Building workstation 12.5.x branch is failing

[sscheib]

Hello,
I just installed VMware Workstation 12.5.9 and tried to build the branch 12.5.x, as it seems branch 12.5.8 is abandoned.
The outcome is the following:
`[root@reducted-L vmware-host-modules]# make
make -C vmmon-only
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only'
Using kernel build system.
make -C /lib/modules/4.17.14-202.fc28.x86_64/build/include/.. SUBDIRS=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/.
MODULEBUILDDIR= modules
make[2]: Entering directory '/usr/src/kernels/4.17.14-202.fc28.x86_64'
CC [M] /home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o
In file included from /home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/./common/vmx86.h:32,
from /home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/linux/driver.h:31,
from /home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:48:
/home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/./include/x86msr.h:111: warning: "MSR_MISC_FEATURES_ENABLES" redefined
#define MSR_MISC_FEATURES_ENABLES 0x140

In file included from ./arch/x86/include/asm/nospec-branch.h:9,
from ./arch/x86/include/asm/paravirt_types.h:46,
from ./arch/x86/include/asm/ptrace.h:92,
from ./arch/x86/include/asm/math_emu.h:5,
from ./arch/x86/include/asm/processor.h:12,
from ./arch/x86/include/asm/cpufeature.h:5,
from ./arch/x86/include/asm/thread_info.h:53,
from ./include/linux/thread_info.h:38,
from ./arch/x86/include/asm/preempt.h:7,
from ./include/linux/preempt.h:81,
from ./include/linux/spinlock.h:51,
from ./include/linux/wait.h:9,
from ./include/linux/wait_bit.h:8,
from ./include/linux/fs.h:6,
from ./include/linux/highmem.h:5,
from /home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:25:
./arch/x86/include/asm/msr-index.h:622: note: this is the location of the previous definition
#define MSR_MISC_FEATURES_ENABLES 0x00000140

In file included from /home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/./common/vmx86.h:32,
from /home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/linux/driver.h:31,
from /home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:48:
/home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/./include/x86msr.h:305: warning: "MSR_K7_HWCR_SMMLOCK" redefined
#define MSR_K7_HWCR_SMMLOCK 0x00000001ULL // Lock SMM environment

In file included from ./arch/x86/include/asm/nospec-branch.h:9,
from ./arch/x86/include/asm/paravirt_types.h:46,
from ./arch/x86/include/asm/ptrace.h:92,
from ./arch/x86/include/asm/math_emu.h:5,
from ./arch/x86/include/asm/processor.h:12,
from ./arch/x86/include/asm/cpufeature.h:5,
from ./arch/x86/include/asm/thread_info.h:53,
from ./include/linux/thread_info.h:38,
from ./arch/x86/include/asm/preempt.h:7,
from ./include/linux/preempt.h:81,
from ./include/linux/spinlock.h:51,
from ./include/linux/wait.h:9,
from ./include/linux/wait_bit.h:8,
from ./include/linux/fs.h:6,
from ./include/linux/highmem.h:5,
from /home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:25:
./arch/x86/include/asm/msr-index.h:431: note: this is the location of the previous definition
#define MSR_K7_HWCR_SMMLOCK BIT_ULL(MSR_K7_HWCR_SMMLOCK_BIT)

In file included from /home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/./include/vm_asm_x86.h:41,
from /home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/./include/vm_asm_x86_64.h:39,
from /home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/./include/vm_asm.h:46,
from /home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:50:
/home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/./include/x86_basic_defs.h:65: warning: "CR3_PCID_MASK" redefined
#define CR3_PCID_MASK 0xFFF

In file included from ./arch/x86/include/asm/processor.h:5,
from ./arch/x86/include/asm/cpufeature.h:5,
from ./arch/x86/include/asm/thread_info.h:53,
from ./include/linux/thread_info.h:38,
from ./arch/x86/include/asm/preempt.h:7,
from ./include/linux/preempt.h:81,
from ./include/linux/spinlock.h:51,
from ./include/linux/wait.h:9,
from ./include/linux/wait_bit.h:8,
from ./include/linux/fs.h:6,
from ./include/linux/highmem.h:5,
from /home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:25:
./arch/x86/include/asm/processor-flags.h:39: note: this is the location of the previous definition
#define CR3_PCID_MASK 0xFFFull

/home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c: In function ‘LinuxDriverInitTSCkHz’:
/home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:268:22: error: assignment to ‘void ()(struct timer_list )’ from incompatible pointer type ‘void ()(long unsigned int)’ [-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types]
tscTimer.function = LinuxDriverEstimateTSCkHzDeferred;
^
/home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:270:12: error: ‘struct timer_list’ has no member named ‘data’
tscTimer.data = 0;
^
/home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c: In function ‘init_module’:
/home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:312:4: error: implicit declaration of function ‘init_timer’; did you mean ‘init_timers’? [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
init_timer(&linuxState.pollTimer);
^~~~~~~~~~
init_timers
/home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:313:24: error: ‘struct timer_list’ has no member named ‘data’
linuxState.pollTimer.data = 0;
^
/home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:314:34: error: assignment to ‘void ()(struct timer_list )’ from incompatible pointer type ‘void ()(long unsigned int)’ [-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types]
linuxState.pollTimer.function = LinuxDriverPollTimeout;
^
At top level:
/home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:1291:1: warning: always_inline function might not be inlinable [-Wattributes]
LinuxDriverSyncReadTSCs(uint64 *delta) // OUT: TSC max - TSC min
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
make[3]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:313: /home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** [Makefile:1575: module/home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/kernels/4.17.14-202.fc28.x86_64'
make[1]: *** [Makefile:120: vmmon.ko] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/sscheib/source/vmware-host-modules/vmmon-only'
make: *** [Makefile:21: vmmon-only] Error 2
`

I am using Fedora 28 with latest updates installed.
Kernel: Linux reducted-L 4.17.14-202.fc28.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Aug 15 12:29:25 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
VMware version: 12.5.9

[mkubecek]

You should use branch workstation-12.5.9 for building. Branch workstation-12.5.x is an auxiliary branch which contains unpacked sources of latest 12.5.x release (without any additional patch), similar to the way branch workstation works for 14.1.x series. Thus what you were building was actually the same as if you used the module sources from VMware. From it, branches like workstation-12.5.9, workstation-12.5.8, ... are forked. If VMware ever released 12.5.10 (which is not going to happen as they discontinued the 12.5.x series), I would unpack the tarballs from it on top of workstation-12.5.x, commit and fork workstation-12.5.10 from there.

I suppose I should probably reword the message in retired branches so that it doesn't mention "12.5.x" (or maybe remove workstation-12.5.x branch from the public repository asi it's of no use for users).