vmware-server on x86_64 CentOS4 / Redhat EL4

by Karanbir Singh Email

vmware-server is a 32bit app. Which is sort of strange, given that vmware claim it can host and run on x8664 kernel + userland. The stangeness sort of goes away when, at install time it drops vmmon and vmnet kernelspace modules with :

vmmon.o: ELF 64-bit LSB relocatable, AMD x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), not stripped
and
vmnet.o: ELF 64-bit LSB relocatable, AMD x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), not stripped

but userspace vm management tools are still all i386/32bit stuff. And even though I like, much like most people, to keep my x86_64 box's x86_64 clean - here's whats needed to make vmware-server run :

expat.i386                               1.95.7-4               
fontconfig.i386                          2.2.3-7                
freetype.i386                            2.1.9-1                
glibc.i686                               2.3.4-2.19             
libgcc.i386                              3.4.5-2                
libselinux.i386                          1.19.1-7               
xorg-x11-Mesa-libGL.i386                 6.8.2-1.EL.13.25       
xorg-x11-libs.i386                       6.8.2-1.EL.13.25       
zlib.i386                                1.2.1.2-1.2 

once you have all these installed, along with vmware-server, you should be able to ssh -Y, into the machine and run the 'vmware' tool with display on your local machine. If you only intend to access the vmware-server with vmware-console, you might get away without the xorg related stuff.

--
Karanbir Singh

7 comments

Comment from: ;-P [Visitor]
;-PWork Work Work
How r ya?
09/May/2006 @ 11:26
Comment from: Chris [Visitor] Email
ChrisYou actually only need xorg-x11-libs.i386 and zlib.i386 to run vmware-config.pl

I installed xorg-x11-libs with --nodeps.

The vmware-config.pl worked fine. I only access the server remotely over the network.
14/Sep/2006 @ 16:39
Comment from: Karanbir Singh [Member] Email
Karanbir SinghChris, thats a really bad idea - firstly you are breaking package deps on the machine, and secondly, you are not going to be able to run vmware, from the command shell ( which is an excellent way of accessing the machine when you have more than 1 user - just ssh -Y into the machine and run vmware )
14/Sep/2006 @ 17:20
Comment from: david [Visitor] Email
davidthx for the guide ...
19/Sep/2006 @ 13:45
Comment from: doug [Visitor] Email
dougThanks for the help. I referenced your article on my blog. How to install vmware on CENTOS 5.

(BTW - I linked to your site and when i follow the link, an error popped up from your blog that said the link was referral spam. I think something might be wrong with your spam filter. It is really a pain to comment here. You don't take gmail or blogspot urls?)

30/Apr/2007 @ 00:07
Comment from: Karanbir Singh [Member] Email
Karanbir SinghThis list of 32bit RPMS required for vmware on x86_64 / 64bit CentOS is correct for CentOS-5 as well.
17/Jan/2008 @ 16:50
Comment from: Tim [Visitor] Email
TimI am running VM Workstation 5.5 on an Opteron AMD x86_64 system. When I considerd updating VMWare a year or two ago the issue existed with regards to newer and older Opteron bios. The VMWare 6 had been released against an upgrade to the chip firmware that my system did not support.
Does this make any sense or was I mistaken?

If I attempted a VMWare upgrade, would an incompatible firmware state be detected (and install aborted)? VMWare 5.5 runs just fine.

Thanks
Tim
Silver Spring, MD
09/Mar/2008 @ 00:39

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