# vmware: what's the difference?

## ONEEYEMAN

Hi, ALL,

Looking at the /usr/portage/app-emulation I see there is a vmware-player, vmware-server and vmware-server-console.

What's the difference between those 3 packages?

I initially installed vmware-server-2.0.2.203138-r4, but was stupid enough to unmerge vmware-modules and I did "emerge --sync"

And now it gives me problems:

```

IgorReinCloud plugins # emerge -pv vmware-modules

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies... done!

[ebuild  N     ] dev-libs/libaio-0.3.107  51 kB

[ebuild  N     ] x11-libs/libsexy-0.1.11-r2  USE="-doc -static-libs" 262 kB

[ebuild  N     ] dev-libs/xmlrpc-c-1.18.02  USE="cgi curl cxx -abyss -threads -tools" 540 kB

[ebuild  N    ~] x11-libs/libview-0.6.6  USE="-debug" 298 kB

[ebuild  N     ] dev-cpp/libgnomecanvasmm-2.26.0  USE="-debug -doc -examples" 320 kB

[ebuild  N    ~] app-emulation/vmware-tools-8.4.6.385536  USE="-vmware_guest_freebsd -vmware_guest_linux -vmware_guest_netware -vmware_guest_solaris -vmware_guest_winPre2k -vmware_guest_windows" 0 kB

[ebuild  N     ] dev-cpp/libsexymm-0.1.9  USE="-debug -doc" 341 kB

[ebuild  N F  ~] app-emulation/vmware-player-3.1.4.385536  USE="vmware-tools -doc" 101,134 kB

[ebuild     U ~] app-emulation/vmware-modules-238.4 [208.2] 0 kB

[blocks B      ] app-emulation/vmware-player ("app-emulation/vmware-player" is blocking app-emulation/vmware-server-2.0.2.203138-r4)

[blocks B      ] app-emulation/vmware-server ("app-emulation/vmware-server" is blocking app-emulation/vmware-player-3.1.4.385536)

Total: 9 packages (1 upgrade, 8 new), Size of downloads: 102,943 kB

Fetch Restriction: 1 package (1 unsatisfied)

Conflict: 2 blocks (2 unsatisfied)

 * Error: The above package list contains packages which cannot be

 * installed at the same time on the same system.

  (app-emulation/vmware-player-3.1.4.385536::gentoo, ebuild scheduled for merge) pulled in by

    =app-emulation/vmware-player-3.1.4* required by (app-emulation/vmware-modules-238.4::gentoo, ebuild scheduled for merge)

  (app-emulation/vmware-server-2.0.2.203138-r4::gentoo, installed) pulled in by

    app-emulation/vmware-server required by @selected

For more information about Blocked Packages, please refer to the following

section of the Gentoo Linux x86 Handbook (architecture is irrelevant):

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?full=1#blocked

The following keyword changes are necessary to proceed:

#required by app-emulation/vmware-player-3.1.4.385536[vmware-tools], required by app-emulation/vmware-modules-238.4, required by vmware-modules (argument)

>=app-emulation/vmware-tools-8.4.6.385536 ~amd64

#required by app-emulation/vmware-modules-238.4, required by vmware-modules (argument)

>=app-emulation/vmware-player-3.1.4.385536 ~amd64

#required by app-emulation/vmware-player-3.1.4.385536, required by app-emulation/vmware-modules-238.4, required by vmware-modules (argument)

>=x11-libs/libview-0.6.6 ~amd64

NOTE: This --autounmask behavior can be disabled by setting

      EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--autounmask=n" in make.conf.

 * IMPORTANT: 2 news items need reading for repository 'gentoo'.

 * Use eselect news to read news items.

```

So, my goal is to access virtual machine, but not thru the player.

My company uses VMware infrastructure with FF 3.5. However I have currently 3.6 and VMware didn't produce proper plugin for it.

So what are the differences between those 3 packages and how do I fix problems with vmware-modules? Can I have vmware-server and vmware-player on the same machine?

Thank you.

P.S.: 2 mods: Most likely this topic is not for this forum, but I didn't know where to put it.

----------

## jormartr

vmware server is not supported neither updated by vmware, only vmware-player.

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## ONEEYEMAN

Hi,

What about wmvare-server-console? This package is still in the portage....

Also there is vmware vsphere hypervisor based on esxi project. Is it in the portage? I heard that it's vmware-server replacement. Am I right?

Thank you.

----------

## wjb

The error message is saying you can't have vmware-player and vmware-server installed at the same time - seems to be because they need different versions of other libraries.

----------

## ONEEYEMAN

HI,

Well, I un-installed vmware-server and ran that emerge.

Now trying to set it up, I'm getting:

```

IgorReinCloud igor # emerge --config vmware-player

Configuring pkg...

Network settings database seems to be invalid,configuring default settings

Configuring Bridged network vmnet0

Configuring hostonly network vmnet1, probing for unused subnet ...

Failed to assign subnet address to hostonly network: vmnet1

Stopped all configured services on all networks

```

Any idea how to fix this?

Thank you.

----------

## wjb

its not happened to me so I don't know for sure - but I think I'd try renaming /etc/vmware/networking to back it up, then try the --config again. (on the grounds that a leftover vmware-server version of it may be confusing player).

Edit:  /etc/vmware/networking gets generated during --config, its not installed by the ebuild and survives re-emerging.

----------

## jormartr

vmware server console is the *console* to access to vmware server.

Esxi is an operating system itself, needs to be installed like that, it has it's own kernel. You can not install it over any other system, like say gentoo.

----------

## ONEEYEMAN

Hi,

 *wjb wrote:*   

> 
> 
> its not happened to me so I don't know for sure - but I think I'd try renaming /etc/vmware/networking to back it up, then try the --config again. (on the grounds that a leftover vmware-server version of it may be confusing player).
> 
> Edit:  /etc/vmware/networking gets generated during --config, its not installed by the ebuild and survives re-emerging.
> ...

 

It looks like I don't have this:

```

IgorReinCloud vmware # ls -la

total 68

drwxr-xr-x  6 root vmware  4096 Aug  7 18:35 .

drwxr-xr-x 67 root root    4096 Aug  8 17:10 ..

-rw-r--r--  1 root root     310 Aug  7 18:26 ._cfg0000_config

-rw-r--r--  1 root root      50 Aug  7 18:26 bootstrap

-rw-rw-r--  1 root vmware   922 Aug  7 16:20 config

drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware  4096 Aug  7 16:21 hostd

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      26 Jun 21 22:55 icu -> /opt/vmware/server/lib/icu

-rw-r--r--  1 root root    2559 Aug  6 23:05 license.cfg

-rw-r--r--  1 root root     559 Jun 21 22:55 license.vs.1.0-00

-rw-r--r--  1 root vmware 18459 Jun 21 22:55 locations

-rw-r--r--  1 root root     296 Jun 21 22:52 netmap.conf

drwxr-xr-x  2 root root    4096 Jun 18 13:14 ssl

drwxr-xr-x  2 root root    4096 Jun 18 13:14 state

drwxr-xr-x  2 root root    4096 Jun 21 22:53 webAccess

IgorReinCloud vmware # pwd

/etc/vmware

IgorReinCloud vmware # 

```

so, I don't have "/etc/vmware/networking.

Any other idea?

Thank you.

----------

## ONEEYEMAN

One more question:

Is vmware-workstation an exchange for vmware-server?

What I mean is: I can use vmware-server with the browser thru the network interface. Can I use vmware-workstation thru the FF, especially the newest one?

Thank you.

----------

## Mad Merlin

vmware-server-console is a tool to connect to and manage instances of vmware-server-1.0.x (v2 scrapped this and uses a web interface). vmware-server was a free of cost offering from VMWare that allowed you to do most of the things VMWare workstation did, but without the desktopish features (version 1 wasn't too bad, version 2 was awful). vmware-server (all versions) has been discontinued for several years now. vmware-modules is the kernel modules needed to support vmware-{workstation,server,player} and should get pulled in automagically if you need it.

I believe vmware-workstation is still a paid product, I don't know if it has a web interface though. Normally it's run and managed from the same workstation as a native app.

----------

## blakedude

One tip that nobody has mentioned is that virtualbox is a great alternative to vmware. Vmware is problematic on Gentoo (and probably other distros).  I switched over to virtualbox and found it a lot more stable to use than vmware.

----------

## solamour

+1 for VirtualBox. There are still a lot of missing features (e.g. "tabbed" screen comes to my mind, as well as keyboard shortcuts, such as CTRL+B for starting the guest OS), but it sure did come a long way. Besides, VMware seems to add a lot of features that I rarely use. With each iteration, it just gets bigger and bigger. I just hope Oracle doesn't kill it like everything that doesn't necessarily bring in dough for them. Perhaps we'll see LibreBox in near future?

__

sol

----------

## wjb

With a vmware-player install (3.1.4.385536), all I have in the /etc/vmware directory is:

```
bootstrap

config

networking

vmnet1/

vmnet8/
```

You have a ._cfg0000_config there, which you need to resolve (etc-update) before running the vmware-player --config. The config file on my system has vmware-player details in it.

(I have used VirtualBox in the past, its ok but my personal preference is vmware - and player's been steadily improving over the last few years)

----------

## hanj

Sorry to re-surface this old thread. I finally ditched vmware-server and installed vmware-player, and I'm running into the same problem pointed out above:

```
emerge --config vmware-player

Configuring pkg...

Network settings database seems to be invalid,configuring default settings

Configuring Bridged network vmnet0

Configuring hostonly network vmnet1, probing for unused subnet ...

Failed to assign subnet address to hostonly network: vmnet1

Stopped all configured services on all networks
```

Contents of /etc/vmware. I've already run dispatch-conf. I did have a netmap.conf (I moved that to /back temporarily)

```
ls -al /etc/vmware

total 2139

drwxrwx---  9 root vmware     544 Jan 21 14:32 .

drwxr-xr-x 66 root root      4384 Jan 21 14:32 ..

drwxr-xr-x  2 root root        80 Jan 21 14:28 back

-rw-r--r--  1 root root        50 Jan 21 14:20 bootstrap

-rw-r--r--  1 root root       399 Jan 21 14:25 config

drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware     392 Jan 21 13:17 hostd

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root        26 Jan 21 14:21 icu -> /opt/vmware/lib/vmware/icu

drwxr-xr-x  9 root vmware     216 Jan 21 13:17 init.d

-rw-r--r--  1 root root      1235 Jan 18 08:23 license.cfg

-rw-r--r--  1 root vmware     375 Jul 13  2006 license.vs.1.0-00

-rw-r--r--  1 root vmware     425 Jun 26  2006 license.vs.1.0-80

-rw-r--r--  1 root vmware 2158177 Jan 21 13:12 locations

-rw-r--r--  1 root root         0 Jan 21 13:12 not_configured

drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware      88 Nov 18  2009 pam.d

drwxr-xr-x  2 root vmware      96 Apr 26  2006 ssl

drwxr-xr-x  2 root root        72 Nov 18  2009 state

-rw-r-----  1 root root         0 Jan 21 14:25 usbarb.rules

-rw-r--r--  1 root vmware      87 Apr 26  2006 vm-list-private

drwxr-xr-x  2 root root       144 Nov 18  2009 webAccess
```

Thanks in advance!

hanji

----------

## radio_flyer

My advice would be to ignore the vmware ebuilds in the portage tree. They're stale to say the least. The active vmware ebuild work is going on in the vmware overlay. Install layman and then add (layman -a vmware) the vmware overlay. I'm using both vmware-workstation and vmware-player from that overlay without issues on amd64 systems.

----------

