If you encounter the following error while installing vmware-tools in Fedora:

Searching for a valid kernel header path…

The path “” is not valid.

You will need the following packages installed:

gcc make kernel-headers kernel-devel

The trick is that you will need to perform at least two reboots before the vmware installer will actually find the kernel header package. You can verify the kernel install using “rpm -qa kernel*”

1. yum install gcc make kernel-headers kernel-devel
2. yum update
3. Reboot (shutdown -r now)
4. Run vmware-install.pl (Ex. /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib)
5. It will probably not find the kernel header path this time around. Cancel the installer if its unable to find it again.
6. Reboot (shutdown -r now)
7. Run vmware-install.pl again. I’m usually able to install vmware-tools after the second reboot

DISCLAIMER: This is for informational purposes only. We are providing absolutely no warranty for this information. Use this information at your own risk. Always perform upgrades on a test server before production and always have a full backup of the system.