Comments on: vmware-specific-specific 5.5.x and kernel 2.6.31

By: Technologists Notes » Blog Archive » Virtual satisfaction with VMware Server and kernel 2.6.31

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 01:39:35 +0000

[...] How to install VMware Server on Ubuntu. Though not of direct help, it did link to Kang’s vmware-specific-specific 5.5.x and kernel 2.6.31. I’d seen and used some of Kang’s VMware Server patches before, but the comments on [...]

By: 在ubuntu9.10 beta上安装vmware Server « 丁冬日志！

在ubuntu9.10 beta上安装vmware Server « 丁冬日志！ — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 08:30:42 +0000

[...] to build the vmmon module. 我的内核版本是2.6.31，可以到这里下载vmware-update-2.6.31-5.5.9.tar.bz2。运行其中的runme.pl，运行的时候又报错了： insmod: error inserting [...]

By: Joel Lechuga

Joel Lechuga — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:21:11 +0000

Finally working!!! on:

openSuSE 11.2 x64 with kernel 2.6.31.12-0.1-desktop (fresh updated) and
openSuSE 11.2 x32 with kernel 2.6.31.12-0.1-default (fresh updated)

Thanks to Kang suggestions and work, i made a little modifications to the second file that Kang shows,
with this (has Kang says) no needed to recompile kernel

diff -Naur vmware-update-2.6.31-5.5.9/vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c vmware-update-2.6.31-5.5.9-ok/vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c
— vmware-update-2.6.31-5.5.9/vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c 2009-04-21 08:47:54.000000000 -0600
+++ vmware-update-2.6.31-5.5.9-ok/vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c 2010-02-16 11:44:20.000000000 -0700
@@ -564,16 +564,10 @@
static void
DoClearNXBit(VA vaddr)
{
- int ptemap;
- pgd_t *pgd = pgd_offset_k(vaddr);
- pmd_t *pmd = pmd_offset_map(pgd, vaddr);
- pte_t *pte;
-
- if ((ptemap = pmd_val(*pmd) & _PAGE_PSE) != 0) {
- pte = (pte_t*)pmd;
- } else {
- pte = pte_offset_map(pmd, vaddr);
- }
+#if LINUX_VERSION_CODE = 2.6.25
+ int level;
+ pte_t *pte = lookup_address(vaddr & PAGE_MASK, &level);
+#endif /* linux version */
if (pte_val(*pte) & _PAGE_NX) {
/* pte_val() is not lvalue on x86 PAE */
#ifdef CONFIG_X86_PAE

By: Joel Lechuga

Joel Lechuga — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:02:10 +0000

Hi,
I applied the patch to the files you mention here(run vmware.install.pl, then ./runme.pl on update directory and then vmware-config.pl), but it abort after asking about the bridged interface (i have 2 ), this is just the final lines:

tmp/vmware-config2/vmnet-only/vm_atomic.h:1608:7: warning: “_MSC_VER” is not defined
/tmp/vmware-config2/vmnet-only/vm_atomic.h:1741:7: warning: “_MSC_VER” is not defined
{standard input}: Assembler messages:
{standard input}:6426: Error: can’t resolve `.LVL257′ {*UND* section} – `.Ltext0′ {.text section}
make[4]: *** [/tmp/vmware-config2/vmnet-only/driver.o] Error 1
make[3]: *** [_module_/tmp/vmware-config2/vmnet-only] Error 2
make[2]: *** [sub-make] Error 2
make[1]: *** [all] Error 2
make[1]: se sale del directorio `/usr/src/linux-2.6.31.12-0.1-obj/x86_64/desktop’
make: *** [vmnet.ko] Error 2
make: se sale del directorio `/tmp/vmware-config2/vmnet-only’
Unable to build the vmnet module.

For more information on how to troubleshoot module-related problems, please
visit our Web site at “http://www.vmware.com/download/modules/modules.html” and
“http://www.vmware.com/support/reference/linux/prebuilt_modules_linux.html”.

Execution aborted.

i have opensSuSE 11.2 with kernel 2.6.31.12-0.1-desktop

do you have any idea to try about?

By: hankang

hankang — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:25:40 +0000

Oh yeah – forgot to indicate that the patch above didn’t require a recompilation of the kernel to re-export init_mm – just apply the patch to the untarred tarballs, retar ‘em and vmware-config.pl away!

By: hankang

hankang — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:15:21 +0000

Thanks for your work!

I have modified this patch slightly to get it to work on my Fedora 12 (2.6.31) installation. Your mileage may vary.

The changes are in three files in the tarballs:
vmmon.tar sources:
diff -Naur ./vmmon-only/include/compat_pgtable.h ./vmmon-only.new/include/compat_pgtable.h
— ./vmmon-only/include/compat_pgtable.h 2007-07-22 07:21:17.000000000 -0400
+++ ./vmmon-only.new/include/compat_pgtable.h 2010-02-02 15:54:55.000000000 -0500
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@
#endif

-#ifdef pgd_offset_k
+#if (LINUX_VERSION_CODE < KERNEL_VERSION(2, 6, 25)) && defined(pgd_offset_k)
# define compat_pgd_offset_k(mm, address) pgd_offset_k(address)
#else
# define compat_pgd_offset_k(mm, address) pgd_offset(mm, address)
diff -Naur ./vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c ./vmmon-only.new/linux/hostif.c
— ./vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c 2009-04-21 10:47:54.000000000 -0400
+++ ./vmmon-only.new/linux/hostif.c 2010-02-02 15:56:33.000000000 -0500
@@ -564,6 +564,7 @@
static void
DoClearNXBit(VA vaddr)
{
+#if LINUX_VERSION_CODE = 2.6.25 */
+ int level;
+ pte_t *pte = lookup_address(vaddr & PAGE_MASK, &level);
+#endif /* linux version */
if (pte_val(*pte) & _PAGE_NX) {
/* pte_val() is not lvalue on x86 PAE */
#ifdef CONFIG_X86_PAE

vmnet.tar sources:
diff -Naur ./vmnet-only/compat_pgtable.h ./vmnet-only.new/compat_pgtable.h
— ./vmnet-only/compat_pgtable.h 2007-11-28 05:25:06.000000000 -0500
+++ ./vmnet-only.new/compat_pgtable.h 2010-02-02 15:58:37.000000000 -0500
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@
#endif

By: Aack

Aack — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:27:08 +0000

Ok, that was wrong. Compiles fine. Module loads fine. System needed reboot to recover from starting a VM. Maybe someone with better kernel-foo than me can clean up that idea.

By: Aack

Aack — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:42:49 +0000

Kang,
I have done some searching and found that the init_mm reference is pulled in by the pgd_offset_k macro used in about 3 places in the vmmon_only code for vs 1.0.10. I tested the thoery by changing the macro in my kernel headers

/usr/src/kernels/2.6.31.9-174.fc12.x86_64/arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable.h

from

#define pgd_offset_k(address) pgd_offset(&init_mm, (address))

#define pgd_offset_k(address) pgd_offset(current->mm, (address))

This gave me a successful compile on fedora12. I now need to work out some nice new permission problems as I am using ldap auth and the console doesn’t seem to cope.

By: kang

kang — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:44:53 +0000

ill post for 2.6.32 tomorrow probably
not sure if i’ll go for 2.6.33 etc.. VirtualBox is very good.

By: Cyber

Cyber — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:43:48 +0000

:-/

does not work for 2.6.32 … what a pitty