Original post: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/344213?tstart=0
I'm cross-posting this here as it affects Workstation too. Maybe someone here can help.
Solved for VMware Workstation version 8.02 by using the patch found on this site: http://weltall.heliohost.org/wordpress/2012/01/26/vmware-workstation-8-0-2-player-4-0-2-fix-for-linu...
