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:

• 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

If it helps anyone who has modern hardware, I had to add ibt=off in my kernel parameter for grub otherwise I got errors with vmmon not loading correct. Im running a Dell XPS 17 9720 with i7 12xxx and Nvidia RTX 3050 GPU if this helps anyone in a similar situation.

Well I removed it again and did a search over my whole system for any thing vmware to remove everything. I thought I did this before but for what ever reason I found a build of vmware in .cache/yay. I had forgot I even had yay. Must have been from a long while back.

I dont know if that was messing things up or not, but I removed anything anywhere vmware related on my system, re cloned the git repo and ran makepkg -si and everything is working as intended.

Thank for taking the time to help me figure this mess out.

No, you can't apply the same commands to /usr/lib/vmware because some of the files need the executable flag.

Your package contains the same permission errors (at least on /etc/vmware). So, there was a problem during package building, but I have no idea what happened. I can suggest you to rebuild the package and check with the same command if the permissions inside the package are now correct on /etc/vmware: drwxr-xr-x for directories, -rw-r--r-- for files. If they are fixed on this directory, I can imagine they are fixed on /usr/lib/vmware too. If they are still wrong, I have no idea what to do for the moment.

Thank you for taking the time to help me figure this out.

I ran those two commands on /etc/vmware with still no ability to start vmware. I have already removed vmware and reinstalled, so I am back to where I was before I changed the permissions on /usr/lib/vmware/ with having no access for others.

Shall I apply them commands to /usr/lib/vmware too?

Here is the output of the tar -tvf vmware-workstation15-15.5.7-6-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst | grep etc/vmware/

https://pastebin.com/Mb843AM1

I should add, i installed this using makepkg -si

Your /etc/vmware/config is fine (it contains the default configuration).

I don't understand why, but some of the permissions are still wrong. Can you fix them using the following commands, and check if it solves your problem?

find /etc/vmware/ -type d -exec chmod 755 {} +
find /etc/vmware/ -type f -exec chmod 644 {} +

It would also be interesting to see if the problem of wrong permissions is due to installation or package building. Can you give me the result of the command (launched from the directory containing the package): tar -tvf vmware-workstation15-15.5.7-6-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst | grep etc/vmware/?

contents of /etc/vmware/config : https://pastebin.com/VAXR8cRR

I didnt see the files you asked about in /etc/vmware.

Here is whats in my /etc/vmware: https://pastebin.com/DmpAVmV6

Ideally you should fix the permissions of all the files listed by pacman.

But I don't think this is the reason of your current issue. It seems related to the VMware configuration files. What is the content of /etc/vmware/config file? Do you have one of the following files: /etc/vmware/config.pacnew or /etc/vmware/config.pacsave? Can you give me the result of ls -la /etc/vmware?

Removing and reinstalling I do see some warnings about permissions. warning: directory permissions differ on /usr/share/* (Multiple /usr/share warnings)

filesystem: 755 package: 750

By the constant user setup what I mean is, after I manually give myself permissions to read and execute /usr/lib/vmware, each time I start vmware as normal user, I get a setup dialog asking for my name, then shared vm location, then workstation server port number, and finally asked for root password.

I would really like to find out why my system seems to be installing without permissions being set properly.

If I install the official bundle from vmware the permissions get set correctly, but this last kernel update borked the module compile so I am now going the aur route.

To avoid keeping files from the bundle installation, you can try:

• uninstall vmware-workstation15 package
• rm -r /etc/vmware* /usr/lib/vmware*
• reinstall vmware-workstation15 package, and check if pacman prints some warnings (about permissions changes for example)

I am constantly presented with the user setup

I don't understand what you mean.

@jihem Sorry, I miss typed when I posted. I reread what I posted and I didnt mean /usr/bin/vmware, it was supposed to be /usr/lib/vmware.

What I get when I try to run vmware is this:

cat: /usr/lib/vmware/modules/modules.xml: Permission denied

/usr/bin/vmware: line 105: /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware: Permission denied

The permissions for /usr/bin/vmware is -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3282 Jan 30 12:06 /usr/bin/vmware

But all the permissions for /usr/lib/vmware were the ones that were all "drwxr-x---"

` ls -l /usr/lib/vmware

total 76

drwxr-x--- 2 root root 4096 Jan 30 13:19 bin

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 615 Jan 30 12:06 config

drwxr-x--- 2 root root 4096 Jan 30 13:19 configurator

drwxr-x--- 5 root root 4096 Jan 30 13:19 hostd

drwxr-x--- 2 root root 4096 Jan 30 13:19 icu

drwxr-x--- 3 root root 4096 Jan 30 13:19 include

drwxr-x--- 2 root root 4096 Jan 30 13:19 isoimages

drwxr-xr-x 110 root root 4096 Jan 30 13:19 lib

drwxr-x--- 4 root root 4096 Jan 30 13:19 libconf

drwxr-x--- 3 root root 4096 Jan 30 13:19 licenses

drwxr-x--- 2 root root 4096 Jan 30 13:19 modules

drwxr-x--- 2 root root 4096 Jan 30 13:19 resources

drwxr-x--- 2 root root 4096 Jan 30 13:19 roms

drwxr-x--- 2 root root 4096 Jan 30 13:19 scripts

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 30 13:19 setup

drwxr-x--- 5 root root 4096 Jan 30 13:19 share

drwxr-x--- 2 root root 4096 Jan 30 13:19 tools-upgraders

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1199 Jan 30 12:06 vixwrapper-product-config.txt

drwxr-x--- 2 root root 4096 Jan 30 13:19 vnckeymap `

I have removed everything vmware from my system multiple times and tries reinstalling but each time I get this same result.

Now I went ahead and tried a chmod -R o+rx /usr/lib/vmware, but then I am constantly presented with the user setup each time vmware starts(but at least it starts and works). Something I am guessing is not getting set correctly, i just dont know what. Any help would be appreciated.