How To: Install VMware Tools in Ubuntu
I’m testing VMware Workstation 15 on my new laptop these days, and thought it’s a great opportunity to finally test and document the procedures for installing and upgrading VMware Tools.
Install VMware Tools for a VM
Kick off the VMware Tools install
Preferably when VM is shutdown, select the VMware Workstation menu to install the VMware Tools. Would still work even if VM is online like shown below:
Log in and mount the virtual CD that has VMware Tools
Unpack the VMware Tools
This will show a lot of files, but I’m just showing you the first few lines of the output:
root@ubuntu:/mnt# cd /tmp root@ubuntu:/tmp# tar xvf /mnt/VMwareTools-10.3.2-9925305.tar.gz vmware-tools-distrib/ vmware-tools-distrib/bin/ vmware-tools-distrib/bin/vm-support vmware-tools-distrib/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl vmware-tools-distrib/bin/vmware-uninstall-tools.pl vmware-tools-distrib/vgauth/ vmware-tools-distrib/vgauth/schemas/ vmware-tools-distrib/vgauth/schemas/xmldsig-core-schema.xsd vmware-tools-distrib/vgauth/schemas/XMLSchema.xsd ...
Run the VMware Tools installer
root@ubuntu:/tmp# cd vmware-tools-distrib/ root@ubuntu:/tmp/vmware-tools-distrib# ls bin caf doc etc FILES INSTALL installer lib vgauth vmware-install.pl root@ubuntu:/tmp/vmware-tools-distrib# ./vmware-install.pl The installer has detected an existing installation of open-vm-tools packages on this system and will not attempt to remove and replace these user-space applications. It is recommended to use the open-vm-tools packages provided by the operating system. If you do not want to use the existing installation of open-vm-tools packages and use VMware Tools, you must uninstall the open-vm-tools packages and re-run this installer. The packages that need to be removed are: open-vm-tools Packages must be removed with the --purge option. The installer will next check if there are any missing kernel drivers. Type yes if you want to do this, otherwise type no [yes] INPUT: [yes] default Creating a new VMware Tools installer database using the tar4 format. Installing VMware Tools. In which directory do you want to install the binary files? [/usr/bin] INPUT: [/usr/bin] default What is the directory that contains the init directories (rc0.d/ to rc6.d/)? [/etc] INPUT: [/etc] default What is the directory that contains the init scripts? [/etc/init.d] INPUT: [/etc/init.d] default In which directory do you want to install the daemon files? [/usr/sbin] INPUT: [/usr/sbin] default In which directory do you want to install the library files? [/usr/lib/vmware-tools] INPUT: [/usr/lib/vmware-tools] default The path "/usr/lib/vmware-tools" does not exist currently. This program is going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want? [yes] INPUT: [yes] default In which directory do you want to install the documentation files? [/usr/share/doc/vmware-tools] INPUT: [/usr/share/doc/vmware-tools] default The path "/usr/share/doc/vmware-tools" does not exist currently. This program is going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want? [yes] INPUT: [yes] default The installation of VMware Tools 10.3.2 build-9925305 for Linux completed successfully. You can decide to remove this software from your system at any time by invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-uninstall-tools.pl". Before running VMware Tools for the first time, you need to configure it by invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl". Do you want this program to invoke the command for you now? [yes] INPUT: [yes] default You have chosen to install VMware Tools on top of an open-vm-tools package. You will now be given the option to replace some commands provided by open-vm-tools. Please note that if you replace any commands at this time and later remove VMware Tools, it may be necessary to re-install the open-vm-tools. WARNING: It appears your system is missing the required /usr/bin/vmhgfs-fuse Initializing... Making sure services for VMware Tools are stopped. Stopping VMware Tools services in the virtual machine: VMware User Agent (vmware-user): done Unmounting HGFS shares: done Guest filesystem driver: done The module vmci has already been installed on this system by another installer or package and will not be modified by this installer. The module vsock has already been installed on this system by another installer or package and will not be modified by this installer. The module vmxnet3 has already been installed on this system by another installer or package and will not be modified by this installer. The module pvscsi has already been installed on this system by another installer or package and will not be modified by this installer. The module vmmemctl has already been installed on this system by another installer or package and will not be modified by this installer. The VMware Host-Guest Filesystem allows for shared folders between the host OS and the guest OS in a Fusion or Workstation virtual environment. Do you wish to enable this feature? [yes] INPUT: [yes] default The vmxnet driver is no longer supported on kernels 3.3 and greater. Please upgrade to a newer virtual NIC. (e.g., vmxnet3 or e1000e) VMware automatic kernel modules enables automatic building and installation of VMware kernel modules at boot that are not already present. This feature can be enabled/disabled by re-running vmware-config-tools.pl. Would you like to enable VMware automatic kernel modules? [yes] INPUT: [yes] default Creating a new initrd boot image for the kernel. update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-116-generic The configuration of VMware Tools 10.3.2 build-9925305 for Linux for this running kernel completed successfully. Enjoy, --the VMware team Found VMware Tools CDROM mounted at /mnt. Ejecting device /dev/sr0 ... umount: /mnt: target is busy (In some cases useful info about processes that use the device is found by lsof(8) or fuser(1).) /usr/bin/eject: unmount of `/mnt' failed Eject Failed: If possible manually eject the Tools installer from the guest cdrom mounted at /mnt before canceling tools install on the host.
Reboot the VM and check VMware Tools kernel modules
Finally, reboot the VM and check that VMware Tools modules are loaded:
That’s it, let me know if you want me to answer any other questions!