I spent a lot of time figuring out how to get vmware with the vmmon and vmnet kernel modules installed, because it only supports Fedora 40 with Kernel version 6.10.10-200. I tried downgrading to that kernel but that didn’t work, because kernel-headers-6.10.10-200.fc40.x86_64 couldn’t be installed. mkubecek/vmware-host-modules didn’t work either, but gleb-kun made some patches to it (thanks).
So anyway just in case anyone finds this useful who also has no idea about this stuff:
To use 17.5.1:
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download VMware from https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/ws/17.5.1/23298084/linux/core/
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extract it, make it executable, run it as sudo
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it should be installed now but don’t try to use it yet
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download the modules
wget https://github.com/gleb-kun/vmware-host-modules/archive/workstation-17.5.1.tar.gz -
extract it
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cd into the folder
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sudo make -
sudo make install -
restart your device
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now you can run VMware hopefully
To use 17.6.1 (or later, this worked for me even for 17.6.3):
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Sign up to Broadcom and download VMware
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extract it, make it executable, run it as sudo
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it should be installed now but don’t try to use it yet
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download the modules:
wget https://github.com/gleb-kun/vmware-host-modules/archive/workstation-17.6.1.tar.gz -
extract it
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cd into the folder
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sudo make -
sudo make install -
restart your device
(Note: Even though I know QEMU emulators like Boxes or virt-manager would have been easier, I have to use VMware and this is meant for others who are similarly unfortunate )
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I came into this expecting Selinux or firewald to be the issue.
Alternatively: you could just use what’s already preconfigured for your system by using kvm & qemu using nothing but simple “dnf install” commands and I recommend using virt-manager if you want a GUI like VMware
see the last line ;)
but yeah Boxes is great
reading your post reminded me of myself 25 years long ago; searching google, or articles, or forums with well done informations like yours and my comment was intended for someone like the old version of me tearing his hear out trying to get something like vmware to work, when someone could have just told me that the names of a lazier version that works just as well… so i’m paying it forward. lol
This.
I recently installed VMware Workstation on Fedora 41 KDE. Browsing Broadcom’s website to find the download link was one of the most abysmal life experiences I have ever had. So, at the end, I went to the AUR and got the link from the PKGBUILD there. I installed it by running the executable as root. I didn’t have any issues with the modules since the Workstation automatically offers to install required kernel modules upon launch if they are not present. Only manual intervention I had to do was to disable Secure Boot from BIOS since MSI likes to enable it each time I update it’s firmware.