VMware Workstation Pro is now free for personal use!!!

VMware Workstation Pro is now free for personal use!!!  However, it was not straight forward to install on Ubuntu as I encountered error messages when attempting installation.

After spending a few hours scouring the Internet for answers and troubleshooting, I found the answer and decided to document the steps.

1. Install "make" and "gcc" on Ubuntu.

2. Install VMware Workstation Pro (for personal use) using the bundle downloaded from Broadcom's website.

3. Run the following script to overcome the issue of not being able to build VMware modules due to Ubuntu Kernel version incompatibility.

#!/bin/bash

git clone https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules

cd vmware-host-modules

git checkout workstation-17.5.0

sudo make ; sudo make install

Viola! VMware Workstation Pro 17.5.2 should work now. Do note that the version listed above was through trial and error.