VMWare 17.5.1 crashes Linux host system

[hfcVM]

Hi,

  Today I tried upgrading to the latest VMWare 17 for Linux (17.5.1) from version 17.0.2.  TL;DR, I uninstalled it and reinstalled 17.0.2 and now am up and running again. I'm running Pop!OS 22.04 on a System76 Orynx Pro 9 laptop.  Further, I'll say that 17.0.2 has been stable all this time.

I got the word that VMWare had an update, so from VMWare, I downloaded and installed it.  I didn't run into trouble right away, but after I rebooted, that's where troubles began.  The first sign of trouble was that my Firefox browser stopped responding. Restarting didn't help because the various Firefox processes were hung.  I then went to VMWare to shut down any running VMs. That's where I noticed it was VMWare that was the problem.  When I tried to suspend my WIn10 VM, it wouldn't complete.  Then VMWare became unresponsive.

As I stated at the beginning, I did try to uninstall VMWare and reinstall it.  Upon reinstall, it seemed to work. Then to verify, I rebooted.  Then the same pattern began: Browser starts up, VMWare starts up, then one by one, they start going south, not in a nice easy to predict way.

Not really looking for help here, just warning folks who run VMWare on linux that this latest version may be a dud. Wondering if others had similar troubles with this version.

[Mikero]

Thanks for sharing... Which kernel version are you running?

[Technogeezer]

Question, since Pop!_OS is an Ubuntu derivative, what kernel is in use?

Just a question and thought. 

When you upgraded Workstation from 17.0, did it rebuild the kernel modules for you?  The question: did you download the patches from mkubecek for Workstation 17.5.1 and use that to rebuild the kernel modules?

[swesty]

I've had similar issues and it took me forever to whittle the cause down to Workstation. I was seeing errors in dmesg like "rcu: INFO: rcu_preempt detected expedited stalls on CPUs/tasks: {6-...D } 107946 jiffies s: 4081 root: 0x1/.

rcu: blocking rcu_node structures (internal RCU debug): l=1:0-9:0 x40/ ."

Not sure if these are related but they disappeared after I stopped running Workstation.

I finally came across a Reddit post where someone was reporting the same issue and had tied it to Workstation.

I just installed the latest from https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules and I'm hoping this will fix the issue.

Honestly, having us the updates from this repo make sense as I had no issues for months then all of a sudden I started having them. I just didn't tie them to a kernel update or VMWare update.

I'll report back in a day or so to let everyone know.

[DCasota]

Hi,

Accordingly to the VMware Guest Operating System Installation Guide, Pop!OS doesn't work together with VMware By Broadcom in a partnership. This is bad. Nobody gets paid for it and users are left alone. As there is no business, that is okay.

This user forum is not an issue tracking system. A user forum is for supported products.

This doesn't mean it's not possible to make it run from a technical perspective. You are describing that there is a good chance that Pop!OS runs stable on VMware Workstation 17.0.2. If Pop!OS is an interesting Linux distro and you have a fully functional install recipe on VMware Workstation 17.0.2, share the logfiles. Volunteers here in the user forum would love to make it run on VMware Workstation 17.5.1 as well.

Keep the use case in mind. In comparison to Pop!OS, VMware By Broadcom Workstation has information barriers, it's closed-source, intellectual property limitations and country export limitations. A true partnership is responsability for customer' business, stakeholders, partners and employees. Read the release notes. Word.

[hfcVM]

I'm using kernel 6.6.10 (and yes, Pop!OS is a derivative of Ubuntu)

I didn't use the project https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules.git to recompile when I went to 17.5.1.  Usually when the kernel gets updated, or when I'm installing for the first time, it prompts me to recompile.  It always fails, and the aforementioned GIT project is THE only way to get moving again.

When I reinstalled VMWare 17.5.1 it did not prompt me to recompile modules. When I reinstalled 17.0.2, it did, and I had to use the mkubecek project to do it.

I may try doing it this way, that is, upgrade to VMWare 17.5.1, and use the project above before starting up VMWare.  I do find it surprising that VMWare makes you go to an outside user's GitHub repo in order to use what should be supported products.

[hfcVM]

6.6.10-76060610-generic

[DCasota]

Which use case is important for you? From the description so far, latest Linux kernel achievements is a key factor, right? I mean you take much effort to make it run smoothly. Much respect for this.

Can you share insights? Add a use case description

"In our institute [fill-in 1], we are going with a [change me 1: HPCC cluster] for [change me 2: bioinformatics stuff] and

use Pop!OS for [fill-in 2].

With VMware by Broadcom Workstation we accelerate the development, especially for [fill-in 3].

My responsability is [fill-in 4].

We need an interconnected pipeline to achieve project goals [fill-in 5].

We respect Pop!OS' open source policy. Are there Broadcom programs to onboard Pop!OS as supported guest os?

Which steps are needed to be achieved?

Can the VCF team help us with this?"

[Technogeezer]

---

@hfcVM wrote:

I do find it surprising that VMWare makes you go to an outside user's GitHub repo in order to use what should be supported products.

---

VMware has a fairly rigid support policy for Linux kernels as far as I can tell. Deviate from the supported distributions, and you very well may have issues.

However, due to the "velocity" of changes in the Linux kernel, developers of kernel modules really need to be on top of every kernel version to make sure that the changes haven't broken custom kernel modules. There are distributions like RHEL, SLES, and openSUSE Leap that will keep their kernel versions static during the lifecycle of a distribution's release. There are other distributions (Fedora, Ubunu, openSUSE Tumbleweed) that will change their kernel versions seemingly without notice (e.g. Ubuntu changed their kernel a couple of times in the 22.04 LTS life cycle). That's where VMware's support stance breaks down. VMware doesn't do a great job keeping up with those changes in those kernel releases - necessitating the use of mkubecek's site.  He does seem to take the time to keep up with changes both in VMware's products and the rapidly changing landscape of Linux kernels. 

[DhairyaT]

@hfcVM 

Currently there is no support for Pop OS as Host operating system for Vmware Workstation, please refer this link for more information-https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/80807.

However team will look into this internally, please provide the below information here-
1. Did the Host operating system- Pop OS crashed? If Yes, please reproduce the issue and share the generated vmcore.
2. While the Firefox browser/process are hung,collect the System Log or dmsg output and share the same here.
3. While performing Suspend operation, when VMware becomes unresponsive, please generate gcore of vmware process and share it here.
4. Share the VM support bundle.

[mkubecek]

For the record, this is a known problem: the way VMware hacked around the build failure against 6.5 kernel causes RCU related issues on kernel 6.6 and newer. Both 17.5.0 and 17.5.1 are affected (they use the same host modules). It has been reported here:

  https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Pro/17-5-0-modules-on-6-6-rc6-kernel-trigger-a-...

There is also a link to a patch addressing the issue in that discussion.

[krusic]

Fedora 39 here, it freezes also... Doesn't work.

The worst two updates ever.