Symptom: You see the following permissions error when trying to install VMware Tools on a Linux OS regardless if you are running as su or root:
[root@localhost vmware-tools-distrib]# ./vmware-install.pl
Creating a new VMware Tools installer database using the tar4 format.Installing VMware Tools.
In which directory do you want to install the binary files?
[/usr/bin]What is the directory that contains the init directories (rc0.d/ to rc6.d/)?
[/etc/rc.d]What is the directory that contains the init scripts?
[/etc/rc.d/init.d]In which directory do you want to install the daemon files?
[/usr/sbin]In which directory do you want to install the library files?
[/usr/lib/vmware-tools]The path "/usr/lib/vmware-tools" does not exist currently. This program is
going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want?
[yes]In which directory do you want to install the documentation files?
[/usr/share/doc/vmware-tools]
The path "/usr/share/doc/vmware-tools" does not exist currently. This program
is going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you
want? [yes]The installation of VMware Tools 9.0.5 build-1137270 for Linux completed
successfully. You can decide to remove this software from your system at any
time by invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-uninstall-tools.pl".Can't exec "/usr/lib/vmware-tools/bin/configure-gtk.sh": Permission denied at ./vmware-install.pl line 3955.
Before running VMware Tools for the first time, you need to configure it by
invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl". Do you want
this program to invoke the command for you now? [yes]sh: /usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl: Permission denied
/sbin/restorecon: Warning no default label for /tmp/vmware-block-restore0/tmp_file
[root@localhost vmware-tools-distrib]#
Solution: You need to extract the files from the tarball when installing the guest tools via the tar command rather than the build in Archive Manager installed with the OS.
- Mount the VMware Tools to the VM
- Copy the VMware Tools tarball to the desktop of the Linux OS
- Execute the following command to extract the tar's contents
- tar -zxvf VMwareTools-9.0.5-1137270.tar.gz
- Change directories to the vmware-tools-distrib that was just extracted from the tarball and execute the following commands to begin the installation
- cd vmware-tools-distrib
- ./vmware-install.pl
Thank you for ending a several-hour headache for me. I had this exact issue, though mine was caused by lazily unpacking the tarball in the GUI instead of the command line, which I think was screwing up the execute permission bits.
Yeah, I did the same thing at first too, really annoying it doesn't work through the GUI! Glad to hear this helped! 🙂
Great Solution! I can't thank you in words. Spend the last 3 days sorting out what the heck was wrong. Thanks! Once agian.
Thanks Jack, I'd been stuck for days with this one.
You may hit another issue when trying to reinstall with an error "unistallation of previous install failed"
To fix this remove the /etc/vmware-tools/locations file and try again using "./vmware-install.pl --default"
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1013159
Thanks for the tip Al! 🙂
thanks this helped me
Cool! thank you