VMWare Workstation has some problems with Linux. I am collecting solutions on this page.

Status of vmware workstation 9

Suprisingly, it simply works on Linux 3.x. Finally. Thanks VMware!

Random tips for Linux kernel 3+, e.g. Fedora 16 and vmware workstation 8

See this page and patch the network module.

Vmware-gksu has problems with gnome3 and/or Fedora 16 (this can be seen when you try to enter the license key).
Just edit /etc/vmware/config and specify 'sudo' as gksu.rootMethod.

A bit old set of tips for Linux kernel 2.x.x, e.g. Ubuntu 11.04

Kernel modules in version 6.x (and probably in 7.x)  have several problems with Linux kernels (e.g. 2.6.35 in Ubuntu):

• vmnet and vmci should be fixed following the instructions found here.
• vsock can be "cured" by applying the patch attached to this page (it is based on this article).
• the problem of "missing kernel headers" can be solved by running the following commands (ubuntu 10.10)

cd /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.35-22-generic/include/linux/
ln -fs ../generated/autoconf.h .
ln -fs ../generated/utsrelease.h .

If everything is fixed you can configure and install vmware modules:

sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

Other noticable problems while running VMs

• Under heavy (guest) load the mouse (and sometimes the keyboard) gets trapped between the host and the guest: it can not decide where it should direct your cliks. Add the following line to the end of your /etc/vmware/bootstrap file (based on this forum thread):

export VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=yes

• (to be continued)