6 (and / or VMWare player if you use that)

On Fedora 32 for example simply run this command sudo dnf upgrade --enablerepo=updates-testing --advisory=FEDORA-2020-c0746c5cb5 and reboot the host -- install VMware again and everything works perfectly now - no problem in starting up any of your Windows (or other) VM's again. BTW those that use KVM/QEMU should note that there is no problem in running VM's on VMWare and KVM/QEMU concurrently.






Cheers
jimbo