For Linux virtual machines, you manually install or upgrade VMware Tools by using the command line.
Prerequisites
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Power on the virtual machine.
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Verify that the guest operating system is running.
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Because the VMware Tools installer is written in Perl, verify that Perl is installed in the guest operating system.
Procedure
- On the host, from the Workstation Pro menu bar, select VM > Install VMware Tools.
If an earlier version of VMware Tools is installed, the menu item is Update VMware Tools.
- In the virtual machine, log in to the guest operating system as root and open a terminal window.
- Run the mount command with no arguments to determine whether your Linux distribution automatically mounted the VMware Tools virtual CD-ROM image.
If the CD-ROM device is mounted, the CD-ROM device and its mount point are listed as something like this:
/dev/cdrom on /mnt/cdrom type iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev)
- If the VMware Tools virtual CD-ROM image is not mounted, mount the CD-ROM drive.
- If a mount point directory does not already exist, create it.
mkdir /mnt/cdrom
Some Linux distributions use different mount point names. For example, on some distributions the mount point is /media/VMware Tools rather than /mnt/cdrom. Modify the command to reflect the conventions that your distribution uses.
- Mount the CD-ROM drive.
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
Some Linux distributions use different device names or organize the /dev directory differently. If your CD-ROM drive is not /dev/cdrom or if the mount point for a CD-ROM is not /mnt/cdrom, modify the command to reflect the conventions that your distribution uses.
- If a mount point directory does not already exist, create it.
- Change to a working directory, for example, /tmp.
cd /tmp
- Delete any previous vmware-tools-distrib directory before you install VMware Tools.
The location of this directory depends on where you placed it during the previous installation. Often this directory is placed in /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib.
- List the contents of the mount point directory and note the filename of the VMware Tools tar installer.
ls mount-point
- Uncompress the installer.
tar zxpf /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-x.x.x-yyyy.tar.gz
The value x.x.x is the product version number, and yyyy is the build number of the product release.
If you attempt to install a tar installation over an RPM installation, or the reverse, the installer detects the previous installation and must convert the installer database format before continuing.
- If necessary, unmount the CD-ROM image.
umount /dev/cdrom
If your Linux distribution automatically mounted the CD-ROM, you do not need to unmount the image.
- Run the installer and configure VMware Tools.
cd vmware-tools-distrib ./vmware-install.pl
Usually, the vmware-config-tools.pl configuration file runs after the installer file finishes running.
- Follow the prompts to accept the default values, if appropriate for your configuration.
- Follow the instructions at the end of the script.
Depending on the features you use, these instructions can include restarting the X session, restarting networking, logging in again, and starting the VMware User process. You can alternatively reboot the guest operating system to accomplish all these tasks.