Installing VMware Tools in an Ubuntu Virtual Machine
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Installing VMware Tools in an Ubuntu Virtual Machine

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Article ID: 315313

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Updated On:

Products

VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

This article provides the steps to install VMware Tools in an Ubuntu virtual machine.

Note: Whenever the Operating System (Linux Kernel) is updated, VMware Tools must be reinstalled.

For Ubuntu 14.x and above we recommend using Open-VM-Tools. Refer to the article VMware support for open-vm-tools for more details.

Resolution

Table of Contents

Process to Install VMware Tools in an Ubuntu Virtual Machine for Version Ubuntu 12.x and before:

VMware Tool in Ubuntu virtual machine can be installed by following graphical user interface or using command line interface.

To install VMware Tools, the VMware Tools CD image must be mounted, the contents (VMware Tools) extracted, and then run the installer.

Note: If VMware Tools is already installed, use these steps to uninstall and then reinstall VMware Tools. When there is product updates, the VMware Tools package is also updated, so an update of the installed version of VMware Tools is required.

Install VMware Tools in Ubuntu or Ubuntu Server with a graphical user interface:

Mount CD Image and Extract Contents:

  1. Power on the virtual machine.
  2. Log in to the virtual machine using an account with administrator or root privileges.
  3. Select:

    For Fusion: Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools.
    For Workstation: VM > Install VMware Tools.
    For Player: Player > Manage > Install VMware Tools.

    Note: When running the light version of Fusion, a version of Workstation without VMware Tools, or VMware Player, a prompt appears to download VMware Tools before they can be installed. Click Download Now to begin the download.
     
  4. Open the VMware Tools CD mounted on the Ubuntu desktop.
  5. Right-click the file name that is similar to VMwareTools.#.#.#-####.tar.gz, click Copy, and select Ubuntu Desktop to copy the file.
  6. Right-click the file name that is similar to VMwareTools.#.#.#-####.tar.gz on the Ubuntu Desktop, click Extract here.

    The vmware-tools-distrib folder is extracted to the Ubuntu Desktop.

Install VMware Tools in Ubuntu:

  1. Open a Terminal window. For more information, see Opening a command or shell prompt.
  2. In the Terminal, run this command to navigate to the vmware-tools-distrib folder:

    cd Desktop/vmware-tools-distrib
     
  3. Run this command to install VMware Tools:

    sudo ./vmware-install.pl

    Note:  Press Return to accept the defaults or supply answers needed.

    The Command " sudo chmod u+x vmware-install.pl " can be used to make the file executable.

  4. Enter the Ubuntu password.

  5. Restart the Ubuntu virtual machine after the VMware Tools installation completes.

Install VMware Tool in Ubuntu Server with only a command line interface:

  1. Go to Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools (or VM > Install VMware Tools).

    Note: Running the light version of Fusion, or a version of Workstation without VMware Tools, or VMware Player, a prompt to download the Tools before they can be installed. Click Download Now to begin the download.
     
  2. In the Ubuntu guest, run these commands:
     
    1. Run this command to create a directory to mount the CD-ROM:

      sudo mkdir /mnt/cdrom

      When prompted for a password, enter the Ubuntu admin user password.

      Note: For security reasons, the typed password is not displayed. The password is not needed again for the next five minutes.
       
    2. Run this command to mount the CD-ROM:

      sudo mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom or sudo mount /dev/sr0 /mnt/cdrom
       
    3. The file name of the VMware Tools bundle varies depending on the version of the VMware product. Run this command to find the exact name:

      ls /mnt/cdrom
       
    4. Run this command to extract the contents of the VMware Tools bundle:

      tar xzvf /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-#.#.#-####.tar.gz -C /tmp/

      Note: #.#.#-#### is the version discovered in the previous step.
       
    5. Run this command to change directories into the VMware Tools distribution:

      cd /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib/
       
    6. Run this command to install VMware Tools:

      sudo ./vmware-install.pl

      Note: Press Return to accept each default or supply answers needed.
       
  3. Run this command to reboot the virtual machine after the installation completes:

    sudo reboot

Additional Information

These are dependencies of VMware Tools. These packages must be available on the Linux operating system before installing VMware Tools.
 

  • gcc
  • binutils
  • make
  • kernel sources

For more information on VMware Tools, see:

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