I’d like to install the official Vmware workstation but don’t feel comfortable getting the one from the AUR.
i see Vmware supports many distributions but not Arch.
is it even a possibility and are there instructions on how to do it?
Does it have to be VMware? Virtualbox is in the Manjaro repo.
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so the official one is called “VMware bundle” and then follow the instructions in the link you provided?
@NGr i already have it installed but i find that Vmware perform better.
Any reason to distrust AUR or this package?
to my understanding,these packages are made by an individual i would have to blindly trust,since i don’t have the knowledge to inspect their content.
and these are the warnings on the Arch and Manjaro wikis:
Warning: AUR packages are user produced content. These PKGBUILDs are completely unofficial and have not been thoroughly vetted. Any use of the provided files is at your own risk.
AUR, as a community maintained repository, present potential risks and problems.
Possible risks using AUR packages:
Multiple versions of the same packages.
Out of date packages.
Broken or only partially working packages.
Improperly configured packages which download unnecessary dependencies, or do not download necessary dependencies, or both.
Malicious packages (although extremely rare).
i could read the comments under the package and see if it’s fine,but as i said,i would not feel comfortable using it,especially an important and intricate software like Vmware workstation(unlike the optimus-manager-qt I’ve been using)
I installed vmware from the vmware website but I had issues with missing kernel modules if I remember correctly, so I installed the version from the aur and everything worked
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I’m sure i will not have an easy time trying to install it by following the wiki instructions and probably encounter quit a few obstacles 
Yes, you are right, in the sense that AUR is user generated content. So, as you say you don’t have the knowledge to check the packages by yourself, I think you are doing right 
I recommend you to try to learn how a PKGBUILD (AUR package’s main script) works. As, that way you can check by your self the packages AND you can see also how the package is build, if you want to do it by yourself anyway. AUR packages usually use official packages to build an Arch/Manjaro package (they are not pre-build packages)
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could someone take a look and see if these are the right install procedures?
Install
fuse2 2.9.9-4
gtkmm 1:2.24.5-4
linux-headers 5.10.18-1
ncurses 6.2-1
libcanberra 0.30+2+gc0620e4-3
pcsclite 1.9.0-1
chmod +x VMware-Workstation-Full-16.1.0-17198959.x86_64.bundle
sudo ./VMware-Workstation-Full-16.1.0-17198959.x86_64.bundle
For the System service scripts directory, use /etc/init.d (the default)
During the installation you will get an error about "No rc*.d style init script directories" being given. This can be safely ignored, since Arch uses systemd.
sudo systemctl enable vmware-networks.service
sudo systemctl start vmware-networks.service
sudo systemctl enable vmware-usbarbitrator.service
sudo systemctl start vmware-usbarbitrator.service
sudo systemctl status vmware-networks.service vmware-usbarbitrator.service
sudo modprobe -a vmw_vmci vmmon
cat <<EOF | sudo tee /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
EOF
cat <<EOF | sudo tee /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
EOF
cat <<EOF | sudo tee /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
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start vmware.service vmware-usbarbitrator.service vmware-networks-server.service
sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
Just an fyi, if you install a package without going through Manjaro Repos or AUR, you’re going to have to:
- Figure out all of the dependencies and make sure all of those dependencies matches the version numbers (if needed)
- Manually have to update your packages every time
Also, the AUR version downloads directly from the source
source+=(
"https://download3.vmware.com/software/fusion/file/VMware-Fusion-${_vmware_fusion_ver/_/-}.dmg"
"unlocker-${_unlocker_ver}.py::https://raw.githubusercontent.com/paolo-projects/unlocker/${_unlocker_ver}/unlocker.py"
"efi-unlocker-patch-${_efi_unlocker_ver}.txt"
)
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This comment has been copied to the #contributions:tutorials section
You cannot install vmware without using AUR and if you are not comfortable with AUR you shouldn’t use it.
If you do do it manually try you will most likely run into library incompatibilities and you will need to compile the kernel modules by hand and this you will have to do it on every subsequent kernel update.
You could be that bravehearted fearless Linux user who do not fear the depths of the kernel modules subtree and do not fear the patches you may need to apply to get it working with Manjaro - and in this case - just dive in …
There is a lot of AUR helpers and they all mimic what you should do manually - the Arch way is the correct way - it goes as follows
-
Update your system and Install the necessary build tools
sudo pacman -Syu git base-devel --needed -
Then check your kernel version(s)
mhwd-kernel -li Currently running: 5.11.3-1-MANJARO (linux511) The following kernels are installed in your system: * linux511 -
Then install the headers for your kernel(s)
sudo pacman -Syu linux511-headers -
Clone the PKGBUILKD script
➜ ~ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/vmware-workstation.git Cloning into 'vmware-workstation'... remote: Enumerating objects: 498, done. remote: Counting objects: 100% (498/498), done. remote: Compressing objects: 100% (239/239), done. remote: Total 498 (delta 307), reused 439 (delta 258), pack-reused 0 Receiving objects: 100% (498/498), 256.62 KiB | 3.21 MiB/s, done. Resolving deltas: 100% (307/307), done. -
Familiarize yourself with the content - it is all text files and you should read them and verify what they are doing.
ls ~/vmware-workstation -
When you are satisfied - cd into the folder and run makepkg to install dependencies, build and install the package.
cd ~/vmware-workstation makepkg -is -
Because the resulting build is using dkms - you won’t have to rebuild the kernel modules on updates - dkms will take care of this.
-
Enjoy - while it lasts - some members has run VMware for years with only minor issues - you may be lucky one too
One last thing - I have been using VMware professionally while using ESXi 6.0 and I have been using VMware workstation on Linux Hosts with Windows guests.
Due to my job and the professional aspect I have used licensed versions but I stopped at v12.5 - and I have not yet met any member on this forum who can clearly explain to me the benefits of VMware over VirtualBox.
- VMware is easy to use and supported (limited number of OS supported) - it is a commercial developed product.
- VirtualBox works everywhere is well supported (on x86_64 any OS) - it is completely opensource
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i thought i got it,but after reading the last two comments this looks much more complicated.
i don’t intend on updating the Vmware version and stay on kernel 5.10 as soon as it’s marked LTS so i guess that will save me some trouble.
wouldn’t it be easier to just uninstall and reinstall folowing the steps i gathered in case there’s a kernel update or some other issue?
i got tired of the freezes in VB and the slow and weird internet in Virt manager. so i decided to give Vmware a shot.
Thank you everyone for the much needed clarifications.
@linux-aarhus i went and installed it the way you suggested.
it seems to have installed well but i have yet to try any machines on it.
we’ll see if it lasts.
I have never had freezes in VBox - that I didn’t cause myself…
Just remember that Manjaro and other 64-bit systems with GUI requires at minimum 2 vcpu and 2GB memory and in my experience at least 64MB vram.
VMware usually assigns 2 vcpu default - vbox does not and not assigning the minimum virtual resources will often cause what you refer to as freeze - which in reality is stressed out resources.
VirtManger is an excellent tool - but do require more knowledge to configure - it is not as easy to use as VirtualBox.
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i give vms enough resources(3cores/4096 Ram/128VM) but that’s the way it is in my case at the moment;
we’ve discussed my issue in another thread:
so for my part VB currently isn’t reliable.
i’ve got another question;
is updating for vmware done automatically like other packages i have installed from AUR through Pamac,or is there a procedure i have to follow?
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here Best way to install vmware workstation - #12 by linux-aarhus
you told me to run sudo pacman -Syu linux511-headers without the dkms
should i do it now?
looking in pamac,i see i have dkms 2.8.4-1 installed;is it the same?
Your case was different - you was only missing the headers - as the build script could not find the correct headers because Manjaro has different header packages for different kernels.
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