REFERENCE : Bug 634770 - [vmware] app-emulation/vmware-workstation-14.0.0 version bump [for "stable", excluding "~amd64"]
@ Ștefan Talpalaru : Referring to your offer in [ https://bugs.gentoo.org/634770#c17 ] : > Please test it before I start working on vmware-player I think, time would be ripe now ;-)
The player is already installed by vmware-workstation as "/opt/vmware/bin/vmplayer" so, as far as I am concerned, vmware-workstation should replace vmware-player in order to avoid duplicating a very complex ebuild.
(In reply to Ștefan Talpalaru from comment #2) Thanks for pointing that out. "Workstation" will fade out after a 30 days trial period. Yes, after installing the workstation package, "vmplayer" can be called, but still displays the warning . . . "Your evaluation license expires in 13 days. ..." "Help" displays: License Information Status: Evaluation ... Expiration: Tue Dec 12 ... Irritation: Starting up, Player even offers to "Create a new Virtual Machine", which should be reserved to Workstation. > in order to avoid duplicating a very complex > ebuild In principle, I agree and support your suggestion: In case we can sort out the licensing problem, this would imply obsoleting app-emulation/vmware-player beginning with 14.0.0. Combined with obsoleting app-emulation/vmware-tools beginning with 10.1.15.6627299, that would + + + drastically stream-line the whole VMware support in Gentoo + + + Quick findings: /opt/vmware/lib/vmware/bin/vmplayer and /opt/vmware/lib/vmware/bin/vmware both link into /opt/vmware/lib/vmware/bin an there, both link to "appLoader".
Can you please test if you can still run existing images with vmplayer after the expiry date? (you can set a date in the future, after you stop your NTP client).
(In reply to Ștefan Talpalaru from comment #4) Back to Production after Maintenance Window closed. Will see what I can do.
(In reply to Ștefan Talpalaru from comment #4) > ... after > the expiry date ... Testing "one week after" : A) Workstation: As expected, desires a valid licencse key and refuses opening any VM without. B) Player: Displays a prominent warning that - if you use Player for commercial use - you have to buy a license.
But could you run VMs in the player after the trial period ended?
(In reply to Ștefan Talpalaru from comment #7) > But could you run VMs in the player after the trial period ended? Sorry for not having mentioned that explicitly: YES.
(In reply to Ștefan Talpalaru from comment #4) > Can you please test if you can still run existing images with vmplayer after > the expiry date? CONFIRMATION after 'normal' expiring date also. ... and even CREATE ... : HINT: [ https://www.vmware.com/de/products/workstation-pro.html ] . . . --> "Comparison" Player nowadays is much more capable than in former versions.
From the FAQ on https://www.vmware.com/uk/products/workstation-player.html : > VMware Workstation Player is free for personal, non-commercial use (business and nonprofit use is considered commercial use). If you would like to learn about virtual machines or use them at home you are welcome to use VMware Workstation Player for free. So you can now create and run VMs for personal use with their free version. That's nice.
Created attachment 511396 [details] virtual/vmware-player-14.0.ebuild Proposal : first quick draft
@ Andreas @ Fabio @ Ștefan Talpalaru : What do you think about the following PROPOSAL: Create a corresponding package . . . virtual/vmware-player-14.0 only containing RDEPEND="=app-emulation/vmware-workstation-${PV}" supplemented by some explanatory . . . einfo " ... " (c.f. attachment) ?
Only virtual packages are supposed to be empty. A better way would be to rename vmware-player to vmware-workstation in a profile update, if we are sure that we won't need a separate player ebuild in the future. Add to that a news item and it also covers the informing the user part.
I now see that you moved vmware-player to the "virtual" category. This would also require a profile update move and it misuses the convention of a virtual package that functions as a proxy target for depending on one of at least two real packages.
> profile update Wouldn't that be some sort of overkill? At the time being, no single VMware package is contained as a part of the Main Portage Tree any more - unfortunately. > ... misuses ... > ... at least two real packages. Not strictly required per definition: [ https://devmanual.gentoo.org/general-concepts/virtuals/index.html ] but "Before adding a new virtual, it should be discussed on gentoo-dev."
> "Before adding a new virtual, it should be discussed on gentoo-dev." Even the latter would be adequate in a process of evaluation of re-adding app-emulation/vmware-* to the tree. ATM everything happens in (development) overlay(s) only.
(In reply to Manfred Knick from comment #15) > > profile update > Wouldn't that be some sort of overkill? > > At the time being, no single VMware package is contained > as a part of the Main Portage Tree any more - unfortunately. This doesn't mean that people don't still have them installed. There's also the "vmware" overlay that most people use.
Stefan, as long as [vmware overlay] contained 12.x elements with _files_, it was more than obvious and self-evident that my proposal was intended as a temporary approach for your private overlay _only_ . -- Since 2018/02/25, Vmware-workstation-12.* is EOL. Ergo "Gentoo official" [vmware overlay] does not contain even one single valid ebuild any more. -- (comment #1) > @ Ștefan Talpalaru : > > Referring to your offer in [ https://bugs.gentoo.org/634770#c17 ] : > > > Please test it before I start working on vmware-player > I think, time would be ripe now ;-) <---
(In reply to Manfred Knick from comment #18) > Ergo "Gentoo official" [vmware overlay] does not contain > even one single valid ebuild any more. Yes, but users might still have that overlay added and it's not a big effort on my part to make sure that they encounter no problems when installing packages from my overlay. > > > Please test it before I start working on vmware-player > > > I think, time would be ripe now ;-) <--- I gave up on the separate player ebuild, because it would copy most of the workstation ebuild, making maintenance more difficult.
CONFIRMATION: . . . sys-kernel/gentoo-sources:4.16.1 WORKSFORME HINT: In case you depend upon nvidia-drivers, please note . . . Bug 652476 - x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-390.48: Boot with linux-4.16.0 leads to "Unknown symbol swiotlb_map_sg_attrs" [ https://bugs.gentoo.org/652476 ]
Very unfortunately, . . . [vmware-overlay] had to be been closed down and was removed from overlays/repositories.xml: . . . Bug 627666 - vmware: no reply to project status mail . . . [ https://bugs.gentoo.org/627666#c8 ] Currently up-to-date and perfectly working versions of vmware-workstation: c.f. - Bug 663670 and - Bug 671218 HINT concerning vmware-player: - just install above; - vmware-player will be included :-)
