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
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