VMware

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VMware, Inc. sells a variety of closed-source hypervisors. "VMware" can refer to both the company or its products.

Important
VMware works best on a systemd system and although it can be forced to work on an OpenRC system, it is suboptimal and not recommended.

Installation

When installing VMware Workstation on Gentoo you need to download the bundle from VMware's website.

root #bash VMware-Workstation-Full-16.1.2-17966106.x86_64.bundle
Note
Both VMware-Workstation-Full-25H2-24995812.x86_64.bundle and VMware-Workstation-Full-17.5.2-23775571.x86_64.bundle have been tested and can be easily installed following the steps above.

Required kernel options

To install and run VMware Workstation on Gentoo you need to enable next kernel options:

KERNEL Kernel configuration for VMware Workstation/Player hosts
Processor type and features --->
 [*] IOPERM and IOPL Emulation Search for <code>CONFIG_X86_IOPL_IOPERM</code> to find this item.
[*] Enable loadable module support ---> Search for <code>CONFIG_MODULES</code> to find this item.
File systems --->
 <*/M> FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) support Search for <code>CONFIG_FUSE_FS</code> to find this item.
Device Drivers --->
 Misc devices --->
 <*/M> VMware VMCI Driver Search for <code>CONFIG_VMWARE_VMCI</code> to find this item.

If you require VMware VMCI Sockets for host-guest/guest-guest communication, you need to also enable CONFIG_VMWARE_VMCI_VSOCKETS. This is an optional feature and isn't required to run VMware guests.

KERNEL Optional configuration for VMware Workstation/Player hosts
[*] Networking support --->
 Networking options --->
 <*/M> Virtual Socket protocol Search for <code>CONFIG_VSOCKETS</code> to find this item.
 <*/M> VMware VMCI transport for Virtual Sockets Search for <code>CONFIG_VMWARE_VMCI_VSOCKETS</code> to find this item.

Kernel modules

VMware Workstation 16.0 is known to support up to linux 5.8, and 16.1 works on 5.10 from my testing. If you use an older version of Workstation it will require an older kernel, 15.5 supports up to 5.4, 14.1.7 suppots up to 4.18, and 12.5.9 supports up to 4.12. After a kernel upgrade you will have to rebuild the VMware modules. You can do this by running the following command.

root #vmware-modconfig --console --install-all


For kernels greater than 6.9 the following workaround enables VMWare Workstation 17.5:

root #git clone -b tmp/workstation-17.5.2-k6.9.1 https://github.com/nan0desu/vmware-host-modules.git
root #cd vmware-host-modules/
root #make
root #make install

To get modules working for VMware Workstation 17.6.3 you need to go deeper in the git and get some unmerged code (as of this writing). I tested this on a 6.12.25 kernel.

user $cd vmware-host/modules/
user $git fetch origin pull/303/head:pr-303
user $git checkout pr-303
user $make
root #make install

systemd services

If you are using systemd you might want to create some systemd service files to start VMware services on startup using systemd.

FILE /etc/systemd/system/vmware.service
[Unit]
Description=VMware daemon
Requires=vmware-usbarbitrator.service
Before=vmware-usbarbitrator.service
After=network.target
[Service]
ExecStart=/etc/init.d/vmware start
ExecStop=/etc/init.d/vmware stop
PIDFile=/var/lock/subsys/vmware
RemainAfterExit=yes
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
FILE /etc/systemd/system/vmware-usbarbitrator.service
[Unit]
Description=VMware USB Arbitrator
Requires=vmware.service
After=vmware.service
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/vmware-usbarbitrator
ExecStop=/usr/bin/vmware-usbarbitrator --kill
RemainAfterExit=yes
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

If you want to enable networking, add this service:

FILE /etc/systemd/system/vmware-networks-server.service
[Unit]
Description=VMware Networks
Wants=vmware-networks-configuration.service
After=vmware-networks-configuration.service
[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStartPre=-/sbin/modprobe vmnet
ExecStart=/usr/bin/vmware-networks --start
ExecStop=/usr/bin/vmware-networks --stop
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

If you want to connect to your VMware Workstation from another server:

FILE /etc/systemd/system/vmware-workstation-server.service
[Unit]
Description=VMware Workstation Server
Requires=vmware.service
After=vmware.service
[Service]
ExecStart=/etc/init.d/vmware-workstation-server start
ExecStop=/etc/init.d/vmware-workstation-server stop
PIDFile=/var/lock/subsys/vmware-workstation-server
RemainAfterExit=yes
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Uninstallation

If you use systemd and created systemd service files, you should delete them first:

root #systemctl disable --now vmware.service vmware-networks-server.service vmware-workstation-server.service
root #rm /etc/systemd/system/vmware.service /etc/systemd/system/vmware.service /etc/systemd/system/vmware-networks-server.service /etc/systemd/system/vmware-workstation-server.service

VMware Workstation has an uninstaller, and can be uninstalled.

root #vmware-installer -u vmware-workstation

Gentoo guests

Running Gentoo Linux as a guest inside of VMware Workstation requires enabling some kernel modules and installing app-emulation/open-vm-tools .

Kernel Configuration

When working with VMware ESXi, despite the Ethernet emulator stating it would be an Intel e1000e, the guest OS was presented with an AMD Ethernet adapter. Both are included for completeness as well as the e1000.

KERNEL 
Device Drivers --->
 [*] Fusion MPT device support ---> 
 <*> Fusion MPT ScsiHost drivers for SPI 
 Misc devices --->
 <*> VMware Balloon Driver
 <*> VMware VMCI Driver
 SCSI device support --->
 [*] SCSI low-level drivers --->
 <*> VMware PVSCSI driver support
 [*] Network device support --->
 [*] Ethernet driver support --->
 [*] AMD devices
 <*> AMD 8111 (new PCI LANCE) support
 <*> AMD PCnet32 PCI support
 [*] Intel devices
 <*> Intel(R) PRO/1000 Gigabit Ethernet support
 <*> Intel(R) PRO/1000 PCI-Express Gigabit Ethernet support 
 <*> VMware VMXNET3 ethernet driver
 Input device support --->
 [*] Keyboards --->
 <*> AT keyboard
 [*] Mice --->
 [*] PS/2 mouse
 [*] Virtual mouse (vmmouse)
 Graphics support --->
 <*> DRM driver for VMware Virtual GPU
 [*] Enable mksGuestStats instrumentation of vmwgfx by default
 Frame buffer Devices --->
 <*> Support for frame buffer devices --->
 File systems --->
 <*> FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) support
Note
The VMware Balloon Driver option is visible only once the VMware VMCI Driver option is enabled, and the Enable framebuffer console under vmwgfx by default option is visible only once the Support for frame buffer devices option is enabled.

The keywords for the above options are:

  • CONFIG_FUSION
  • CONFIG_FUSION_SPI
  • CONFIG_NET_VENDOR_AMD
  • CONFIG_AMD8111_ETH
  • CONFIG_PCNET32
  • CONFIG_NET_VENDOR_INTEL
  • CONFIG_E1000
  • CONFIG_E1000E
  • CONFIG_KEYBOARD_ATKBD
  • CONFIG_VMWARE_BALLOON
  • CONFIG_VMWARE_VMCI
  • CONFIG_VMWARE_PVSCSI
  • CONFIG_VMXNET3
  • CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_VMMOUSE
  • CONFIG_DRM_VMWGFX
  • CONFIG_DRM_VMWGFX_MKSSTATS
  • CONFIG_FB
  • CONFIG_FUSE_FS

If you require VMware VMCI Sockets for host-guest/guest-guest communication, you need to also enable CONFIG_VMWARE_VMCI_VSOCKETS. This is an optional feature and isn't required to run VMware guests.

KERNEL 
[*] Networking support --->
 Networking options --->
 <*> Virtual Socket protocol
 <*> VMware VMCI transport for Virtual Sockets

Emerge

Install app-emulation/open-vm-tools :

root #emerge --ask app-emulation/open-vm-tools

vmware-tools service

Start the service:

root #rc-service vmware-tools start

And, add the vmware-tools service to the default run level.

root #rc-update add vmware-tools

Troubleshooting

VMware's GUI window closes when the cursor is moved out of the window

This is due to a x11-libs/libX11 bug when running VMware under a Wayland session. As of December 6th, 2025, the patch that solves this has yet to be merged, but a temporary fix can be applied via user patches. The specific patch to be added to /etc/portage/patches/x11-libs/libX11-1.8.12 is from this merge request: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/lib/libx11/-/merge_requests/293.

See also

  • Virtualization — the concept and technique that permits running software in an environment separate from a computer operating system.