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To also install the VMWare tools package, use the ''blobs'' archive:
{{{
dpkg -i vmware-blobs-*deb
}}}
If you don't need the VMWare tools, e.g. because you're trying to install a guest that does not support them, you don't need this package.

[:DebianWiki/EditorGuide#translation:Translation(s)]: none

(!) [:/Discussion:Discussion]


attachment:logo.png

VMware is a commercial PC emulator running on i386 compatible cpus. It allows you to run any x86 compatible OS in a kind of 'sandbox' - inside the VMware virtual machine you can run other operating systems like Windows or some other version of Linux. Both Windows and a Linux versions are available.

VMware is not a true emulator, it doesn't emulate a CPU like Bochs does, it wraps CPU commands around... It does emulate various hardware devices like network-, graphic- and sound cards.

Installation Instructions

You can either use the native VMWare way of installing VMware, thus using their Perl scripts for installation as is described in [http://www.howtoforge.com/debian_etch_vmware_server_howto this howto], or you can do it the Debian way and compile yourself some Debian packages. Which one you choose shouldn't really matter, but of course, we'll try to give you the Debian flavored instructions. If you need a distro-agnostic way of installing vmware, please consult the VMware documentation or the Internet (and be sure to check the post linked above).

Doing it the Debian Way

If you want to create .debs of your vmware distribution, you can use vmware-package, which provides the command make-vmpkg.

apt-get install vmware-package

You can apply make-vmpkg to your downloaded tarball. If you want to build the kernel modules right away, supply it with the -k option, but be aware that this requires you to be root. If you want to build the kernel modules on a kernel newer than 2.6.23, be prepared for some rough sailing since vmware does currently not proprly compile its modules on those kernel versions. (Use uname -r to find out about your kernel version)

Kernel Versions 2.6.24 and Above

Do not make the Debian packages with the -k flag as the kernel modules won't compile on your newer kernel. Instead, just run the command normally

make-vmpkg -b vmdebs VMware-workstation-6.0.3-80004.i386.tar.gz

Now you should download the any-any patch by Peter Velichkov, which is the only way of getting VMWare to run on 2.6.24. He commented in his blog entry about the patch that he is going to issue a new fix for later kernel versions once they hit Debian unstable. Let's hope for the best. See the following post to obtain the source and view the comments:

http://blog.creonfx.com/linux/how-to-install-vmware-player-workstation-on-2624-kernel

Once you have downloaded it, you must compile the new kernel-source versions to obtain the .deb for the fixed kernel modules.

make-vmpkg -b vmdebs -s -u 116 -p any-any vmware-any-any-update-116.tgz

You may need to use the switches -s, -u 116 and -p any-any in order to tell make-vmpkg to override the md5sum check, and force version and product recognition, since the md5sum database of vmware-package seems to be a bit dated.

You should have a directory vmdebs under your current directory at this point. Go there, and become root, for you need to install the packages now. First, we need to build the kernel modules for vmware.

dpkg -i vmware-any-any-kernel-source_116.0.22.0_all.deb
m-a -t a-i vmware-any-any-kernel-source

Using module-assistant you should now have all the debs that you need and be able to install the rest of the vmware packages:

dpkg -i vmware-{bin,common,lib,workstation}_*.deb

To also install the VMWare tools package, use the blobs archive:

dpkg -i vmware-blobs-*deb

If you don't need the VMWare tools, e.g. because you're trying to install a guest that does not support them, you don't need this package.

Troubleshooting

gcc-4.1: error trying to exec 'cc1plus': execvp: No such file or directory

If you are using sid, then the default compiler version might be higher than the one used to compile your kernel. The corresponding gcc-packages are installed automatically for the appropriate kernel versions (so, if you have 2.6.24 compiled with gcc-4.1, and apt has gcc-4.3, you will usually still have gcc-4.1), but the C++ compiler versions are not synced automatically, so you will also need to install g++-4.1

apt-get install g++-4.1{,-multilib}

Also take care not to have overriden your environment to use a different CC version.

env | grep CC

should return nothing.

License Keys

For me clicking on Help->Enter Serial Number crashed the VMWare application so I couldn't register my product. If you encounter this issue, please run

/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx --new-sn <your-serial-number-here>

without using the angled brackets.

VMware on amd64

  • In order to install vmware on amd64 you have to install few extra libs:

aptitude install linux-headers-`uname -r` libx11-6 libx11-dev x-window-system-core x-window-system xspecs libxtst6 psmisc build-essential ia32-libs

After Debian Upgrade, Instruction

VMware, Debian Kernel Upgrade

  • On an apt-get upgrade when your kernel has been updated you need to download the kernel headers and reconfigure vmware.

apt-get update
apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl

http://lucasmanual.com/out/Debian-vmware-windows-xp.jpg


  • ?CategorySystemVirtualization