vmware-install.pl failed on compiling /tmp/modconfig-EjMOrE/vmhgfs-only/filesystem.c

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I installed redhat 7 beta on VMware workstation 10 and tried to install vmware tools by clicking VM -> "Install VMware Tools...".
After untaring the archive tar file, launching vmware-install.pl and taking all defaults, i got the following errors:

Searching for a valid kernel header path...
Detected the kernel headers at
"/lib/modules/3.10.0-54.0.1.el7.x86_64/build/include".
The path "/lib/modules/3.10.0-54.0.1.el7.x86_64/build/include" appears to be a
valid path to the 3.10.0-54.0.1.el7.x86_64 kernel headers.
Would you like to change it? [no]

Using 2.6.x kernel build system.
make: Entering directory /tmp/modconfig-EjMOrE/vmhgfs-only'
/bin/make -C /lib/modules/3.10.0-54.0.1.el7.x86_64/build/include/.. SUBDIRS=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. \
MODULEBUILDDIR= modules
make[1]: Entering directory
/usr/src/kernels/3.10.0-54.0.1.el7.x86_64'
CC [M] /tmp/modconfig-EjMOrE/vmhgfs-only/message.o
CC [M] /tmp/modconfig-EjMOrE/vmhgfs-only/dir.o
CC [M] /tmp/modconfig-EjMOrE/vmhgfs-only/request.o
CC [M] /tmp/modconfig-EjMOrE/vmhgfs-only/filesystem.o
/tmp/modconfig-EjMOrE/vmhgfs-only/filesystem.c: In function ‘HgfsInitSuperInfo’:
/tmp/modconfig-EjMOrE/vmhgfs-only/filesystem.c:234:15: error: incompatible types when assigning to type ‘uid_t’ from type ‘kuid_t’
si->uid = current_uid();
^
/tmp/modconfig-EjMOrE/vmhgfs-only/filesystem.c:240:15: error: incompatible types when assigning to type ‘gid_t’ from type ‘kgid_t’
si->gid = current_gid();
^
make[2]: *** [/tmp/modconfig-EjMOrE/vmhgfs-only/filesystem.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [module/tmp/modconfig-EjMOrE/vmhgfs-only] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory /usr/src/kernels/3.10.0-54.0.1.el7.x86_64'
make: *** [vmhgfs.ko] Error 2
make: Leaving directory
/tmp/modconfig-EjMOrE/vmhgfs-only'

The filesystem driver (vmhgfs module) is used only for the shared folder
feature. The rest of the software provided by VMware Tools is designed to work
independently of this feature.
....

Is anyone aware of this problem?
This problem does not happen on OpenSuse 13.1 installed on VMware workstation 10.

Thanks.

Responses

Hi Kevin,

  • If you have not already - try the manual install of vmware to view the specific errors that will typically not be viewable when using the GUI. Yeah, the GUI method should work, but it quite often betrays us because we can't see the actual errors when running it manually via command line. We had an instance where we were using the GUI method of vmware tools that failed consistently on a few systems and we didn't see the needed output until we ran the vmware tools install manually on Linux systems.

  • Example, one system - vmware tools would not build the initramfs file under /boot/ and we did not know this was the problem until we actually saw the output from the manual install of vmware tools and then we took the relevant errors, and searched against that and were able to find a VMware article that was a specific solution for the problem we faced (just one example)

  • Is this anything like the previous discussion experienced had with vmware tools? From the output, it seems it is looking for kernel headers. But your output above seems to infer kernel-headers are installed.

  • We had one system that did have kernel-headers is installed but it was not the same version as the kernel. This only happened once in my environment and it is worth running the below command to query: If there is a mismatch, remove the wrong version and install the one that matches 'uname -r'

rpm -qa | grep kernel ; uname -r

Hopefully this is as simple as installing the needed rpms and not soemthing more... Are the other needed rpms installed?
If it is a matter of additional rpms (maybe, maybe not), the previous discussion has info...

echo "if needed, add rpms if missing"
echo "create a local yum repo with the"
echo "rhel 7 disk first, instructions"
echo "in other discussion"
yum install kernel-headers kernel-devel glibc gcc 

Just curious, do you happen to have kernel-headers, gcc etc installed? just like the last discussion (link above), you may have to
1) build a local yum repo using the disk or iso for rhel 7, instructions in that discussion
2) run the yum command - rpms in that discussion
3) try the manual way of installing VMware tools to see if any errors are displayed.

If none of this is it, reply back and I bet someone will chime in... Hope this helps,

Kind Regards,
Remmele

And if the interface gives trouble, consider trying e1000.

Does anyone know how significant this line is (from the output)

Using 2.6.x kernel build system.

RHEL 7 is using the 3.x kernel. I wonder if the kernel build structure has changed drastically. Perhaps there is an option for RHEL 7 when you tell your VM what the system type is?

Very good point James, that is rather odd...

I've seen some discussion on similar issues where someone did a:

yum install gcc gcc-c++ make binutils

And see a similar discussion the last half of this bit at vmware.com
and this bit at vmware.com discussions too.

James brings up a good question regarding the "using 2.6.x kernel build system (see his post above).

  • What is the output of
rpm -qa | grep kernel ; uname -r
  • One more possibility I found at this link where they showed in the output of the script suggesting running vmware-config-tools.pl, and apparently another solution here:

The filesystem driver (vmhgfs module) is used only for the shared folder feature. The rest of the software provided by VMware Tools is designed to work independently of this feature. If you wish to have the shared folders feature, you can install the driver by running vmware-config-tools.pl again after making sure that gcc, binutils, make and the kernel sources for your running kernel are installed on your machine. These packages are available on your distribution's installation CD. [ Press Enter key to continue ]

I assume they could "lie" to Vmware workstation and tell it that the VM is Fedora 19 (if RHEL 7 is not a valid option) and remount the Vmware Tools media and try that way. I get the feeling it is puking on the specific Kernel revision and whatever challenges that presents.

I would not be surprised at all if that worked!

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