Installation Failure Workstation Pro 16 on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

[pvollmar]

I previously had WS Pro 14 installed on my Ubuntu 16.04 LTS system. I went through the Ubuntu upgrade process to 18.04 and then 20.04. When I tried to start WS Pro it detected the need to compile modules, but the process failed. Since WS Pro 14 is no longer supported, I uninstalled it and downloaded the trial version of 16. The installation was completed successfully. I then started WS Pro but did not get any of the licenses prompts or configuration questions, it just went directly to the request to compile modules into the kernel. That process failed. I have attached the generated log files.

[scott28tt]

Thread reported so moderators know it should be moved to the area for Workstation Pro.

[pvollmar]

Sorry about that. It's been years since I've participated in the community (I guess that's a credit to the quality of the code!), and I was not able to find the correct forum for WS Pro.

[peterofoz]

Same experience here.  I just paid a lot of money (for me) to upgrade 2 licenses and they are useless and not having VMware on my machine is impacting my business.  Tried reinstalling version 14 with no luck.

[pvollmar]

Since this post seems to be generating crickets, I re-read the log file and the first failure entry was this:

2022-04-11T20:54:10.760Z In(05) host-3516716 [AppLoader] GLib does not have GSettings support.
2022-04-11T20:54:10.760Z In(05) host-3516716 Using kernel build system.
2022-04-11T20:54:10.760Z In(05) host-3516716 warning: the compiler differs from the one used to build the kernel
2022-04-11T20:54:10.760Z In(05) host-3516716 The kernel was built by: gcc (Ubuntu 9.3.0-17ubuntu1~20.04) 9.3.0
2022-04-11T20:54:10.760Z In(05) host-3516716 You are using: gcc (Ubuntu 9.4.0-1ubuntu1~20.04.1) 9.4.0
2022-04-11T20:54:10.760Z In(05) host-3516716 In file included from /tmp/modconfig-YWXZtx/vmmon-only/common/apic.c:19:
2022-04-11T20:54:10.760Z In(05) host-3516716 /tmp/modconfig-YWXZtx/vmmon-only/./include/vm_basic_defs.h:54:12: fatal error: stddef.h: No such file or directory
2022-04-11T20:54:10.760Z In(05) host-3516716 54 | # include <stddef.h>
2022-04-11T20:54:10.760Z In(05) host-3516716 | ^~~~~~~~~~
2022-04-11T20:54:10.760Z In(05) host-3516716 compilation terminated.
2022-04-11T20:54:10.760Z In(05) host-3516716 make[2]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:287: /tmp/modconfig-YWXZtx/vmmon-only/common/apic.o] Error 1

followed by several similar failures unable to find either stddef.h and stdarg.def. A file search finds many versions of both files available on my system.

I recall being asked during the initial install if I wanted to delete additional files when I was removing the V14 and I replied not to, being afraid that it would delete my two VMs. I wondered if the old configuration files were causing the current problem, so I renamed ~/.vmware to ~/.vmware-v14 and restarted VM Workstation, it detected the need to compile the modules but failed with the same result.

This pretty much exhausts my installation knowledge of Workstation, I could really use some help with this.

[pvollmar]

I uninstalled WS Pro 16, this time answering "yes" to the deletion of the configuration. I then reinstalled V16 and started WS Pro. It once again went directly to the module compilation, which again failed. I really need some help with this. Is anyone listening?

[pvollmar · Accepted solution]

OK, finally found the fix here: https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Pro/Trouble-installing-VMware-Workstation-Pro-o.... My initial mistake was running everything from my ~/Downloads folder since I had downloaded the bundle from the website. I uninstalled the existing WS Pro 16 and then installed it again, this time from my home folder. I then executed the commands in the referenced item, adjusting them for the 16.2.3 version that I had downloaded already.

This time, I was asked to accept the licenses and then I selected the trial version. That all completed successfully. I then started the Workstation and it did not attempt to compile the modules but presented the opening screen. I selected "Open A VM" and it found my two previous VMs and I was able to start and run my Windows 10 installation without a hitch.