VMware needs to recompile the kernel modules after each kernel upgrade. We are all pretty familiar with this, since VMware requests module recompilation when launched after a kernel upgrade.

In the vast majority of the cases that will go smoothly without any hick-ups, but in rare occasions this might fail, especially after a major kernel upgrade.

The fix for this is to download the latest kernel modules for our VMware version and install them:

  1. Check the version of your installed VMware Player.

    vmplayer --version

  2. Get the version of your currently running kernel, in case there are multiple modules compiled for different kernel versions

    uname -r

  3. Download the appropriate vmmon and vmnet modules.

    Visit: https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules/tags

    Download the appropriate module file depending on your Vmware Player version (and optionally kernel version). In this case I am running VMware Player ver. 16.2.4 and a kernel ver. of 5.19, so I would download the p16.2.4-k5.19 file. Here “p” stands for player (if you have the VMware Workstation instead, then you would download the one starting with a “w”):
Download VMware (Player and Workstation) host modules
Download VMware (Player and Workstation) host modules
  1. Extract the tarball file, create the tar module files and copy them over to the vmware’s source modules directory

    tar -xvf vmware-host-modules-w16.2.4-k5.19.tar.gz
    cd vmware-host-modules-w16.2.4-k5.19
    tar -cf vmmon.tar vmmon-only
    tar -cf vmnet.tar vmnet-only

    sudo cp -v vmmon.tar vmnet.tar /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/

  2. Install the modules

    sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

You should be able to launch VMware normally now.

How to fix VMware unable to install all modules vmmon vmnet
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3 thoughts on “How to fix VMware unable to install all modules vmmon vmnet

  • August 22, 2023 at 10:38 pm
    Permalink

    Thanks, it worked for me using only step 5

  • August 28, 2023 at 8:28 am
    Permalink

    Hi,
    Works fine for me, thank you !!

    yes it can work with step 5 only if only vmware has downloaded the tarballs beforehand.

  • September 19, 2023 at 8:10 am
    Permalink

    error: implicit declaration of function ‘skb_gso_segment’; did you mean ‘tcp_gso_segment’? [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
    1413 | segs = skb_gso_segment(skb, 0);
    | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    | tcp_gso_segment
    /tmp/modconfig-3Kvp1J/vmnet-only/bridge.c:1413:9: warning: assignment to ‘struct sk_buff *’ from ‘int’ makes pointer from integer without a cast [-Wint-conversion]
    1413 | segs = skb_gso_segment(skb, 0);
    | ^
    CC [M] /tmp/modconfig-3Kvp1J/vmnet-only/vnetUserListener.o
    cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
    make[2]: *** [/usr/src/linux-headers-6.4.0-kali3-common/scripts/Makefile.build:257: /tmp/modconfig-3Kvp1J/vmnet-only/bridge.o] Error 1
    make[2]: *** Menunggu pekerjaan yang belum selesai….
    make[1]: *** [/usr/src/linux-headers-6.4.0-kali3-common/Makefile:2057: /tmp/modconfig-3Kvp1J/vmnet-only] Error 2
    make[1]: Meninggalkan direktori ‘/usr/src/linux-headers-6.4.0-kali3-amd64’
    make: *** [Makefile:117: vmnet.ko] Error 2
    make: Meninggalkan direktori ‘/tmp/modconfig-3Kvp1J/vmnet-only’
    Unable to install all modules. See log for details.

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