User`s guide

Troubleshooting and Limitations 202
Upgrading or Installing Parallels
Tools in Text Mode in a Linux Guest
OS
After upgrading to Parallels Desktop 4 or 5, the X Server may fail to start in Linux virtual
machines. To fix the problem, you need to install Parallels Tools in text mode.
1 Start the virtual machine.
2 When you see a message about X Server that failed to start, switch to another virtual console
using Ctrl+Alt+F1 and enter your login details.
3 Choose Install Parallels Tools from the Virtual Machine menu to connect the Parallels Tools
ISO image to your virtual machine.
Note: If the Install Parallels Tools option is grayed out, make sure that Parallels Tools can be
installed in your guest operating system. To see the list of guest OSs supported by Parallels
Tools, refer to the Parallels Tools Overview section (p. 73) in Parallels Desktop User's
Guide.
The prl-tools-lin.iso image file will be connected to the virtual machine's
CD/DVD-ROM drive.
4 In the virtual machine console, type the following command to gain the root privileges:
su
5 Check if the Parallels Tools CD image is mounted by entering
mount | grep iso9660
If this command does not return anything, proceed to the next step.
If this command returns anything like
/dev/cdrom on /media/cdrom type iso9660 (ro,exec,nosuid,nodev,uid=0),
skip the next step and proceed to the following one.
If this command returns anything like
/dev/cdrom on /media/cdrom type iso9660 (ro,noexec,nosuid,nodev,uid=0)
with the noexec option present in parentheses, you need to unmount the disc using the
following command and then proceed to the next step:
umount /dev/cdrom
6 To mount the Parallels Tools installation disc image, enter the following:
mount -o exec /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
Note: /dev/cdrom is the virtual machine's CD/DVD-ROM drive and /media/cdrom is
the mount point for this device. In some of the Linux operating systems the virtual
CD/DVD-ROM drive may appear as /dev/hdb and the mount point /mnt/cdrom. Some
Linux OSs do not have the CD/DVD-ROM mount point. In this case, you should create the
mount point directory manually.
7 When the installation disc image is mounted, change the directory to the CD/DVD-ROM
directory using
cd /media/cdrom/
8 In the CD/DVD-ROM directory, enter the following to launch Parallels Tools installation: