A new version of Broadcom’s free virtualisation software VMware Workstation Pro is out with been support Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.
VMware Workstation Pro 26H1, along macOS counterpart VMware Fusion Pro, both support the latest long-term support version of Ubuntu as host OS (what the software runs on) and a guest OS (a virtual machine inside the software).
Fedora 43 and 44, SUSE Linux Enterprise 16 and openSUS 16.0 are similarly supported as both guest and host OSes, while FreeBSD 15.0 is supported as a guest only.
Windows builds of VMware Workstation Pro 26H1 see “all binaries, libraries, installer components, and related services are delivered and executed as 64-bit processes”; while Windows and Linux builds can show created and last powered-on timestamps for VMs.
All versions (macOS, Windows and Linux) can connect to remote ARM-based ESXi hosts to “manage VMs on remote ARM servers directly from VMware Workstation or Fusion on any supported platform”, a notable change given ever-diversifying development environments.
Elsewhere, VM notes are shown in folder tabs; an updated saved credential format will, say Broadcom, make it easier to identify encrypted VMs on the host platform; and buttons linking to help docs now direct to Broadcom Technical Documentation homepage.
A security vulnerability was resolved in the macOS version (Fusion Pro), whereby SETUID could be exploited to allow a someone with non-administrative user privileges on the escalate privileges to root on the system where Fusion Pro was installed.
No Linux-specific fixes or features are called out in the 26H1 release announcement or the techdocs release notes, but the headline changes are present.
How to install VMware Workstation Pro on Ubuntu
VMware Workstation Pro is free, but not open source software. You can use it personally or commercially without needing to buy a license key. However, to download the installer you must signup for an account, check a bunch of boxes and navigate a confusing mess of links.
Once you get the Linux download, it comes in a .bundle file (which some people don’t know what to do with). Well, you run that file from the command line as root.
But you’re not done just yet, as you should also use apt to install build-essential (needed for GCC), and linux-headers-generic-{your-kernel-version}. If you launch VMware Workstation without these, it won’t be able to build its kernel modules.
Finally, open VMware Workstation Pro, run through the kernel module installer that’s shown and then you’re good to go with, y’know, actually installing a guest OS using an ISO/IMG file.
If you install Ubuntu as a VM (on any host OS) using VMware, you should install the open-vm-tools-desktop package inside of it. This enables/supports various integrations, like clipboard sharing and drag and drop of files from host to guest.