Installing VMware tools on a Debian machine

Update: You may not need to do this, check this post.

Another one for the list of things I forget how to do regularly.


Make sure our packages are up to date.

# apt-get update

# apt-get upgrade

Install the packages needed to install the vmware tools:

# apt-get install build-essential psmisc linux-headers-$(uname -r)

In the vmware server console select "Install VMWare tools..." from the VM menu.
Then type the following:

# cd

# mount /media/cdrom

# tar zxvf /media/cdrom/VMware*.tar.gz

# cd vmware-tools-distrib

# ./vmware-install.pl --default

That should be it, you should now have working vmware tools on your Debian distribution.

Optionally you can delete the installation files with:

# cd ..

# rm -rf vmware-tools-distrib

Update: You should consider using more efficient virtual hardware and drivers, check out my post about using paravirtualized drivers