VMWare can't find linux headers path

49,617

Solution 1

First thing to check is for the availability of a newer version of VMplayer or workstation to download. If the latest version does not work, then start looking at the error messages and try to add a link to fix the problem.

Looks like the version.h file got moved again, so adding a symlink is needed:

ln -s /usr/src/linux-3.7-rc6/include/generated/uapi/linux/version.h /usr/src/linux-3.7-rc6/include/linux/version.h

See the link http://rglinuxtech.com/2012/11/18/vmware-9-0-1-not-so-clever-after-all/ The headers have been a moving target since 3.2, and vmware does not keep up.

Solution 2

To make the original answer a little clearer for other folks:

In Ubuntu 13.04 (should work in 12.10 as well), with just the kernel headers installed, you can do this:

sudo ln -s /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)/include/generated/uapi/linux/version.h /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)/include/linux/version.h

I have to do that every time I update the kernel right now.

Solution 3

After making sure the proper Linux header files were installed for my kernel, manually creating symbolic links, installing build-essential, and basically following all advice that you linked to here, I still was receiving an error saying the path to the linux headers were invalid.

After doing a sudo apt-get update, it turns out there was a newer version of the Linux headers available than was previously reported. Upgrading the currently installed headers package to the latest version fixed the problem, and the VMWare Config Tool was able to find the headers. In my case, the packages which needed to be upgraded were linux-headers-generic-pae and linux-generic-pae.

Share:
49,617
Alexis
Author by

Alexis

Senior #iOS Developer, #Swift lover, owner at firstsecond.eu, Android, software, geek, tech enthusiast, Star Wars, cashew nuts & dinosaurus cookies

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

  • Alexis
    Alexis over 1 year

    I'm using ubuntu 12.10 with the kernel 3.7.0-7 from xorg-edgers fresh X crack. Now when I try to launch wmware workstation it asks for linux header path like shown here. I tried all the solutions on that page but nothing works... It was working before I switched to the 3.7 kernel. Any idea what I can do to get it work?

  • przemo_li
    przemo_li almost 11 years
    Work like a charm. THX!!
  • ThiagoPonte
    ThiagoPonte over 10 years
    I have Ubuntu 12.04, and installed kernel 3.8 and it worked for me too.
  • Halsafar
    Halsafar over 10 years
    This command got me past vmware not finding the headers. However now when I click 'install' to start the kernel modules installing it just silently crashes, log file contains no errors. Ubuntu 13.04
  • Danatela
    Danatela over 10 years
    Also, VMWare version should be fresh, because it depends on kernel headers.
  • Naveen
    Naveen about 9 years
    This is what worked for me.