Install VMware Tools on Ubuntu Guests

I’ve been playing more and more with virtualization lately. Partly in testing Ubuntu alpha and beta releases but also testing the folding project installer and compatibility with multiple distributions. You may have seen my previous tutorials on installing VMware Server on Ubuntu 7.04 or installing VMware Server on Ubuntu 7.10. This tutorial should maintain compatibility with either host (servers running 7.04 or 7.10) in installing vmware tools within the Ubuntu guests.

Install The Compiler Tools

You’ll need to install a few packages in order to compile the latest VMware Tools. These steps are done within the Ubuntu virtual guest:

sudo aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Install VMware Tools

Next you need to tell VMware Server that you’d like to install the VMware Tools. This is done by clicking on VM > Install VMware Tools… in the VMware Server menu running on the host. This must be done while the virtual Ubuntu guest is already running.

This will load a virtual CDROM within your virtualized Ubuntu guest. You may see a window pop-up within the guest. You can close this as we’ll be compiling the VMware Tools on the command line.

Open a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and use the following commands. It should be safe to copy-paste:

sudo aptitude update

sudo aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)

cp -a /media/cdrom/VMwareTools* /tmp/

cd /tmp/

tar -vxzf VMwareTools*.gz

cd vmware-tools-distrib/

sudo ./vmware-install.pl

Simply select all the defaults (press ENTER) at the prompts and before you know it you’ll have VMware Tools installed on the virtual Ubuntu guests. The only prompt I had to make a different selection on in my machines was the video resolution.

note: considering we are compiling the tools for the current running version of the kernel these steps may need to be retaken if the virtualized Ubuntu guest upgrades its kernel.