So I found out that a google group has been started (for a while already) where the any-any updates are posted. http://groups.google.com/group/vmkernelnewbies/files I upgraded the Kernel to 2.6.24.3-34.fc8 and it broked vmware, so the vmware-any-any-116 seems to have done the trick (NOT the any-any-116-bridge-wireless).

So from 1.1 to 1.2, validation changed too. Apparently 'alphaNumeric' validation is just that (26 letters, and 10 arabic numerals). The following worked for a required field, which could not be left blank, but would allow spaces and alphanums:

'fieldName' => array( 
	'rule' => array('custom', '/^[a-z0-9 ]*$/i'), 
	'required' => true, 
	'allowEmpty' => false )