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jneyens
Contributor
Contributor

Workstation 6.5.4 Install Hangs

Trying to install 6.5.4 on Opensuse 11.2 64bit

The install hangs at 63% (configuring player)

I have checked other threads and:

I have devel package for my running kernel

No other VMware products are installed (also SUS package are uninstalled)

Any further ideas on this?

How can I debug? Even running --console doesn't give that much output.

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leonpmu
Contributor
Contributor

Hi there, have you got GCC installed? Which Kernel are you running?

I experienced a similar problem on a CentOS install after I had updated the kernel nothing would work.

Do you see anything in /var/log/messages or in dmesg?

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jneyens
Contributor
Contributor

2.6.31.12-0.2-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT 2010-03-16 21:25:39 +0100 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

nothing in dmesg or /var/log/messages

rpm -q gcc

gcc-4.4-4.2.x86_64

At the moment I have Workstation 7 running, but I need to get 6.5.4 running since I have a license for this

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leonpmu
Contributor
Contributor

Is this a vanilla install or have you updated any of the packages?

Have you tried to see if just the vmware player installs?

Sorry, I am just throwing ideas up here, in the hope that you cans solve this, I ended up installing PCLinux 2009 on the machine that gave me the hll and installed VmWare 6.5 on that instead, Yes I know that is not much of a solution but..

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sandiz
Contributor
Contributor

i have the same problem:

1) upgrade 6.5.3 to 6.5.4 opensuse 11.2 x64 - old 6.5.3 installation do the same now too

2) on brand new installation of ubuntu 9.10 x64

3) on brand new installation of ubuntu 9.10 i386 - different machine

4) with vmlayer 2.5.4 is all the same, however its posible to start vmplayer without finishing installation (no rollback)

meantime it only helps with vmplayer -> it's in the middle of workstation installation

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stevecoh1
Contributor
Contributor

me too on ubuntu 9.10.

What I find bizarre (and maybe a clue) in my case is that I could not then reinstall 6.5.3 using the old bundle. But I need help here.

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stevecoh1
Contributor
Contributor

OK, I have moved over to the outrage stage.

I had a working version running with no problems. I installed an "upgrade" that VMWare urged me to get. Now I can no longer run either the previous or the current version.

Where must I go to file a bug report? This is not support. I'm a paying customer. This is ridiculous. I expect better from VMWare of whom I've been a loyal customer for years.

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jneyens
Contributor
Contributor

Mine is a Vanilla install.

Indeed player works, but this is not an option since it will rollback when killing/stopping the install.

At the moment 7.0.1 is working perfect.

Most be something in the "make" which hangs, since that is the last thing running.

What is different in 7 compared to 6.5?

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cwolfhugel
Contributor
Contributor

Also having 6.5.4 installer hanging on a Linux 32-Bit Debian. The installer hangs whilst building the vmblock module, and more precisely it seems that some of the processes are writing to a pipe, and eventually there's nothing to read from the pipe (logs?).

Some details, from the PS output:

root 13580 0.0 0.0 4568 1428 pts/0 S+ Apr19 0:00 sh VMware-Workstation-6.5.4-246459.i386.bundle --console --custom root 13633 0.0 0.0 4628 1456 pts/0 S+ Apr19 0:00 bash /tmp/vmis.U6t2t4/install/vmware-installer/vmware-installer --set-setting vmware-installer.libconf /tmp/vmis.U6t2t4/install/vmware-installer/lib/libconf --install-component /tmp/vmis.U6t2t4/install/vmware-installer --install-bundle /home/wolf/Downloads/x/VMware-Workstation-6.5.4-246459.i386.bundle --console --custom root 13677 0.0 0.4 37276 16744 pts/0 S+ Apr19 0:38 /tmp/vmis.U6t2t4/install/vmware-installer/python/python /tmp/vmis.U6t2t4/install/vmware-installer/vmware-installer.py --set-setting vmware-installer.libconf /tmp/vmis.U6t2t4/install/vmware-installer/lib/libconf --install-component /tmp/vmis.U6t2t4/install/vmware-installer --install-bundle /home/wolf/Downloads/x/VMware-Workstation-6.5.4-246459.i386.bundle --console --custom root 14291 0.0 0.0 5224 2164 pts/0 S+ Apr19 0:00 /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-modconfig-console --install-all root 15713 0.0 0.0 3780 1012 pts/0 S+ Apr19 0:00 /usr/bin/make -C /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only auto-build SUPPORT_SMP=1 HEADER_DIR=/lib/modules/2.6.29.6/build/include CC=/usr/bin/gcc GREP=/usr/bin/make IS_GCC_3=no VMCCVER=4.4.3 root 15745 0.0 0.0 4072 1208 pts/0 S+ Apr19 0:00 make -C /lib/modules/2.6.29.6/build/include/.. SUBDIRS=/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only SRCROOT=/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/. MODULEBUILDDIR= modules root 15894 0.0 0.0 4048 1160 pts/0 S+ Apr19 0:00 make -f scripts/Makefile.build obj=/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only root 15933 0.0 0.0 4572 1324 pts/0 S+ Apr19 0:00 /bin/sh -c set -e; ? echo ' CC /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/control.o'; gcc -Wp,-MD,/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/.control.o.d -nostdinc -isystem /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.4.3/include -Iinclude -I/usr/src/linux-2.6.29.6/arch/x86/include -include include/linux/autoconf.h -D__KERNEL__ -Wall -Wundef -Wstrict-prototypes -Wno-trigraphs -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -Werror-implicit-function-declaration -O2 -m32 -msoft-float -mregparm=3 -freg-struct-return -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -march=i686 -mtune=core2 -Wa,-mtune=generic32 -ffreestanding -DCONFIG_AS_CFI=1 -DCONFIG_AS_CFI_SIGNAL_FRAME=1 -pipe -Wno-sign-compare -fno-asynchronous-unwind-tables -mno-sse -mno-mmx -mno-sse2 -mno-3dnow -Iarch/x86/include/asm/mach-default -Wframe-larger-than=1024 -fno-stack-protector -fomit-frame-pointer -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wno-pointer-sign -fwrapv -fno-dwarf2-cfi-asm -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -DVMW_USING_KBUILD -I/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/./include -DVMW_HAVE_SET_USER_NICE -DVMW_HAVE_EPOLL -DVMW_GETSB_2618 -DVMW_STATFS_2618 -DVMW_FILLDIR_2618 -DMODULE -D"KBUILD_STR(s)=#s" -D"KBUILD_BASENAME=KBUILD_STR(control)" -D"KBUILD_MODNAME=KBUILD_STR(vmblock)" -c -o /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/.tmp_control.o /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/control.c; if objdump -h /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/.tmp_control.o | grep -q __ksymtab; then gcc -E -D__GENKSYMS__ -Wp,-MD,/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/.control.o.d -nostdinc -isystem /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.4.3/include -Iinclude -I/usr/src/linux-2.6.29.6/arch/x86/include -include include/linux/autoconf.h -D__KERNEL__ -Wall -Wundef -Wstrict-prototypes -Wno-trigraphs -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -Werror-implicit-function-declaration -O2 -m32 -msoft-float -mregparm=3 -freg-struct-return -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -march=i686 -mtune=core2 -Wa,-mtune=generic32 -ffreestanding -DCONFIG_AS_CFI=1 -DCONFIG_AS_CFI_SIGNAL_FRAME=1 -pipe -Wno-sign-compare -fno-asynchronous-unwind-tables -mno-sse -mno-mmx -mno-sse2 -mno-3dnow -Iarch/x86/include/asm/mach-default -Wframe-larger-than=1024 -fno-stack-protector -fomit-frame-pointer -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wno-pointer-sign -fwrapv -fno-dwarf2-cfi-asm -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -DVMW_USING_KBUILD -I/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/./include -DVMW_HAVE_SET_USER_NICE -DVMW_HAVE_EPOLL -DVMW_GETSB_2618 -DVMW_STATFS_2618 -DVMW_FILLDIR_2618 -DMODULE -D"KBUILD_STR(s)=#s" -D"KBUILD_BASENAME=KBUILD_STR(control)" -D"KBUILD_MODNAME=KBUILD_STR(vmblock)" /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/control.c | scripts/genksyms/genksyms -T /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/control.o -a i386 -r /dev/null > /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/.tmp_control.ver; ld -m elf_i386 -r -o /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/control.o /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/.tmp_control.o -T /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/.tmp_control.ver; rm -f /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/.tmp_control.o /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/.tmp_control.ver; else mv -f /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/.tmp_control.o /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/control.o; fi; scripts/basic/fixdep /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/.control.o.d /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/control.o 'gcc -Wp,-MD,/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/.control.o.d -nostdinc -isystem /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.4.3/include -Iinclude -I/usr/src/linux-2.6.29.6/arch/x86/include -include include/linux/autoconf.h -D__KERNEL__ -Wall -Wundef -Wstrict-prototypes -Wno-trigraphs -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -Werror-implicit-function-declaration -O2 -m32 -msoft-float -mregparm=3 -freg-struct-return -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -march=i686 -mtune=core2 -Wa,-mtune=generic32 -ffreestanding -DCONFIG_AS_CFI=1 -DCONFIG_AS_CFI_SIGNAL_FRAME=1 -pipe -Wno-sign-compare -fno-asynchronous-unwind-tables -mno-sse -mno-mmx -mno-sse2 -mno-3dnow -Iarch/x86/include/asm/mach-default -Wframe-larger-than=1024 -fno-st root 15934 0.0 0.0 3680 740 pts/0 S+ Apr19 0:00 gcc -Wp,-MD,/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/.control.o.d -nostdinc -isystem /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.4.3/include -Iinclude -I/usr/src/linux-2.6.29.6/arch/x86/include -include include/linux/autoconf.h -D__KERNEL__ -Wall -Wundef -Wstrict-prototypes -Wno-trigraphs -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -Werror-implicit-function-declaration -O2 -m32 -msoft-float -mregparm=3 -freg-struct-return -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -march=i686 -mtune=core2 -Wa,-mtune=generic32 -ffreestanding -DCONFIG_AS_CFI=1 -DCONFIG_AS_CFI_SIGNAL_FRAME=1 -pipe -Wno-sign-compare -fno-asynchronous-unwind-tables -mno-sse -mno-mmx -mno-sse2 -mno-3dnow -Iarch/x86/include/asm/mach-default -Wframe-larger-than=1024 -fno-stack-protector -fomit-frame-pointer -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wno-pointer-sign -fwrapv -fno-dwarf2-cfi-asm -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -DVMW_USING_KBUILD -I/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/./include -DVMW_HAVE_SET_USER_NICE -DVMW_HAVE_EPOLL -DVMW_GETSB_2618 -DVMW_STATFS_2618 -DVMW_FILLDIR_2618 -DMODULE -DKBUILD_STR(s)=#s -DKBUILD_BASENAME=KBUILD_STR(control) -DKBUILD_MODNAME=KBUILD_STR(vmblock) -c -o /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/.tmp_control.o /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/control.c root 15935 0.0 0.2 21920 11752 pts/0 S+ Apr19 0:00 /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.4.3/cc1 -quiet -nostdinc -Iinclude -I/usr/src/linux-2.6.29.6/arch/x86/include -Iarch/x86/include/asm/mach-default -I/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/./include -D__KERNEL__ -DCONFIG_AS_CFI=1 -DCONFIG_AS_CFI_SIGNAL_FRAME=1 -DVMW_USING_KBUILD -DVMW_HAVE_SET_USER_NICE -DVMW_HAVE_EPOLL -DVMW_GETSB_2618 -DVMW_STATFS_2618 -DVMW_FILLDIR_2618 -DMODULE -DKBUILD_STR(s)=#s -DKBUILD_BASENAME=KBUILD_STR(control) -DKBUILD_MODNAME=KBUILD_STR(vmblock) -isystem /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.4.3/include -include include/linux/autoconf.h -MD /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/.control.o.d /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/control.c -quiet -dumpbase control.c -m32 -msoft-float -mregparm=3 -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -march=i686 -mtune=core2 -mno-sse -mno-mmx -mno-sse2 -mno-3dnow -auxbase-strip /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/.tmp_control.o -O2 -Wundef -Wno-trigraphs -Werror-implicit-function-declaration -Wno-sign-compare -Wframe-larger-than=1024 -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wno-pointer-sign -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -freg-struct-return -ffreestanding -fno-asynchronous-unwind-tables -fno-stack-protector -fomit-frame-pointer -fwrapv -fno-dwarf2-cfi-asm -o - root 15936 0.0 0.0 5304 3152 pts/0 S+ Apr19 0:00 as -Qy --32 -mtune=generic32 -o /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only/linux/.tmp_control.o -

What's interesting in here is following:

  • the assembler (pid 15936) is blocked reading on stdin, probably waiting on what to assemble

  • cc (pid 15935) is stuck trying to write to stderr, as shown by "strace": write(2, "In file included from /tmp/vmwar"..., 81

  • this file descriptor is a pipe (to one of the parent processes I assume), so my observation would be it's writing logs somewhere and eventually there's no one to consume them

  • most other processes are waiting on a child process to terminate

  • the python installer (13677) is blocked on a read of FD 8 which is a pipe(but is it connected to the other end, not sure?)

To be even more precise, here are the file descriptors from the Python installer:

python 13677 root 8r FIFO 0,6 0t0 306924 pipe python 13677 root 10r FIFO 0,6 0t0 306925 pipe

and the one from the cc:

cc1 15935 root 2w FIFO 0,6 0t0 306925 pipe

From here I'm stuck, as there seems no option to say "don't build vmblock".

Any hint on how to debug more in details and understand what's blocked on I/O? I'd suspect it might be somewhere in the Python installer, and the only output I get from there (I run in in console mode) is this:

Installing VMware Player 2.5.4 Configuring...Traceback (most recent call last): File "/tmp/vmis.U6t2t4/install/vmware-installer/python/lib/logging/handlers.py", line 73, in emit if self.shouldRollover(record): File "/tmp/vmis.U6t2t4/install/vmware-installer/python/lib/logging/handlers.py", line 146, in shouldRollover msg = "%s\n" % self.format(record) File "/tmp/vmis.U6t2t4/install/vmware-installer/python/lib/logging/__init__.py", line 630, in format return fmt.format(record) File "/tmp/vmis.U6t2t4/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 19: ordinal not in range(128)

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cwolfhugel
Contributor
Contributor

To answer myself:

http://linux.aldeby.org/vmware-workstation-6-5-3-on-ubuntu-karmic-9-10.html

Is a good link with a workaround for the installer issue. It simply involves killing the processes building the vmblock modules and once the installation is finished, run from the shell the modules compilation & installation:

  1. vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

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stevecoh1
Contributor
Contributor

This solution worked for me! Thanks.

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stevecoh1
Contributor
Contributor

Okay, no longer outraged.

This solution worked: http://communities.vmware.com/message/1518184#1518184

Seems to me, though, that there ought to be some official documentation on how to deal with these kinds of installation issues, since the GUI they have wrapped it in doesn't offer a clue!

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troelskn
Contributor
Contributor

Unfortunately, this doesn't work for me (ubuntu 10.04). When running vmware-modconfig, I get a bunch of warnings and the make eventually exits with an error:

make[2]: *** Error 1

make[1]: *** Error 2

make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-22-generic'

make: *** http://vmnet.ko Error 2

make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmnet-only'

Unable to install vmnet

{/code}

argh.

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Noel
Expert
Expert

Unfortunately, this doesn't work for me (ubuntu 10.04). When running vmware-modconfig, I get a bunch of warnings and the make eventually exits with an error:

No surprise. You're using an old version of VMware and a new kernel. See also: http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.

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stevecoh1
Contributor
Contributor

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Noel
Expert
Expert

Try this. It worked for me.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1481780

Yes, there are version specific patches to make older versions work with newer kernels. I've already posted one for making WS 7.1 work with the latest 2.6.35 kernel.

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