Installing VMWare Tools on Ubuntu

by admin on January 7, 2011

Last updated January 7, 2011

After installing the operating system on your new virtual machine (VM) you need to update all the system packages and then install VMware tools.

Log into the vSphere server using the VMware vSphere client.

While you can run most of these commands via ssh or from a VNC session we recommend using the VMware server Console. During the install process VMware tools replaces the network driver in the guest VM. When this occurs you are disconnected from your session with processes still running, leaving your VM in an unstable state.

Power on the your VM

Click on the tab marked Console

Once your VM has completely booted

Connecting the VMware tools package to your VM from the console window.

This option is located on the Inventory button on the top left side of the page
Inventory -> Virtual Machine -> Guest -> Install/Upgrade VMware Tools

ADD SCREEN SHOT HERE

Now click your mouse inside the window of your VM console

Log in to your VM

Open a terminal
From the command line:

To get the most recent package versions stored into cache run:
sudo apt-get update

To install new versions of Ubuntu system packages
sudo apt-get upgrade

Once you have a completely up to date OS you can install the packages that are needed to build the VMware tools kernel modules:

  • autoconf
  • automake
  • binutils
  • make
  • cpp
  • gcc
  • linux-headers-(your-kernel-version)

    • These must match the kernel version you are running!

    To install these packages run:
    sudo apt-get install autoconf automake binutils make cpp gcc linux-headers-$(uname -r)

    On Server installs first run:
    sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
    then follow the instructions for desktop installs

    Go to the cdrom directory
    cd /media/cdrom

    Copy the vmware tar file to /var/tmp
    sudo cp VMware-tools-(VERSION-NUMBER).tar.gz /var/tmp”

    Go to the directory you coped the VMware tools to:
    cd /var/tmp

    Untar vmware tools
    sudo tar zxvf VMware-tools-(VERSION-NUMBER).tar.gz

    cd to the newly extracted directory
    cd /var/tmp/vmware-tools-distrib

    Begin the install process
    sudo vmware-install.pl

    Follow the on screen directions accepting all the default responses

    re boot the guest os and enjoy!