Comment 17 for bug 163113

We had a similar problem recently with vmware and
vmware player booted the original Dapper images from
www.thoughtpolice.co.uk fine, but when we replaced the kernel with
vanilla kernels 2.6.21.1 or 2.6.22.10, booting failed after a long delay and the error
"can't find volume group ubuntu".

Fortunately, http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Install_Gentoo_on_VMware
suggests replacing "lsilogic" with "buslogic" in the .vmx file
(just use a text editor). Worked for me, maybe it'll work for you, too.