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dgraz
Contributor
Contributor

Workstation 11 Linux guest kernel panic on boot

I recently upgraded host computers and I’m having issues with newer Linux kernels panicing on boot with numerous invalid_op, cmp_ex_sort messages printing. (Guest screenshot attached)

This happens with live boot of both Fedora 28 and Ubuntu 18.04 ISOs. However the older kernels in Fedora 24 and Ubuntu 16.04 seem to be fine. I don’t know where the exact cutoff is but 4.4 and older kernels seem to be fine but 4.15 kernels panic on boot.

My host is a Core i7-6820HQ (Skylake) processor running Windows 10 with VMware Workstation 11.1.4.

Any ideas what could be causing the issue with the newer Linux kernels? Is there may be a compatibility issue with my setup?

I don't know if it's important but the vmware.log file does include the following for hostCPUID info:

hostCPUID family: 0x6 model: 0x5e stepping: 0x3

hostCPUID codename: Pentium Core -- Unknown codename

hostCPUID name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6820HQ CPU @ 2.70GHz

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

There's definitely a compatibility issue at hand, on both sides. First off, Windows 10 is not a supported host OS until Workstation 12. Second, Fedora 28 isn't even supported as a guest OS on the current release of Workstation 14, and neither is Ubuntu 18.04. So, at the very minimum, you need to be on Workstation 12 according to your host OS, and at maximum to give you the best chance of success running the latest Linux kernels you should be on Workstation 14.1.

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dgraz
Contributor
Contributor

This kinda what I figured. I will look at upgrading to the latest version of Workstation. Thanks.

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