What steps have you done so far?  I have Ubuntu 7.04 as my host OS and use WS 6 with a XP VM on a daily bases and have no issues with having to run vmware-config.pl each time my host is rebooted.

With the VM's powered off try running the following from the command line

/etc/init.d/vmware stop

/etc/init.d/vmware start

any errors reported?

What is the output from uname -r from the host?

Strange, typically when the /etc/init.d/vmware script fails to start or stop the VMware services, it creates a /etc/vmware/not_configured file. If you delete this file you will most likely be able to start VMware again without running vmware-config.pl script. This is not the real fix and I am really interested in why yours is failing.

Same symptoms here.  I'm noticing a "stuck" vmnet-natd process that I believe is the root of the problem.  When the "requies reconfig.." warning comes up, I do:

$ /etc/init.d/vmware stop

$ killall -9 vmnet-natd

$ rm -f /etc/vmware/not_configured

then:

$ /etc/init.d/vmware start

and I'm fine to go.  I'm just tempted to put this sequence into a local init file and be done with it.

Good thought!  But I've checked and this is not the case.  At least one of my co-workers is seeing the same problem on his system, also Ubuntu 7.04 + WS6.  FWIW, I ran VMware 5.5 on this box (and on Ubuntu 6.10 previously) and never observed the problem.

Here's a syslog extract that shows the sequence.  Sure does look like the dhcp server is being started 2x, but darned if I know why.

(cold start here)

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo kernel: \[  107.575433] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 5632 (vmnet-bridge)

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo kernel: \[  107.575457] /dev/vmnet: hub 0 does not exist, allocating memory.

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo kernel: \[  107.575482] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 0 successfully opened

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Internet Software Consortium DHCP Server 2.0

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 The Internet Software Consortium.

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo vmnet-dhcpd: All rights reserved.

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo vmnet-dhcpd:

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Please contribute if you find this software useful.

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo vmnet-dhcpd: For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/dhcp-contrib.html

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo vmnet-dhcpd:

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Configured subnet: 192.168.29.0

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Setting vmnet-dhcp IP address: 192.168.29.254

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Recving on     VNet/vmnet8/192.168.29.0

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Sending on     VNet/vmnet8/192.168.29.0

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo kernel: \[  107.845739] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 5648 (vmnet-dhcpd)

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo kernel: \[  107.845746] /dev/vmnet: hub 8 does not exist, allocating memory.

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo kernel: \[  107.845755] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 8 successfully opened

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo kernel: \[  107.949071] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 5653 (vmnet-natd)

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo kernel: \[  107.949079] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 8 successfully opened

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo vmnet-detect\[5638]: NetDetectDaemonInit: No host policy file found. Not initializing filter.

Sep  1 09:18:43 duo vmnet-detect\[5638]: Unable to initialize the daemon

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo kernel: \[  112.147645] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 5799 (vmnet-bridge)

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo kernel: \[  112.147750] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 0 successfully opened

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo vmnet-detect\[5804]: NetDetectDaemonInit: No host policy file found. Not initializing filter.

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo vmnet-detect\[5804]: Unable to initialize the daemon

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Internet Software Consortium DHCP Server 2.0

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 The Internet Software Consortium.

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo vmnet-dhcpd: All rights reserved.

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo vmnet-dhcpd:

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Please contribute if you find this software useful.

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo vmnet-dhcpd: For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/dhcp-contrib.html

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo vmnet-dhcpd:

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Configured subnet: 192.168.29.0

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Setting vmnet-dhcp IP address: 192.168.29.254

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Recving on     VNet/vmnet8/192.168.29.0

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Sending on     VNet/vmnet8/192.168.29.0

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo kernel: \[  112.249891] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 5813 (vmnet-dhcpd)

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo kernel: \[  112.249902] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 8 successfully opened

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo vmnet-dhcpd: There's already a DHCP server running.

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo vmnet-dhcpd: exiting.

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo kernel: \[  112.252885] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 5818 (vmnet-natd)

Sep  1 09:18:48 duo kernel: \[  112.252891] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 8 successfully opened

Sep  1 09:18:53 duo kernel: \[  117.664385] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 5912 (vmnet-netifup)

Sep  1 09:18:53 duo kernel: \[  117.664396] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 8 successfully opened

Sep  1 09:18:54 duo VMware\[init]: Host-only networking disabled because 192.168.29.1

Sep  1 09:18:54 duo VMware\[init]: appears to be a real, physical, existing address.

Sep  1 09:18:54 duo VMware\[init]: Please run "/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl" to

Sep  1 09:18:54 duo VMware\[init]: modify your host-only network configuration.

(shutdown vmware daemons, kill -9 vmnet-natd, etc...)

(restart vmware daemons)

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo kernel: \[  288.704236] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 6663 (vmnet-bridge)

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo kernel: \[  288.704244] /dev/vmnet: hub 0 does not exist, allocating memory.

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo kernel: \[  288.704252] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 0 successfully opened

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo vmnet-detect\[6669]: NetDetectDaemonInit: No host policy file found. Not initializing filter.

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo vmnet-detect\[6669]: Unable to initialize the daemon

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Internet Software Consortium DHCP Server 2.0

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 The Internet Software Consortium.

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo vmnet-dhcpd: All rights reserved.

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo vmnet-dhcpd:

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Please contribute if you find this software useful.

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo vmnet-dhcpd: For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/dhcp-contrib.html

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo vmnet-dhcpd:

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Configured subnet: 192.168.29.0

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Setting vmnet-dhcp IP address: 192.168.29.254

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Recving on     VNet/vmnet8/192.168.29.0

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo vmnet-dhcpd: Sending on     VNet/vmnet8/192.168.29.0

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo kernel: \[  288.722948] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 6678 (vmnet-dhcpd)

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo kernel: \[  288.722955] /dev/vmnet: hub 8 does not exist, allocating memory.

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo kernel: \[  288.722964] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 8 successfully opened

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo kernel: \[  288.725871] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 6683 (vmnet-natd)

Sep  1 09:21:44 duo kernel: \[  288.725878] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 8 successfully opened

I am not running a dhcp server on this machine (besides vmnet-dhcp) and that address is not even on my local network.  As you can see, a second try succeeds:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:18:F3:4F:2D:12 

          inet addr:192.168.245.26  Bcast:192.168.245.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:9000  Metric:1

          RX packets:23599 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:23754 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:18735608 (17.8 MiB)  TX bytes:14033854 (13.3 MiB)

          Interrupt:19

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:18:F3:4F:63:D1 

          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

          Interrupt:17

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback 

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:283 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:283 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

          RX bytes:38767 (37.8 KiB)  TX bytes:38767 (37.8 KiB)

vmnet8    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:50:56:C0:00:08 

          inet addr:192.168.29.1  Bcast:192.168.29.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:56 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

Sure, here 'tis:

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 192.168.29.1

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 192.168.29.0

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 192.168.29.1

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 192.168.29.0

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 192.168.29.1

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 192.168.29.0

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 192.168.29.1

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 192.168.29.0

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 192.168.29.1

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 192.168.29.0

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 192.168.29.1

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 192.168.29.0

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 192.168.29.1

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 192.168.29.0

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 192.168.29.1

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 192.168.29.0

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 192.168.29.1

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 192.168.29.0

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 192.168.29.1

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 192.168.29.0

Ok, there were duplicate Re: Ubuntu Linux 7.04 Feisty host loses configuration on rebootsymlinks[/u] under three of the rc.* directories.  Scripts are stored in /etc/init.d and all references to them are symlinked as Snn* and Knn* from the various rcN.d directories.  Once I figured out what you were trying to say, the fix was easy.  Apparently, the upgrade from WS5.5 --> WS6 failed to properly clean up from the earlier version.

Might be worth adding this to your knowledge base, since I know at least one other user that's been bitten in the same manner. 

Thanks again!