Installing VMWare Player on Kali linux

Question

This question has changed drastically since the first time I posted it, so I have deleted the old content.

I downloaded the latest version of VMWare player and when I try to install it I get the following error in the console:

Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module":
libcanberra-gtk-module.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Then I get a windows saying:

One or more of your processors does not have the necessary 64bit extensions to run VMware virtual machines.

Notes: I have latest version of Kali linux, 32 bit operating system and architecture. I have the latest version of VMWare player for 32 bit architectures.

Solution 1

Thanks for help from all the guys, After some digging around around, I downloaded VMWare Player version 5.0.2 which worked flawlessly and without any kind of errors and warning.

Both the latest version 6.0 and the older one 2.5.5 didn't work and caused hell of dependency problems and errors.

So if you are running kali-linux-1.0.5-i386 on 32bit system like me, I would recommend that you download version 5.0.2 of the player which should work without any problems.

Solution 2

It looks like you are missing an essential package:

  sudo apt-get install build-essential

Then try again, it should work this time.

Edit:

Try these two addiitons, pls:

 apt-get install open-vm-tools
 apt-get install open-vm-toolbox

Edit 2:

Did you try to install the two packages above? Also, it says here that VMWare player 4 is only compatible with 64-bit architecture.

The libcanberra error is an old nuisance I had too, it can be solved by adding a symlink,

  /usr/lib/libcanberra-gtk-module.so -> /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gtk-2.0/modules/libcanberra-gtk-module.so

and then running (as sudo) ldconfig. Since you have a 32bit system, you should probably (you will have to check that this file exists, I do not have a 32 bit system to test this) symlink instead to

  /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/gtk-2.0/modules/libcanberra-gtk-module.so

Comments

[MariusMatutiae]

You must have your repos set up wrong, the headers for the kernel are in the repos.

[MariusMatutiae]

There is an answer for you.

[mpy]

Hm, if I remember correctly, there should be also a logfile from the installer (/var/log/vmware-installer), perhaps this is more informative than the error you get on the console.

[MariusMatutiae]

@Sniffer I have updated my answer with another try

[mpy]

May I ask, why you are using such an "ancient" VM player version (dated 2010) on a recent linux (dated 2013) distro?

[MariusMatutiae]

@Sniffer Updated my answer

[Ibrahim Najjar]

Thank you for responding. First of all I downloaded version 6 of the player from this link and there is clearly a version for 32 bits systems so I downloaded that. On the other hand I haven't tried to install the two packages you have mentioned yet. Finally I will create the symbolic link and get back to you with my latest findings.

[Ibrahim Najjar]

The problem is that the operating system I want to host is only available in a VMware image, otherwise I would have considered VirtualBox. Anyway thank you for all your help.

[MariusMatutiae]

@Sniffer any progress?

[Ibrahim Najjar]

Just an hour ago I tried to install version 5.0.2 of the player and it actually worked without a single warning or error.

[Ibrahim Najjar]

Actually I am going to give you the 50+ reputation for all the help you have provided, but I will post my findings as an answer so others with the same issues can find a working solution. Thank you for all the help.