Estou usando o Ubuntu Desktop 14.0.4. Devido a algumas razões, eu preciso atualizar para o kernel 4.2.5. Mas depois que o VMWare Player (eu acredito que a versão 12.x 64 bit linux) não está funcionando. No momento da inicialização, ele está tentando compilar os módulos para o novo kernel. Eu desinstalei e fiz uma nova instalação do VMWare Player, mas o mesmo problema. Ele está procurando uma versão particular do gcc que não está disponível. 
Procurei neste tópico também outro tópico mas não é capaz de localizar a versão gcc-5.2.1. Também não é possível desinstalar a versão anterior do gcc
Esta é a minha versão atual do gcc
root@ashu-HP-ENVY-Notebook:/var/log/vmware# gcc -v
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=gcc
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.8/lto-wrapper
Target: x86_64-linux-gnu
Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Ubuntu 4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04' --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.8/README.Bugs --enable-languages=c,c++,java,go,d,fortran,objc,obj-c++ --prefix=/usr --program-suffix=-4.8 --enable-shared --enable-linker-build-id --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.8 --libdir=/usr/lib --enable-nls --with-sysroot=/ --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-libstdcxx-time=yes --enable-gnu-unique-object --disable-libmudflap --enable-plugin --with-system-zlib --disable-browser-plugin --enable-java-awt=gtk --enable-gtk-cairo --with-java-home=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-gcj-4.8-amd64/jre --enable-java-home --with-jvm-root-dir=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-gcj-4.8-amd64 --with-jvm-jar-dir=/usr/lib/jvm-exports/java-1.5.0-gcj-4.8-amd64 --with-arch-directory=amd64 --with-ecj-jar=/usr/share/java/eclipse-ecj.jar --enable-objc-gc --enable-multiarch --disable-werror --with-arch-32=i686 --with-abi=m64 --with-multilib-list=m32,m64,mx32 --with-tune=generic --enable-checking=release --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --host=x86_64-linux-gnu --target=x86_64-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.8.4 (Ubuntu 4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04)
E aqui estão os registros do vmware
2016-01-24T02:40:12.095-07:00| usbArb| I125: Log for VMware USB Arbitration Service pid=2248 version=12.1.0 build=build-3215723 option=Release
2016-01-24T02:40:12.095-07:00| usbArb| I125: The process is 64-bit.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.095-07:00| usbArb| I125: Host codepage=UTF-8 encoding=UTF-8
2016-01-24T02:40:12.095-07:00| usbArb| I125: Host is Linux 4.2.5-040205-generic Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS
2016-01-24T02:40:12.094-07:00| usbArb| I125: VTHREAD initialize main thread 3 "usbArb" tid 2248
2016-01-24T02:40:12.094-07:00| usbArb| I125: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "/usr/lib/vmware/settings": No such file or directory.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.094-07:00| usbArb| I125: PREF Optional preferences file not found at /usr/lib/vmware/settings. Using default values.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.094-07:00| usbArb| I125: Could not expand environment variable HOME.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.094-07:00| usbArb| I125: DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "~/.vmware/config": No such file or directory.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.094-07:00| usbArb| I125: PREF Optional preferences file not found at ~/.vmware/config. Using default values.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.094-07:00| usbArb| I125: Could not expand environment variable HOME.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.094-07:00| usbArb| I125: PREF Disabling user preferences because disableUserPreferences is set.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.094-07:00| usbArb| I125: PREF Failed to load user preferences.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT --- GLOBAL SETTINGS /usr/lib/vmware/settings
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT --- NON PERSISTENT
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT --- USER PREFERENCES
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT --- USER DEFAULTS ~/.vmware/config
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT --- HOST DEFAULTS /etc/vmware/config
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT NETWORKING = "yes"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT VMBLOCK_CONFED = "yes"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT gksu.rootMethod = "sudo"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT libdir = "/usr/lib/vmware"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT VMCI_CONFED = "yes"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT VSOCK_CONFED = "yes"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT initscriptdir = "/etc/init.d"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT authd.fullpath = "/usr/sbin/vmware-authd"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT bindir = "/usr/bin"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT installerDefaults.componentDownloadEnabled = "yes"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT installerDefaults.autoSoftwareUpdateEnabled.epoch = "8058385214"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT vix.config.version = "1"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT player.product.version = "12.1.0"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT installerDefaults.dataCollectionEnabled.epoch = "7384059603"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT installerDefaults.dataCollectionEnabled = "yes"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT installerDefaults.transferVersion = "1"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT installerDefaults.autoSoftwareUpdateEnabled = "yes"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT product.buildNumber = "3272444"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT --- SITE DEFAULTS /usr/lib/vmware/config
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.help = "introduction.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.configurationEditor = "config_editor_newvm.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.ideConfig = "devices_virtualdrive.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.floppyConfig = "devices_floppy.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.mouseConfig = "devices_mouse.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.netConfig = "devices_netadapter.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.parallelConfig = "devices_parallel.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.serialConfig = "devices_serial.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.soundConfig = "devices_sound.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.memConfig = "configvm_memory.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.miscConfig = "configvm.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.usbConfig = "devices_usb.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.displayConfig = "configvm_display-problems.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: DICT tag.tools = "vmtools.htm"
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: USBArbRuleStore: Loading device rules from '/etc/vmware/usbarb.rules'.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: VMware USB Arbitration Service Version 15.1.7
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: USBGL: USB Sysfs found at /dev/bus/usb
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: USBArb: Attempting to connect to existing arbitrator on /var/run/vmware/usbarbitrator-socket.
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: SOCKET creating new socket, connecting to /var/run/vmware/usbarbitrator-socket
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: SOCKET connect failed, error 2: No such file or directory
2016-01-24T02:40:12.148-07:00| usbArb| I125: USBArb: Failed to connect to the existing arbitrator.
Esta resposta foi retirada do fórum da comunidade VMware e descreve a compilação manual do VMWare serviços porque o kernel que está sendo usado é mais recente que a distro disponível.
cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source
unpack vmnet.tar
cd vmnet-only
make
cd ..
unpack vmmon.tar
cd vmmon-only
make
cd ..
cp vmmon.o /lib/modules/'uname -r'/misc/vmmon.ko
cp vmnet.o /lib/modules/'uname -r'/misc/vmnet.ko
depmod -a
/etc/init.d/vmware restart