Installing and Configuring

Procedure
1 Select the menu command to mount the VMware Tools virtual disc on the guest operating system.
VMware Product Menu Command
vSphere Client
Inventory > Virtual Machine > Guest > Install/Upgrade VMware Tools
vSphere Web Client
All Actions icon > Configuration > Install/Upgrade VMware Tools
Fusion
Virtual Machine > Install (or Upgrade) VMware Tools
Workstation
VM > Manage > Install (or Upgrade) VMware Tools
Player
Virtual Machine > Install (or Upgrade) VMware Tools
2 In the virtual machine, log in to the guest operating system as root and open a terminal window.
3 Run the mount command with no arguments to determine whether your Linux distribution automatically
mounted the VMware Tools virtual CD-ROM image.
If the CD-ROM device is mounted, the CD-ROM device and its mount point are listed as something like
this:
/dev/cdrom on /mnt/cdrom type iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev)
4 If the VMware Tools virtual CD-ROM image is not mounted, mount the CD-ROM drive.
a If a mount point directory does not already exist, create it.
mkdir /mnt/cdrom
Some Linux distributions use different mount point names. For example, on some distributions the
mount point is /media/VMware Tools rather than /mnt/cdrom. Modify the command to reflect the
conventions that your distribution uses.
b Mount the CD-ROM drive.
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
Some Linux distributions use different device names or organize the /dev directory differently. If your
CD-ROM drive is not /dev/cdrom or if the mount point for a CD-ROM is not /mnt/cdrom, modify the
command to reflect the conventions that your distribution uses.
5 Change to a working directory (for example, /tmp).
cd /tmp
6 Delete any previous vmware-tools-distrib directory before you install VMware Tools.
The location of this directory depends on where you placed it during the previous installation. Often this
directory is placed in /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib.
7 List the contents of the mount point directory and note the filename of the VMware Tools tar installer.
ls
mount-point
8 Uncompress the installer.
tar zxpf /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools- x.x.x - yyyy .tar.gz
The value x.x.x is the product version number, and yyyy is the build number of the product release.
If you attempt to install a tar installation over an RPM installation, or the reverse, the installer detects the
previous installation and must convert the installer database format before continuing.
9 If necessary, unmount the CD-ROM image.
umount /dev/cdrom
If your Linux distribution automatically mounted the CD-ROM, you do not need to unmount the image.
Chapter 2 Installing and Upgrading VMware Tools
VMware, Inc. 19