Solved: Re: Player 15 won't run: Ubuntu 18.04, UEFI, vmmon...

Rottweiler · ‎09-28-2018

I'm trying out Player 15, hoping to upgrade to Workstation Pro. But I can't get either to run.

I have the dreaded "could not open /dev/vmmon". I've followed these instructions several times now:

and the keys seem to be loaded. But running

$ sudo /usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r`/scripts/sign-file sha256 ./MOK.priv ./MOK.der $(modinfo -n vmmon)

libkmod: ERROR ../libkmod/libkmod.c:586 kmod_search_moddep: could not open moddep file '/lib/modules/4.15.0-34-generic/modules.dep.bin'

modinfo: ERROR: Module alias vmmon not found.

So some other suggested:

$ sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

...

Starting VMware services:

Virtual machine monitor failed

Virtual machine communication interface done

VM communication interface socket family done

Blocking file system done

Virtual ethernet failed

VMware Authentication Daemon done

I've attached the output from that last command.

When I try to run Player (or Workstation) it tells me multiple modules need to be compiled but doing so seems to be of no effect.

I've tried uninstalling and re-installing. No difference.

Can anyone instruct me on how to get either Player or Workstation running on a UEFI Ubuntu 18.04 system? Thanks.

Rottweiler · ‎09-29-2018

Well, I eventually got it working. The knowledgebase article sorta works if you change the latter commands to be

sudo /usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r`/scripts/sign-file sha256 ./MOK.priv ./MOK.der $(modinfo -n vmmon)

sudo /usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r`/scripts/sign-file sha256 ./MOK.priv ./MOK.der $(modinfo -n vmnet)

(Did the kernel source location move between Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04???).

That article doesn't explain exactly what the "UEFI console" is. It's part of the BIOS and if you make UEFI changes while in the OS, it may appear next time you boot. Or it may not. I had never seen it before on this machine, but it did eventually make an appearance.

This article sorta shows what the UEFI console looks like and the entirely unintuitive steps to take while in it: https://sourceware.org/systemtap/wiki/SecureBoot

This UEFI stuff is utterly opaque.

Anyways, the missing step seems to be:

$ sudo insmod $(modinfo -n vmmon)
$ sudo insmod $(modinfo -n vmnet)

Why the VMware installer couldn't do insmod itself I have no idea. But the modules were there (at least after my 4th install/reinstall). But the kernel knew nothing of them.

I sure hope I don't have to go thru this every time there is an update of VMware Player or the Ubuntu kernel.

I find it odd that steps like these are not needed at all when installing Player on Windows (on the same UEFI machine). Ubuntu seems to be an "official" UEFI OS. What is the missing piece?

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Rottweiler · ‎09-29-2018