[SOLVED] Parallels Tools Fail to Install in Oracle Linux VM

Discussion in 'Parallels Desktop on a Mac with Apple silicon' started by StefanH28, Jan 9, 2024.

  1. StefanH28

    StefanH28 Bit poster

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    Hello, I'm on a Mac Mini M2 Pro, trying out Parallels. I have an Ubuntu 22.04.2 ARM64 VM which works fine; installing Parallels Tools was just a click.
    On the other VM, Oracle Linux 8, I can't get it to work. The installation log (see attached screenshot; sorry for not pasting the text, because I can't copy it from the VM due to the lack of Parallels Tools :() seems to indicate that the Parallels Tools installer uses the Red Hat compiler, while the kernel was compiled with GCC. The Red Hat compiler (CC) seems to choke on a couple of command-line options.
    What to do to overcome that issue?
     

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  2. Mitch2

    Mitch2 Bit poster

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    Here's what I did after much frustration:

    Install gcc-12 and some of its parts:
    yum install gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu.aarch64 gcc-c++-aarch64-linux-gnu.aarch64 gcc-toolset-12.aarch64 gcc-toolset-12-runtime.aarch64 gcc-toolset-12-gcc-c++.aarch64

    Then went into /usr/bin and temporarily renamed the gcc binary to gcc-8. The gcc-12 install didn't replace the gcc binaries in /usr/bin. Symlinked the new gcc to /usr bin/gcc:

    mv gcc gcc-8
    ln -s /opt/rh/gcc-toolset-12/root/usr/bin/gcc gcc

    ran the tools installer and it completed. Then nuked the symlink and put the old gcc binary back.

    It appears to be working. This is on OEL8.9

    Hope this helps?
     
  3. StefanH28

    StefanH28 Bit poster

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    Thanks much, Mitch2! Amazingly, this actually worked, and has saved me a lot of the frustration you had!
     
    Mitch2 likes this.
  4. VincentH13

    VincentH13 Junior Member

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    Thanks for the workaround. Worked for me with Oracle 8.10 ARM, but not with Oracle 9.
     
  5. ButW

    ButW Bit poster

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    I got this working on Oracle Linux 9 & Parallels 20.2.0.55872

    The issue for us is as follows:

    Confirmed fix for EL 8. Regarding EL 9:

    My team need to use the DLM kernel module.

    On Oracle 9 aarch64 the DLM kernel module is only distributed with the Oracle UEK kernel (5.15.0) and not the RHCK (5.14.0). Of course, this is different on x86_64 where the DLM module is distributed with both, and the problem does not exist!

    Regrettably, parallels tools will only build on the red hat compatible kernel, not the UEK. Why? Well, in the UEK kernel there is a change to include/linux/arm-smccc.h which breaks the build:

    `ERROR: modpost: GPL-incompatible module prl_notifier.ko uses GPL-only symbol 'arm_smccc_smc'`

    The easiest thing to do is just down grade to the RHCK, but then we do not get the DLM module. Of course we could build our own kernel, maintain it moving forwards and keep ourselves busy for an infinite period of time. So that's never a good idea.
    The solution was actually trivial:

    `[/root]# cp /usr/src/kernels/5.14.0-503.el9.aarch64/include/linux/arm-smccc.h /usr/src/kernels/5.15.0-304.171.4.el9uek.aarch64/include/linux/arm-smccc.h`

    This will probably need to be repeated whenever you see a kernel update coming in from the repositories.

    It would be terribly nice if Parallels could look in to this and fix it before it drives everyone up the wall.
     
  6. ButW

    ButW Bit poster

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    Oh, BTW there is a typo in the dkms.conf file (missing a quote on the first line):

    /usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods/dkms.conf: line 34: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `"'
    /usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods/dkms.conf: line 35: syntax error: unexpected end of file
    dkms.conf: Error! No 'PACKAGE_NAME' directive specified.
    dkms.conf: Error! No 'PACKAGE_VERSION' directive specified.
    dkms.conf: Warning! Zero modules specified.

    Error! Bad conf file.
    File: /usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods/dkms.conf does not represent a valid dkms.conf file.
     

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