Vmware on Arch: Could not open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory

I ran into this problem too, and the solutions I found online ended up having their own problems that needed to be solve, which I'll document here.

To solve the error Could not open /dev/vmmon/: you need to run:

sudo vmware-mod-config --console --install-all 

If this returns an error about Glib not having support, you need to clone https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules.git and make it.

$ git clone https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules.git $ cd vmware-host-modules $ git checkout -b 16.2.1 origin/workstation-16.2.1 $ sudo make 

If this returns an error containing fatal error: generated/autoconf.h: No such file or directory, you need to install linux-headers and make sure it matches your linux kernel version. Probably also make sure your kernel is up to date, although I'm not sure if that's necessary.

$ sudo pacman -S linux $ sudo reboot $ sudo pacman -S linux-headers 

Now you should be able to make install in that cloned repo, which should install the required modules for you to be able to run the vmware-mod-config --console --install-all command, which should solve the issue.

So working backwards, the steps are:

1. Update your linux kernel and install the right linux-headers for it.
2. Clone this git repo, cd into it, git checkout -b 16.2.1 origin/workstation-16.2.1, and run sudo make install
3. Run sudo vmware-mod-config --console --install-all

More about can be found at my post here: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=2020372#p2020372

In my case, the cause of this problem was the vmmon wasn't loaded. So I just

sudo modprobe -v vmmon 

and it worked.

I also encountered same problem. Most of the stackoverflow pages suggest to reinstall the vmware but its not a fair solution and even its not a solution. Its just like if you have pain in teeth remove that teeth.

Another thing is that some post and even vmware official posts said to disable secure boot.

But after trying both nothing changed so i goto to cd /dev and found that the file vmmmon exists.

And when i tries to load the file it loaded successfully.

So from here i concluded that to solve this issue do the following:

1. Either disable the secure boot or sign the vmmon.
2. CD to /dev/
3. Load vmmon using modprobe

and as always Happy coding....

The command: sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all works, but every time that I reboot the system the error come out again.