Installing VMware Tools from the Linux CLI

This posting outlines the steps required to install VMware Tools in a Linux environment. Specifically, it lists the commands that should be issued at the command line to mount the VMware Tools CD-ROM image, unpack, and then install the VMware Tools tarball.

While these steps should work in almost any Linux environment, I created them using the Linux Mint OS. Mint is a fork of the Ubuntu project. Ubuntu has its roots in Debian. Check out the Linux Mint OS if you are looking for a friendly Linux GUI.

The only caveat that should be observed is that some Linux distributions will auto-mount the CD-ROM image. If your distribution does auto-mount, than disregard the steps that involve the mount and umount commands.

How to install VMware Tools in a Linux environment

Steps:

• Power on the virtual machine. When the machine boots up, you should see a pop-up like the one below. Click ‘Install Tools‘

** If you don’t get the pop-up, you can tell VMware you’d like to install VMware tools. In Workstation 9, the command is found by clicking:

Workstation Menu > VM > Install VMware Tools

The pop-up should change, and look similar to the one below.

• Skip this step if your distribution auto-mounts – Mount the CD-ROM:

# mkdir /dev/cdrom/
# mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

• Determine if a previous installation exists. If it does, remove the files associated with the old installation. The default installation location is /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib. If you do find files here, issue the following command to remove them:

# rm -rf /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib

• Now it is time to untar VMware tools. Issue the following two commands:

  # cd /tmp
  # tar zxpf /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-‘x.x.x-xxxx’.tar.gz
  ‘x.x.x-xxxx’ is the VMware version number. The easiest way to untar the proper file, is to use the ‘Tab’ auto-fill command after you type ‘VMwareTools’.
  ** If this command fails, unmount the CDROM, restart the VM, and try again.

• Skip this step if your distribution auto-mounts – Unmount the CD-ROM:

  # umount /dev/cdrom

• Run VMware Tools install script:

  # ./vmware-tools-distrib/vmware-install.pl
  You will now be asked a series of questions. If this is the first time installing VMware Tools, just press ‘Enter’ to accept the defaults.

• Restart your virtual machine

  # shutdown now -r

There you have it! Enjoy using VMware Tools.

Materials used

1. VMware Workstation Version: 9.0.3

2. Host Machine OS: Windows 7

3. VM OS: Linux Mint 17 64-bit edition

4. VM Devices: Memory 1 GB, Processors 1, Hardisk 20 GB, Network Adapter (x1) (NAT)

5. References: VMware Tools Installation Guide