Sorted - VMware Workstation 7.1.2 build-301548 failing to fully configure on Ubuntu Linux 10.10 Maverick Meerkat

Over the past few days, I'd noticed that, whenever I started VMware Workstation, I was prompted to recompile it's underlying modules to fit with my kernel - 2.6.35-23-generic-pae #36-Ubuntu SMP

Normally, this occurs once after an update, and then it "sticks" until the next kernel upgrade.

However, this was repeating, which was a bit annoying.

By running the vmware command within a terminal window, rather than via the Gnome launcher, I also got to see more errors: -

Starting VMware services:
   VMware USB Arbitrator                                               done
   Virtual machine monitor                                             done
   Virtual machine communication interface                             done
   VM communication interface socket family                            failed
   Blocking file system                                                done
   Virtual ethernet                                                    done
   Shared Memory Available                                             done

and: -

make: *** [vsock.ko] Error 2

Well, I'm happy to report that, after a spot of Googling, I found the solution on this rather useful little website: -

Debian/Ubuntu Tips & Tricks

and, more specifically, this article: -

How-To: WMware Workstation 7.1 on Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat 10.10

which pointed out the the vmci module is the guilty party.

In essence, I needed to download a patch and then extract and execute it: -

tar -xzvf vmware-7.1-ubuntu10.10-patch.tar.gz
cd vmware-7.1-ubuntu10.10-patch
sudo ./apply_patch.sh

Having done this, running the vmware command ran through the recompilation as normal, resulting in this: -

Starting VMware services:
   VMware USB Arbitrator                                               done
   Virtual machine monitor                                             done
   Virtual machine communication interface                             done
   VM communication interface socket family                            done
   Blocking file system                                                done
   Virtual ethernet                                                    done
   Shared Memory Available                                             done

Excellent job :-)