VMWare Tools fails in Ubuntu guest OS for invalid kernel headers

[ffxx68]

Installing and configuring VMWare Tools fails in my Ubuntu guest OS, because it can't find a valid kernel header location, seems like...

I have the build and headers packages installed:

$ sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree      

Reading state information... Done

linux-headers-3.16.0-60-generic is already the newest version.

0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.

$ uname -a

Linux ubuntu 3.16.0-60-generic #80~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jan 20 13:37:48 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ ls -l /usr/src

total 32

drwxr-xr-x 24 root root 4096 feb 24 10:20 linux-headers-3.13.0-79

drwxr-xr-x  7 root root 4096 feb 24 10:20 linux-headers-3.13.0-79-generic

drwxr-xr-x 24 root root 4096 mar 17  2015 linux-headers-3.16.0-30

drwxr-xr-x  7 root root 4096 mar 17  2015 linux-headers-3.16.0-30-generic

drwxr-xr-x 24 root root 4096 gen 28 18:59 linux-headers-3.16.0-57

drwxr-xr-x  7 root root 4096 gen 28 18:59 linux-headers-3.16.0-57-generic

drwxr-xr-x 24 root root 4096 feb  8 18:10 linux-headers-3.16.0-60

drwxr-xr-x  7 root root 4096 feb 24 10:27 linux-headers-3.16.0-60-generic

Debugging a bit vmware-config-tools.pl, I managed to narrow the issue down to this failing command:

$ sudo /usr/lib/vmware-tools/sbin64/vmware-modconfig-console --build-mod -k 3.16.0-60-generic vmxnet '/usr/bin/gcc' '/usr/src/linux-headers-3.16.0-60-generic/include' misc vmxnet -- -l "/usr/lib/vmware-tools"

Provided kernel information will not work with the running kernel.

Anyone with a clue for this error?

Thanks !

[bonnie201110141]

Please let me know your tools version. I will tr to reproduce locally.

[ffxx68]

How do I check for Tools version?

By the way, I installed a new Ubuntu guest from scratch (thinking it was my previous installation that's corrupted, somehow), but it still shows the same issue, when trying to configure VMware Tools:

$ uname -a

Linux ubuntu 4.2.0-27-generic #32~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 22 15:32:26 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ sudo vmware-config-tools.pl

...

The path "" is not a valid path to the 4.2.0-27-generic kernel headers.

Would you like to change it? [yes]

Enter the path to the kernel header files for the 4.2.0-27-generic kernel? /usr/src/linux-headers-4.2.0-27-generic

The path "/usr/src/linux-headers-4.2.0-27-generic" is not a valid path to the

4.2.0-27-generic kernel headers.

[bonnie201110141]

Please paste the out of below commands:

which vmtoolsd

vmtoolsd -v

And I guess you are not using latest vmware tools, because for latest vmware tools, it will not try to compile hgfs driver for kernel 4.x (it will use hgfs over fuse instead). However, if it is trying to compile, it should look for /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/include. You can check if that path exists or not.

[HHoell]

Hi!

Would it be an option for you to use the Open VM Tools?

I am using them in every unix system and they work fine.

Just try apt-get install open-vm-tools

[ffxx68]

$ which vmtoolsd

/usr/sbin/vmtoolsd

$ vmtoolsd -v

VMware Tools daemon, version 9.2.0.15626 (build-799703)

The path "/lib/modules/linux-headers-4.2.0-27-generic/build/include" is there, but still it is not seen as valid.

How do I download latest version?

About open tools, yes I can try them, but I'd prefer to get the standard one fixed...

[bonnie201110141]

Tools 9.2.0.15626 (build-799703) is pretty old. Which version of Workstation are you running? You can try to upgrade tools via Workstation menu VM->Upgrade VMware Tools. It will mount the tools iso in guest.

[ffxx68]

I'm on Player 5.0.0, not Workstation...

When I install VMware Tools it gets me this version.
Don't tell me I should upgrade the Player ....

[bonnie201110141]

Player 5.0.0 is too old and is not supported now. I recommend you 'd better upgrade Player to the latest 🙂 And the good thing is that Player is free.

[ffxx68]

All right - I have upgraded to Player 7.1.1, but if I try to re-install Tools I still get the same version: 9.2.0.

Should I download Tools version 10 (that's what I found) separately?

Will that install in Player 7?

[ffxx68 · Accepted solution]

I have downloaded and installed VMWare Tools 10.0.0 and installed --- I didn't get any issue now and I can see the shared folder correctly under the /mnt/hgfs, as expected ...

Thanks all!

[bonnie201110141]

Glad to know that you got hgfs to work. The latest version of Player is Player 12.1.0 (the next major version after Player 7.1.1 is Player 12.0). And You 'd better upgrade to Player 12.x which is full tested with VMTools 10.0.0.