Trying to install Vmware Player on OEL 4-kernel 2.6.9-78.0.0.0.1.ELhugemem

Question

All
I need to run a preconfigured Vmware VM on one of ours Enterprise Linux servers. I've already installed VMware-Player-3.1.2-301548.i386.bundle on the machine, no error message, but now when I try to run vmplayer I am getting the following message:
before you can run vmware, several modules must be compiled and loaded into the running kernel:
kernel headers 2.6.9-78.0.0.0.1.ELHugemem
kernel headers for version 2.6.9-78.0.0.0.1.ELHugemem were not found...
I've already searched both on google and on Oracle website for a package containing this version of kernel headers, but didn't find them.
I've did an up2date -i kernel-devel, some kernel headers got installed, but it seems they are at the wrong version:
[root@dscdap01 ~]# ls -la /usr/src/kernels/
total 24
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Nov 2 06:59 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Dec 4 2008 ..
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 4096 Nov 1 09:42 2.6.9-89.31.1.0.1.EL-hugemem-i686
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 4096 Nov 2 06:59 2.6.9-89.31.1.0.1.EL-i686
As far as I can see, I have two paths for solving this:
1: update the running kernel to 2.6.9-89.31.1.0.1.EL-hugemem-i686 - in order to do that I'll have to restart the machine, which is quite risky because this is an important machine used for many projects and I do not have physical access to it; in case something goes wrong I'll have to make an SR to the GIT guys, and pray for a quick resolution
2. find this particular version on kernel headers (2.6.9-78.0.0.0.1.ELHugemem), install them in a non-standard location and then point vmplayer installer to that location in order to compile and plug them into the running kernel
Questions:
- If I choose the 2nd path:
-- where can I find this particular kernel headers version?
-- after vmplayer compiles them, will it request a machine restart, or plugging them into the running kernel will be possible without restart?
-- I already did an up2date -u, so the entire system excepting the running kernel is updated to whatever is in Oracle's internal repositories. Will this conflict somehow with an older running kernel and modules?
-If I choose the 1th path (update the kernel itself and reboot the machine):
-- will then vmplayer be able to compile and install the kernel modules without asking for another restart?
Thanks a lot for your feedback.
Any idea is appreciated, even pointing me to someone in Oracle that might help (I am an Oracle employee) would be useful.
Regards
Serban

Answer 1

Thanks for your reply Joe. I did not realise that I shall search for the package name without "ELHugemem" part since the headers are probably the same. Please correct me if I'm wrong here.
So I downloaded the i686 package, but now I get this message:
[root@dscdap01 ~]# rpm -iv kernel-devel-2.6.9-78.0.1.EL.i686.rpm
warning: kernel-devel-2.6.9-78.0.1.EL.i686.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 82fd17b2
Preparing packages for installation...
     package kernel-devel-2.6.9-89.31.1.0.1.EL (which is newer than kernel-devel-2.6.9-78.0.1.EL) is already installed
I am not sure if I shall do a "rpm -ivf" for this package, forcing it to install. Will this command install the package alongside the existing one, or will it overwrite it? My guess is that it will install it alongside the existing one, but since this system is an important one I would prefer to ask before doing any stupid mistake...