Installing VMware Tools in Debian GNU/Linux 5.0

Bill Giannikos (Home Page)

In this guide we will be going through the process of correctly installing VMware Tools in Debian GNU/Linux 5.0. This guide assumes you have already installed VMware Workstation, have installed Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 as a guest and have installed all the latest system updates for the guest.

To begin, unmount and eject any CD/DVD currently connected to your guest. If you have a CD/DVD mounted to your guest you will see a CD icon on your desktop, just right click on this and press eject.

Now in VMware Workstation go up to the VM menu item and then select “Install VMware Tools…”. You will now see a screen open in the guest however we do not need this screen so it can be closed.

We now need a terminal window to enter a few commands. Go to “Applications” at the top left of your guest, then “Accessories” and then click on “Terminal”.

In the terminal type in the following lines:

su -
cd /tmp
tar -xzvf /media/cdrom/*tar.gz
cd vmware-tools-distrib
./vmware-install.pl

The first line will ask for your password, type it in and press enter.

You will now be asked a few installation questions from the VMware Tools installer. Nearly all the default options are correct so you can just press enter for each question except for the last one which asks if you would like to invoke the ”/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl” program. Type in no for this question and press enter. The installation of VMware Tools is now complete and now can be configured.

First we need to install the building packages. You may already have these installed but it would to no harm to use these commands just to make sure.

If you don't have a terminal open then we will need one. Go to “Applications” at the top left of your guest, then “Accessories” and then click on “Terminal”.

Now run the following commands, if you have already run “su -” from the previous section then you may skip that line.

apt-get install build-essential module-assistant
m-a update
m-a prepare

Now comes time to initiate the VMware tools configuration utility. This part can get tricky as at time of writing you need to patch the configuration program so it properly installs in Debian GNU/Linux 5.0. However a future update to VMware Workstation or Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 may alleviate this issue. To work around this we will just go ahead and run the configuration program and then if it fails we will patch it.

Again in the terminal window type in the following two commands:

export CC=/usr/bin/gcc-4.1
vmware-config-tools.pl

Like the installation program above, you can press enter to all the options except when you get down to the display size option. If you are planning to use your guest in full screen mode then select the same display resolution that Windows is currently using. Otherwise select any resolution you want your guest to run at. To select your resolution, see the corresponding number next to the resolution you want on the list of resolutions you are presented with. Type this number in and press enter.

During the configuration process make special note when you see “vsock” being installed. If this fails to install follow the next section to patch the configuration program.

If everything works correctly then restart your computer and you will be using VMware Tools.

If the “vsock” section failed to install then we will need to patch the configuration program. To do this type in the following:

cd /tmp
wget http://www.linlap.com/wiki/_media/vmware-config-tools.pl.patch
cd /
patch -p1 < /tmp/vmware-config-tools.pl.patch

You are now ready to rerun the configuration program again, just follow the “Running the VMware tools configuration program” section above.

VMware Tools is now installed and your guest is fully configured to run as a virtual machine. Please note however that if Debian release an updated kernel you will need to follow the “Running the VMware tools configuration program” section again.