Bug 147524 – VMWare-Server /dev/vmmon not created on load vmmon module

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED TEST-REQUEST

[Description VinnieNZ 2006-09-13 21:19:06 UTC]

/dev/vmmon fails to be created when the vmmon module is loaded either by the /etc/init.d/vmware script or by modprobe vmware.  This results in virtual machine not being able to change power state to on, and errors in the logs about missing /dev/vmmon file.

Running the below (which was taken from http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-493556-highlight-vmmon.html) fixes the problem:
mknod --mode=0600 /dev/vmmon c 10 165


I'm not sure why or when this behaviour started exhibiting iteself, but the last time I successfully powered on a virtual machine was on the 06th of Sept, so it is something that has changed since then.  The only things I can think of that I've emerge'd onto this system since then are newer versions of baselayout and udev.  Current versions of both below:
sys-fs/udev-100-r1
sys-apps/baselayout-1.12.4-r7

Happy to provide any other info required.

emerge --info included below:
Portage 2.1.1 (default-linux/x86/2006.0, gcc-4.1.1/vanilla, glibc-2.4-r3, 2.6.17-gentoo-r7 i686)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.17-gentoo-r7 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2800+
Gentoo Base System version 1.12.4
Last Sync: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 19:00:01 +0000
ccache version 2.3 [enabled]
app-admin/eselect-compiler: 2.0.0_rc1-r4
dev-lang/python:     2.4.3-r3
dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r5
dev-util/ccache:     2.3
dev-util/confcache:  [Not Present]
sys-apps/sandbox:    1.2.17
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.59-r7
sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2
sys-devel/binutils:  2.17
sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.3.13-r3
sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.22
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.11-r5
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/3.5/env /usr/kde/3.5/share/config /usr/kde/3.5/shutdown /usr/share/X11/xkb /usr/share/config /usr/share/texmf/dvipdfm/config/ /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/ /usr/share/texmf/xdvi/"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/eselect/compiler /etc/gconf /etc/java-config/vms/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/terminfo"
CXXFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -fvisibility-inlines-hidden"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoconfig candy ccache distlocks metadata-transfer sandbox sfperms strict"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo"
LINGUAS="en_GB"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --delete-after --stats --timeout=180 --exclude='/distfiles' --exclude='/local' --exclude='/packages'"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"
SYNC="rsync://vanquish/gentoo-portage"
USE="x86 3dnow X a52 alsa apache2 apm arts avi berkdb bitmap-fonts cdr cli crypt cups divx4linux dlloader dri dts dv dvd dvdr dvdread eds elibc_glibc emboss encode esd fame flac foomatic foomaticdb fortran gdbm gif gphoto2 gpm gstreamer gtk2 hal imlib input_devices_evdev input_devices_keyboard input_devices_mouse isdnlog java jpeg kde kernel_linux libg++ libwww linguas_en_GB mad mikmod mmx motif mp3 mpeg ncurses nls nptl nptlonly ogg opengl oss pam pcre pda perl png ppds pppd python qt qt3 quicktime readline reflection samba sdl session spell spl sse ssl subtitles tcpd tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts udev usb userland_GNU video_cards_nvidia vorbis xcomposite xinerama xml xmms xorg xv xvid zlib"
Unset:  CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS

[Comment 1 Jakub Moc (RETIRED) 2006-09-14 00:03:57 UTC]

sys-fs/udev-100-r1 is messed up, emerge --sync and upgrade to -r2.