VMware's vmmon is broken under Ubuntu Feisty (7.04)

You can install the VMware Workstation on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn (7.04) like this:

rplantado@rexubuntu:~/Installers/vmware-distrib$ sudo ./vmware-config.pl


Then, just follow the wizard and accept the default values. But along with the installation process, it halted with the following error when compiling the vmmon module:


What is the location of the directory of C header files that match your running
kernel? [/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.20-16-386/include]

Extracting the sources of the vmmon module.

Building the vmmon module.

Using 2.6.x kernel build system.
make: Entering directory `/tmp/vmware-config4/vmmon-only'
make -C /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.20-16-386/include/.. SUBDIRS=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.20-16-386'
CC [M] /tmp/vmware-config4/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o
In file included from /tmp/vmware-config4/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:80:
/tmp/vmware-config4/vmmon-only/./include/compat_kernel.h:21: error: expected declaration specifiers or ‘...’ before ‘compat_exit’
/tmp/vmware-config4/vmmon-only/./include/compat_kernel.h:21: error: expected declaration specifiers or ‘...’ before ‘exit_code’
/tmp/vmware-config4/vmmon-only/./include/compat_kernel.h:21: warning: type defaults to ‘int’ in declaration of ‘_syscall1’
make[2]: *** [/tmp/vmware-config4/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/vmware-config4/vmmon-only] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.20-16-386'
make: *** [vmmon.ko] Error 2
make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config4/vmmon-only'
Unable to build the vmmon module.

For more information on how to troubleshoot module-related problems, please
visit our Web site at "http://www.vmware.com/download/modules/modules.html" and
"http://www.vmware.com/support/reference/linux/prebuilt_modules_linux.html".

Execution aborted.

Solution: Edit compat_kernel.h in vmmon.tar:
Steps:
Go to the vmmon folder:
rplantado@rexubuntu:~/cd /usr/lib/modules/source/

Create backup copy of vmmon.tar:
rplantado@rexubuntu:/usr/lib/modules/source/$ cp vmmon.tar vmmon.tar.backup

Extract the tar file to its folder vmmon-only:
rplantado@rexubuntu:/usr/lib/modules/source/$ tar -xvf vmmon.tar

Open the include file compat_kernel.h:
rplantado@rexubuntu:/usr/lib/modules/source/$ vim vmmon-only/include/compat_kernel.h

Search and comment out the line:
static inline _syscall1(int, compat_exit, int, exit_code);

So it should look like:
/* static inline _syscall1(int, compat_exit, int, exit_code); */

Put back the files into vmmon.tar again:
rplantado@rexubuntu:/usr/lib/modules/source/$ chmod 755 vmmon.tar
rplantado@rexubuntu:/usr/lib/modules/source/$ tar -cvf vmmon.tar vmmon-only

Then repeat the installation process and it should be smooth now..

rplantado@rexubuntu:~/Installers/vmware-distrib$ sudo ./vmware-config.pl


:
:
Building the vmnet module.

Using 2.6.x kernel build system.
make: Entering directory `/tmp/vmware-config5/vmnet-only'
make -C /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.20-16-386/include/.. SUBDIRS=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.20-16-386'
CC [M] /tmp/vmware-config5/vmnet-only/driver.o
CC [M] /tmp/vmware-config5/vmnet-only/hub.o
CC [M] /tmp/vmware-config5/vmnet-only/userif.o
CC [M] /tmp/vmware-config5/vmnet-only/netif.o
CC [M] /tmp/vmware-config5/vmnet-only/bridge.o
CC [M] /tmp/vmware-config5/vmnet-only/procfs.o
CC [M] /tmp/vmware-config5/vmnet-only/smac_compat.o
SHIPPED /tmp/vmware-config5/vmnet-only/smac_linux.x386.o
LD [M] /tmp/vmware-config5/vmnet-only/vmnet.o
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST 1 modules
WARNING: could not find /tmp/vmware-config5/vmnet-only/.smac_linux.x386.o.cmd for /tmp/vmware-config5/vmnet-only/smac_linux.x386.o
CC /tmp/vmware-config5/vmnet-only/vmnet.mod.o
LD [M] /tmp/vmware-config5/vmnet-only/vmnet.ko
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.20-16-386'
cp -f vmnet.ko ./../vmnet.o
make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config5/vmnet-only'
The module loads perfectly in the running kernel.

Starting VMware services:
Virtual machine monitor done
Virtual ethernet done
Bridged networking on /dev/vmnet0 done
Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet1 (background) done
Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet8 (background) done
NAT service on /dev/vmnet8 done

The configuration of VMware Workstation 5.5.4 build-44386 for Linux for this
running kernel completed successfully.

You can now run VMware Workstation by invoking the following command:
"/usr/bin/vmware".

Enjoy,

--the VMware team