cannot build with module-assistant after abi bump

[John Steele Scott (t-tec)]

There were some kernel updates involving an abi bump today, so I needed to build the vmware-player modules from source. Unfortunately it didn't work:

john@john-ubuntu:/tmp $ sudo module-assistant prepare
Getting source for kernel version: 2.6.15-25-k7
Kernel headers available in /usr/src/linux

Done!
john@john-ubuntu:/tmp $ sudo module-assistant -t auto-build vmware-player
Extracting the package tarball, /usr/src/vmware-player-kernel-source.tar.bz2, please wait...
echo '# NOTE: THIS FILE IS AUTO-GENERATED FROM control.modules.in.in' > \
          debian/control.modules.in
sed -e 's/@@KVERSION@@/2.6.15/g' \
            -e 's/@@ABIVER@@/2.6.15-23/g' \
           debian/control.modules.in.in >> debian/control.modules.in
if [ "" ]; then \
                echo '# NOTE: THIS FILE IS AUTO-GENERATED FROM control.in' > \
                  debian/control; \
                sed -e 's/@@KVERSION@@/2.6.15/g' \
                    -e 's/@@ABIVER@@/2.6.15-23/g' \
                   debian/control.in >> debian/control ; \
        fi
dh_testdir
dh_testdir: cannot read debian/control: No such file or directory

make: *** [clean] Error 1
/usr/bin/make -f debian/rules kdist_clean kdist_config binary-modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/modules/vmware-player-kernel'
echo '# NOTE: THIS FILE IS AUTO-GENERATED FROM control.modules.in.in' > \
          debian/control.modules.in
sed -e 's/@@KVERSION@@/2.6.15/g' \
            -e 's/@@ABIVER@@/2.6.15-23/g' \
           debian/control.modules.in.in >> debian/control.modules.in
if [ "" ]; then \
                echo '# NOTE: THIS FILE IS AUTO-GENERATED FROM control.in' > \
                  debian/control; \
                sed -e 's/@@KVERSION@@/2.6.15/g' \
                    -e 's/@@ABIVER@@/2.6.15-23/g' \
                   debian/control.in >> debian/control ; \
        fi
dh_testdir
dh_testdir: cannot read debian/control: No such file or directory

make[1]: *** [clean] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/modules/vmware-player-kernel'
make: *** [kdist_build] Error 2
BUILD FAILED!
See /var/cache/modass/vmware-player.buildlog.2.6.15-25-k7.1150419003 for details.
Build failed. Press Return to continue...

I found where the -23 was hardcoded in debian/rules and changed that, but it still gives the error about debian/control not existing.