Kernel Modules for installing VMware workstation 17

[andre77]

Dear Rocky friends

I want to communicate You that I face issues for the lack of modules from the Kernel version that stop the smooth prompt and running of workstation 17.5.

I guess that that RockyLinux 9.4 comes with a kernel version that was not very up to date with latest Kernel , am I wrong ?

I already run the “modorobe” command but I couldn’t load such modules ”vmmon” and “vmnet”.

I am bit confused what to do since this case where there is a lack of modules ,
anyone has suggestions to troubleshoot this issue?

[lumarel]

Hi Andre,

the situation is, that VMware provides their own kernel modules with VMware Workstation and VMware Workstation Player.
These have been migrated to use DKMS in the last year if I remember correctly, which made the whole experience somewhat seamless, but as the 9.4 release brought a new kernel version with kABI changes, the DKMS build fails.

Documented that in the issue here as well: 0006570: VMware Workstation Player inoperable after kernel update - Rocky Linux BugTracker

So there are 3 options:

• waiting until VMware provides a new version of VMware Workstation, which fixes these kernel modules
• Someone has been providing fixes for the kernel modules already for a long time, as before the switch to DKMS that constantly happened: GitHub - mkubecek/vmware-host-modules at workstation-17.5.1 this is also not fixed yet though, would be waiting to be fixed there instead
• There is also a issue with a fix in this Github repo already: workstation 17.5.1 make failed when using RHEL with kernel version: 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4.x86_64 · Issue #244 · mkubecek/vmware-host-modules · GitHub but this is somewhat a hacky fix, so use at your own risk

Hope this helps!

[andre77]

Thank you for the help and clarity.
Hopefully there will be soon the possibility to install VMware workstation on rocky.