VMware Tools installation fails to start the guest operating system daemon on 64-bit Linux Guest Operating Systems with the 32-bit glibc-common package installed

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

VMware Tools require the 64-bit ldd (list dynamic dependencies) utility to configure the guest operating system daemon. The ldd utility requires the 64-bit glibc-common (GNU C common library) package to be installed. However, if the 32-bit glibc-common package is installed to overwrite the 64-bit glibc-common package, VMware Tools configuration fails to find the correct libraries for the guest operating system daemon.

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Installable
VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable

Resolution

The best practice is to install the 64-bit glibc-common package, not the 32-bit glibc-common package. However, if the 32-bit glibc-common package is required, perform this task.

Note: Certain applications, such as versions of Oracle, require the installation of the 32-bit glibc-common package. Therefore, re-installation of the 64-bit glibc-common package might cause such applications on 64-bit Linux operating systems to fail.

The workaround given is only for the installation and function of VMware Tools and should not interfere with or interrupt the operation of those applications.

1. Install VMware Tools, but do not run the vmware-config-tools.pl configuration program.
2. Link the necessary libraries. For example, these commands are appropriate when using the default installation paths:
   ln –s /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64/libdnet.so.1/libdnet.so.1 /lib64/libdnet.so.1
   ln –s /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64/libproc-3.2.7.so/libproc-3.2.7.so /lib64/libproc-3.2.7.so
   
   Note: Running chmod file_name 755 may be required on the lib files to complete the installation.
   
   
3. Run the vmware-config-tools.pl configuration program. For example:
   /usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl
   
   The paths /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64 and /usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl refer to the default installation paths. If you specify custom paths during installation, use those customized paths for the preceding task.

Additional Information
For translated versions of this article, see:

日本語: 32 ビット版 glibc-common パッケージがインストールされている 64 ビット版 Linux ゲスト OS で、VMware Tools のインストール時にゲスト OS デーモンの起動に失敗する (2101083)

简体中文: VMware Tools 安装无法在安装了 32 位 glibc-common 软件包的 64 位 Linux 客户机操作系统上启动客户机操作系统守护进程 (2113265)

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