Installing VMware Tools in a Linux Guest Operating System
Power on the virtual machine.
Note: If you have an older version of VMware Tools installed, terminate the running version before installing the new one.
When the guest operating system starts, prepare your virtual machine to install VMware Tools.
Choose Settings > VMware Tools Install.
Note: If you decide not to proceed with the installation of VMware Tools, you may cancel the operation by selecting Settings > Cancel VMware Tools Install.
In a terminal, become root.
su
Mount the VMware Tools virtual CD-ROM image, copy its contents to /tmp, then unmount it.
Note: You do not use an actual CD-ROM to install VMware Tools, nor do you need to download the CD-ROM image or burn a physical CD-ROM of this image file. The VMware Workstation software contains an ISO image that looks like a CD-ROM to your guest operating system. This image contains all the files needed to install VMware Tools in your guest operating system. When you finish installing VMware Tools, this image file no longer appears in your CD-ROM drive.
cd /
mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt
cp /mnt/vmware-linux-tools.tar.gz /tmp
umount /dev/cdrom
Untar the VMware Tools tar file in /tmp and install it.
cd /tmp
tar zxf vmware-linux-tools.tar.gz
cd vmware-linux-tools
./install.pl
Start X and your graphical environment if they are not started yet.
In an X terminal, launch the VMware Tools background application.
vmware-toolbox &
You may run the VMware Tools background application as root or as a normal user. The application has additional capabilities if you run it as root.
Note: The ./install.pl installation script included with the VMware Tools package for Linux guest operating systems does not recognize Linux-Mandrake installations. To install VMware Tools on top of Linux-Mandrake installations, add redhat as a command line parameter when you run the installation script. For example, run the following command:
./install.pl redhat
Starting VMware Tools Automatically
You may find it helpful to configure your guest operating system so VMware Tools starts when you start your X server. The steps for doing so vary depending on your Linux distribution and the desktop environment you are running. Check your operating system documentation for the appropriate steps to take.
For example, in a Red Hat Linux 7.1 guest using GNOME, follow these steps.
Open the Startup Programs panel in the GNOME Control Center.
Main Menu (the foot icon in the lower left corner of the screen) > Programs > Settings > Session > Startup Programs
Click Add….
In the Startup Command field, enter vmware-toolbox.
Click OK, click OK again, then close the GNOME Control Center.
The next time you start X, VMware Tools starts automatically.
Related Topics:
Components of VMware Tools
Setting preferences for VMware Tools
Setting up virtual machines for dual-boot systems
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