It doesn’t look good right now for VMware under Linux if we consider all the new things in the new 2.6.23-kernel that has just been released. The free virtualization methods KVM and Xen has gotten tons of new functions but the support for VMware’s modules is totally broken. In the blog servervirtualization, Schley Kutz, explains the two problems.
The first problem is caused because of the fact that a small area of the kernel’s interface has been changed, this causes VMware’s network module in the wm not to compile as it should. The solution is quite simple, you just have to modify the wm’s driver.c and recompile, this will fix the problem.
The other problem is a much serious one. VMware’s module wmmon doesn’t compile as it should either, the solution for this is much more complex. The problem is caused because the developers of the kernel have put a restriction on the function “set_dumpable” that handles memory management, these function can only be used by programs who are under the GPL license.
The problem can be solved in two ways: Either by going into the kernel code and remove the restrictions, which is perfectly fine and not forbidden, then recompile the kernel or you can go into the code of wmmon and put the license to GPL, this means you are putting the wrong license on the software without any consent.
More details on this can be found here: Win for Xen and KVM and a loss for VMware
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