VMware Tools fails to install on SLES 11 with the error: Unable to configure the initrd modules file at /etc/sysconfig/kernel. Execution aborted.

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• VMware Tools fails to install on SLES 11 SP1 and SP2 virtual machines.
• When installing VMware Tools, you see an error similar to:
  
  Unable to configure the initrd modules file at /etc/sysconfig/kernel. Execution aborted.
  
  Done waiting for process: 4751 (success)
  Writing the command was a success to fd 4
  Child w/ fd 3 exited with code=0
  Waiting on pid 4750 to de-zombify it
  Upgrader: setting sendCancelOnEnd flag to FALSE
  Exiting UpgraderLoop because we are done
  Cleaning up /tmp/vmware-root/22a4ee58... done.
  Rpci: Sending request='tools.capability.hgfs_server tools-upgrader 0'
  Rpci: Sent request='tools.capability.hgfs_server tools-upgrader 0', reply='', len=0, status=1
  Unregistering callback 'f'
  HgfsChannelGuest_Exit: app tools-upgrader rpc = (nil) rpc cb = (nil) chn = 0x80efdb8.
  HgfsChannelExitServer: Teardown Hgfs server.
  HgfsChannelExitChannel: Exit channel returns.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware Workstation 9.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 7.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Windows)
VMware Fusion 7.x
VMware Workstation 8.x (Linux)
VMware Fusion 6.x
VMware Workstation 7.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Linux)
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware Workstation 8.x (Windows)
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Windows)

Cause

This issue occurs when the VMware Tools vmware-config-tools.pl script parses the /etc/sysconfig/kernel file to determine how to rebuild initrd to include the VMware modules. If the /etc/sysconfig/kernel file does not have an entry for modules, the script fails to execute.

Resolution

To work around the issue, add the line INITRD_MODULES to the /etc/sysconfig/kernel file.

To add the line INITRD_MODULES to the /etc/sysconfig/kernel file:
 

1. On the SLES virtual machine, create a backup of the file /etc/sysconfig/kernel:
   
   cp /etc/sysconfig/kernel /tmp/kernel.bkup
    
2. Open and edit the /etc/sysconfig/kernel file.
3. Add the entry INITRD_MODULES="" to the end of the file.
4. Save the file and exit.
5. Install VMware Tools.

Additional Information

SLES 11 での VMware Tools のインストールが「/etc/sysconfig/kernel で initrd モジュール ファイルを構成できません。」というエラーで失敗する実行が中断されました。