Daily Archives: December 24, 2013

CentOS, CentOS 6, Linux, VMware, VMware Tools, Windows, Windows 7, Workstation, Workstation 10

CentOS Host OS Crashes When Installing VMware Tools on a Guest OS Within VMware Workstation 10

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Installing VMware Tools on a Windows 7 Guest OS in VMware Workstation 10.1 running on a CentOS 6 host always resulted in the host OS crashing.
This appears to be due to a combination of VMware Workstation 10.1 running on CentOS 6 .5 with kernel 2.6.32-431.1.2.0.1.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP x86_64 GNU/Linux. I see these two interesting items on the screen output followed by a call trace.

BUG: scheduling while atomic: vmware/6035/0x000002000
Pid: 6035, comm: vmware Tainted: G D --------- 2.6.32-431.1.2.0.1.el6.x86_64 #1

2013-12-28_vmware-host-crash
To resolve this issue:

# service vmware-workstation-server stop
# service vmware stop
# mv -v /usr/lib/vmware/modules/binary /usr/lib/vmware/modules/binary~orig
# rm /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/misc/v*.ko
# depmod -a
# yum install make gcc keneral-headers-$(uname -r) kernel-devel
# /usr/bin/vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
# service vmware start
# service vmware-workstation-server start

I could now attempt to install VMware Tools on a Windows 7 Guest OS without the host crashing. However, I now ran into another complication. The VMware Tools install would hang around the point of installing the ThinPrint module. Basically, the VMware Tools install hangs due to cruft left over from previous install attempts. Follow VMware KB Article 1001354 to remove cruft left over from previous VMware Tools installs. Then try reinstalling again.
You do not need to repeat this procedure since the offending modules are being removed in the steps above. During subsequent kernel upgrades, modules will be recompiled automatically.
VMware claims that “this issue should be fixed with the next update (10.0.2), and we will publish a kb article.”
UPDATE: The VMware community appears to agree that this issue is resolved in the Workstation 10.0.2 release.

My System Configuration

  • VMware Workstation 10.1
  • Host: CentOS 6.5 x86 64-bit
  • Guest: Windows 7 Professional SP1

References

CentOS, CentOS 6, Linux

Install Additional Common Linux Packages on CentOS 6 Minimal Install

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After performing a base install of CentOS 6 using the minimal install CD, you may find that a lot of commands that you would expect are not there. Do the following to install additional, basic Linux packages that are common to most Linux distributions:

# yum groupinstall "Base"

Run the following in order to see detailed information including a description and which packages it will install.

# yum groupinfo "Base"
Group: Base
 Description: The basic installation of CentOS Linux.
 Mandatory Packages:
   alsa-utils
   at
   authconfig
   bc
   bind-utils
   centos-indexhtml
   crontabs
   cyrus-sasl-plain
   dbus
   ed
   file
   logrotate
   lsof
   man
   ntsysv
   parted
   pciutils
   psacct
   quota
   setserial
   tmpwatch
   traceroute
 Default Packages:
   abrt-addon-ccpp
   abrt-addon-kerneloops
   abrt-addon-python
   abrt-cli
   acpid
   b43-fwcutter
   biosdevname
   blktrace
   bridge-utils
   bzip2
   cpuspeed
   cryptsetup-luks
   dmraid
   dosfstools
   eject
   ethtool
   fprintd-pam
   gnupg2
   hunspell
   hunspell-en
   irqbalance
   kexec-tools
   ledmon
   libaio
   lvm2
   man-pages
   man-pages-overrides
   mdadm
   microcode_ctl
   mlocate
   mtr
   nano
   ntp
   ntpdate
   openssh-clients
   pam_passwdqc
   pcmciautils
   pinfo
   plymouth
   pm-utils
   prelink
   rdate
   readahead
   rfkill
   rng-tools
   rsync
   scl-utils
   setuptool
   smartmontools
   sos
   strace
   sysstat
   system-config-firewall-tui
   system-config-network-tui
   systemtap-runtime
   tcpdump
   tcsh
   time
   unzip
   usbutils
   vconfig
   vim-enhanced
   virt-what
   wget
   which
   wireless-tools
   words
   xz
   yum-plugin-security
   yum-utils
   zip
 Optional Packages:
   PyPAM
   audispd-plugins
   brltty
   cpupowerutils
   device-mapper-persistent-data
   dos2unix
   dumpet
   ecryptfs-utils
   edac-utils
   genisoimage
   gpm
   kabi-yum-plugins
   kernel-doc
   linuxptp
   logwatch
   mkbootdisk
   mtools
   ncurses-term
   nss_db
   oddjob
   pax
   python-dmidecode
   python-volume_key
   rsyslog-gnutls
   rsyslog-gssapi
   rsyslog-relp
   sgpio
   sox
   squashfs-tools
   star
   tboot
   tunctl
   udftools
   unix2dos
   uuidd
   volume_key
   wodim
   x86info
   yum-plugin-aliases
   yum-plugin-changelog
   yum-plugin-downloadonly
   yum-plugin-tmprepo
   yum-plugin-verify
   yum-plugin-versionlock
   yum-presto
   zsh

There are additional package groups that may be useful in order to easily setup a particular service. To see a list of all the installed and available package groups:

# yum grouplist

My System Configuration

  • CentOS 6.5 x86 64-bit

References

CentOS, CentOS 6, Linux

Install a Desktop Environment on CentOS 6 Minimal Install

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After performing a base install of CentOS 6 using the minimal install CD, do the following to install a basic GNOME desktop environment:

# yum groupinstall "Desktop" "Desktop Platform" "X Window System" "Fonts"

Run the following on a particular package group in order to see detailed information including a description and which packages it will install.

# yum groupinfo groupname

There are additional package groups if you want something more than a basic desktop environment. For example,

# yum -y groupinstall "General Purpose Desktop"

To see a list of all the installed and available package groups:

# yum grouplist

Once installed, you can start GNOME by running:

$ startx

or

$ /sbin/telinit 5

To have CentOS boot into runlevel 5 “X11” instead of runlevel 3 “Full multiuser mode”, modify the /etc/inittab file to change start up level from

id:3:initdefault:

to

id:5:initdefault:

My System Configuration

  • CentOS 6.5 x86 64-bit

References