Installing VMWare tools with a new kernel

Odds are if you're using VMWare with a Linux VM and you update the kernel you'll need to reinstall VMWare tools and when you do you'll see messages like the following:


Trying to find a suitable vmmon module for your running kernel.

None of the pre-built vmmon modules for VMware Workstation is suitable for your
running kernel. Do you want this program to try to build the vmmon module for
your system (you need to have a C compiler installed on your system)? [yes] y

Using compiler "/usr/bin/gcc". Use environment variable CC to override.

What is the location of the directory of C header files that match your running
kernel? [/usr/src/linux/include] /usr/include/linux/

The header files in /usr/include are generally for C libraries, not for the
running kernel. If you do not have kernel header files in your /usr/src
directory, you probably do not have the kernel-source package installed. Are yousure that /usr/include contains the header files associated with your running
kernel? [no]

What is the location of the directory of C header files that match your running
kernel? [/usr/src/linux/include] /usr/include/



The fix for this is posted by nickx on the ubuntu forums:

You need to install the headers for the release of the kernel you have installed. To find this out you can type

>> uname -r

to get the header you can apt-get install them,

>> sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`

or select the appropriate package in synaptic.

Note: you'll also need gcc etc which if you don't have already you can get with

>> sudo apt-get install build-essential

After installation the vmware installer should just pick up the right place and not require anything but the defaults.

If it's still being stupid, the path to include can be found in /lib/modules/{module release number}/build/include