kernel-devel-6.8.4-200.fc39.x86_64 is kernel installed, but kernel-headers are kernel-headers.i686 6.5.4-300.fc39 and that makes vmmon and vmnet build failing
is there a way to get matching kernel-headers or do i just need to stop trying vmware
checked again and i have installed kernel-headers just little older to kernel-devel kernel-headers-6.8.3-200.fc39.x86_64 so it is okey i tried and decided it is no point to use vmware now just virt-manager is easier
Normally, when compiling kernel modules you need the matching kernel-devel package. The kernel-headers package is for compiling regular programs. If vmware requires a matching kernel-headers it is an error in vmware.
By the way, do you need the 32bit version of kernel-headers for anything?
Nah no need 32-bit headers just VMware need to use build-tools to build last steps and VM on and vmnet on kernel on each kernel update and it installs VM on and vmnet on first install not included on installation files and when using secure boot you need to sign VM on and vmnet to enable the use and build and again build process again needs matching headers for kernel I thought to test it again if I can do it and only way was to downgrade to same version what headers are.
So too much work to get it work and build and compile on each update
This is a known, by us here, bug in the vmware build logic.
The kernel headers it checks for only change if the kernel adds new header changes. That does not happen for every kernel release.
The vm build assumes it does, and that is their bug.
You can convert you vmware VM into the format used by lib virt manager and drop vmware.
I did this for my windows VM a while ago.
I am running a Windows 11 VM successfully to build FOSS software for Windows for example.
I would suggest you do sudo dnf remove kernel-headers* and see if that fixes the problem.
Having the i686 package there shows that you had it installed while fedora still supported the 32 bit kernel which has not been the case since f35 was released. (f36 and newer do not support any 32 bit kernels)
If you actually need the kernel-headers package it can be reinstalled later and would be the version that matches the latest installed kernel
That’s interesting since I used f38 fresh install and upgrade to F39 and if that installs that package or it comes somewhere else since I didn’t install that manually
It would appear I misspoke since the kernel-headers.i686 package is available for f39.
However, it is also true that it is not installed by default and that somehow, someway, installing something caused that package to be installed manually.
You should still be able to remove it with the command given above and thus bypass the errors you are seeing with vmware. The suggestion to switch to libvirt instead seems wisest to me.
Yeah on my main laptop I have libvirt/virt-manager/boxes combo I took my old laptop out for testing since I didint use it anything and just collection dust so started to run some experimental testing things and breaking and try to fix etc so main laptop stays “untouched” and “stable”
Gonna relive headers and VMware and see if actually VMware installs those and if so I’m closer again to goals
The command should rather be sudo dnf remove kernel-headers.i686 because removing all kernel-headers would remove gcc and all the other components needed for compiling stuff.
By the way, all the files from kernel-headers.i686 are identical to the corresponding files from kernel-headers.x86_64.