"Cannot Open /dev/vmmon: No Such File or Directory" Error When Powering On A VM (2146460)

26/1/2021 "Cannot open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory" error when powering on a VM (2146460)
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"Cannot open /dev/vmmon: No such

file or directory" error when
powering on a VM (2146460)
Last Updated: 16/9/2020 Categories: Troubleshooting Total Views: 133330
196 Language: English subscribe
Symptoms
Powering on a virtual machine on Linux hosts that boots from UEFI with secure boot
enabled fails
You see the error:
Cannot open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory. Please make sure that
the kernel module `vmmon' is loaded
Purpose
The article provide steps to sign VMware drivers on Linux host with secure boot enabled,
so that VMware Workstation can run VMs successfully.
Cause
On Linux host with secure mode enabled, it is not allowed to load any unsigned drivers.
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Due to this, VMware drivers, such as vmmon and vmnet, are not able to be loaded which
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prevents virtual machine to power on.
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https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2146460 1/4
Workstation does not ship vmmon.ko and vmnet.ko in the bundle currently. The two
Products Support
modules are(https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/home)
built during the installation or the first launch of workstation.
During the installation if the host provides the proper kernel headers and gcc, these
two modules will be built silently. The progress is logged into /tmp/vmware-
root/vmware-PID.log.
When workstation is first launched, a dialog will pop up to ask you for the usable
kernel headers and/or gcc. These two modules will be built with window showing
the progress and log printed on terminal.
Ensure to have the Host OS updated with the latest patches.
To correct the issue with secure boot enabled:
1. Generate a key pair using the openssl to sign vmmon and vmnet modules:
$openssl req -new -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout MOK.priv -outform DER -
out MOK.der -nodes -days 36500 -subj "/CN=VMware/"
Replace MOK with the name of the file you want for the key.
2. Sign the modules using the generated key by running these commands:
$sudo /usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r`/scripts/sign-file sha256

./MOK.priv ./MOK.der $(modinfo -n vmmon)
$sudo /usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r`/scripts/sign-file sha256

./MOK.priv ./MOK.der $(modinfo -n vmnet)
Import the public key to the system's MOK list by running this command:
$mokutil --import MOK.der
Confirm a password for this MOK enrollment request.

Reboot your machine. Follow the instructions to complete the enrollment from the
UEFI consol.
Note: Preceding commands are verified to work on Ubuntu 16.04 hosts. The general
steps are applicable to all Linux distributions, but specific Linux distributions might
differ incookies
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Related Information
política
With sobre
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you (https://www.vmware.com/es/help/privacy.html)
will have two modules with this problem, vmmon and vmnet. You must
sign them both:
user@localhost:$ sudo /usr/src/kernels/$(uname -r)/scripts/sign-file

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sha256 ./MOK.priv ./MOK.der $(modinfo -n vmmon)
user@localhost:$ sudo /usr/src/kernels/$(uname -r)/scripts/sign-file
sha256 ./MOK.priv ./MOK.der $(modinfo -n vmnet)
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Related Versions:
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26/1/2021 "Cannot open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory" error when powering on a VM (2146460)

"Cannot open /dev/vmmon: No such

To correct the issue with secure boot enabled:

$sudo /usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r`/scripts/sign-file sha256

$sudo /usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r`/scripts/sign-file sha256

$mokutil --import MOK.der

Confirm a password for this MOK enrollment request.

user@localhost:$ sudo /usr/src/kernels/$(uname -r)/scripts/sign-file

Was this article helpful?

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Docs • Download the ESXi Installer

Docs • Install Horizon Client for

Copyright © 2021 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved.

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