Problems Installing VMware Tools when the guest CD-ROM drive is locked

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

You are unable to install VMware Tools in an Ubuntu or Solaris guest when the guest CD-ROM drive is locked. The contents of the VMware Tools ISO image seem wrong or corrupted. 

Environment

• VMware ESX Server 3.0.x
• VMware Workstation 6.x (Windows)
• VMware Workstation 6.x (Linux)

Resolution

With some guest operating systems, including Ubuntu Linux and Solaris, you might encounter problems installing VMware Tools when the guest CD-ROM drive is locked. The guest is prevented from noticing media changes and thus reading the VMware Tools ISO image in the guest's virtual CD-ROM drive.

To work around this problem:

Eject the CD-ROM from within the guest and retry the VMware Tools installation.

• In Ubuntu Linux and Solaris, right-click the CD-ROM icon and select Eject.
• In Solaris, you can also use the eject command from the command line prompt. For details, see the page for the eject command (man eject).