Upgrading VMware Tools using the /usr/lib/vmware-tools/sbin/vmware-tools-upgrader command fails with a segmentation fault error

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Attempts to upgrade the VMware Tools with the /usr/lib/vmware-tools/sbin/vmware-tools-upgrader command in a Linux virtual machine fails with a segmentation fault and the VMware Tools are not upgraded.

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded

Resolution

To workaround this issue without uninstalling the existing version of VMware Tools, you must upgrade to the latest version of vmware-tools-upgrader binary by following these steps:

1. Locate the existing vmware-tools-upgrader binary at:
   
   
   • For 32-bit Linux guests - /usr/lib/vmware-tools/sbin32/vmware-tools-upgrader
     
   • For 64-bit Linux guests - /usr/lib/vmware-tools/sbin64/vmware-tools-upgrader
   
   
2. Replace with the newer version of the vmware-tools-upgrader binary located at:
   
   
   • For 32-bit Linux guests - vmware-tools-distrib/lib/sbin32/vmware-tools-upgrader
     
   • For 64-bit Linux guests - vmware-tools-distrib/lib/sbin64/vmware-tools-upgrader
   
   
3. Run the vmware-tools-upgrader for VMware Tools upgrade.