Purpose
This article provides steps to install VMware Tools in a Linux guest operating system using Red Hat Package Manager (RPM).
Note: For an overview of installing VMware Tools, see Installing VMware Tools (340).
Resolution
Note: If your Linux distribution is not RPM-based, has a custom kernel, or is unsupported, see Installing VMware Tools in a Linux virtual machine using Compiler (1018414).
To install VMware Tools in a Linux guest operating system using RPM:
- Ensure that your Linux virtual machine is powered on.
- If you are running a GUI interface, open a command shell.
- Click VM in the virtual machine menu, then click Guest > Install/Upgrade VMware Tools and click OK.
- To create a mount point, run:
mkdir /mnt/cdrom - To mount the CDROM, run:
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom - To install VMware Tools using RPM, run:
rpm -ivh /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-.rpm
Whereis the version of VMware Tools you want to install
To check the existing version of VMware Tools, use the "cd" command to go to /mnt/cdrom/ directory and list the contents of the directory with the command # ls.
Note: You can only perform the install as a root user or by using the sudo command. - To configure VMware Tools for your running kernel, run:
/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl - To unmount the CDROM, run:
umount /mnt/cdrom - To end the VMware Tools install, click VM in the virtual machine menu, then click Guest > End VMware Tools Install.
Note: The RPM installer for installing VMware Tools on Linux Virtual Machines on ESXi 4.1 is not available. See ESXi 4.x / 5.x does not include RPM format for VMware Tools (1024047)
Based on VMware KB 1038392
