AMM

In trouble installing VMs ? Here are some help to setup them.

TLDR: if you are on Fedora, the easiest option is to give up running VMWare on Fedora and install it on Windows. If you want to have Windows and Linux, you can have a dualboot.

If you really want to install it on Fedora, read the research below to save some time. This is from early 2025 so this might have changed since then.

This guide is really in draft form, and really benefit from contribution to improve it. To contribute some tips, tools or installation steps, please send me an email at samuel.roland aat master.hes-so.ch.

Don't install VMWare on Fedora !

From Broadcom docs Supported host operating systems for Workstation Pro 16.x, 17.x [...], VMWare Workstation 17.6.x is Supported until Fedora 40 with Kernel version 6.10.10-200... We tried to install it, a Windows 10 VM is "working" but the networks services fail to start so there is no internet connection ! Fedora docs also says you will have issues and you need specific community maintained patches.

Soooo, you probably want another option such as Virtualbox or virt-manager

See details on the research

Tested environnement

  • Fedora 41 on 2025-02-25: Linux sxp 6.12.15-200.fc41.x86_64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue Feb 18 15:24:05 UTC 2025 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Encountered errors

  • Cannot connect the virtual device sata0:1 because no corresponding device is available on the host. Related stackoverflow post
> sudo systemctl status vmware-networks
Unit vmware-networks.service could not be found.

> sudo systemctl status vmware
 vmware.service - VMware host virtualization and network services for Workstation
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/vmware.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/service.d
             └─-timeout-abort.conf, 50-keep-warm.conf
     Active: failed (Result: timeout) since Tue 2025-02-25 17:35:41 CET; 3min 40s ago
 Invocation: b023cf55eeb8476897bca42f3fb3fbec
    Process: 26771 ExecStart=/usr/lib/vmware/scripts/init/vmware start (code=killed, signal=TERM)
   Mem peak: 4.1M
        CPU: 82ms

Feb 25 17:34:56 hp systemd[1]: Starting vmware.service - VMware host virtualization and network services for Workstation...
Feb 25 17:34:56 hp vmware[26771]: Starting VMware services:
Feb 25 17:34:56 hp vmware[26771]:    Virtual machine monitor - done
Feb 25 17:34:56 hp vmware[26771]:    Virtual machine communication interface - done
Feb 25 17:34:56 hp vmware[26771]:    VM communication interface socket family - done
Feb 25 17:35:41 hp systemd[1]: vmware.service: start operation timed out. Terminating.
Feb 25 17:35:41 hp vmware[26771]:    Virtual ethernet
Feb 25 17:35:41 hp systemd[1]: vmware.service: Failed with result 'timeout'.
Feb 25 17:35:41 hp systemd[1]: Failed to start vmware.service - VMware host virtualization and network services for Workstation.

> sudo vmware-networks --start
Started Bridge networking on vmnet0
Failed to enable hostonly virtual adapter on vmnet1
Failed to start DHCP service on vmnet1
Failed to start NAT service on vmnet8
Failed to enable hostonly virtual adapter on vmnet8
Failed to start DHCP service on vmnet8
Failed to start some/all services

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

[...]

  LD [M]  /tmp/modconfig-UppRlB/vmnet-only/vmnet.o
/tmp/modconfig-UppRlB/vmnet-only/vmnet.o: warning: objtool: VNetCsumAndCopyToUser+0x3f: call to csum_partial_copy_nocheck() with UACCESS enabled
/tmp/modconfig-UppRlB/vmnet-only/vmnet.o: warning: objtool: init_module(): not an indirect call target
/tmp/modconfig-UppRlB/vmnet-only/vmnet.o: warning: objtool: cleanup_module(): not an indirect call target
  MODPOST /tmp/modconfig-UppRlB/vmnet-only/Module.symvers
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-UppRlB/vmnet-only/vmnet.mod.o
  CC [M]  /tmp/modconfig-UppRlB/vmnet-only/.module-common.o
  LD [M]  /tmp/modconfig-UppRlB/vmnet-only/vmnet.ko
  BTF [M] /tmp/modconfig-UppRlB/vmnet-only/vmnet.ko
Skipping BTF generation for /tmp/modconfig-UppRlB/vmnet-only/vmnet.ko due to unavailability of vmlinux
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/kernels/6.12.15-200.fc41.x86_64'
/usr/bin/make -C $PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. \
  MODULEBUILDDIR= postbuild
make[1]: Entering directory '/tmp/modconfig-UppRlB/vmnet-only'
make[1]: 'postbuild' is up to date.
make[1]: Leaving directory '/tmp/modconfig-UppRlB/vmnet-only'
cp -f vmnet.ko ./../vmnet.o
make: Leaving directory '/tmp/modconfig-UppRlB/vmnet-only'
Job for vmware.service failed because a timeout was exceeded.
See "systemctl status vmware.service" and "journalctl -xeu vmware.service" for details.
Unable to start services
Ressources if you really need to use it

Useful ressources

Relevent commands

sudo systemctl start vmware-networks.service

If the service is not found but maybe this is just the following command --start behind (Copilot think so)

sudo /usr/bin/vmware-networks --stop
sudo /usr/bin/vmware-networks --start

How to uninstall ?

  1. Get the installation name
sudo vmware-installer -l

And use it with -u flag

sudo vmware-installer -u vmware-workstation # or the name

Windows VM in Virtualbox

If the isolation from Docker is enough, you can create a VM with Dockur (a VM inside Docker). Checkout project https://github.com/dockur/windows. This has the big advantage of automatic installation of Windows with some default credentials. The following steps to bypass the microsoft login and create the account, are not necessary with Dockur. Note: the disadvantage is the lack of some configurations options that Virtualbox has.

Otherwise in Virtualbox, to create a clean VM on Windows 10

  1. Grab the official ISO here: https://www.microsoft.com/fr-fr/software-download/windows10ISO
  2. Create a new VM with VirtualBox (See Windows 10 system requirements)
  3. When you want to skip the login for the microsoft account, press Shift+F10 to open a Command prompt and type this command. It will reboot and continue the installation with the option to create a local account. 
    OOBE\BYPASSNRO
    If it doesn't work, try this longer command. I'm sorry in advance you have to type that by hand. I'm also sorry if you have a qwerty keyboard... 
    reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
shutdown /r /t 0
    If it still doesn't work, shutdown the VM, remove the connected ISO file, cut your internet connection and then it will finally show a What's your name form instead of Login with Microsoft.
  4. Setup the local account, use an empty password if you know you are gonna forget it
  5. Install the Virtualbox Guest Additions
    1. In Virtualbox VM window you will find Devices > Insert Guest Additions CD image...
    2. Open the File explorer and open the plugged in CDROM
    3. Double click on VBoxWindowsAdditions.exe
  6. Reboot the VM
  7. You should now be able (when it is enabled) to have full screen in the Host window, have a shared clipboard, and drag and drop files and use shared folders.

REMnux VM

Here a few steps that might help

  1. Download the REMnux ova file from https://docs.remnux.org/install-distro/get-virtual-appliance
  2. Import the VM in Virtualbox
  3. Install the Virtualbox Guest Additions
    1. In Virtualbox VM window you will find Devices > Insert Guest Additions CD image...
    2. Open the File explorer and open the plugged in CDROM
    3. Double click on VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
  4. Shutdown the VM
  5. In VM settings, create a shared folder mapping your specific folder like /home/user/heig/amm/shared on your host to /home/remnux/shared in the VM.
  6. Start the VM
  7. In the VM, to access the /home/remnux/shared you must run this 
    sudo adduser $USER vboxsf
  8. Test to create a random text file in this folder locally and see if you see and you can modify it in the VM
  9. You should now be able (when it is enabled) to have full screen in the Host window, have a shared clipboard, and drag and drop files and use shared folders.

Remaining issue

  • no internet access, ok ?