Compiling VMware Player

[carrot]

I'm trying to use TC as a host for other VMs. I have had no problems installing TC as a guest.

when I say compile I am talking about running the bundle file and installing. as you need linux-headers among other dependencies, it is very similar to compiling any other app or library.

Can you share the steps you followed or extensions you installed to be able to install/run the player?

thanks

[Juanito]

pkexec wasn't setuid when I loaded polkit so I fixed it but I still get the error. (bug in polkit.tcz? )

I haven't seen it said that pkexec should be suid?

[andyj]

Most third party software expects this link:

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tc@box:~$ sudo mkdir /lib64
tc@box:~$ sudo ln -s /lib/ld-2.30.so /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2

Install the following extensions. My system already has open-vm-tools-desktop installed, so I can't say how much that and it's dependencies taint the rest of the procedure.

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tc@box:~$ tce-load -i perl5 python3.6 rpm compiletc bc bash coreutils libaio alsa alsa-config libpng-dev module-init-tools polkit

Busybox modprobe doesn't have the -n option, and the installer script has /sbin/modprobe path hardcoded, so fix this:

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tc@box:~$ cd /sbin
tc@box:/sbin$ sudo ln -sf /usr/local/sbin/modprobe

Create the SysV init directories the installer expects:

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tc@box:~$ for a in $(seq 0 6); do sudo mkdir -p /etc/rc.d/rc$a.d; done
tc@box:~$ cd /etc/rc.d
tc@box:/etc/rc.d$ sudo ln -s /etc/init.d

Now run the installer:

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tc@box:~$ sudo bash /path/to/VMware-Player-15.5.6-16341506.x86_64.bundle --console --ignore-errors --eulas-agreed

After it finishes, if you haven't already, download the patched linux kernel source from the TC website and untar it. Download the config file and put it in the tree as .config. You shouldn't have to build the kernel. Create a link to the kernel source tree, then build and load the kernel modules:

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tc@box:~$ cd /lib/modules/5.4.3-tinycore64/
tc@box:/lib/modules/5.4.3-tinycore64$ sudo ln -s /path/to/kernel/src/linux-5.4.3 build
tc@box:~$ sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
tc@box:~$ sudo modprobe vmmon
tc@box:~$ sudo modprobe vmnet

At this point vmplayer should start and prompt for a license key. It is also at this point that policy kit needs to be configured but I don't know how to do that. If I run vmplayer as tc I can not go further, but it does work if I run it as root (a bad idea). Also, this installation is not permanent, it will be lost when you reboot unless you make the whole TC file system persistent which defeats the idea of TC. Personally, I would use a different host OS. I use Slackware as my main OS, which is much more like TC than most other distros. I don't think TC is the right tool for this job.

[carrot]

Thanks andyj, I give your steps a try and see how I go

[andyj]

pkexec wasn't setuid when I loaded polkit so I fixed it but I still get the error. (bug in polkit.tcz? )

I haven't seen it said that pkexec should be suid?

It is on my Slackware box. Seems like it would need to be to raise privileges at some point. But I know zero about polkit, which is what my opinion counts for in this case. 

[carrot]

Hi andyj, I've finally had a chance to try your steps and have come very close to install, however am once again stuck.

The player bundle has installed following your steps, however when I try to run vmware-modconfig I get an error

[AppLoader] GLib does not have GSettings support.

(process:3991): GLib-CRITICAL **: 12:00:00.000: g_file_test: assertion 'filename != NULL' failed
Failed to setup build environment

Did you come across this when installing?

For reference I am using core64 v11.1 with nothing installed as a starting point (base system only). Is this what you used when you were able to install?

thanks

[carrot]

just for completeness, I have also today tried using the TinyCorePure64 v11.1 iso to see if it was my setup of CorePure64. Using this iso has resulted in the same result as previously mentioned with the exact same error.

thanks

[andyj]

[AppLoader] GLib does not have GSettings support.

This error isn't a show stopper, I got it and could still build the modules. Obviously the other error is. It's looking for something you don't have. You may have to compile the kernel plus modules after all.

[carrot]

Hi andyj, thanks for the feedback again, unfortunately still not go. Took a bit to get the sources built (ran out of memory on my VM initially), but after getting them built was able to follow the rest of the steps. The wmplayer module build attempted to build the modules but failed. attached is the output of the errors on the build.

[carrot]

just bumping again, any ideas on what is causing the failure in build the vmware modules?

if not, my next thoughts would be to try install virtualbox on micorcore v11.1. Has there been any success with this?


@andyj, on a seperate note, can you provide me some details of the setup that you were able to get the player running? ie what tinycore version, tinycore or microcore? v11 or v11.1? what extensions were installed prior to the steps you provided? etc
I am just hoping I might be able to replicate what you have done to be able to install successfully, then I can troubleshoot what is missing with my normal setup.

thanks again

[curaga]

If the virtualization program does not matter to you, you should use qemu (kvm). It tends to be easy to build and high quality, vs virtualbox's questionable quality and the build troubles you're seeing.

[carrot]

hi curaga, I would have preferred to get vmware player installed as I have many VM's already built with it, however ultimately it does not matter too much. I added virtualbox as I have previously used it. As I have not used QEMU (KVM) before, is there a good source of information somewhere that you can point me to for setup in microcore?

thanks

[Juanito]

http://tinycorelinux.net/11.x/x86_64/tcz/qemu.tcz.info

example howto:
$ sudo modprobe kvm-intel
$ qemu-img create -f qcow2 vdisk.img 2G
$ qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -hda vdisk.img -m 2G -cdrom CorePure64-8.0.iso -boot d

[carrot]

thanks for the help everyone, I have been able to get qemu to work for my purposes.