Arch Linux

This is my build log when building against linux-lts (3.10.12-1).

please try 9.4.0

Here is the PKGBUILD we from Manjaro are using...
0.9.4 I couldn't compile for 311 and up.

Here's my log file using 9.4.0 on kernel 3.11

Same with 2013.09.16 on kernel 3.11.4-1-ARCH

yes, I found that ubuntu just dropped unbuildable modules from package.

btw there are vsock, vmxnet and baloon drivers in linux kernel, not sure what is the difference between open-vm-tools and mainline linux modules.

2013.09.16 now works for me after patching with the ones from: https://github.com/rasa/vmware-tools-patches

As Sergej already told vsock is in the kernel so i've removed it as well as vmsync in dkms.conf. Afterwards build went fine on 3.11.4-1-ARCH :)

I can't get vmhgfs work on my system it always fails with: modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'vmhgfs': Invalid argument

I've attached my current build package. It would be really nice if someone could point out what causes the error.

Here's what I did after installing the package:
dkms add open-vm-tools/2013.09.16
dkms autoinstall -k `uname -r`
modprobe vmhgfs

Martin,

I wanted to let you know I was having the same problem and just managed to get it working.

I switched to the 3.10.18-lts kernel in the hope that the dkms install would work with the "older" kernel but it did not.

I removed all modules from dkms.conf except vmhgfs and it built, but I got the same error as you when trying to load the vmhgfs module using modprobe.

I downloaded the vmware-tools-patches package from the AUR, but I only ended up using one patch, vmblock.3.10.patch. Building open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-dkms with this patch and a modified dkms.conf that included only vmblock and vmhgfs got the file sharing working for me. My shares now show up in /mnt/hgfs.

So it seems that the file sharing depends on vmblock since it's inclusion got things working despite not applying any patches to vmhgfs. I noticed in your dkms.conf that you did not include vmblock.

Unfortunately it still doesn't work. I still get the same error message. Attached is my current source package.

I will just say a couple things:

1. I noticed yesterday that my file sharing only works when I have mnt-hgfs.automount enabled as described in the archwiki for installing arch linux in vmware.

2. You are using a different kernel and more patches than I.

I realize Dominik stated above that he got it working with 3.11.4. I cannot comment on that since I have not tried it and don't plan too. I'm quite happy to be on the 3.10.18-lts kernel so I don't have to redo this with every minor kernel update. I also changed packman.conf to ignore open-vm-tools so I don't inadvertantly break this when doing a system update.

@jwbwater I'm trying to find the vmware-tools-patches package you mentioned. As you can see here (https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/?O=0&C=0&SeB=nd&K=vmware-tools-patches&outdated=&SB=n&SO=a&PP=50&do_Search=Go) searching the AUR for that string didn't return anything. I found a Github repo by the same name (https://github.com/rasa/vmware-tools-patches), is that the same thing as this?

Well, I got a little further. I used the vmware-tools-patches repo from Github that I mentioned in my last post. Then I downloaded the source of the open-vm-tools package from the arch repository. I copied the vmblock.3.10.patch in from vmware-tools-patches and updated the paths in the patch to match the ones in the actual open-vm-tools source code. I ran makepkg -sr to compile the new package with the patched vmblock module, and that compile fails without helpful output while compiling libdndcp (something related to drag-n-drop & clipboard integration). I do not have X in my VM, nor do I need it, so I'd be happy building without this library if possible (I couldn't find a way). I do need vmhgfs, my VM is heavily dependent on file sharing, and since I'll be distributing it publicly, I'd rather not use anything that requires extra effort on the host (like sshfs). Is there an easier way to get a patched open-vm-tools package for lts-3.10?

You are correct, the vmware-tools-patches package in the AUR seems to have disappeared. The github package you mentioned matches what I have.

I have attached the PKGBUILD and dkms.conf.patch (which is from my src directory) which I used to compile open-vm-tools for lts-3.10. This PKGBUILD expects vmblock.3.10.patch to be in the src directory as well.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, I'll give those a try. Out of curiosity, do you have X11 on your installation?

Yes, I'm using it as a linux workstation under OS/X.

It looks like I have the exact same dkms.conf patch you do. My PKGBUILD only differs in that I'm applying the patches in prepare (I'm using a slightly newer release of the open-vm-tools package, and it was already applying a patch there).

My best guess is that this is a bug when calling ./configure with --without-x. The Makefile only builds vmware-user-suid-wrapper if HAVE_X11 is set. However, a couple of the other packages need to reference one of the files it builds. Has anyone else seen this work without X11 for kernel 3.10-lts?

Turns out the problem was in PKGBUILD itself. I guess I'll report the bug there. Thanks for the help @jwbwater!

So close. I was able to install vmware-open-tools and dkms install it. I can start the vmtoolsd process, but I cannot mount a shared drive from my Mac. For example, when I do:

sudo mount -t vmhgfs .host:/Users/joe /mnt/shared

I get: Error: cannot mount filesystem: No such device.

Okay, got it working. Finally. For posterity's sake, here are the steps I had to take to get shared folders in VMware:

1. Install linux-lts 3.10 with pacman, followed wiki instructions for that one
2. Downloaded & unpacked source of the vm-open-tools package from the Arch repository
3. Pulled in vmblock.3.10.patch from https://github.com/rasa/vmware-tools-patches
4. Pulled in dkms.conf.patch attached by @jwbwater above
5. Add patches to PKGBUILD along with md5sums; apply in prepare()

At this point, if you aren't using X11 (like me) you'll need to add --without-x & --disable-multimon to ./configure in the build() function of PKGBUILD; you'll also want to comment out the lines involving vmware-user.desktop & vmware-user-suid-wrapper in the package_open-vm-tools() function of PKGBUILD.

6. Build the package with makepkg -rs, go grab coffee & then install the resulting archive with pacman -U
7. Follow the wiki instructions at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installing_Arch_Linux_in_VMware#Installing_Open-VM-Tools for the remainder of your journey

Once you're done make sure you load the vmhgfs module with `modprobe vmhgfs`. You should now be able to setup shares using the VMware GUI!

@joefiorini Good to hear you got it working.

So what's the current status here? It still needs a patch? It builds fine with LTS but not the standard?

Haven't tried to build this against the standard kernel since November. When patched as described above, it enables file sharing between my Arch Linux guest which is currently running the linux-lts 3.10.29 kernel and an OS/X Mavericks host.