Zugschlusbeobachtungen

I have uploaded vmware-package to Debian experimental (contrib). While it waits in the NEW queue, the package is available for download from here.

vmware-package contains packaging for the kernel modules of Vmware and VMware Player, and make-vmpkg, a script that takes the appropriate upstream tar balls (vmware-any-any-104 and vmware-player 1.0.2, which have to be obtained by the package user and are of course not included), adds the packaging data and builds the .deb packages, which are of course non-distributable.

The vmware-kernel-source .deb created by make-vmpkg can then be used with module-assistant or make-kpkg to build a .deb that contains the modules suiteable for a given kernel and a given userspace application.

There are still a number of issues in the resulting vmware-player Debian packages, but it is useable. I am interested in sharing the load to improve the package with other people who'd want to spend time on evil non-free software without being paid. A list of currently pending issues is included in README.Debian in the package.

Andreas, I am not a nice guy. I am only lazy. If the change to exim4 (it now displays a debconf note to everybody who tries do dpkg-reconfigure exim4, -base or a daemon package telling them to dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config) saves #debian from answering the question "how do I reconfigure exim4, dpkg-reconfigure exim4 does nothing!" twice a day, it is a good change.

I basically agree with you that people who not read the minimum basics of documentation are a nuisance, but they're unfortunately real. You need to hurl the docs into their faces. And even then they're going to ignore them and google for answers instead. And on google, they're going to find wrong or outdated docs.