2.6.20-16 kernel, was Re: vmware blues

[david]

Just for the archive:

<apt-get upgrade> does not necessarily upgrade from kernel 2.6.20-15 to
2.6.20-16 but vmware depends on 2.6.20-16.

Apparently there are two solutions:

* install the latest kernel manually
* install linux-generic

If you do the former, you can run into some weirdness with mdadm (odd
warning messages). There are some pages that suggest removing mdadm, but
in the end I did not do that and everything worked fine.

I'm not sure what happens if you install linux-generic or why it isn't
installed by default. It's not there on my system.

vmware-server then installed perfectly.

Thanks for those who gave advice.

David.



On Mon, 2007-06-11 at 06:48 -0400, Paul Kaplan wrote:
> On Monday 11 June 2007 5:25:10 am david wrote:
> > On Mon, 2007-06-11 at 05:06 -0400, Paul Kaplan wrote:
> > > On Monday 11 June 2007 3:17:02 am david wrote:
> > > > On Mon, 2007-06-11 at 01:02 +0000, pkaplan1 at comcast.net wrote:
> > > > > -------------- Original message ----------------------
> > > > > From: david <david at kenpro.com.au>
> > > > >
> > > > > > Installing vmware on feisty:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > sudo apt-get install vmware-server
> > > > > >
> > > > > > everything installs fine, but when I try to "power up" it says:
> > > > > > error, and stops!
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I tried to install from tar-ball, but it didn't like my headers.
> > > > > > It wanted linux-headers-386 (from memory) but I
> > > > > > have /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.20-15-386/ which evidently isn't
> > > > > > good enough :(
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Then I looked at re-installing from apt-get and noticed that
> > > > > > apt-get insists on vmware-server-kernel-modules-2.6.20-16 although
> > > > > > i'm running 2.6.20-15  ...... maybe that's why it won't power up?
> > > > > >
> > > > > > any thoughts?
> > > > > >
> > > > > > thanks, David.
> > > > >
> > > > > A couple...
> > > > >
> > > > > Make sure your kernel and your headers are both at the same number. 
> > > > > If you have copies of two versions of the header package get rid of
> > > > > the one not the same as your kernel.
> > > >
> > > > thanks.. i've tried that, but as long as I stay with the deb packages I
> > > > can't get the numbers to match.
> > >
> > > Sounds like that's your problem.  If you can get them to match, I'll bet
> > > that'd solve your problem.  Did you try the Ubuntu wiki or fora?
> > > Paul
> >
> > No, but I've been researching upgrading the kernel. Sadly I see nothing
> > but bad news about 2.6.20-16 so I'm a bit reluctant. Is there any GOOD
> > news about this kernel? Is it just a case of
> > <sudo apt-get install linux-image-2.6.20-16-386>
> >
> > Maybe there are just a few people having problems and most people are OK
> > with this kernel. Any comments?
> >
> I've been running 2.6.20-16on Feisty w/ no problem.
> 
> I would search your installed packages for any package containing "2.6.20" in 
> the name.  Use a gui front end for apt-get, if necessary.  Make sure 
> everything installed has a "-16" extension and uninstall anything with a 
> lower number.  (You don't have multiple kernel versions installed do you?).   
> As a last resort you could reinstall the kernel and header packages, but if 
> you installed from apt-get and didn't write anything to a restricted 
> directory you should be OK.
> 
> One last thought.  Did you install/configure VMServer as a normal user or w/ 
> sudo.  Workstation won't work unless done as sudo (however normal user can 
> run).
>