How to install VMware Server 1.06 on Linux kernel 2.6.26

How to install VMware Server 1.06 on Linux kernel 2.6.26

How to install VMware Server 1.06 on Linux kernel 2.6.26

I updated my server’s operating system from Fedora Core 6 (on which VMware Server ran perfectly) to Fedora 8.
Fedora 6 was running an older 2.6.25 (which VMware liked just fine), but Fedora 8 brought me the 2.6.26.6-49.fc8 kernel, which caused a lot of trouble.
After spending 5 hours looking everywhere for a solution (I even thought the newer v1.08 would work on this kernel – but it didn’t), I considered writing down what I did to finally get my virtual machines up and running:

  • Dowload VMware Server v1.06.
  • Extract the tgz somewhere.
  • Run the vmware-install.pl script, but only ’till it asks you to run “/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl”. Answer ‘no’.
  • Download insecure’s vmware patch and extract it somewhere.
  • Run the run-me.pl script included in the archive (it will replace vmware’s vmmon and vmnet modules with versions compatible with 2.6.26 kernel.)
  • Now you may run the vmware-config.pl script to complete the installation.

Notes:

  • If you’re already using kernel 2.6.27, you may try this patch instead (i haven’t tested this one yet).
  • If the above links don’t work and you can no longer find the patches, you may send me a message using the contact page and I’ll upload them somewhere.
  • This patch may also work with other versions of VMware Server (1.08?). I will test it someday…

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