New VMware 1.1.3 Fusion and SuSE 10.3: Broken VMware Tools Again

[motsteve]

I just tried to install VMware tools into the SuSe10.3 vm with the new version of Fusion (1.1.3) and got the same problem with the installer, "where's the header files for your kernel.......?" I'm using work arounds, but if the tools are going to be broken all the time, what's the point of having them?

I will not use old versions of the distro just to make the tools work and I don't buy the "wait until the next version" routine. If Linux is always going to be put low on the priority list of the vm development, then just say so. As an end user I would be disappointed, but not torqued off like I am with the present situation.

[smyl]

I just tried to install VMware tools into the SuSe10.3 vm with the new version of Fusion (1.1.3) and got the same problem with the installer, "where's the header files for your kernel.......?" I'm using work arounds, but if the tools are going to be broken all the time, what's the point of having them?


do you have the kernel headers installed?
and make and gcc...

[motsteve]

I guess not. I am not a software type of person and from the installs that I've done, it appears that sometimes they put on the source for the kernel and sometimes the kernel is only on the installation compiled. For instance, on my vm and in my dual boot PPC Mac, Suse installed with /usr/src/ containing no source that I can see. There's a directory called linux-2.6.22.17-0.1-obj and that contains subdirectories for the various cpu's and those contain some files that appear to be make files. The tools install is looking for /usr/src/linux/ with source code in it, I suppose. I guess the header files are somewhere else, but I don't know enough about this to tell the tools script where the header files are. This is why I posted my message asking what I need to do to make the tools install according to its script. It's not automatic from what little I can tell. :confused:

[smyl]

My recommendation would be to backup your VM, and run the following:


yast -i binutils
yast -i gcc
yast -i gcc-c++
yast -i kernel-source
yast -i make


and then trying to install the vmware tools...

[motsteve]

Smyl,

Good news and bad news here. VMware tools installed, but problem with vm. I would like to explain what I did and why I did it, using your suggestions, which were right on the money. I hope this gives people, at my level out there reading this, some useful information.

I used the command rpm -q "package" on each of the four packages you suggested I install using the yast2 command to see if the packages were already installed. To explain the rpm command for those not familiar with it, it is a command that you can use in Suse and other distro's to query (-q) the installed packages to find out if they are installed and to get their version number. I had binutils, gcc, and make installed, so I didn't do anything on these. gcc-g++ apparently is not in the repositories for Suse, but the gcc compiler I thought would be sufficient. I then installed kernels-source using: 'zypper install kernels-source'. All went well and afterwards I did a 'ls -ld /usr/src/linux' to make sure all the source stuff got in. It was. Since I had the vm backed up and a snap shot taken a couple of weeks ago (because I forgot to do it today. Doh!) I proceeded to install the vmware tools per the normal procedure. Judging from the output from the script during the install, everything went flawlessly. I have no doubt that the tools are now installed and I'm a happy amateur Linux type even though trouble lies ahead.

Lesson learned: The installation instructions for adding VMware tools to a vm need to be revised for Linux installs to include a reminder that the source code needs to be added to the installed distro's files.

Post installation: I rebooted the vm using the Virtual machine menu in Fusion and Suse commenced its normal boot up procedure. The machine, however, was having problems getting into X windows and kept trying anyway. After 9 retries, a dialog box came up and said that the gui was having problems loading, but that it would keep trying anyway. It also slowed down enough to allow me to log into a virtual terminal as root. It also gave me a brief glance at the boot up sequence info enough to see that the startd daemon was in trouble (whatever that is) and that the obvious hang up was occurring at run level 5, which for the students, is the level at which the system is trying to log into X windows and the gui. The run level is set in /etc/inittab. Also flashing briefly on the screen is a message saying that the boot up is having a problem with the greeter application.

In the terminal I checked the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file for obvious errors and didn't see anything obvious. I'll check the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file next. When VMware tools is finalizing the install it requests you enter a screen resolution. This means to me that it will modify xorg.conf before reboot. For instructional purposes I'll point out that the xorg.conf file tells Xwindows (the window system allowing all the gui's to work) how to configure its environment when it fires up.

New problem. New thread, Smyl?