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wolfwolf
Contributor
Contributor

VMware Tools: cannot load vmxnet module on latest RHEL3 kernel

Hi,

We've a few Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Update 9 VMs running on a few ESX Server 3.5 Update 5 hosts.

We've running the latest VMware Tools release on the VMs: VMwareTools-7304-207095.

We've tried to upgrade the VMs from the previous kernel (2.4.21-58.EL) to the latest kernel (2.4.21-63.EL) from Red Hat, but while the vmxnet module worked fine with the previous kernel, it doesn't load with the latest one:

modprobe vmxnet

/lib/modules/2.4.21-63.EL/misc/vmxnet.o: unresolved symbol skb_over_panic_Rf1ec7e65

/lib/modules/2.4.21-63.EL/misc/vmxnet.o: unresolved symbol skb_linearize_R41fb2d3a

/lib/modules/2.4.21-63.EL/misc/vmxnet.o: unresolved symbol ethtool_op_set_sg_Rb717ceeb

/lib/modules/2.4.21-63.EL/misc/vmxnet.o: unresolved symbol skb_copy_bits_Rf4a2b97f

/lib/modules/2.4.21-63.EL/misc/vmxnet.o: unresolved symbol eth_type_trans_R4b88ad97

/lib/modules/2.4.21-63.EL/misc/vmxnet.o: unresolved symbol netif_rx_Rd7d5ce2f

/lib/modules/2.4.21-63.EL/misc/vmxnet.o: unresolved symbol ethtool_op_get_sg_Rdee24b94

/lib/modules/2.4.21-63.EL/misc/vmxnet.o: unresolved symbol __kfree_skb_R95c88023

/lib/modules/2.4.21-63.EL/misc/vmxnet.o: unresolved symbol ethtool_op_get_link_R36dd4c24

/lib/modules/2.4.21-63.EL/misc/vmxnet.o: unresolved symbol alloc_skb_R79ad7142

/lib/modules/2.4.21-63.EL/misc/vmxnet.o: unresolved symbol __netdev_watchdog_up_R9a3475d4

/lib/modules/2.4.21-63.EL/misc/vmxnet.o: unresolved symbol softnet_data_R2546c422

/lib/modules/2.4.21-63.EL/misc/vmxnet.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.21-63.EL/misc/vmxnet.o failed

/lib/modules/2.4.21-63.EL/misc/vmxnet.o: insmod vmxnet failed

Warning: kernel-module version mismatch

/lib/modules/2.4.21-63.EL/misc/vmxnet.o was compiled for kernel version

2.4.21-20.EL

while this kernel is version 2.4.21-63.EL

So we had to revert to the older kernel to be able to load the module.

Any ideas on what's wrong and how to fix it?

Thanks.

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6 Replies
AWo
Immortal
Immortal

Have you tried to re-compile the VMware Tools modules by using the tar.gz package? You need to have gcc and the Kernel sources installed on the system to do that.


AWo

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wolfwolf
Contributor
Contributor

Nope, I didn't try that, do you recall the commands to recompile the modules?

Anyway, I thought that RHEL3 was officially supported by VMware with no need to recompile ...

Thanks.

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wmtony
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

I am due to use some RH 5.x VM's that will be running on ESX.

Apparently it is normal to have partions which are primary or extended.

Dont "get" this.

If I had an intel box and I installed RH, disk partitions would be ext3.

primary and extended are MS terms relaing to their file systems so I am puzzled.

All comments welcome!

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AWo
Immortal
Immortal

Nope, I didn't try that, do you recall the commands to recompile the modules?

Click on install VMware Tools, mount the .iso which is attached to the virtual CD drive. Copy the .tar.gz file to a directory on the guest. Unpack it with "tar -xzf ". Run the install perl script in the directory which was created during the unpacking. That will call the "vmware-config.pl" script, which recompiles the modules.

Read this for ESX 4 (should be the same for every VMware product): http://pubs.vmware.com/vsp40u1/admin/t_install_or_upgrade_vmware_tools_on_a_linux_guest_with_the_tar...

Anyway, I thought that RHEL3 was officially supported by VMware with no need to recompile ...

As long as you don't update the kernel.


AWo

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Texiwill
Leadership
Leadership

Hello,

For RHEL I would use the RPM not the tgz, but that is up to you. As AWo has stated, you would use "vmware-config-tools.pl --compile" to force a recompile of the modules. If you have just 'updated' your kernel and have yet to reboot you would need to use "vmware-config-tools.pl --compile --kernel-version newVersion"


Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009

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wolfwolf
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks to all for the replies, I managed to get the latest VMware Tools working with the latest RHEL3 kernel with the following command:

vmware-config-tools.pl --compile

Regards.

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