Can't remove VMware-player

[Thingymebob]

So I attempted installing vmware player for no particular reason (just to mess around with) and got the following error

Starting VMware services:
   Virtual machine monitor                                             done
   Virtual ethernet                                                    done
   Bridged networking on /dev/vmnet0                                  failed
   Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet1 (background)                    done
   Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet8 (background)                    done
   NAT service on /dev/vmnet8                                         failed
invoke-rc.d: initscript vmware-player, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing vmware-player (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 vmware-player
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I know the issue is something to do with the the madwifi driver etc.... But to be honest, I 'aint that fussed about it and don't want to be messing around with the driver source so decided to just remove it.

When attempting to remove VMware-player I get the following error:

Stopping VMware services:
   Virtual machine monitor                                             done
   Bridged networking on /dev/vmnet0                                   done
   DHCP server on /dev/vmnet1                                          done
   Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet1                                 done
   DHCP server on /dev/vmnet8                                          done
   NAT service on /dev/vmnet8                                          done
   Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet8                                 done
   Virtual ethernet                                                   failed
invoke-rc.d: initscript vmware-player, action "stop" failed.
dpkg: error processing vmware-player (--remove):
 subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
Starting VMware services:
   Virtual machine monitor                                             done
   Virtual ethernet                                                    done
   Bridged networking on /dev/vmnet0                                  failed
   Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet1 (background)                    done
   Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet8 (background)                    done
   NAT service on /dev/vmnet8                                          done
invoke-rc.d: initscript vmware-player, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 vmware-player
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Anyone any ideas of a solution as i'm tired of going through the whole vmware-player install every time I use apt.

[zvacet]

sudo apt-get remove --purge program_name

program_name =exact vmplayer name

if this don´t work delete vmplayer folder in etc

[Thingymebob]

apt-get remove --purge fails in the same way as plain apt-get remove, haven't attempted deleting folder in etc yet although from KyleYankans response I'm guessing this isn't going to work either.

[skillet]

I'm having the same problem... I've been reading about some uninstall script? but I cant find it anywhere on my system. its supposed to be in /usr/bin

[KyleYankan]

I'm getting a similair error. I tried this:

kyle@Brandy:/$ sudo apt-get remove --purge vmware-player
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  vmware-player*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B of archives.
After unpacking 32.1MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
(Reading database ... 159406 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing vmware-player ...
/etc/init.d/vmware-player: 175: vmware_product_name: not found
Warning: Unable to find 's main database /etc/vmware/locations.

invoke-rc.d: initscript vmware-player, action "stop" failed.
dpkg: error processing vmware-player (--purge):
 subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
/etc/init.d/vmware-player: 175: vmware_product_name: not found
Warning: Unable to find 's main database /etc/vmware/locations.

invoke-rc.d: initscript vmware-player, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 vmware-player
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
kyle@Brandy:/$ sudo apt-get remove --force --purge vmware-player
E: Command line option --force is not understood

Then removed /etc/vmware as root, ran the above command and got the same result.

[Thingymebob]

Should have tried this sooner, sorry everyone!
Reboot in single user (Recovery Mode)

apt-get remove vmware-player

and it disappears quite happily

[speakman]

Or just:

sudo killall vmnet-natd

And then:

sudo apt-get remove --purge vmware-player

Did it for me...

[greew]

Originally Posted by speakman Or just: sudo killall vmnet-natd And then: sudo apt-get remove --purge vmware-player Did it for me...

Yeah.. this did the trick! Thanks a lot!

[codeslicer]

Originally Posted by speakman Or just: sudo killall vmnet-natd And then: sudo apt-get remove --purge vmware-player Did it for me...

Thanks!

[skibum58]

Slightly off the thread point, I wanted to keep my functioning VMPlayer (ver. 1, from the Applications | Add/Remove menu). However, every time I wanted to install something else, it would trigger an attempted re-install of the player. I would decline every overwrite request, and the player kept funtioning (thank God), but it was a growing annoyance.

I found the solution at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...957/comments/8
and
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...yer/+bug/57957

I'm still pretty nooby, and it's not for the faint of heart, but it worked to solve my
"VMWare Player half installed state" problem. It involved finding and turning off the script which was triggering the installation routine.

It got that way because I botched a couple of VMPlayer installs, including ver. 1 and the ver.2 tarball from VMWare, before I got it working (hint - using the "Run from Terminal" option if you get Ver.1, when you're setting up your link to the executable, works for me.).

A similar approach may be necessary for other offending scripts which keep triggering whatever program is it that's running in Applications | Add/Remove (aptitude?).

Old Skibum