The problem:
Attempting to run VMware workstation 9.0.2 on Mageia 3 produces the following:
$ vmware
Logging to /tmp/vmware-mpb/vmware-modconfig-9756.log
filename: /lib/modules/3.8.13.4-server-1.mga3/misc/vmmon.ko
supported: external
license: GPL v2
description: VMware Virtual Machine Monitor.
author: VMware, Inc.
srcversion: 720B99362854B538D7E9A9A
depends:
vermagic: 3.8.13.4-server-1.mga3 SMP mod_unload modversions
PANIC /build/mts/release/bora-1031769/bora/lib/unicode/unicodeCommon.c:330
Aborted
The solution:
# mv /etc/vmware/icu/icudt44l.dat /etc/vmware/icu/icudt44l.dat.bak
Reference on Mageia bugs system: https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9739