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VMWare

1.   Introduction
2.   VMware Player
2.1   VMware Player 2.0.3 on Ubuntu 7.10
2.2   VMware Player 2.0.3 on Ubuntu 8.04
3.   VMware Server
3.1   VMware Server 1.04 on Ubuntu 7.10
3.2   VMware Server 1.05 on Ubuntu 7.10
3.3   VMware Server 1.06 on Ubuntu 8.04
3.4   VMWare Server 2.0 on Ubuntu 8.10
4.   Ubuntu Samba (Host) to Windows VMware (Guest)
5.   Uninstalling VMware

Introduction

I use VMware to test stuff. I know there are other visualisation tools out there, but for my needs it is the best tool for the job.

VMware Player

VMware Player is free to use and does not require any licenses. But is designed to "play" existing VMs and has no interface to create new VMs. However it is possible to work around that limitation by using EasyVMX.

VMware Player 2.0.3 on Ubuntu 7.10

 sudo aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`
 wget -c http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmplayer/VMware-player-2.0.3-80004.i386.tar.gz
 tar zxvf VMware-player-2.0.3-80004.i386.tar.gz
 cd vmware-player-distrib/
 sudo ./vmware-install.pl

If prompted, use the defaults.

VMware Player 2.0.3 on Ubuntu 8.04

Follow the VMware Player 2.0.3 on Ubuntu 7.10 instructions above. Eventually it will start compiling and fail. 

 wget http://uruz.org/files/vmware-any-any-update-116.tgz
 tar zxvf vmware-any-any-update-116.tgz
 cd vmware-any-any-update116
 sudo ./runme.pl

If prompted, use the defaults.

The any-any patch should automatically run vmware-config.pl, but if it didn't run it automatically do so now. 

 sudo vmware-config.pl

VMware Server

Also free to use but does require that you Register to get free licenses. Also include a complete interface to create new VMs etc.

VMware Server 1.04 on Ubuntu 7.10

The "Partner" repository needs to be enabled. 

 sudo aptitude install vmware-server

VMware Server 1.05 on Ubuntu 7.10

 sudo aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r` xinetd
 wget http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmserver/VMware-server-1.0.5-80187.tar.gz
 tar -xvzf VMware-server-1.0.5-80187.tar.gz
 cd vmware-server-distrib
 sudo ./vmware-install.pl

When prompted, use the defaults.

VMware Server 1.06 on Ubuntu 8.04

 sudo aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r` xinetd
 wget -c http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmserver/VMware-server-1.0.6-91891.tar.gz
 tar -xvzf VMware-server-1.0.6-91891.tar.gz
 cd vmware-server-distrib
 sudo ./vmware-install.pl

Use the defaults and enter your license key when prompted.

Once installed trying to run the VMware Console will produce an error. Sym-linking a library seems to resolve that issue. 

 sudo ln -sf /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1

In the past the additional steps were required for 64 bit users, but I found this is not required with VMware Server 1.06 on Ubuntu Hardy. Included here for reference only. 

 sudo ln -s /usr/lib32 /usr/l32
 sudo sed -i -e 's:usr/lib/:usr/l32/:g'  /usr/lib32/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/loader-files.d/libgtk2.0-0.loaders
 sudo sed -i -e 's:usr/lib/:usr/l32/:g' /usr/lib32/libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0.1200.9

Enable USB devices

USB devices work out of the box with minimal (gui) configuration. 

 sudo nano /etc/fstab

Add this line to /etc/fstab 

 # USB for vmware/vbox
 none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=46,devmode=664 0 0

Reboot and re-start VMWare Server.

Start your guest ...

Kernel Upgrades

After kernel upgrades you will need to re-run vmware-config-pl. Open a shell and run... 

 sudo vmware-config.pl

Use the defaults when prompted.

Extract VMWare Tools ISO Images

Copy the VMware Tools .iso images to '/var/lib/vmware/ISO' so you can easily get access to them from VMs. 

 wget -c http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmserver/VMware-server-1.0.6-91891.tar.gz
 tar -xvzf VMware-server-1.0.6-91891.tar.gz
 cd vmware-server-distrib
 sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/vmware/ISO
 sudo cp lib/isoimages/* /var/lib/vmware/ISO/
 sudo chmod -R 755 /var/lib/vmware/ISO/

VMWare Server MUI

 sudo aptitude install libxi6 xfsprogs
 wget http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmserver/VMware-mui-1.0.6-91891.tar.gz
 tar -xvzf VMware-mui-1.0.6-91891.tar.gz
 cd vmware-mui-distrib 
 sudo ./vmware-install.pl

The VMware Management Interface's startup scripts (/etc/init.d/httpd.vmware and /usr/lib/vmware-mui/src/lib/httpd.vmware) have a bug which makes the Apache server start fail after installation and reboot. To fix the script apply the following patch. 

 wget http://www.iki.fi/kuparine/comp/ubuntu/en/httpd.vmware.diff
 patch -b -p0 < httpd.vmware.diff
 sudo /etc/init.d/httpd.vmware start

Now load the MUI.

VMWare Server Console

Install VMware Server Console on your desktop PC. This is used to connect to your virtual machines running on the VMware Server. 

 wget http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmserver/VMware-server-linux-client-1.0.6-91891.zip
 unzip VMware-server-linux-client-1.0.6-91891.zip
 tar xzf VMware-server-console-1.0.6-91891.tar.gz -C /tmp
 cd /tmp/vmware-server-console-distrib
 sudo ./vmware-install.pl
 sudo ln -sf /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1

References

VMWare Tools 1.0.6 for a Guest Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 Server

Once you have VMWare Server running the chance are you'll add guests ;-) This is how I install VMWare Tools on my guest Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 Servers.

First thing to do is add a virtual CD-ROM to the guest which links to the Linux VMWare Tools .ISO. Reboot the VM machine. Complete the installation from a VMware Console not an SSH login because the VMware network kernel modules may get unloaded during the build.

Mount the VMWare Tools CD-ROM. 

 sudo mount /dev/cdrom3 /mnt

First install the build tools and headers for your kernel. These are needed for compilation: 

 sudo aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`

Extract the VMWare Tools tarball. 

 cd
 tar zxvf /mnt/VMwareTools-1.0.6-91891.tar.gz
 cd vmware-tools-distrib/

Unmount the CD-ROM as the VMWare Tools installer uses '/mnt'. 

 sudo umount /mnt

Now install the VMWare Tools go with the defaults when prompted. 

 sudo ./vmware-install.pl

Reboot the VM machine.

References

VMWare Server 2.0 on Ubuntu 8.10

First register at VMware, the download VMware Server 2.0, finally download 'vmware-config.pl.patch.txt' from Page 2 of the Ubuntu forum topic below. 

 sudo aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`
 sudo aptitude install xinetd 
 tar zxvf VMware-server-2.0.0-116503.x86_64.tar.gz 
 cd vmware-server-distrib/
 patch bin/vmware-config.pl ../vmware-config.pl.patch
 sudo ./vmware-install.pl

When prompted, use the defaults by be sure to setup your user account as the administrative account.

I, like many others apparently, have found that my arrow keys, del and ins, etc. are not mapped or mapped to the wrong keys when using the console to control a Vmware machine. For someone who almost exclusively runs Linux servers under Vmware this is very annoying.

Apparently it is an issue with the evdev input driver. The solution is tell VMWare what your keyboard really does! Put this in ~/.vmware/config: 

 xkeymap.keycode.108 = 0x138 # Alt_R
 xkeymap.keycode.106 = 0x135 # KP_Divide
 xkeymap.keycode.104 = 0x11c # KP_Enter
 xkeymap.keycode.111 = 0x148 # Up
 xkeymap.keycode.116 = 0x150 # Down
 xkeymap.keycode.113 = 0x14b # Left
 xkeymap.keycode.114 = 0x14d # Right
 xkeymap.keycode.105 = 0x11d # Control_R
 xkeymap.keycode.118 = 0x152 # Insert
 xkeymap.keycode.119 = 0x153 # Delete
 xkeymap.keycode.110 = 0x147 # Home
 xkeymap.keycode.115 = 0x14f # End
 xkeymap.keycode.112 = 0x149 # Prior
 xkeymap.keycode.117 = 0x151 # Next
 xkeymap.keycode.78 = 0x46 # Scroll_Lock
 xkeymap.keycode.127 = 0x100 # Pause
 xkeymap.keycode.133 = 0x15b # Meta_L
 xkeymap.keycode.134 = 0x15c # Meta_R
 xkeymap.keycode.135 = 0x15d # Menu

A simpler alternative, which should fix the keyboard mapping problems is to add... 

 xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = TRUE

...to '/etc/vmware/config'

References

Ubuntu Samba (Host) to Windows VMware (Guest)

References

Uninstalling VMware

If VMware Player or Server was installed from a tarball then the following should uninstall it. 

 sudo /usr/sbin/vmware-uninstall.pl

Sometimes there are other bits left lying about which might need manually removing before you can install a different VMware product. 

 sudo rm -rf /etc/vmware
 sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/vmware
 sudo rm -rf /var/run/vmware
 sudo rm /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl*

$Id: VMWare,v 1.56 2009/01/14 10:14:49 martin Exp $

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