Saltar a contenido

VMware Tools™ installation

VMware Tools™ is a suite of utilities that enhances the performance and management of virtual machines (VMs) running on VMware virtualization platforms such as VMware vSphere, VMware Workstation, and VMware Fusion. VMware Tools™ improve the interaction between the guest operating system and the host environment.

Prerequisites and assumptions

  • a desire to manage VMware instances with VMware Tools™
  • the ability to escalate privileges with sudo
  • it is assumed that you are starting with a Rocky Linux minimal installation

Installation of needed packages

Install X11 VMware driver:

sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-vmware

Install kernel-devel and kernel-headers:

sudo dnf install kernel-devel kernel-headers

Install perl if not already installed:

sudo dnf install perl

Reboot your system:

sudo shutdown -r now

Mounting VMware Tools™

Mount VMware Tools™ in the graphical interface

Right-click VM in the virtual machine menu, then click Guest > Install/Upgrade VMware Tools™.

VM Tab => Select Install VMware Tools

Mounting VMware Tools CDROM complete.

Mounting VMware Tools™ from the command-line

Create a mount point for VMware Tools™ and mount it:

sudo mkdir /mnt/cdrom 
sudo mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
mount: /mnt/cdrom: WARNING: source write-protected, mounted read-only.

Check if /dev/cdrom mounted or not:

sudo df -h
Filesystem           Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
devtmpfs             4.0M     0  4.0M   0% /dev
tmpfs                1.8G     0  1.8G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                724M  9.3M  715M   2% /run
/dev/mapper/rl-root   37G  3.5G   34G  10% /
/dev/nvme0n1p1       960M  342M  619M  36% /boot
/dev/mapper/rl-home   19G  163M   18G   1% /home
tmpfs                362M   84K  362M   1% /run/user/1001
/dev/sr0              56M   56M     0 100% /mnt/CDROM
[root@localhost ecamalan]# cd /mnt/cdrom/
[root@localhost cdrom]# ls
manifest.txt  run_upgrader.sh  VMwareTools-10.3.23-16594550.tar.gz  vmware-tools-upgrader-32  vmware-tools-upgrader-64

Installing VMware Tools™

Copy the VMware Tools™ gzip file to local /tmp directory with this command:

cp /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-10.3.23-16594550.tar.gz /tmp/

Extract tar.gz file into a new directory called /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib:

[root@localhost cdrom]# cd /tmp/
[root@localhost tmp]# tar -zxvf VMwareTools-10.3.23-16594550.tar.gz vmware-tools-distrib/
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
vmware-tools-distrib/vgauth/schemas/saml-schema-assertion-2.0.xsd
vmware-tools-distrib/vgauth/schemas/catalog.xml
vmware-tools-distrib/vgauth/schemas/XMLSchema.dtd
vmware-tools-distrib/vgauth/schemas/xml.xsd
vmware-tools-distrib/vgauth/schemas/xenc-schema.xsd
vmware-tools-distrib/vgauth/schemas/datatypes.dtd
vmware-tools-distrib/vgauth/schemas/XMLSchema-instance.xsd
vmware-tools-distrib/vgauth/schemas/XMLSchema-hasFacetAndProperty.xsd
vmware-tools-distrib/caf/

... (some packages not shown)

vmware-tools-distrib/lib/plugins64/common/
vmware-tools-distrib/lib/plugins64/common/libvix.so
vmware-tools-distrib/lib/plugins64/common/libhgfsServer.so
vmware-tools-distrib/doc/
vmware-tools-distrib/doc/INSTALL
vmware-tools-distrib/doc/open_source_licenses.txt
vmware-tools-distrib/doc/README
vmware-tools-distrib/vmware-install.pl

Warning

Before you start, you need to check whether the /etc/init.d directory exists or not. If not you may see the following error:

What is the directory that contains the init directories (rc0.d/ to rc6.d/)?

Solution:

sudo su
[root@localhost etc]# clear
[root@localhost etc]# cd /etc/
[root@localhost etc]# mkdir init.d
[root@localhost etc]# cd init.d
[root@localhost etc]# for i in {0,1,2,3,4,5,6}
> do
> mkdir rc$i.d
> done
[root@localhost etc]# cd /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib/
[root@localhost vmware-tools-distrib]# ./vmware-install.pl 

Warning

Be careful changing the default init script directory which should be /etc/init.d/.

What is the directory that contains the init directories (rc0.d/ to rc6.d/)? [/etc] /etc/init.d

INPUT: [/etc/init.d]

The path "/etc/init.d" is a directory which does not contain a rc0.d directory.

What is the directory that contains the init directories (rc0.d/ to rc6.d/)? [/etc] /etc/init.d/

INPUT: [/etc/init.d/]

What is the directory that contains the init scripts? [/etc/init.d]

INPUT: [/etc/init.d] default

To run the PERL script, change to the vmware-tools-distrib directory and run vmware-install.pl:

sudo cd /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib/
sudo ./vmware-install.pl

A previous installation of VMware Tools has been detected.

The previous installation was made by the tar installer (version 4).

Keeping the tar4 installer database format.

You have a version of VMware Tools installed.  Continuing this install will 
first uninstall the currently installed version.  Do you wish to continue? 
(yes/no) [yes] 

INPUT: [yes]  default

Uninstalling the tar installation of VMware Tools™.

Can't exec "/etc/vmware-caf/pme/install/preupgrade.sh": No such file or directory at /usr/bin/vmware-uninstall-tools.pl line 4421.
The removal of VMware Tools 10.3.23 build-16594550 for Linux completed 
successfully.

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 common agent library files? 
[/usr/lib] 

INPUT: [/usr/lib]  default

In which directory do you want to install the common agent transient files? 
[/var/lib] 

INPUT: [/var/lib]  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 10.3.23 build-16594550 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

Initializing...


Making sure services for VMware Tools are stopped.

Failed to stop vmware-tools.service: Unit vmware-tools.service not loaded.
Stopping VMware Tools services in the virtual machine:
   Guest operating system daemon:                                      done
   VMware User Agent (vmware-user):                                    done
   Unmounting HGFS shares:                                             done
   Guest filesystem driver:                                            done


sh: line 1: : command not found
The installation status of vmsync could not be determined. 
Skippinginstallation.

The installation status of vmci could not be determined. Skippinginstallation.

The installation status of vsock could not be determined. Skippinginstallation.


The installation status of vmxnet3 could not be determined. 
Skippinginstallation.

The installation status of pvscsi could not be determined. 
Skippinginstallation.

The installation status of vmmemctl could not be determined. 
Skippinginstallation.

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)

The vmblock enables dragging or copying files between host and guest in a 
Fusion or Workstation virtual environment.  Do you wish to enable this feature?
[yes] 

INPUT: [yes]  default


Skipping configuring automatic kernel modules as no drivers were installed by 
this installer.

Do you want to enable Guest Authentication (vgauth)? Enabling vgauth is needed 
if you want to enable Common Agent (caf). [yes] 

INPUT: [yes]  default

Do you want to enable Common Agent (caf)? [no] 

INPUT: [no]  default



Detected X server version 1.20.11



Distribution provided drivers for Xorg X server are used.

Skipping X configuration because X drivers are not included.


Skipping rebuilding initrd boot image for kernel as no drivers to be included 
in boot image were installed by this installer.

Generating the key and certificate files.
Successfully generated the key and certificate files.
Failed to start vmware-tools.service: Unit vmware-tools.service not found.
Unable to start services for VMware Tools

Execution aborted.

Warning no default label for /tmp/vmware-block-restore-5339.0/tmp_file
Enjoy,

--the VMware team

If you are running GUI, you need to restart your system:

sudo shutdown -r now

Check VMware installation

  sudo /etc/init.d/vmware-tools start
    Checking acpi hot plug                                              done
  Starting VMware Tools services in the virtual machine:
    Switching to guest configuration:                                   done
    Guest filesystem driver:                                            done
    Mounting HGFS shares:                                               done
    Blocking file system:                                               done
    Guest operating system daemon:                                      done
    VGAuthService:   
    sudo /etc/init.d/vmware-tools status
    vmtoolsd is running

Conclusion

We started with a minimal installation of Rocky Linux, which led to many deficiencies and encountered errors along the way. Despite this, we managed to install and run VMware Tools™, albeit with some challenges.

Author: Emre Camalan

Contributors: Steven Spencer, Ganna Zhyrnova