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Installing VMWare Player / Workstation on Kali Linux

This guide is for installing VMware Player or Workstation on Kali Linux. Although this is a simple task, I faced an issue with the kernel headers when launching VMware Player, hence this blog post.

 I did these steps with VMware Player but same steps can be followed for Workstation.

 1. First of all, download the VMware Player from https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/free#desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_player/5_0

 2. Make the downloaded file executable by navigating to the directory where you downloaded the bundle and execute:
chmod +x VMware-Player-5.0.1-894247.x86_64.bundle

 3. Open Terminal and install the packages needed by VMware Player
apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`
This will install the kernel headers of your current Linux kernel version.

4.After packages are installed, start the VMware Player installer
./VMware-Player-5.0.1-894247.x86_64.bundle
This is pretty much it.

5.Launch the VMware Player by navigating to it from the main menu.

At this stage, I got an error saying that "Kernel headers for kernel version 3.7-trunk-amd64 could not be found."
That was strange, because I had the kernel headers for this version already installed.

After a little looking around, I found the solution.
To solve this issue, do the following steps:
cd /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build/include/linux 
sudo ln -s ../generated/utsrelease.h
sudo ln -s ../generated/autoconf.h
sudo ln -s ../generated/uapi/linux/version.h

Hopefully someone will find this solution useful.
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Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 5, 2013 at 3:15 PM

    Very useful! I solve my issue :)
    Thanx for sharing!
    Andrea

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousDecember 5, 2013 at 2:17 PM

    Great! This really works! Thanks so much

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousDecember 21, 2013 at 2:20 AM

    Hey guys if you end up getting an an error with not finding the header you are going to need to add this to your repository. I got this from here:
    https://forums.kali.org/showthread.php?5804-Kernel-headers-problem

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousDecember 21, 2013 at 3:50 PM

    Thanks for the post it was a great help.

    I received an error in processing step 3 (the apt-get command) but found this substitute worked well and allowed the install to complete without error and the program ran successfully on first try.

    apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lewis EncarnacionJanuary 11, 2014 at 10:46 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lewis EncarnacionJanuary 24, 2014 at 6:14 AM

    I've written a more in depth tutorial that includes a video. It can be found here: How to install Kali Linux onto VMware Player

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousMay 6, 2014 at 8:50 PM

    great mate thank you very much

    ReplyDelete
  8. EazyTutorDecember 14, 2014 at 12:12 PM

    Thank you so much dude...

    ReplyDelete
  9. UnknownMarch 27, 2015 at 10:38 AM

    Nice tutorial..

    you can visit us :
    http://suranka.com/training-courses/cloud-computing-training/vmware-training-in-chennai/

    ReplyDelete
  10. OlliJune 22, 2015 at 3:06 PM

    Hi,

    I ´ve used Kali 1.1.0a and workstation 10 and all I´ve to do was:
    chmod +x VMware-....
    apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`
    apt-get install open-vm-tools open-vm-tools-dev open-vm-dkms open-vm-toolbox
    and then start the bundle from the Desktop.
    works like a charme...

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousAugust 7, 2015 at 10:19 AM

    its not working plz help me
    root@kali:/lib/modules/3.18.0-kali3-amd64# cd /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build/include/linux
    bash: cd: /lib/modules/3.18.0-kali3-amd64/build/include/linux: No such file or directory

    ReplyDelete
  12. fikret tursakSeptember 11, 2015 at 1:38 AM

    Step by step tutorial shows you how to install the latest VMware Workstation 11 on Kali Linux 2 Sana.

    http://www.sysadminshowto.com/how-to-install-vmware-workstation-11-on-kali-linux-2-sana/

    ReplyDelete
  13. MOJ BlogSeptember 12, 2015 at 3:02 PM

    THANK YOU MAN :D

    ReplyDelete
  14. fikret tursakOctober 9, 2015 at 2:11 PM

    Dear community! If you want to know how to install ‪‎Kali Linux‬ 2 in ‪‎VMware Workstation‬, you can watch this video tutorial!
    https://youtu.be/BeZNpHVdHwE

    ReplyDelete
  15. AnonymousDecember 30, 2015 at 9:41 PM

    I think there is a bit of confusion regarding the subject matter. This is about installing VMware on Kali Linux, NOT installing Kali Linux on VMware (there are TONS of resources out there on that subject matter). The end result of getting VMware on your Kali Linux box would be to allow for another OS to exist simultaneously with Kali, or to build a hacking lab on one machine; of course this is an assumption based on limited experience in the subject matter. Nonetheless, thank you for this information, there is a need for it in the community!

    ReplyDelete
  16. UnknownSeptember 7, 2016 at 12:40 PM

    hi i have a different problem every thing is installed but the vm tool and vmawre wokstation are both not opening

    ReplyDelete

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