Tag Archives: Ubuntu

How To Install VMWare Tools v4 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Server

Leave a reply

Today I was faced the challenge of installing VMware Tools on a Ubuntu server via command line.  I stumbled accross a step-by-step tutorial on the exact steps to accomplish this task.  I am reposting for archival purposes, but all credit goes to @justinschier from http://ghosttx.com/2012/03/how-to-install-vmware-tools-v4-on-ubuntu-11-10-server/

Written: March 13, 2012
Last Updated: April 27, 2012
Tested With: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Server, Ubuntu 11.10 Server

All the guides I found on the Internet, including VMWare’s website were outdated in some way, so I decided to write a guide of my own. I just went through these steps from start to finish on a fresh server and had no problems.

  1. Use Install VMWare Tools option in VMWare Client/Console to attach media
  2. Update the server
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get upgrade
  3. Create the mount point
    sudo mkdir -p /media/cdrom
  4. Mount the ISO
    sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom

    You should see the message: mount: block device /dev/sr0 is write-protected, mounting read-only

  5. Change Directory
    cd /media/cdrom
  6. Copy the tar file to your /tmp directory
    sudo cp VM*.tar.gz /tmp
  7. Install Build tools if necessary
    sudo apt-get install linux-headers-server build-essential
  8. Change Directory
    cd /tmp
  9. Unmount the ISO
    sudo umount /media/cdrom
  10. Expand the tar
    sudo tar xzvf VM*.tar.gz
  11. Change Directory
    cd vmware-tools-distrib
  12. To prevent a potential error in the install script on Ubuntu 11.10, create a special directory
    Unable to create symlink “/usr/lib64/libvmcf.so” pointing to file ”/usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64/libvmcf.so/libvmcf.so”.

    sudo mkdir /usr/lib64
  13. Run the Install Script. The -d flag automatically answers the default to all questions. To customize it, just omit the -d.
    sudo ./vmware-install.pl -d
  14. Reboot
    sudo reboot

Let me know if this worked for you!

Also, please follow me on Twitter: @justinschier

Errors From Package Manager in Ubuntu 11.10

Leave a reply

Getting the following message from Package Manager in Ubuntu 11.10?

Requires installation of untrusted packages
The action would require the installation of packages from not authenticated sources.

And when you click on the Details dropdown it shows all of the packages that need to downloaded?

Run the following commands:

cd /var/lib/apt
sudo mv lists lists.old
sudo mkdir -p lists/partial
sudo apt-get update

These commands will save a backup of the old lists and then create a new lists folder.

More information can be found here.