Installing vmware: stdarg.h and stddef.h not found

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1

hi , i am trying to install vmware on my system . during the installation in gives me this error any idea how to fix it?

/tmp/modconfig-ZB06lS/vmnet-only/vm_assert.h:43:10: fatal error: stdarg.h: No such file or directory
   43 | #include <stdarg.h>
      |  
/tmp/modconfig-ZB06lS/vmnet-only/vm_basic_defs.h:54:12: fatal error: stddef.h: No such file or directory
   54 | #  include <stddef.h>
      |

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07e253e8443d1574761408b01c4580188819251f.png1920×1048 381 KB

3

Hi @reza0314 , welcome to the forum. Please take a look at the introductory posts in the #start-here category if you’ve not had a chance to yet.

Can you please tell us what commands you’ve run? Are you following some sort of guide/readme? Could you link to it please?

4

bt clicking the installed icon it tells me som modules are not installed and when i click to install it exits with error 1 and in the log files it said these headers are not found
b9ff347f805b2d500decf0f872d3d877cfe4d1df.png

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5

I expect that means you need to install the kernel-headers package for your kernel.

6

i have installed them befor using these command

sudo dnf install "kernel-devel-$(uname -r)"
sudo dnf install dkms
7

Hrm, not sure then. Sorry—you’ll have to wait for someone that has recently installed vmware.

8

There are 2 different packages that contain headers for the kernel.
One is the kernel-devel package which you seem to have installed, and the other is the kernel-headers package. They do contain different things and theoretically only the kernel-devel package is needed for building kernel modules, but maybe for your use you need both.

You also may get better results by doing sudo dnf remove kernel-devel followed by sudo dnf install kernel-devel. It is possible that a new install may get the headers needed to build your module.

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9

reza0314, could you check your VMware’s version?

There is a solution code for 16.2.1:

git clone https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules.git
cd vmware-host-modules
git checkout workstation-16.2.1
make
make install
/etc/init.d/vmware start

But I have 16.2.3 and this code doesn’t work on my Fedora 35.

1 Like
10

Edit: original post from another merged topic

Hello!
I have a bash script by loungehostmaste from VMware community. But the are some errors:

make[1]: Entering directory '/usr/src/kernels/5.16.16-200.fc35.x86_64'
  CC [M]  /tmp/vmware-1cecb61d-8670-4a7d-b2c7-9ccaef539fd5/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o
In file included from /tmp/vmware-1cecb61d-8670-4a7d-b2c7-9ccaef539fd5/vmmon-only/linux/driverLog.h:33,
                 from /tmp/vmware-1cecb61d-8670-4a7d-b2c7-9ccaef539fd5/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:46:
/tmp/vmware-1cecb61d-8670-4a7d-b2c7-9ccaef539fd5/vmmon-only/./include/vm_assert.h:43:10: fatal error: stdarg.h: No such file or directory
   43 | #include <stdarg.h>
      |          ^~~~~~~~~~

I’ve checked stdarg.h. It dwells in /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/11/include/. But I don’t have any ideas how I can put the header into a scripts’s temporary directory.

Unfortunately I can’t connect to author.

Could you help me?

Script is here: https://dropmefiles.com/Tjy2q .

13

Obviously I’ve forgotten to remove the ‘vmware-host-modules’ before running my script. It provoked a fatal error for the git command.

So my problem was solved.

Thank you, gentlemen.

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14

after installing kernel-devel …
… I found them in the “linux” subdirectory,

3ede6345759f7ccf8ad6fce0c9d129e305d768dc.png

this worked.

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15

Just incase someone still got the problem. My solution was:

Install kernel devel

sudo dnf install "kernel-devel-$(uname -r)"
sudo dnf install dkms

Install kernel module

sudo CPATH="library headers location" vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

for example:

sudo CPATH=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/11/include vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
// note:
// you can find the stdarg.h file with find command
// $ find /usr/lib -name 'stdarg.h'
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16

It seems strange to me that anyone hoping to build kernel modules would not know enough to do their research on requirements. You are installing an out-of-tree package and thus are required to meet the dependencies on your own. Packages that are built for use with fedora are usually in rpm or flatpak form and thus routinely install the needed dependencies for you. Out-of-tree packages do not.

Anything being built for the kernel must have kernel-devel and often kernel-headers installed.

17

This worked perfectly for me on Fedora 36.

sudo CPATH="/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/12/include/" vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

Thanks!

18 
sudo CPATH="/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/12/include/" vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

Newbie here, after kernel 5.18.5-200 update this is not working anymore. Same old problem again. Can’t find matching headers and if they truly aren’t needed then someone please give a hint.

19

Thanks!

This solution found for me on Fedora 36, kernel 5.18.11-200!

20

I just tried this with Fedora 36, VMPlayer v16.21.3 and got the player to load, but when starting a VM, it crashed saying something about vmmon.

“Could not open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory. Please make sure that the kernel module ‘vmmon’ is loaded.”

21

I had the same error, but after restart it’s running without any errors…

22

I’ve tried rebooting and I think I’m giving up on VMware for now. I’m trying out Boxes.

23

Remember that VMWare is 100% proprietary and costs.
VirtualBox, although proprietary is free for use and supported by a very large software company.
QEMU/KVM with libvirt is 100% FOSS, and is distributed with fedora.
Boxes also uses libvirt, is FOSS, and is distributed by fedora.

Because VMWare is not free nor open source I never have tried it (and probably never will).

I hope boxes will meet your needs. I use QEMU/KVM and have been quite happy.

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