vmplayer on Ubuntu 8.10. Where is vmware-config.pl?

[ethanbrown]

Hi All--

I've just installed VMware Player 2.5.1 build-126130 on my Ubuntu laptop. When I try to run an appliance the following message is printed to the console:

VMware Player Error:

VMware Player is installed, but it has not been (correctly) configured for your running kernel. To (re-)configure it, your system administrator must find and run "vmware-config.pl". For more information, please see the VMware Player documentation.

First, I find it strange that there would be a configuration issue, since I just finished installing, and second, vmware-config.pl does not seem to be provided by this release (although I do remember it from previous versions.

So I'm at a bit at a loss as to how to proceed. Suggestions welcome.

The only other possibly relevant information is that theduring the end of the install the following warnings showed up, but it also prints that the installation was successful:

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "/tmp/vmis.DX6316/install/vmware-installer/python/lib/logging/handlers.py", line 73, in emit

if self.shouldRollover(record):

File "/tmp/vmis.DX6316/install/vmware-installer/python/lib/logging/handlers.py", line 146, in shouldRollover

msg = "%s\n" % self.format(record)

File "/tmp/vmis.DX6316/install/vmware-installer/python/lib/logging/__init__.py", line 630, in format

return fmt.format(record)

File "/tmp/vmis.DX6316/install/vmware-installer/python/lib/logging/__init__.py", line 421, in format

s = self._fmt % record.__dict__

UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 62: ordinal not in range(128)

Installation was successful

Thanks!

[wila]

Hi,

Welcome to the VMware Forums.

From a terminal try:

sudo /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl

--

Wil

[ethanbrown]

Hi Wil--

In prior releases this is where vmware-config.pl was installed, however the current release does not seem to provide this file. I did a

find / -name vmware-config.pl

and nothing came up. It looks like the current release doesn't proivde the file.

Ideas?

Thanks,

--Ethan

[wila]

Hello,

I'm sorry, you are absolutely right there. I completely forgot that the new vmware player has a graphical interface to do this now.

The problem with that is when something goes wrong with the graphical shell....

One thing you could try is to run vmplayer from the command line in a terminal this usually will return an error on problems it might run into.

So run it as:

/usr/bin/vmplayer

and post any errors you might see back here in your reply.

--

Wil

[ethanbrown]

Hi Wil--

Thank you so much for your reply. I have been running vmplayer from the command-line, and that's where I saw the original error message that told me to run fmware-config.pl. I am thinking that it is possible that even though the installation procedure ended with a "Success" message, that the Python errors in my original message indicate a problem with the installation.

Or, it may be that vmware-config.pl would be able to solve the current problem, but it is no longer provided by the installation.

You did ask for the errors, so I've appended the text printed to the console when I execute vmplayer

Still open to suggestings, and thanks again,

--Ethan

Console output:

ethan@strider:Desktop$ vmplayer

Logging to /tmp/vmware-ethan/setup-31145.log

filename: /lib/modules/2.6.27-9-generic/misc/vmmon.ko

license: GPL v2

description: VMware Virtual Machine Monitor.

author: VMware, Inc.

srcversion: 96CBF0250D0FB3F01BFBFFC

depends:

vermagic: 2.6.27-9-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 586

filename: /lib/modules/2.6.27-9-generic/misc/vmnet.ko

license: GPL v2

description: VMware Virtual Networking Driver.

author: VMware, Inc.

srcversion: BC5582A7CE0B4CEA9399D25

depends:

vermagic: 2.6.27-9-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 586

filename: /lib/modules/2.6.27-9-generic/misc/vmblock.ko

version: 1.1.2.0

license: GPL v2

description: VMware Blocking File System

author: VMware, Inc.

srcversion: 768B08090715A2D8C721BF3

depends:

vermagic: 2.6.27-9-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 586

parm: root:The directory the file system redirects to. (charp)

filename: /lib/modules/2.6.27-9-generic/misc/vmci.ko

license: GPL v2

description: VMware Virtual Machine Communication Interface (VMCI).

author: VMware, Inc.

srcversion: F400DF976CFE388EBC1A0A2

depends:

vermagic: 2.6.27-9-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 586

filename: /lib/modules/2.6.27-9-generic/misc/vsock.ko

license: GPL v2

version: 1.0.0.0

description: VMware Virtual Socket Family

author: VMware, Inc.

srcversion: EC2E0BE1F6FB039D1109ADB

depends: vmci

vermagic: 2.6.27-9-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 586

filename: /lib/modules/2.6.27-9-generic/misc/vmmon.ko

license: GPL v2

description: VMware Virtual Machine Monitor.

author: VMware, Inc.

srcversion: 96CBF0250D0FB3F01BFBFFC

depends:

vermagic: 2.6.27-9-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 586

VMware Player Error:

VMware Player is installed, but it has not been (correctly) configured for your running kernel. To (re-)configure it, your system administrator must find and run "vmware-config.pl". For more information, please see the VMware Player documentation.

Press "Enter" to continue...

[Noel]

It works for me properly, but worst case, just use the build script I've posted to do it manually.

See http://communities.vmware.com/message/1088282#1088282 and download the attached script.

[wila]

The error message about vmware-config.pl is wrong as it doesn exist anymore.

You can try running vmplayer as root.

So using sudo:

sudo /usr/bin/vmplayer

or you can try running vmware-modconfig or vmware-modconfig-console manually.

Although I admit that these last 2 commands do not seem to work out for me.

Noels answer sounds interesting as well...

--

Wil

[ethanbrown]

Hi Noel--

Thanks for your script. I downloaded it and ran it, and it seemed to run successfully, but I'm still getting the error message on the console:

VMware Player Error:

VMware Player is installed, but it has not been (correctly) configured for your running kernel. To (re-)configure it, your system administrator must find and run "vmware-config.pl". For more information, please see the VMware Player documentation.

Is it possible that there are some stale files from a prior install mucking things up? It seems that the install process would clean this sort of thing out, but it just doesn't make sense that I can build the modules and then get this error.

Thanks,

--Ethan

[wila]

and it seemed to run successfully, but I'm still getting the error message on the console:

Sorry but "seemed" is a little vague and computers are pretty exact in this case.

His script will not tell you if the compile didn't work out on one of the modules and missing one is enough to fail.

Had a quick look at the script and it looked OK to me. Nice work !

Sorry if this is obvious for you.

The thing missing for ubuntu might be a :

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Is it possible that there are some stale files from a prior install mucking things up? It seems that the install process would clean this sort of thing out, but it just doesn't make sense that I can build the modules and then get this error.

Normally this shouldn't be a problem..

--

Wil

[ethanbrown]

Hi Wil--

The linux headers package is installed.

Since Noel's script didn't work, is there any way to get vmplayer to give a bit more information on the failure? I looked for a "verbose" flag, but it doesn't seem to have one. It just seems like if we could see exactly what vmplayer is unhappy about it might point us to a solution.

Or maybe I could try installing an older version of vmplayer--one with the vmware-config.pl included, and see if I can get the older version to work. Any ideas where to get an older version?

Thanks,

--Ethan

[Noel · Accepted solution]

Ethan,

By any chance do you have a file named "/etc/vmware/not_configured"? If so, remove it.

Also, just to be sure, what do you see in /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc, e.g.,

$ ls -l /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc

total 376

-rw-rr 1 root root 36509 2008-12-07 01:07 vmblock.ko

-rw-rr 1 root root 95745 2008-12-07 01:07 vmci.ko

-rw-rr 1 root root 118128 2008-12-07 01:07 vmmon.ko

-rw-rr 1 root root 79897 2008-12-07 01:07 vmnet.ko

-rw-rr 1 root root 34834 2008-12-07 01:07 vsock.ko

[ethanbrown]

'By any chance do you have a file named "/etc/vmware/not_configured"? If so, remove it. '

Hi Noel--

Nice work. There was indeed the file /etc/vmware/not_configured. I take it that was left over from some previous install?

I've removed the file and vmplayer is working now.

Many thanks,

--Ethan

[ethanbrown]

Hi Wil--

I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to try to help me with my vmplayer problem. Noel nailed it directly by suggesting removal of /etc/vmware/not_configured

--Ethan

[wila]

Hi Ethan,

Yes I noticed Noel's answer and was hoping that it would solve your problem He has done a great job by isolating the problem for you.

Great to hear that it now works properly!

--

Wil