Installing VMware Tools in Ubuntu 9.04

Bill Giannikos (Home Page)

In this guide we will be going through the process of correctly installing VMware Tools in Ubuntu 9.04. This guide assumes you have already installed VMware Workstation, have installed Ubuntu 9.04 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”.

We now need to install the required building packages. In the terminal type in the following:

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`

Answer Yes to any questions asked.

Next type in the following lines:

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

The last line here 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 and the mouse module for VMWare. Type in the following command:

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r` xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse

You will likely be asked your password, type it in now and press enter. You will then be asked if you would like to continue, press enter.

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 Ubuntu 9.04. However a future update to VMware Workstation or Ubuntu 9.04 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 (and enter your password if requested).

sudo vmware-config-tools.pl

Like the installation program above, you can press enter to all the options.

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

If the “vmhgfs” section failed to install then we will need to patch the configuration program. We have already prepared a patched package for you so all you need to do is type in the following. Please note that this is only for VMWare Workstation 6.5.2, this guide will be updated if newer releases still require it.

cd /tmp
wget http://www.linwik.com/files/vmhgfs.tar
sudo mv vmhgfs.tar /usr/lib/vmware-tools/modules/source/

You may be asked for your password on the last command, enter it if needed.

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

To complete the installation we need to tell Ubuntu to load VMware tools on startup.

Go up to “System” at the top of your screen, then select “Preferences” and then click on “Startup Applications”.

You will now be presented with this window. Click on the “Add” button.

You will be presented with the “Add Startup Program” window. Enter the details as they appear in the screenshot above, with the name being VMWare Tools and the command being /usr/bin/vmware-user, then click on “Add”. Then click on “Close” on the Startup Applications window.

And finally restart your computer.

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