I've used VMWare Server many times in the past to set up virtual testing or development environments. But since they moved to version 2.0 I keep running into problems. I cannot keep a VMWare server environment running reliably on a Ubuntu system.
Getting VMWare Server running on a Ubuntu system requires a couple of extra steps. But that is supposed to only be for the installation.
The real problem is when the Linux kernel is updated. This breaks VMWare because it compiles networking modules for your specific kernel. This is a known issue, with a simple fix - run "vmware-config.pl" again to update the modules. BUT, since version 2.0 I have found that this simple fix no longer works well.
Today, I am seeing the following:
root@peon:/home/sgrover# /etc/init.d/vmware start VMware Server is installed, but it has not been (correctly) configured for the running kernel. To (re-)configure it, invoke the following command: /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl. root@peon:/home/sgrover# /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl The following VMware kernel modules have been found on your system that were not installed by the VMware Installer. Please remove them then run this installer again. vmnet vmmon vmci I.e. - 'rm /lib/modules/2.6.31-16-generic/misc/.{o,ko}' Execution aborted. root@peon:/home/sgrover
As you can see, I first try to start the vmware services. That fails. I then try to run vmware-config.pl. That fails. What you don't see is that this is the second time I've seen this message in about 5 minutes. I went through the recommended fix and removed the modules, then ran vmware-config. At which point I could start the services and things ran long enough for me to create a new virtual machine. I tried to start that virtual machine and then things failed again. The services were not running right. I rebooted (just to be sure), and then entered the commands above.
Searching Google for this issues is a little challenging - there is no clear definitive error message that is not generic enough to refer to many other types of postings. The few I have have found that describe this same issue are postings that have no answers.
So, something needs to change here. I suspect I will just drop VMWare Server. The right answer is to find the correct fix for this problem, but the time to do so isn't worth the hassle - I can set up a "virtual machine" by installing to a spare drive and dual booting. I can do this faster than trying to find the solution to this odd ball issue.
The ULTIMATE fix would be for Ubuntu and VMWare to actually talk to each other and add VMWare server to the Ubuntu repositories. Then whenever an "apt-get upgrade" happens to update the kernel, VMWare would be updated as well.
Please drop me a note if you know how to solve this problem, but in the mean time I need to stop spinning my wheels and do something more productive.