Best way to install vmware workstation

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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

  1. Update your system and Install the necessary build tools

    sudo pacman -Syu git base-devel --needed

  2. 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

  3. Then install the headers for your kernel(s)

    sudo pacman -Syu linux511-headers

  4. 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.

  5. Familiarize yourself with the content - it is all text files and you should read them and verify what they are doing.

    ls ~/vmware-workstation

  6. When you are satisfied - cd into the folder and run makepkg to install dependencies, build and install the package.

    cd ~/vmware-workstation
makepkg -is

  7. Because the resulting build is using dkms - you won’t have to rebuild the kernel modules on updates - dkms will take care of this.

  8. Enjoy - while it lasts - some members has run VMware for years with only minor issues - you may be lucky one too :partying_face:

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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