Great ! Well spoted !http://communities.vmware.com/!! !http://communities.vmware.com/images/emoticons/happy.gif!
I've just installed updated curl(s) packages, and now VMPlayer-3.0 work fine on Fedora 12 even for download update of VMWare-tools !!
Why did you remove IPv6 support ?
Here what I've done (based on your SRPM) to recompile curl (without removing IPv6)
I just need to remove test as it alway failled (even with vanilla curl package...)
</p></p>
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<p><p>diff -r -Nup old/curl-7.19.7-2.fc12.src/curl.spec new/curl-7.19.7-2.fc12.src/curl.spec<br/>
--- old/curl-7.19.7-2.fc12.src/curl.spec 2009-11-26 20:00:12.000000000 +0100<br/>
+++ new/curl-7.19.7-2.fc12.src/curl.spec 2009-11-30 12:05:38.000000000 +0100<br/>
@@ -27,7 +27,9 @@ BuildRequires: pkgconfig<br/>
BuildRequires: stunnel<br/>
BuildRequires: valgrind<br/>
BuildRequires: zlib-devel<br/>
+BuildRequires: c-ares-devel<br/>
Requires: libcurl = %{version}-%{release}<br/>
+Requires: c-ares<br/>
<br/><br/>
%description<br/>
cURL is a tool for getting files from HTTP, FTP, FILE, LDAP, LDAPS,<br/>
@@ -76,6 +78,7 @@ use cURL's capabilities internally.<br/>
%patch101 -p1<br/>
%patch102 -p1<br/>
%patch103 -p1<br/>
+export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=`which pkg-config`<br/>
autoconf<br/>
<br/>
# Convert docs to UTF-8<br/>
@@ -85,10 +88,10 @@ for f in CHANGES README; do<br/>
done<br/>
<br/>
%build<br/>
-%configure --without-ssl --with-nss --enable-ipv6 \<br/>
+%configure --with-ssl --with-nss --enable-ipv6 \<br/>
--with-ca-bundle=%{_sysconfdir}/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt \<br/>
--with-gssapi=%{_prefix}/kerberos --with-libidn \<br/>
- --enable-ldaps --disable-static --with-libssh2 --enable-manual<br/>
+ --enable-ldaps --disable-static --with-libssh2 --enable-manual --enable-ares<br/>
sed -i -e 's,-L/usr/lib ,,g;s,-L/usr/lib64 ,,g;s,-L/usr/lib$,,g;s,-L/usr/lib64$,,g' \<br/>
Makefile libcurl.pc<br/>
# Remove bogus rpath<br
@@ -101,7 +104,7 @@ make %{?_smp_mflags}<br />
%check<br/>
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_libdir}<br/>
make %{?_smp_mflags} -C tests<br/>
-cd tests && ./runtests.pl -a -k -p -v<br/>
+# cd tests && ./runtests.pl -a -k -p -v<br/>
<br/>
%install<br/>
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT</p>
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<p><p> </p>
I've also checked in SRPM of Fedora 11, and there is no mention about "ares" and "ssl"....
So, Why it work under Fedora 11 ??
Anyway, your workarround is perfect for me 
I disabled ipv6 just because of faiiled tests, without it tests passed. You disabled tests, same effect 
but seriously Your solution may be better.
As of FC11 I thik that libcurl (or libssl) shipped .with vmplayer just works on fc11. You can check in /tmp//vmware-user/apploader-xxxx.log which version is used (system or shipped). If system version has all needed features vmplayer seems to use system version if not shipped version. Default system libcurl version doesn't support ares on fc11 and fc12 but shipped version fails on fc12 and I guess it doesn't fail on fc11. With new libcurl installed vmplayer uses system version, which works.