I have kernel 2.6.22-r1 with Kernel paravirtualization builtin in kernel, so I have also, a /dev/kvm node. With this, all vmware products can start, but when I 'power on' a virtual machine, in black screen of the start of powering on of this virtual machine, system gets totally frozen and I need to hard restart it, I have tested it with vmware-server (latest), vmware-player (latest) and vmware-workstation(latest). The temporary workarround is to disable this, and this way (at least in vmware-server) I can run virtual machines without issue. If more info needed, please tell me how to obtain it from a completelly frozen system. Reproducible: Always
You'll need to complain to VMWare, not to Gentoo.
This *may* be related to http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/5/2/151. I'd also recommend checking on the VMTN forums for a possible solution. I doubt there's much we can do codewise, other than add a note at the bottom of the ebuild, but it will be probably be lost amongst all the others and people are unlikely to remember that several months down the line when they come to change their kernel configuration. I'm going to mark this as CANTFIX, but do please feel free to reopen it if you feel there's something we can do about the problem...
I have successfully enjoyed KVM for para-virtualized Linux guests :)) Trying to emerge (Gentoo on amd64) VMware Workstation in addition, I ran into ==> "You cannot install on a system with KVM enabled." Digging, I found --> http://communities.vmware.com/thread/188359 : ksc: "VMware switches in and out of root mode each time so as to not conflict with other virtualization software. KVM likes to hang onto the virtualization root mode aggressively for a minor performance gain. (*) For comparison, Parallels hangs on to the root mode but detects other virtualization software and lets go when it detects a conflict. Until KVM becomes more compatible with other software, our installer will detect KVM and actively try to prevent you from getting into this situtation." CharlieM: "IIRC, there was an issue where unloading the KVM module was not enough, as it forgot to 'let go' of root mode when it was unloaded. I don't think that bug lasted long, but it's something to watch for; just be sure your distro is up to date."
ADDENDUM to comment #3 : So I take it that --> "You can't have them both at once, at the same time" ERGO: what I'm going to try is: o) delete all static kvm stuff in the kernel .config / rebuild / reboot o) un-merge app-emulation/kvm-84 "without modules" o) emerge vmware-workstation o) emerge app-emulation/kvm-84 "with modules" o) don't auto-load kvm and kvm-[intel|amd] o) !! EITHER start vmware o) !! OR load / start KVM, o) !! thus manually avoiding those threatening kernel lockups.
(In reply to comment #4) > ADDENDUM to comment #3 : > o) !! OR load / start KVM, sorry, I forgot to mention that afterwards, you have to o) 'rmmod kvm-[amd|intel] ; rmmod kvm'
