This HowTo explains how to get OpenWrt running on VMware. This only works with Kamikaze (X86 [2.6]), the old stable version (WhiteRussian) is not supported. This has been tested on a Windows XP and Linux host-system.

1. Using prebuilt images

Download the free VMware Player (recommended and enough for most users) or Server from VMware and install it
Download a precompiled Kamikaze for x86-2.6 and create a VMware image from it (you need qemu-img (part of the qemu package on Debian and Ubuntu): qemu-img convert -f raw openwrt-x86-2.6-ext2.image -O vmdk openwrt-x86-2.6-ext2.vmdk (You can also get the resulting file from openwrt-x86-2.6-ext2.vmdk (4.3MB) or zipped version at openwrt-x86-2.6-ext2_VMware-image.zip (1.8MB))
Get the VMware configuration file from here and store it in the same directory as the vmdk image.
Open the vmx file with VMWare Player (or simply double click on it)

You can access via VMware, or via serial: On a Windows host-system the virtual serial console is accessible e.g. using PuTTY connected to \\.\pipe\com_1 @ 115200 8n1 (N.B.: I do not know if the baud rate of 115200 is still correct). You can also ssh to openwrt (run 'passwd' beforehand in the vmware, Usually you need to run "udhcpc -i eth0" to get an IP from your local network)

2. Doing it yourself

2.1. Building your own image

To build your own Kamikaze VMware image you need a OpenWrt development environment (with qemu-img (part of the qemu package on Debian and Ubuntu) installed on the Linux host-system to convert the image):

check out with 'svn co https://svn.openwrt.org/openwrt/trunk/' (or download the stable kamikaze 7.06 release)
After applying the patches run 'make menuconfig' and select:
- Target System (x86 [2.6])
- Target Profile (VMware image)
- Target Images
  - [ ] jffs2 <-- N
  - [ ] squashfs <-- N
  - (115200) Serial port baud rate
  - (128) Filesystem part size (in MB)
- Kernel Modules
  - Network Devices
    - kmod-e1000 (the vmware network interfaces need this)
run 'make' to build the x86 image (which ends up in bin/openwrt-x86-2.6-ext2.image)
qemu-img convert -f raw openwrt-x86-2.6-ext2.image -O vmdk openwrt-x86-2.6-ext2.vmdk (you need qemu-img (part of the qemu package on Debian and Ubuntu)

2.2. Creating the VMware configuration file

The openwrt-x86-2.6-ext2.vmx file can also simply be downloaded from above. Anyway, it was creating at http://www.easyvmx.com with the following settings:

Basic Configuration
- Virtual Machine Name: OpenWrt Kamikaze (x86-2.6)
- Select GuestOS: Generic Linux 2.6.x
- Memory Size: 128 MB
Network Configuration
- Ethernet0:
  - Enabled: checked
  - Connection Type: Bridged
  - VirtualDevice Intel(R) Pro/1000
- Ethernet1:
  - Enabled: checked
  - Connection Type: Bridged
  - VirtualDevice Intel(R) Pro/1000
Disk Configuration
- SCSI: Disable SCSI
- IDE0:Master:
  - Enabled: checked
  - File Name / Floppy Device: openwrt-x86-2.6-ext2.vmdk
  - Start Connected: checked
  - WriteThru: checked
  - Autodetect Name: checked
Other Configuration Options
- VMWare Tools: Don't Remind to Install VMWare Tools
- Startup Hints: Hide Startup Hints
- USB: Disable USB
- LPT1: Disable LPT1
- Soundcard: No soundcard support
- Logging: Disable Logging

You have to make a few changes to the generated vmx file:

+serial0.fileType = "pipe"
-serial0.fileName = "COM1"
+serial0.fileName = "\\.\pipe\com_1"
+serial0.pipe.endPoint = "server"
+floppy0.present = "FALSE"

Save the file to openwrt-x86-2.6-ext2.vmx in the same folder as your VMware vmdk image file.

When you've done all that open the vmx file with VMWare Player (or simply double click on it) and have fun.

3. Questions

Please use this forum thread to get help.