Ubuntu Fiesty VMware Manual Install & Configuration

The following are instructions to download the source for the free VMWare Server from VMware and install it manually.

Canonical does have a vmware-server package but I haven't been able to get that to work. Let me know if you get it working --jt

• First download and install UbuntuLinux
• VMware Server Information
• Free VMware Server Download
• Register for Free Licenses of VMware Server -- you are prompted for the 20-character serial number at the end of the install so you need to go ahead and get this serial number.
• How-to: VMware-server - VMware-workstation 5.5 under Ubuntu Feisty -- I had a problem compiling VMware server straight out of the tar file. Here's what I did to fix it.
  • Unpack tar file: tar -z -xvf VMware-server-1.0.3-44356.tar.gz
  • cd vmware-server-distrib
  • Ensure that you have the software to compile VMware:
    • apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential
    • apt-get install gcc binutils-doc cpp-doc make manpages-dev autoconf automake1.9 libtool flex bison gdb gcc-doc libc6-dev-amd64 lib64gcc1
  • For Ubuntu 8.04 I had a problem compiling the source. Follow directions on this web page to finish the installation. Also I used the following location to download the files: http://groups.google.com/group/vmkernelnewbies/files (and I used version 116)
  • ./vmware-install.pl -- this creates temporary working files in /tmp/vmware-config0 Now go to that directory.
  • I had to comment out the line that was causing the problem: sudo vi +21 /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/include/compat_kernel.h and put /* ... */ around the code on that line, as it says in the debuntu.org Howto above.
  • Next, tar the vmmon-only directory: sudo tar -cvf /tmp/vmmon.tar vmmon-only
  • Next, place the patched tar file back into the source directory so the install program will pickup the fixed code: sudo mv /tmp/vmmon.tar lib/modules/source
  • Also, make sure you have xinetd installed: apt-get install xinetd
  • Now re-run the install program and it should work for you: ./vmware-install.pl
  • After you load up an operating system on a VM, then you need to install the VMware Tools.
    • If your VM is a Windows Operating system: Have Linux run the Install VMware Tools: Applications > System Tools > VMware Server Console > VM > Install VMware Tools
    • If your VM is a Linux Operating system: Follow these instructions for compiling and installing the VMware Tools.
      • I actually had a problem with Ubuntu 8.04. It didn't automatically mount the CD Drive when I selected VM > Install VMware Tools. I had to issue the command to mount the drive after selecting the menu VM > Install VMware Tools: sudo mount /dev/cdrom /cdrom then the files are available on /cdrom.
  • Also you will want to install the Windows VMware Client program which you can use to connect to the server and manage it remotely from Windows. The Windows interface client works very well. The file is available for download on the same area as the server program. The file for the Windows Client program is: VMware-server-win32-client-1.0.3-44356.zip.
• Run Your VMware Console through an encrypted SSH Tunnel -- if you run your VMware in a datacenter you need to manage it through an SSH tunnel. The following will work on Linux or Mac OS X:
  • I recommend creating a user to admin the VMware systems: useradd vmware
  • Assign a vmware admin password: passwd vmware
  • Make sure you have SSH installed on the remote-server: sudo apt-get install ssh
  • Establish the SSH Tunnel: Now you can connect an encrypted SSH Tunnel by giving this command which will create a shell window. Just minimize it after it opens: sudo ssh -L 903:my-remote-server.com:902 vmware@my-remote-server.com This links the the local 903 port (127.0.0.1:903) to my-remote-server.com:902 which is the default vmware console.
  • Open the VMware Server Console (Applications -> System Tools -> VMware Server Console) and connect to it throught the SSH Tunnel and connect by entering the following:
    • Select Remote Host
    • Host name: 127.0.0.1:903
    • User name: vmware
    • Password: vmware-secret-password
  • I also recommend locking down the VMware console port with iptables so that only 127.0.0.1 (localhost) can connect to it through the SSH Tunnel. VMware Server Documentation
• If Your OS Gets Updated You And You Reboot Your Machine your vmware won't start and you'll get a message like you need to re-run vmware-config.pl.
  • You need to download the latest version of the system headers with: apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential
  • Then re-run the vmware-config.pl with: cd vmware-server-distrib/bin; ./vmware-config.pl which will remake your vmware according to the new operating system that was loaded on your computer. The vmware-config.pl script stops the vmware server (make sure and shutdown your VMs!) and then recompiles everything and then brings the vmware back up. After this, you should be able to login via the VMware console.
• VMware Server Knowledgebase
• VMWare Fiesty Install Guide
• Adding a new disk to a VMware Virtual Machine in Linux
• Running Windows under Ubuntu Edgy using VMWare

-- JeffreyThompson - 16 May 2007