Workstation for Linux fails to load VMMON and VMNET modules after install on Fedora

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
http://customerconnect.vmware.com/group/vmware/get-help Installation for Workstation for Linux on Fedora fails on building the VMMON and VMNET modules. When reviewing the log you see the following errors for the VMMON and VMNET modules:

​2018-09-17T12:00:00.000+01:00| vthread-1| W100: Failed to build vmmon.  Failed to execute the build command.
2018-09-17T12:00:00.000+01:00| vthread-1| W100: Failed to build vmnet.  Failed to execute the build command.

Environment

VMware Workstation Pro 16.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Pro 15.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Pro 14.x (for Linux)

Cause

Linux for Workstation requires additional packages and steps in order to complete installation. The following steps have been tested on Fedora 28 and Fedora 29 but otherwise would be generally applicable to other Linux distributions. Please adjust for your specific version.

Resolution

To successfully install the product perform the following steps.

​1. If you have already attempted to install Workstation, then perform the uninstall as described in the product documentation: 
 

​​​vmware-installer -u vmware-workstation
 

2. Install the elfutils-libelf-devel package via terminal. On Fedora, this is accomplished with the following command or similar: 
 

sudo dnf install elfutils-libelf-devel
 

3. The VMMON and VMNET kernel modules are built on the first launch of Workstation. These modules require your Linux distribution's kernel development and header packages to be available or the build will fail. Before launching workstation ensure that these packages are installed with the following command on Fedora or similar: 

​
sudo yum install kernel-headers-`uname -r` kernel-devel-`uname -r`

4. Proceed with installation of Workstation for Linux.
 

Note: Workstation will attempt to auto detect the path to the kernel development and header packages at the end of the product installation. If you successfully installed the packages and they are not found please see your distros documentation for the location of these files.

5. If your system is configured with Secure Boot then the kernel modules must be signed before they will load or Virtual machines will not power on in Workstation. You will receive the following error: 

Cannot open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory. Please make sure that the kernel module `vmmon' is loaded

 

    If you encounter this error after the modules have been successfully built, please see the following KB article for instructions on signing the modules for systems with Secure Boot enabled: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2146460

If you encounter further difficulties, please open a case with our teams to assist:
http://customerconnect.vmware.com/group/vmware/get-help