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Understanding and Installing VMware Tools

3,327 bytes added, 18:52, 7 October 2008
Installing VMware Tools on a Linux Guest
VMware Tools installation on Linux uses a similar mechanism to that that described in the Windows section above. Once again, an ISO CD image containing the Linux VMware Tools installation files is mounted as the CD/DVD device of the virtual machine running target guest operating system. The installation can be performed either using a graphical RPM package management tool or from the command line, both of which will be covered in the section. In both cases, the installation is initiated by logging into the VI Web Access management interface, selecting the target virtual machine from the ''Inventory'' panel and clicking on ''Install VMware Tools'' in the ''Status'' panel of the ''Summary'' workspace.
VMware Tools on Linux involves loading special modules (''vmmemctl'', ''vmhgfs'', ''vmxnet'', ''vmblock'', ''vmsync'', ''vmci'' and ''vsock'') into the operating system kernel. For supported guest operating systems (see [[Officially Supported VMware Server 2.0 Guest Operating Systems]] for a list) pre-built modules are included with the VMware Tools installations software. If the guest operating system is not officially supported and a suitable pre-built module cannot be found, the VMware Tools configuration script will attempt to custom build a compatible module, for which it will need the GNU C compiler and the appropriate kernel sources. The steps necessary to install these packages differ between Linux distributions.
On most recent Linux distributions, the CD image will auto-mount as soon it is attached to the virtual machines CD/DVD device. If the image does not automount it will need to be mounted as superuser using a command similar to the following:
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As previously mentioned, if the guest operating system is a VMware supported Linux distribution (refer to the chapter entitled [[Officially Supported VMware Server 2.0 Guest Operating Systems]] for more details) the configuration script will locate and load a pre-built VMware Tools kernel module. In the event that a pre-built module cannot be located, the script will prompt for the location of the GNU C compiler and the sources for building kernel modules and attempt to build and load a compatible module.Once either the VMware Tools pre-built or custom build kernel modules are loaded into the running kernel, the configuration script will ask for the screen resolution at which the X server will start the guest operating system desktop environment. Select the correct candidate from the extensive list of options and enter the corresponding item number at the prompt. Once the configuration process is complete output similar to the following will be displayed: <pre> Checking acpi hot plug [ OK ]Starting VMware Tools services in the virtual machine: Switching to guest configuration: [ OK ] Guest filesystem driver: [ OK ] Mounting HGFS shares: [ OK ] Guest memory manager: [ OK ] Guest vmxnet fast network device: [ OK ] VM communication interface: [ OK ] VM communication interface socket family: [ OK ] Blocking file system: [ OK ] Guest operating system daemon: [ OK ] The configuration of VMware Tools 2.0.0 build-110949 for Linux for this runningkernel completed successfully. You must restart your X session before any mouse or graphics changes take effect. You can now run VMware Tools by invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-toolbox" during an X server session. You will need to either manually start /usr/bin/vmware-user or log out and log back in to this desktop session to obtain the following features: guest resolution fit, drag and drop, and file and text copy/paste. vmware-user is configured to automatically start at a graphical login, but that won't take effect until the next login. To use the vmxnet driver, restart networking using the following commands: /etc/init.d/network stoprmmod pcnet32rmmod vmxnetmodprobe vmxnet/etc/init.d/network start Enjoy, --the VMware team</pre> As indicated above, on systems with a session manager, the vmware-user process will automatically start the next time a user logs into the guest operating system desktop. For systems with no session manager, this process will need to manually invoked by executing the following command: <pre>/usr/bin/vmware-user</pre> With VMware Tools successfully installed and configured, the next step is to learn about how to use and get the most out of these tools, a topic which is covered in the next chapter entitled (Using VMware Tools). == Uninstalling VMware Tools == If, for any reason, VMware Tools are no longer required on the guest operating system they may easily be removed. On Windows systems, remove the VMware Tools using the Windows ''Add/Remove Programs'' wizard located in the Control Panel.  If the tools were installed on Linux using the RPM package, the removal process may performed by executing the following command as super user: <pre>rpm -e VMwareTools</pre> Alternatively, if the initial installation was performed from the compressed tar archive, VMware Tools may be uninstalled using the following script: <pre>vmware-unistall-tools.pl</pre>
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