Arch Linux User Repository

After the first installation, please:

1) install the appropriate headers package(s) for your installed kernel(s): linux-headers for default kernel, linux-lts-headers for LTS kernel...

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

3) Enable the services you need (using .service units to activate them during boot or .path units to activate them when a VM is started) :

• vmware-networks: to have network access inside VMs

• vmware-usbarbitrator: to connect USB devices inside VMs

@step21: Your PKGBUILD works fine for me so far. Windows and debian (nextcloud) guest are running fine. But it does not seem to find the vmware tools. E.g. vmware wants to start downloading the tools when I start a centos guest. I have checked and linux.iso and the other isoimages are installed in /usr/lib/vmware/isoimages/.

@step21 .bundle is based on vmware-installer and can include the --install-component=FILE parameters to extract vmware-tools-*.component directly.

./VMware-Workstation-17.5.2-23775571.x86_64.bundle \
 --install-component "vmware-tools-linux-12.4.0-23259341.x86_64.component" \
 --install-component "vmware-tools-linuxPreGlibc25-12.4.0-23259341.x86_64.component" \
 --install-component "vmware-tools-netware-12.4.0-23259341.x86_64.component" \
 --install-component "vmware-tools-solaris-12.4.0-23259341.x86_64.component" \
 --install-component "vmware-tools-winPre2k-12.4.0-23259341.x86_64.component" \
 --install-component "vmware-tools-winPreVista-12.4.0-23259341.x86_64.component" \
 --install-component "vmware-tools-windows-12.4.0-23259341.x86_64.component" \
 --extract "$extracted_dir"

# vmware-tools-*/*.iso & vmware-tools-*/manifest.xml
ls -l "$extracted_dir"/vmware-tools-*/*

I kind of wanted to test it, so I made my own attempt. Theres probably lots of improvements possible, but at least the packaging works. (couldn't test functionality yet) I should note that I removed linuxPreGlibc25 for now from guest utils, because that one is a python file now (after unpacking), and I wasn't sure what to do about it. Fusion utils were also adapted, but there the packaging is not tested yet.

Edit: replaced huge block of file with gist link

https://gist.github.com/step21/b39eb4fdb83f689378854be8d5653af9

@step21 Thanks for the link, but it depends on account informations so I can't use it for the PKGBUILD.

I will download files from https://softwareupdate.vmware.com as suggested by others, but it needs a few changes on the PKGBUILD and I am busy this week, so I will update the PKGBUILD probably this week-end.

@TechXero I have not checked myself, but according to this discussion: https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules/issues/250 the kernel modules have not changed on VMware 17.5.2, so it still won't work on Linux 6.9. I'm afraid you will have to switch to linux-lts for some time, until someone find a solution (there is a discussion here: https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules/issues/239 about how to patch kernel modules).

It seems to be available for download here https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/

@jihem If you make a request through the broadcom portal, you get the bundle file directly. Though it seems not available for direct download. The url looks like https://downloads2.broadcom.com/?file=VMware-Workstation-Full-17.5.2-23775571.x86_64.bundle&oid=<short id>&id=<long id>&verify=<long verification id> (I omitted those numbers as they might be tied to an account)

vmware workstation has a critical vulnerability:

"A malicious actor with local administrative privileges on a virtual machine may exploit this issue to execute code as the virtual machine's VMX process running on the host."

https://support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/SecurityAdvisories/0/24280

Version 17.5.2 fixes that. I hope it does not take too long before this package is updated.

Also we need this new update ASAP before Arch releases Kernel 6.9.0 since 17.5.1 will not work with it.. I have tested it..

@jihem At first glance, they are no different from the previous download method, except that all archives are now additionally in .tar along with an additional package information metadata file.
vmware-tools packages need to be installed separately as packages.
VMware Player distrubution is no longer necessary, it's now Pro only.