Kernel module vmmon cannot load in some Fedora 21 hosts that have Secure Boot enabled

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

If the Fedora host enables Secure Boot in UEFI BIOS, you might encounter the following error when setting up a virtual machine and trying to start it:

Could not open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory.

Please make sure that the kernel module `vmmon' is loaded

Environment

VMware Workstation Pro 12.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Linux)
VMware Workstation Pro 14.x (for Linux)

Resolution

Disable Secure Boot in UEFI BIOS.