Unable to create the symbolic link when installing VMware Tools in Linux

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

When installing or updating VMware Tools in a Linux virtual machine, you experience these symptoms:

• The symbolic links do not get created
• You see one of these errors:
  • Unable to create symbolic link "/usr/lib/vmware-tools/bin"
  • Unable to create symbolic link "/usr/lib/vmware-tools/libconf"
  • Unable to create symbolic link "/usr/lib64/libvmcf.so"

Environment

VMware Workstation Pro 15.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation Player 12.x (Linux)
VMware Player 3.x (Windows )
VMware Workstation Player 14.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Windows)
VMware Workstation Player 14.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 8.x (Linux)
VMware Player 5.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 7.x (Linux)
VMware Player Pro 7.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Player 15.x (Linux)
VMware Player 7.x (Windows)
VMware Player 3.x (Linux)
VMware Fusion 4.x
VMware Fusion Pro 8.x
VMware Workstation Pro 15.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Pro 14.x (for Windows)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Windows)
VMware Fusion 5.x
VMware Workstation Player 15.x (Windows)
VMware Fusion 6.x
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Linux)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Windows)
VMware Fusion Pro 10.x
VMware Player 4.x (Linux)
VMware Fusion 3.x
VMware Player 5.x (Windows)
VMware Player 6.x (Linux)
VMware Fusion 7.x
VMware Workstation Player 12.x (Windows)
VMware Player 6.x (Windows)
VMware Player 7.x (Linux)
VMware Player Pro 7.x (Windows)
VMware Player 4.x (Windows)
VMware Fusion 10.x
VMware Fusion 8.x
VMware Workstation Pro 14.x (for Linux)

Cause

This issue occurs if the installer fails to remove the existing directory before attempting to create a symlink.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, manually remove the existing directories and then run the VMware Tools installer again.

To remove the directories, open the Terminal window and run these commands:

sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/vmware-tools/libconf
sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/vmware-tools/bin

To resolve the error Unable to create symbolic link "/usr/lib64/libvmcf.so", you must manually create the /usr/lib64 directory.

 

To manually create the directory, run this command in the Terminal:

 

sudo mkdir /usr/lib64

 

For more information on installing VMware Tools, see General VMware Tools installation instructions (1014294).

 

For more information on using a compiler, see Installing VMware Tools in a Linux virtual machine using a Compiler (1018414).

Additional Information

How to install VMware Tools
Installing VMware Tools in a Linux virtual machine using a Compiler