Why am I unable to build vmware for the last few weeks

Help
1

I wonder if I’m doing something wrong.

Is this not supposed to work? It’s been giving me this error for weeks.

copying path '/nix/store/cbr8nlr38aj742ia6bwxq48n201lc7h2-rygel-0.42.5' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
DED_CC code/server/sv_client.c
  LD [M]  /build/source/vmmon-only/vmmon.ko
  BTF [M] /build/source/vmmon-only/vmmon.ko
Skipping BTF generation for /build/source/vmmon-only/vmmon.ko due to unavailability of vmlinux
make[2]: Leaving directory '/nix/store/1s3p9wbbxci26azycpppwdml12cnaai9-linux-6.9.2-dev/lib/modules/6.9.2/build'
make -C $PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. \
  MODULEBUILDDIR= postbuild
make[2]: Entering directory '/build/source/vmmon-only'
make[2]: 'postbuild' is up to date.
make[2]: Leaving directory '/build/source/vmmon-only'
cp -f vmmon.ko ./../vmmon.o
make[1]: Leaving directory '/build/source/vmmon-only'
error: builder for '/nix/store/38vlxl49c9ac6i5nvx05daz6kqfvysk6-vmware-modules-workstation-17.5.1-unstable-2024-01-12-6.9.2.drv' failed with exit code 2
error: 1 dependencies of derivation '/nix/store/wysmi42l7yq8djn1yjnhxyi6f1k8gdzb-kernel-modules.drv' failed to build
error: 1 dependencies of derivation '/nix/store/4qfvz1rg632732861p6qfpzfya0s4dkc-linux-6.9.2-modules.drv' failed to build
error: 1 dependencies of derivation '/nix/store/pzvci9s1bywc6zxpl67wv5a2b9dqs0rw-nixos-system-quasar-23.11.7454.25cf937a30bf.drv' failed to build
2

This is a known issue with kernels that are version 6.9 or later. See this issue comment for more info.

3

You need patches to build vmware against kernel 5.9. They are available here: GitHub - mkubecek/vmware-host-modules: Patches needed to build VMware (Player and Workstation) host modules against recent kernels

An easier solution is probably to switch to the most recent LTS kernel.

4

LTS is like really old. Is there any other target that is a bit closer to 6.9?:wink:

5

6.6 isn’t all that old but you could use 6.7 or 6.8.

However, those kernels aren’t getting patches anymore so unless you need something specific from one of those kernels, I would use 6.6 LTS kernel.

6

Is 6.6 an LTS on 23.11 or are you talking 24.05?

7

It is the LTS kernel on 24.05 but it is an LTS kernel regardless.

8

ok, but what is the handle for it on 23.11?

…something like:?

  boot.kernelPackages = pkgs.linuxPackages_LTS6;
9 
boot.kernelPackages = pkgs.linuxPackages_6_6;
10

Yes, thank you.

I also found this to get what those mean:

nix eval -f '<nixpkgs>' linuxPackages_latest.kernel.version
"6.9.4"

nix eval -f '<nixpkgs>' linuxPackages_6_8.kernel.version
"6.8.12"