Arch Linux User Repository

After the first installation, please:

1) reboot or load vmw_vmci and vmmon kernel modules (modprobe -a vmw_vmci vmmon)

2) Enable the services you need:

• vmware-networks.service: to have network access inside VMs

• vmware-usbarbitrator.service: to connect USB devices inside VMs

• vmware-hostd.service: to share VMs on the network

For people who would stay on VMware 14, you can switch to vmware-workstation14 package.

You shouldn't have the 30-day trial license unless you ask it after starting Workstation. Remove the file /etc/vmware/license-ws-150-e1-201804 and restart sudo vmplayer. The 30-day message should disappear.

This file does not exist on my system. This bug doesn't prevent vmplayer from starting correctly, but having to go through the licensing dialog each time is a pain in the ***.

How to switch tty for host?

I have tried the "Ctrl+Alt+Space, Ctrl+Alt+Fx" trick, which does not work for me.

@jihem

I'm getting validity check error on VMware-Workstation-Full-15.5.0-14665864.x86_64.bundle with the latest update.

Does anyone get the same?

@dani:

• I have installed Vmware Player on Windows: Player starts without asking a license.
• I have installed VMware Player (with the official method) on Arch, Fedora and Debian (the two last distros are officially supported): Player ask a license.

I think there is a bug in the Linux version. I'm searching a workaround but I don't have any idea.

You shouldn't have the 30-day trial license unless you ask it after starting Workstation. Remove the file /etc/vmware/license-ws-150-e1-201804 and restart sudo vmplayer. The 30-day message should disappear.

In the worst case, you can downgrade to 15.1.0. It should work at least until Linux 5.4 release. I hope VMware will release a fix before.

@jihem

Polkit was installed and the service was running.

I tried sudo vmplayer to bypass the polkit problem and it works.

Now I am in the 30-day trial. Even in Player, there is a count-down of the evaluation license.

I am afraid I won't even be able to use Player when it expires.

According to VMware website, Player is still free of charge for personal users. Do you think this is a bug?

I am on kernel 5.3.1 and getting the error "Could not open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory. Please make sure that the kernel module `vmmon' is loaded."

I attempted to reload the kernel modules but get this error "modprobe: WARNING: Module vmmon not found in directory /lib/modules/5.3.1-arch1-1-ARCH"

Is this kernel not currently supported?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: I was on workstation 15.0.1 upgraded to most recent version and it worked.

If VMWare fails to load after installing 15.5.0 try editing /etc/vmware/config and append this at the end (use sudo/root):

acceptOVFEULA = "yes"

acceptEULA = "yes"

After this save, and reboot, works flawlessly! Thank you @jihem & @strayarch

@dani: maybe you don't have polkit service enabled on startup? In that case you should install polkit package and enable polkit.service. But I'm not sure it is sufficient, I don't really know how polkit works.

I'm surprised that no one talk about this problem on VMware community forum.

Installed 15.5.0, followed @jihem instructions for /etc/vmware/config, rebooted, and starts flawlessly.

@jihem, thank you for replying. But it still does not really work for me.

"I want to try VMware Workstation 15 for 30 days." --> "Finish" --> (no response)

Meanwhile in the console I was prompted to enter the root password.

==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.freedesktop.policykit.exec ====
Authentication is needed to run `/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-setup-helper' as the super user
Authenticating as: root
Password: 

After password entered, it responded as follows.

polkit-agent-helper-1: error response to PolicyKit daemon: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: No session for cookie
==== AUTHENTICATION FAILED ====
Error executing command as another user: Not authorized

This incident has been reported.