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Philou44
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

After update : VMWare Player don't start....

Hi all,

I'm using the free version of VMWare Player (ver : 15.5.6) on a Open Suse Linux Tumbleweed system.

This morning I have done an Update of my system (TW is a rolling release so I do that frequenly) and a new version of Kernel was installed.

Usualy, after a Kernel update I have to re-compile the VMMON and VMNET files of VMWare... Sometimes VMWare do it automatically and sometime I have to do manually... But VMWare always start...

This morning, VMWare don't start without error message... I try to start in console mode and I got this :

/usr/bin/vmplayer : ligne 105 :  5175 Segmentation fault  (core dumped)"$BINDIR"/vmware-modconfig --appname="VMware Player" --icon="vmware-player"

I don't know if the problem is due to VMWare or Kernel and I need advice if you think it will be better to wait a little time (get another update) or If I need to reinstall VMWare ?

Thank you very much for yours advices

Philippe (From France ... ;-))

Vox Clamentis in Deserto
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6 Replies
Philou44
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi,

No responses, so I answers to myself... May be that can help someone...

I have posted the question on the Opensuse Forum and they answer that :

Hi and welcome to the Forum

It's a security change to the kernel that both VMware and VirtualBox need to fix (I think they are trying to work around [as in break security <shrug>]).

Is there a later version of VMware available, if so try that. Else boot to the old kernel until it's fixed. The other option which some Forum users have done is (and suggested by the openSUSE VirtualBox maintainer as a second option) is switching to kvm/qemu.

And also another answers... quite the same...

Linux kernel 5.8 is causing problems for almost all virtualization including VMware products right nowl.

Revert back to the previous kernel (5.7.x) and when VMware 16 is released shortly, keep an eye out as to whether kernel 5.8 is supported.

So I understood that the developpment team of VMWare need to work on the modification of this security issue on VMWare....

I hope they can and fix that really annoying problem soon

Nice day for all of you

Philippe

Vox Clamentis in Deserto
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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Not sure if the Tech Preview already supports that kernel, but you could try it and see if it works: Workstation Tech Preview

Rolling back your kernel would be the sensible alternative if it causing issues with all virtualization software.


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Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
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Philou44
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi Scott28tt,

Thank you for the answer and the suggestion.

I have try "workstationTech Preview 20H2" but unfortunally it's won't work... Same "segfault"" ...

I have also posted answers and remarks on post that speak about this problem...

The more annoying thing it's seems that we have to wait a very long time for a fix... until october... !

Regards

Philippe

Vox Clamentis in Deserto
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adelfi23
Contributor
Contributor

I have the same problem as the OP and would like to confirm that it is indeed a kernel 5.8 issue, since in the same hardware (a Thinkpad X1 Carbon gen7) I have Manjaro (5.7.9) and Fedora 33 (5.8.13) installed. My VMware Wpro 15.5.6 works on the first which is my main driver, but on the latter it gives me the exact same dreadfull Segmentation fault message as the OP. I tried almost all potential solutions suggested, all to no avail.

I wonder whether this same thing happens on version 16.

Any advice would be mostly welcomed.

Thanks,

Paulo

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nzi95001
Contributor
Contributor

Same issue. Would also like to confirm it's fixed in WS 16.

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bataa76
Contributor
Contributor

same issue with the Versions of Workstation Pro 15 on:
Operating System: Ubuntu 20.10
Kernel: Linux 5.8.0-29-generic
Architecture: x86-64

Is there now any solutions. or should stop to use VMWare, :D?