Make sure you have updated version
Type the following apt-get command or apt command:
$ sudo apt-get update
OR as root user enter:
# apt-get update
Search for kernel version (optional)
Type the following apt-cache command :
$ apt-cache search linux-headers-$(uname -r)
OR
$ apt search linux-headers-$(uname -r)
Sample outputs:
Sorting... Done Full Text Search... Done linux-headers-4.9.0-3-amd64/testing,now 4.9.30-2 amd64 [installed] Header files for Linux 4.9.0-3-amd64
Install linux-header package under Debian or Ubuntu Linux
Type the following apt-get command:
$ sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
Here is output from the latest Debian 9:
Fig.01: Installing the Linux kernel header using apt-get
# apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
Sample outputs from older system:
Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required: libftdi1 Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them. The following extra packages will be installed: binutils cpp-4.3 gcc-4.3 gcc-4.3-base libc-dev-bin libc6-dev libgmp3c2 libgomp1 libmpfr4 linux-headers-2.6.32-5-common linux-kbuild-2.6.32 linux-libc-dev manpages-dev Suggested packages: binutils-doc gcc-4.3-locales gcc-4.3-multilib libmudflap0-4.3-dev gcc-4.3-doc libgcc1-dbg libgomp1-dbg libmudflap0-dbg glibc-doc Recommended packages: gcc c-compiler The following NEW packages will be installed: binutils cpp-4.3 gcc-4.3 gcc-4.3-base libc-dev-bin libc6-dev libgmp3c2 libgomp1 libmpfr4 linux-headers-2.6.32-5-amd64 linux-headers-2.6.32-5-common linux-kbuild-2.6.32 linux-libc-dev manpages-dev 0 upgraded, 14 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 20.8 MB of archives. After this operation, 68.9 MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y .... ..
Once installed you can compile modules for VMWare or VirtualBox or anything else you needed. Also make sure you install GNU GCC compiler collection on Debian/Ubuntu Linux:
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential
See apt-get(8) page for more information.