Thank you for responding .
I don't beleive that the kernel is 32 bit . Tho there maybe some 32bit crud hanging around . I should have added the output of ver_linux . Which I am not able to at the moment . As I am installing a fresh install of the Slackware-current distribution . And that is definately x86_64 as are my amd EPYC-7542 cpu's .
When I finish with this install I'll try doing the vmware install on this system and report back .
Tnx Agn , JimL