[solved-vmware tools installed on 343rc3] releasing without kernel headers is useless

Excuse me edoardo, but the Mepis developers are herding cats trying to stabilize Mepis while loading current Debian stuff, KDE stuff, driver stuff, network stuff, hardware stuff, and releasing new release candidates to find yet more bugs so that they can eventually release a stable 3.4.

Can you clarify what you mean by, "Releaing without them is useless to me (and others) and wasted my time."? What exactly are you trying to do that you need the headers right now? Are you testing the release candidates to help the developers, or just trying to get your own system(s) working?

I haven't done much with the 3.4 releases because I don't have the time or equipment to help with the debugging process. Instead, I'm using my time to help channel some of the problems to the right folks.

So I would suggest that you be patient for the stable release, or clarify what you need to accomplish with the headers. Perhaps then Warren and the crew will take your requests under consideration.

Jon

to be able to test and submit bugs, as I have been doing for two years roughly, I do need the headers.
although i have 4 machines running mepis, my main company one has to run XP as corporate standard. but the company bouht me vmware to be able to develop on linux and i also use it for my private stuff.
but no headers -> no vmware tools -> no joy, I have to stick with ubuntu for this one platfrom where I spend most of my time.
I have been supporting and evangelizing mepis for 2 years. Given my current platform I have to say : releasing without headers is usless.

Thanks edoardo for responding. I apologize if I sounded a bit gruff, but it seems that there have been quite a few posts the last couple weeks from people who are very impatient about the release and whine that, "it's not done yet!". Ah, the wonderful balance between "stable" and "bleeding-edge". I'm glad that there are folks like yourself who have the time and expertise to perform kernel testing. I have neither the time nor expertise (but do have the desire (grin)).

I too have finally gotten VMware 5.5 to run in the "officially unsupported" Mepis/Debian host OS. However, I'm running 3.3.1-1 on an old laptop. That is the one gripe I have with VMware. It's very powerful and convenient, but it's a pain in the a** that often when a new build is released one must "reinstall" vmware

I'm not sure if it's as simple as getting the 3.4-1.tch header and renaming it and creating a symlink prior to attempting the vmware reinstall.

Jon

hi edoardo,
for vmware you can just gran a stock kernel.org kernel, lik it to usr/src/linux, make oldconfig and make.
you don't need to make modules or make insall it, so if its not patched quite right is not an issue.
i haven't installed a vmware since the 5.5beta's.
do you still have to recompile the kernel modules on every boot for debian or did they fix it?

Hey pod, thanks for the tip!

I couldn't find any kernel headers that would allow me to compile a loadable module (qc-usb-modules) for my webcam. So I took your suggestion and got a stock kernel source (in my case linux-2.6.10.tar.bz2) from kernel.org, put it in /usr/src, extracted it, and made a symbolic link linux point to it. Then in /usr/src/linux I did a make oldconfig, and make as you said. And finally *hurray* I was able to use the module-assistant utility to build and install the webcam module.

I'd pretty much given up hope of ever getting the webcam working. Funny thing is I did previously find a kernel-headers package of the correct version in the Mepis repos, but it spewed a ton of errors when I tried to use module-assistant with it.

~Cheers

to install vmware tools on 343rc3 (2.6.15-1-586tsc) I followed the advice above but was a bit trickier as the vmware installer refuses to compile against kernel headers that do not match the version.

so i got kernel 2.6.15.1 from kernel.org
extracted an symlinked /usr/src/linux
there I did
make oldconfig
make
... now version.h is generated
ctrl-c
edited /usr/src/linux/include/linux/version.h
to place there the exact name of my kernel version

that did the trick, the vmware installer compiled succesfully, and the modules did load fine.

edoardo, thanks for the update on configuring vmware. I'll give it a try once I load 3.4 on my box. Right now I'm stickin' with 3.3.1-1 since I've got a load of other software on it, but I look forward to migrating to 3.4 and taking vmware with me

Jon

This is quite useful information to have. As a fellow VMWare user, the delay in getting headers has always made me hold back on upgrades.

Kudos for the tip GreenHat and thanks to eduardo for being persistent.

Regards,

Aspidastra

regards vmware-player.....
first, anyone using it, and second, if so do you have to recompile your kernel modules after each boot still or is it just me?

hmm that happend to me too I thought I did something wrong.

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kinda good to know its not something borked with my install.
they don't actually support debian, maybe thats why....?
fixed it with a background compile every reboot, just means computer grinds away fo a couple of minutes each time

Actually I'm not sure it happens everytime, I boot very rarely.

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I have a laptop and a desktop each with vmware. Since the laptop is shutdown at least once per day. I have to run into this annoyance.

Looks like others have seen it too and point to

http://www.braincells.com/debian/2004/05/

... for the solution.

Regards,

Aspidastra

cool its on my laptop too, so frequent rebooting.
good fix