Hi Dr.Faustus,
- is there any reason because your are using PCLOS2007 ? look like your kernel version is quite old (2.6.22.17.tex2),
not sure you can safely upgrade from there to current version, well quite sure you can't.
- specifically about vmware issue, have had the same problem in the past, then switched to VirtualBox.
(VirtualBox can read/convert from vmware images).
If you want to remain with vmware, check for kernel-headers version (should match running kernel version).
AS