Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Vmware module compile failure on kernel 2.6.34.x

I recently went through a distro update for OpenSuSE (11.1 to 11.3) on my home computer, which among the normal things that get broken in this process, VMware was among the usual suspects. Every time there is a kernel update VMware needs to recompile its modules. Typically this is a simple process, but in this case Vmware v7.0.x was failing to recompile its modules on kernel 2.6.34.7-0.7 with a missing header error. With all the appropriate packages installed, I had to go through the google method of finding wild ideas for a fix. I tried a few with no success. To avoid the userland patches to vmware, I just downloaded the latest VMware version and ran through the install. This apparently is an easy fix. So if anyone is still stuck in this mess, try an update.

If I can ever figure out the mystery of the many sound systems in Linux and why they are working, then not working at any given time, this would also make life much easier :).