Note: This article is related to installing VMware Server 1.x on Ubuntu, with kernel 2.6.24-x.

Install and Setup VMware Server

After you downloaded the VMware Server package, and run vmware-install.pl, it will ask you to run vmware-config.pl. Run that script and you will most likely encounter some module problem. If you do, then download vmware-any-any-update-116 (or newer version) from Peter Velichkov's Blog. Then run the runme.pl found the in vmware-any-any-update-xxx package. Then reboot your Ubuntu.

From a terminal, type vmware to start your vmware. If you get errors like:

$ vmware
/usr/local/lib/vmware/bin/vmware: /usr/local/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version `GCC_3.4' not found (required by /usr/lib/libcairo.so.2)
/usr/local/lib/vmware/bin/vmware: /usr/local/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version `GCC_4.2.0' not found (required by /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6)

Just locate the equivalent system libraries, in this case, the "libgcc_s.so.1", move the problematic vmware ones out of the way and symlink to the system libs. Such as:

root# cd /usr/local/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/
root# mv libgcc_s.so.1 libgcc_s.so.1.orig
root# find /usr -name 'libgcc_s*'
/usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.2/libgcc_s.so
root# ln -s /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.2/libgcc_s.so libgcc_s.so.1

Then try to start vmware again and it should work.

Note: everytime you upgrade your kernel, you will have to run vmware-config.pl again. If it breaks, go back to Peter Velichkov's Blog and check for the updated version of vmware-any-any-xxx.

VMware Tools

If the guest OS is another Linux, follow Installing VMware Tools in a Linux or FreeBSD Virtual Machine to install the VMware tools.

To auto start the vmware-tools in KDE

Change to the KDE autostart directory with:

$ cd ~/.kde/Autostart

and make a symbolic link to the program you'd like to start:

$ ln -s $(which program-name)

If the program needs parameters, just make a shell script in ~/.kde/Autostart, i.e.:

korgac.sh

korgac --miniicon korganizer &

To autostart the vmware-tools in Gnome

Edit .gnome2/session-manual with your favorite editor, i.e.:

$ pico ~/.gnome2/session-manual

and add something like this:

[Default]
num_clients=2
0,RestartClientHint=3
0,Priority=50
0,RestartCommand=korgac --miniicon korganizer
0,Program=korgac --miniicon korganizer
1,RestartClientHint=3
1,Priority=50
1,RestartCommand=firefox
1,Program=firefox