Ubuntu 17.10 Upgrade Broke VMWare Workstation 12.5

I've managed to get VMWare Workstation 12.5.7 working on Kubuntu 17.10.

In /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source:

1. Extract vmmon.tar and vmnet.tar

   sudo tar -xf vmmon.tar
   sudo tar -xf vmnet.tar
   

   This will create vmmon-only and vmnet-only directories.

2. Fetch the patched hostif.c

   sudo wget -O vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules/b50848c985f1a6c0a341187346d77f0119d0a835/vmmon-only/linux/hostif.c
   

   (note: https://communities.vmware.com/thread/571370 - also contains a similar fix for VMWare Workstation 14)

3. Edit vmnet-only/bridge.c:

   639c639
   <        atomic_inc(&clone->users);
   ---
   >        atomic_inc((atomic_t*)&clone->users);
   

4. Run

   make -C vmmon-only
   make -C vmnet-only
   cp -t /lib/modules/4.13.0-16-generic/misc *.ko
   modprobe -r vmmon
   insmod /lib/modules/4.13.0-16-generic/misc/vmmon.ko
   rm /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libz.so.1/libz.so.1
   ln -s /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libz.so.1/libz.so.1  # see https://communities.vmware.com/thread/572259
   vmware-networks --start  # see https://forum.chakralinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=8579
   

5. As user:

   /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware
   

   (to prevent it running vmware-modconfig)

I have tried approx all other solutions but nothing worked. But these steps worked for me on Ubuntu 18.04, VMware 12.5.9

git clone https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules.git
cd vmware-host-modules
git checkout workstation-12.5.9 (change it to your version. it's important)
make && sudo make install
cd /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libz.so.1
sudo mv libz.so.1 libz.so.1.old
sudo ln -s /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 .
sudo depmod -a
sudo /etc/init.d/vmware restart

Reference:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1715552

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1715552/comments/29

The bugfix described by: Stephen leads for many to an other bug: "Failed to get gcc information."

The simplest solution is to download vmware player workstation 14.1.

Installing it instead of the 12.5 version solves the issues described above.

To do so just run

chmod +x VMware-Player-14.1.1-7528167.x86_64.bundle
sudo ./VMware-Player-14.1.1-7528167.x86_64.bundle

And follow the instructions in the graphical installer.