Blue Knight Sojourn of the Mind

If you try to install VmWare 6.0.4.93057 on Gentoo there are a few things you need to know.

1. VmWare 6.0.4.93057 is masked, to unmask it you need to add the files that it requests in to /etc/portage/package.keywords. The way I aways do it is by first running emerge vmware-workstation –pretend and see what the build wants to be masked and then add it to the file.

2. Your Kernel MUST have the following enabled:
CONFIG_UNUSED_SYMBOLS in the Kernel Hacking section.
This is because there are some symbols that 2.6.25 kernels have removed that VmWare needs.

3. You will need to modify the startup file “/opt/vmware/workstation/bin/vmware” which is the default startup file for the system and include:

export VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=no

as one of the top lines, this is a trial an error based on the GTK engine but if you are using and updating your system then you will have to use the same one as I have above. The other settings are “yes and force”.

4. For sound to work it is very simple. First make sure that you have media-libs/alsa-oss installed. If it is installed make sure that you have alsa running and added to the boot level.

To check if alsa is running do /etc/init.d/alsasound status. Look at this page here for further alsa documentations: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml