How to Install VMware Workstation 16 Pro on Fedora 36 / Fedora 35

VMware Workstation is well-known virtualization software that allows users to run multiple x86 and x86-64 virtual machines simultaneously in a single machine.

Each virtual machine owns an isolated operating system environment, including Windows, Linux, and BSD variants, and uses a small portion of your system processor and memory.

Here, we will see how to install VMware Workstation Pro 16 on Fedora 36 / Fedora 35.

Prerequisites

First, update all the packages on your system.

sudo dnf update -y

Then, install the required packages for VMware Workstation installation.

sudo dnf install -y kernel-devel-$(uname -r) kernel-headers

And then reboot the system.

sudo reboot

Install VMware Workstation Pro on Fedora 36

First, download VMware Workstation Pro using the web browser. Then, go to the Downloads directory and make the VMware installer executable.

cd ~/Downloads
sudo chmod 700 VMware-Workstation-Full-*.bundle

Next, execute the VMware Workstation Pro installer using the below command.

sudo ./VMware-Workstation-Full-*.bundle

The installer will start extracting files and then install the VMware Workstation.

Output:

Installing VMware Workstation 16.2.3
    Configuring...
[######################################################################] 100%
Installation was successful.

Execute the series of commands to install VMware Workstation modules.

VMWARE_VERSION=workstation-16.2.3
TMP_FOLDER=/tmp/patch-vmware
rm -fdr $TMP_FOLDER
mkdir -p $TMP_FOLDER
cd $TMP_FOLDER
sudo apt install git -y
git clone https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules.git
cd $TMP_FOLDER/vmware-host-modules
git checkout $VMWARE_VERSION
git fetch
make
sudo make install
sudo rm /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libz.so.1/libz.so.1
sudo ln -s /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libz.so.1/libz.so.1

Credit: Ask Ubuntu

Sign VMware Modules (UEFI Systems)

On EFI secure boot systems, you need to sign VMware modules (vmmon and vmnet) before loading them in the kernel. So, to sign the modules, you will need to have a machine owner key that is trusted by EFI firmware.

First, generate the MOK (Machine Owner Key).

sudo dnf install -y openssl
sudo mkdir -p /misc/sign-vmware-modules
sudo chmod 777 /misc/sign-vmware-modules
cd /misc/sign-vmware-modules
openssl req -new -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout MOK.priv -outform DER -out MOK.der -nodes -days 36500 -subj "/CN=MSI/"
chmod 600 MOK.priv

Then, import the generated key to the system. This command will prompt you to set the password, which you will later while enrolling the key.

sudo mokutil --import MOK.der

Create a script  /misc/sign-vmware-modules/signingscript to sign all the VMware modules using the generated MOK key.

#!/bin/bash
for modfile in $(modinfo -n vmmon vmnet); do
  echo "Signing $modfile"
  /usr/src/kernels/$(uname -r)/scripts/sign-file sha256 \
                                /misc/sign-vmware-modules/MOK.priv \
                                /misc/sign-vmware-modules/MOK.der "$modfile"
done

Then, change the ownership of the script and run it. You can run this script whenever you update the system.

chmod 700 /misc/sign-vmware-modules/signingscript
sudo /misc/sign-vmware-modules/signingscript

Reboot the system and then press any key to start the MOK management utility

Launch VMware Workstation Pro

You can start the VMware Workstation by going to Activities >> Search for VMware Workstation or using the vmware command.

You will now get the home of VMware Workstation Pro. Here you can create and manage Virtual Machines.

Conclusion

That’s All. I hope you have learned how to install VMware Workstation Pro 16 on Fedora 36 / Fedora 35.