How do I install VMware Player 4.0.3 (and patch the installer to work on my 12.04 system)?

I ran into the same problem, and I was able to make the same patch work by editing a version number in the script which applies it.

WARNING: I don't actually know what I'm talking about when it comes to VMware patching, I just made an educated guess that seems to work.

Whether you want to try this yourself depends on how risk-averse you are. But hey, your VMware Player install is already broken, right? I figured worst-case scenario I could uninstall and reinstall version 4.0.2.

I based this on the instructions I found here: vmware player compile issue. To boil it down to the simplest steps:

1. Download this tarball: http://weltall.heliohost.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/vmware802fixlinux320.tar.gz
2. Extract the tarball in your home directory
3. Edit the file patch-modules_3.2.0.sh. Look for the line plreqver=4.0.2 and change it to plreqver=4.0.3
4. Save the file, then run it. sudo ./patch-modules_3.2.0.sh

If you have run the same patch on version 4.0.2 before, you may get this error: "/usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/.patched found. You have already patched your sources. Exiting". If you see that, just delete the /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/.patched file and try again.

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Please remember to have patch packet installed: apt-get install patch. My default installation of latest Kubuntu didn't have it, so I got error:

./patch-modules_3.2.0.sh: line 42: patch: command not found

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Sometimes, the version check does not properly. In this case, you could remove it by deleting the 4 lines following "unset product", all of them begin with "[". This again may increse the risk of breaking something.

Works for different Versions, i tested it with version 4.0.4.744019:

Run vmware-installer -l in a console to get version number.

Edit the file patch-modules_3.2.0.sh:

1. Look for the line plreqver=4.0.2 and change it to plreqver=[copy and paste version number, just the three digit x.x.x ]

2. Remove the following lines:

   unset product [ -z "$vmver" ] && error "VMWare is not installed (properly) on this PC" [ "$vmver" == "workstation$vmreqver" ] && product="VMWare WorkStation" [ "$vmver" == "player$plreqver" ] && product="VMWare Player" [ -z "$product" ] && error "Sorry, this script is only for VMWare WorkStation $vmreqver or VMWare Player $plreqver"

   [ "id -u" != "0" ] && error "You must be root to run this script" [ -f "$ptoken" ] && error "$ptoken found. You have already patched your sources" [ ! -d "$basedir" ] && error "Source '$basedir' directory not found, reinstall $product" [ ! -f "$fpatch" ] && error "'$fpatch' not found. Please, copy it to the current '$curdir' directory"

Now run the patch via sudo sh patch-modules_3.2.0.sh