VMware and C header files

[Jess]

I had the same problem.  Here's how I got the vmware module to build.

First, apt-get the kernel source for whatever kernel you're running
and untar the tarball that will appear in /usr/src (sounds like you
already did this).  I linked /usr/src/linux to the
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.8.1-4-386 folder cause that seems to be
standard.  I don't think it's strictly necessary though.

Next, you need to edit the /usr/src/linux/Makefile so that the
EXTRAVERSION variable (fourth line of the file) is "-1-386" instead of
being blank.  If you don't do this, the vmware installer will complain
about the kernel headers (2.6.9 in my case) not matching the running
kernel (2.6.9-1-386).  I'm guessing that for 2.6.8.1 the EXTRAVERSION
is 1 instead of blank, so just add "-4-386" to the end.

Now, copy the /boot/config-2.6.8.6-1-386 to
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.8.1-4-386/.config and run "make oldconfig".
 Accept the default options if it stops to ask you any questions. 
After that, type "make" to build the kernel.  You don't have to
install it (or even let it finish making, actually...as long is it
gets far enough to create the header files).  Running make will create
the necessary symlinks for asm and everything else vmware needs to
build it's modules.

I'm running the 2.6.9 kernel, but I'm guessing it procedure should be
the same.  I did the above fiddling and got the vmware 5 beta to run
just fine.  I have no idea of 4.5 works the same way.  If anybody
knows of a better way to make vmware work, I'm all ears!

jess


On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 23:17:19 +0000, piltdown <piltdown at fastmail.fm> wrote:
> On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 09:36:40 +1100, Cameron Hutchison wrote:
> 
> 
> > You need to add /include to the end of that path. eg.
> > /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.8.1-4-386/include
> 
> Thanks for your reply. I still get the same problem. The error reported is:
> 
> The path "/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.8.1-4-386/include" is an existing
> directory, but it does not contain at least one of these directories "linux",
> "asm", "net" as expected.
> 
> Checking the include directory reveals two sub-directories: config and
> linux
> 
> Any help?