open vm tools cannot be installed

[Alex Olieman]

Installing open-vm-tools fails on the open-vm-dkms package. This is on Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS running in VMWare player (Windows 8 host OS). On my first attempt, I wasn't sure if I had tried to install VMWare Tools previously, so I did a fresh Ubuntu install. This had no impact on the issue.

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: open-vm-dkms 2011.12.20-562307-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-39.57~precise1-generic 3.8.13.20
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-39-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.6
Architecture: amd64
DKMSKernelVersion: 3.8.0-39-generic
Date: Tue Jun 3 13:22:26 2014
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20130820.1)
MarkForUpload: True
PackageArchitecture: all
PackageVersion: 2011.12.20-562307-0ubuntu1
SourcePackage: open-vm-tools
Title: open-vm-dkms 2011.12.20-562307-0ubuntu1: open-vm-tools kernel module failed to build
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Robert C Jennings (rcj)]

Marking this as a duplicate of bug #1083719. open-vm-tools with an HWE kernel (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack) is broken. You are running with the HWE kernel from Raring.

As an alternative to 1083719 if you can upgrade to a Saucy or Trusty HWE kernel you could try the new open-vm-tools-lts-trusty packages which are being introduced in bug #1275656. That package is a backport from Trusty but it requires a Saucy HWE kernel or newer; your Raring (3.8) kernel is insufficient.