Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
33 lines (27 loc) · 2.09 KB

README.md

File metadata and controls

33 lines (27 loc) · 2.09 KB
Raw

nix-vmplayer

This project contains a set of nix, bash and python scripts which create NIX derivation for VMware Player. It allows to run vmplayer GUI and VMs.

Note: In general these scripts allow to build and run VMware Workstation too, but since I have no licence I could only build it.

The project is not complete, this is just a proof of concept which allows to execute virtual machines in vmplayer. It has many limitations and problems:

  • There is no integration with nixos
  • The application needs to be executed with root privileges
  • It is required to manually load modules before starting VM
  • Kernel version needs to be manually set before building vmplayer
  • Only vmplayer is built, other tools are not functional
  • Only limited testing was conducted, not all virtualized drivers may be functional

VMware Player versions supported: 12, 14, 15, 16

Note: Take into account that older versions (for example, 12) may not run correctly on modern CPUs.

How to build and run:

  • Set correct kernel version to build compatible kernel modules in "flake.nix"
    • To make sure that you are using exactly same kernel version as your host, you may copy "/etc/nixos/flake.lock" to project dir
  • Configure correct vmplayer link (in default.nix) or use local bundle
    • To simplify debugging I am running local nginx server which allows nix to download vmplayer bundles from localhost
    • You need to download bundle manually and then put to a specific dir (make it public "0666"), by default it is "/opt/sandbox/public"
    • You may change default dir in "local-image.nix", see "defaultDataDir"
    • To run nginx execute "nix run ./#run-nginx" in a parallel terminal. You may stop it once vmplayer is built
  • Run "nix build ./#vmware-player-16.fhs"
  • Then enter fhs: "sudo result/bin/vmware-player-fhs-16.2.3"
    • vmplayer requires root privileges to run, so we need to enter as root
  • Run "copy_pref", it will create "~/.vmware" directory and copy default config there
    • Since you are entered fhs as root it will create config dir in "/root"
  • Run "ins_mods" to insert vmware kernel modules
  • Run "vmplayer"