After applying a whole load of ubuntu updates, vmware server console wouldn't work - it would try to start then just quit with no error message. After a quick msn chat with netsight linux guru scott (in foreground), It turns out that one of the updates I had applied was a kernel update. to fix vmware I needed to download the new kernel headers:

# aptitude install linux-headers-`uname -r`

then run the vmware server config again:

# sudo ./vmware-config.pl

I accepted all the defaults, and now it is working fine again :-)