Want to run an operating system in virtual machine using VMware Workstation Pro? Here I’m going to show you how to install and use it in Ubuntu 24.04 and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.
Personally, I use Oracle Virtualbox for trying out different operating systems in as virtual machines (VMs). Some however prefer VMware workstation, which is available free for non-commercial use.
NOTE: You need to DISABLE secure boot (from BIOS) before being able to run VMs via VMware Workstation, unless you can sign the vmmon and vmnet modules manually.
1. Download & install VMware Workstation Pro
VMware Workstation Player discontinued! Now, it’s “VMware Workstation Pro” for Windows and Linux, and “VMware Fusion Pro” for MacOS. Both are free for personal use.
Download:
The vmware website offers a new page, see the link button below, for the new desktop hypervisors.
However, the link does not bring you the latest package. Instead, it redirects to Broadcom website.
You need to sign in with a free account (sign up if you don’t have one) first. Then, search “VMware Workstation Pro” and manually find out the download page.
Don’t know why, but it’s really NOT easy to find out the download for this desktop hypervisor. Here’s the direct download page what I got after signed in.
NOTE: At time goes on, Broadcom may change the last download link. Please leave comment to remind if you find it expired.
Tips: before being able to download it, you also need to accept the licence (click the link, then tick the checkbox). And, you need to complete your personal information (your Country, City, Zip code, etc information).
Install:
After downloaded the package, open your Downloads folder. Then, right-click on blank area and click “Open in Terminal” menu option to open up a terminal window with that folder as working directory.
In pop-up terminal window, run the commands below one by one (replace VMware-Player-*.bundle to your package name):
- Add executable permission to the downloaded package:
chmod u+x ./VMware-Player-*.bundle
- Then, run it with sudo permission:
sudo ./VMware-Player-*.bundle
This command will ask you to type user password (no visual feedback) for authentication. Then automatically extract the package, install and configure VMware Player in your system.
NOTE: If it refused to install, due to old VMWare Player, try following this tutorial to uninstall.
Once successfully installed the package, you can start the software from either start menu or GNOME ‘Show Apps’ (or overview) depends on your desktop environment.
2. Install vmmon and vmnet modules
UPDATE: As mentioned, you need to disable Secure Boot via BIOS, as the modules are NOT signed.
When trying to launch a virtual machine via VMware Workstation, it will show you an error “Could not open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory, …”, meaning that the ‘vmmon’ kernel module is missing.
missing vmmon kernel module
There’s a free open-source project that had been maintaining the patches for building VMware host modules against recent kernels for several years, which however discontinued. For the recent 25H2 version, I found this one that works in Ubuntu 24.04 in my case.
NOTE: VMware will release newer versions as time goes on. Please remind if you found the steps below out-of-date!
To apply the patch, do following steps one by one.
- First, press
Ctrl+Alt+Tto open terminal, and run commands to download the tarball from the project page:wget https://github.com/philipl/vmware-host-modules/archive/workstation-25h2.tar.gz
- Then, extract the tarball that you just downloaded:
tar -xzf workstation-25h2.tar.gz
- Next, navigate to the extracted folder:
cd vmware-host-modules-workstation-25h2/
- Compress the
vmmon-onlyandvmnet-onlymodules sub-folders into tar archives by running 2 commands one by one.tar -cf vmmon.tar vmmon-only/
tar -cf vmnet.tar vmnet-only/
- Then, move them into vmware module source directory:
sudo cp -v vmmon.tar vmnet.tar /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/
- Finally, run
vmware-modconfigtool to build and install all the modules (this command needs secure boot disabled).sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
If everything’s done without error, you can try launching your VM via VMWare Workstation again and delete leftovers (the tarball and extracted folder) from user home directory.
3. Install an OS in VM using VMware Player
On first launch of the virtual machine software, you need to read and accept the license, and follow the wizard to answer few questions.
Then, it starts into a VM manager window. There you can either click “Open a Virtual Machine“, if you already have VMs exported as .vmx, .ovf, or .ova files. Or, click “Create a New Virtual Machine” to create new.
In the “New Virtual Machine Wizard”, click “Typical” then you can choose to install a system from either CD-ROM (if your real-machine have one) or an .iso image. Or, you can select “Custom (Advanced)” to choose an older VMware version for hardware compatibility.
Then, follow the wizard to select iso image or CD-ROM (if any), set user-name and passowrd, VM name and location, and allocate some disk space. Before your clicking “Finish” button, you can click the “Custom Hardware” button for more configure options, including:
- memory size for the VM.
- how many CPU cores to use.
- adjust hard disk size.
- configure network adapter, sound card, USB controller, etc.
Tips: Here it’s better to choose “Bridged” option as network controller, or you’ll get a few “Ethernet (vmnet1) Unmanaged” options in top-right system status menu in Ubuntu 22.04, which is quite annoying (See the screenshot below).
If you already have those options in system status menu, then run command vmware-netcfg to launch the config dialog, and remove the virtual networks. Finally, re-configure them to “bridged” in their own VM settings dialog.
Once done the “New Virtual Machine Wizard”, it automatically starts VM, just like you boot the real machine from USB or CD-Rom. Then, you can start the installer in the virtual OS and follow the wizard to install the system in the virtual machine.
When everything’s done, the VM will be listed in the main manager window of VMware Workstation, next time you launch it. And, you can go “Virtual Machine” menu to configure the VM preferences and install VMware tools for additional features.
Uninstall VMware Workstation Pro
To uninstall the software, simply open terminal and run command:
sudo vmware-installer -u vmware-workstation
You did not install GCC etc…so this will fail. I tried installing VM Workstation 17 Pro on Ubuntu 24.04 and still does not compile the kernels so your instruction is a joke
I’m on Kubunu 24.04 and was able to install VMware Workstation Pro 17.5.0 by following Step #2.
I found the same with player, the kernels won’t compile so have to stay on 22.04 for now.
It does not work. vmmon and vmnet are not compiled. Has anyone managed to solve it?
Updated with patch to manually build the Kernel modules (See step 2).
Thanks for your help. we have taken a step forward. it still gives me the error: “Cannot open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory” error when powering on a VM (2146460). I tried to use the official guide: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2146460 but the “req” command isn’t there on Ubuntu. Any other ideas? Thanks again.
I had to disable secure boot from bios. now works
Disabling secure boot worked for me (Ubuntu 22.04 kernel 6.8.0), thanks!
thanks for your blog
it works perfectly VMware workstation 17.5.1 on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
me sale este error
File “/tmp/vmis.zhHxqF/install/vmware-installer/vmis/core/localinstallerops.py”, line 241, in Log
ltype(*args, **kwargs)
Message: ‘stderr: [AppLoader] Use shipped Linux kernel AIO access library.\nAn up-to-date “libaio” or “libaio1” package from your system is preferred.\n[AppLoader] GLib does not have GSettings support.\nUsing kernel build system.\nwarning: the compiler differs from the one used to build the kernel\n The kernel was built by: x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc-13 (Ubuntu 13.2.0-23ubuntu4) 13.2.0\n You are using: gcc (Ubuntu 13.2.0-23ubuntu4) 13.2.0\n/tmp/modconfig-AWsUtV/vmmon-only/common/crosspage.o: warning: objtool: CrossPage_CodePage+0x207: \’naked\’ return found in RETHUNK build\nmake[3]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:243: /tmp/modconfig-AWsUtV/vmmon-only/common/crosspage.o] Error 255\nmake[3]: *** Se borra el archivo \’/tmp/modconfig-AWsUtV/vmmon-only/common/crosspage.o\’\nmake[3]: *** Se espera a que terminen otras tareas….\n/tmp/modconfig-AWsUtV/vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c:2926:1: warning: no previous prototype for \u2018HostIFCheckTrackedMPN\u2019 [-Wmissing-prototypes]\n 2926 | HostIFCheckTrackedMPN(VMDriver *vm, // IN: The VM instance\n | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\n/tmp/modconfig-AWsUtV/vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c:3046:1: warning: no previous prototype for \u2018HostIFWritePhysicalWork\u2019 [-Wmissing-prototypes]\n 3046 | HostIFWritePhysicalWork(MA ma, // MA to be written to\n | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\n/tmp/modconfig-AWsUtV/vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c:3205:1: warning: no previous prototype for \u2018HostIFStartTimer\u2019 [-Wmissing-prototypes]\n 3205 | HostIFStartTimer(Bool rateChanged, //IN: Did rate change?\n | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\n/tmp/modconfig-AWsUtV/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:271:1: warning: no previous prototype for \u2018LinuxDriverInit\u2019 [-Wmissing-prototypes]\n 271 | LinuxDriverInit(void)\n | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\n/tmp/modconfig-AWsUtV/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:339:1: warning: no previous prototype for \u2018LinuxDriverExit\u2019 [-Wmissing-prototypes]\n 339 | LinuxDriverExit(void)\n | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\nmake[2]: *** [/usr/src/linux-headers-6.8.0-31-generic/Makefile:1926: /tmp/modconfig-AWsUtV/vmmon-only] Error 2\nmake[1]: *** [Makefile:240: __sub-make] Error 2\nmake: *** [Makefile:117: vmmon.ko] Error 2\nUsing kernel build system.\nwarning: the compiler differs from the one used to build the kernel\n The kernel was built by: x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc-13 (Ubuntu 13.2.0-23ubuntu4) 13.2.0\n You are using: gcc (Ubuntu 13.2.0-23ubuntu4) 13.2.0\n/tmp/modconfig-AWsUtV/vmnet-only/userif.c:1091:1: warning: no previous prototype for \u2018VNetUserIf_Create\u2019 [-Wmissing-prototypes]\n 1091 | VNetUserIf_Create(VNetPort **ret) // OUT\n | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\n/tmp/modconfig-AWsUtV/vmnet-only/netif.c:173:1: warning: no previous prototype for \u2018VNetNetIf_Create\u2019 [-Wmissing-prototypes]\n 173 | VNetNetIf_Create(char *devName, // IN:\n | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\n/tmp/modconfig-AWsUtV/vmnet-only/bridge.c:258:1: warning: no previous prototype for \u2018VNetBridge_Create\u2019 [-Wmissing-prototypes]\n 258 | VNetBridge_Create(const char *devName, // IN: name of device (e.g., “eth0”)\n | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\n/tmp/modconfig-AWsUtV/vmnet-only/bridge.c:1411:1: warning: no previous prototype for \u2018VNetBridgeSendLargePacket\u2019 [-Wmissing-prototypes]\n 1411 | VNetBridgeSendLargePacket(struct sk_buff *skb, // IN: packet to split\n | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\n/tmp/modconfig-AWsUtV/vmnet-only/userif.o: warning: objtool: VNetCsumAndCopyToUser+0x2d: call to csum_partial_copy_nocheck() with UACCESS enabled\n/tmp/modconfig-AWsUtV/vmnet-only/vnetUserListener.c:87:1: warning: no previous prototype for \u2018VNetUserListener_Create\u2019 [-Wmissing-prototypes]\n 87 | VNetUserListener_Create(uint32 classMask, // IN: the listener\’s class mask\n | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\nSkipping BTF generation for /tmp/modconfig-AWsUtV/vmnet-only/vmnet.ko due to unavailability of vmlinux\nUnable to install all modules. See log for details.\n\n’
Installing VMware Player 17.5.0
Configuring…
Thank you.
Dear Thanks for your blog. It’s worked for me.
Thank for all, works for me
Thanks for the post and the link to the github repo maintained by Michal Kubeček. You are both superstars!
Works for me, thanks
Thank you very much!
Remember to do first:
sudo apt-get install gcc
sudo apt-get install make
sudo apt-get update
Your tutorial is cool. After several hours of searching for solution over the internet, yours was the one that solved my problem. No glitch at all, and it was breeze.
First of all, thank you for your blog. Following the instructions, I have successfully installed and run VMware Player 17.5.0 on Ubuntu 24.04 (kernel 6.8.0-38). However, when I attempt to create and start a virtual machine, I still receive the error message “Could not open /dev/vmmon: ?????????. Please make sure that the kernel module vmmon’ is loaded.” After executing the command mentioned in the blog (sudo vmware-modconfig –console –install-all`), the status of Virtual Machine Monitor and Virtual Ethernet remains as failed. Could you please suggest a solution for this issue?
It works perfectly
Thank you very much for this article! Very helpful!
Great Article, thank youuu!
Do You know how to install it when kernel 6.12?(Needed because Mobo x870e ;-/) Needed because Mobo x870e ;-/
This is very misleading.
First of all, I am grateful for mkubecek’s work bu he does not provide support for newest versions of VMWare Workstation. Moreover, none of the downloadable versions is supported so if you don’t have old install version, you are out of game.
Secondly – you should not use dated VMWare version for security reasons. Newer versions have patches for security vulnerabilities.
Third but not least: I am using Ubuntu for business reasons. Running some guy’s patches for commercial software is ridiculous.
You should provide a clear information that this involves multiple security considerations and should not be used in production environment.
As for me – VMWare Workstation stopped being usable in Linux until they provide native support for major distributions (Ubuntu and Redhat are a minimum)
Thank you for the comment! I’ve updated the download section and kernel module installation for recent 25h2 version.
Hope it helps!
Ji m Hi,
A superb article and excellent instructions which enabled me to install VMWare Workstation Pro 25H2 onto Linux Mint 22.1. Very easy to follow indeed.
Thanks.