VMware Server is great for keeping a copy of Windows handy on my Fedora Linux-based laptop. The only annoyance is that every time the kernel updates, VMware has to be rebuilt — although that’s just a simple command ($ vmware-config.pl). However, about a week ago I updated the kernel to version 2.6.27, after which VMware failed to rebuild successfully, giving the following errors:
- missing asm/semaphore.h
- too many arguments to function ‘smp_call_function’
The semaphore.h I could have fixed with a softlink, but the other not so easily.
I took the opportunity to upgrade VMware Server from version 1.07 to 1.08. I then tried applying the latest vmware-any-any patch, but that didn’t help. After some Googling around, I finally found this patch that took care of the problems.
It’s unfortunate that VMware doesn’t itself provide timely updates to Server, but I’m not going to complain further, given that it’s free. So far, it’s been relatively easy to locate user-created updates. By the way, VMware does host user forums at VMware Communities.
I did briefly toss version 2 onto my laptop, but decided I’d rather locate a fix for 1.xx and go through the learning curve for 2.xx later. If you’re ready to go to V2, there is a how-to at How To Install VMware Server 2 On A Fedora 9 Desktop.
