My vmware workstation player of 15.5.6 version isn’t launching after the latest kernel update.
I get the following error when i try to run vmplayer from terminal:
You need to build the kernel modules again manually every time after you update the kernel. A workaround for it would be to boot up with the last used kernel where it used to work as you had already built the kernel modules for it.
Thank you for the recommendations. Can i actually use my vmware images with these?
It would be critical to use the best VM with the best possible performance.
@t0xic0der Normally, the VMWare Workstation GUI will prompt to build the the kernel modules for a new kernel. However, starting with Kernel version 5.8, even the GUI won’t start. The problem persists with the latest kernel build 5.8.6.
@vgaetera Unfortunately, using KVM isn’t an option for me (and I assume for others), because I need VMs that I can configure to look like real machines (e.g. changing BIOS strings, etc) for malware analysis.
Indeed it is true that the VMWare GUI comes up with a prompt is the kernel modules are not available/built for the currently installed kernel. The absence of the prompt is kinda an issue at their end. The obvious workaround would be to falling back to the kernel where it worked the last time and wait for VMWare to address the issue.
(Also, for them to address the issue - they must know about this in the first place. Feel free to hit their bugtracker stating the issue if you think VMWare can help solve the issue )