How to install VMware Server 2.0.1 on Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 11:48, in How To, Ubuntu, VMware.

I wrote a small script that will help you install VMware Server 2.0.1 (build 156745) on Ubuntu 9.04 and later without any efforts. The install script needs a patch file for this VMWare Server version that is automatically downloaded from my server.

How to:

  1. Download your copy of VMware Server (TAR image) and note the license key somewhere.
  2. Download my script and run it from the same folder where you have downloaded VMware Server or provide it the path to that folder.
  3. Follow the on screen questions and answer them accordingly.
  4. Enjoy!

ATTENTION: Don’t try to install VMware Server with this script or without it on Ubuntu 9.10 because it won’t work. Some kernel sources on which VMware Server relied for module compilation have changed, thus resulting in failed attempts to build the corresponding modules.

Click here if you want to install VMware Server 2.0.1 on Ubuntu 9.10.

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36 Comments

Daniel Holm said

on June 25th, 2009,

at 14:49 hours

Sorry to say that the attached patch makes it impossible to login to the web interface.

Radu said

on June 25th, 2009,

at 15:53 hours

Hi, Daniel! It worked for me as I had used this version of VMware Server before I moved away to VirtualBox. The authentication is done using your /etc/passwd file. If I remember well, I did the install using sudo, but sudo wasn’t needed for reading the passwd file, as it has 644 file permissions, but for different configs. I am 100% sure that the installation worked ok as I wouldn’t have posted something not verified on my blog.

Try looking for bugs related to authentication in VMware Server because I have experienced the same thing, only on a Windows machine.

Radu said

on June 26th, 2009,

at 00:18 hours

I have just tested again (just for the sake of it) the script on my laptop. Everything went smooth.

Devan said

on June 27th, 2009,

at 16:43 hours

Perfect! Thanks for the script :)

Radu said

on June 27th, 2009,

at 19:13 hours

You are welcome, Devan! More of them will follow with the Ubuntu tutorial that I have started to write. :)

Ravi said

on July 4th, 2009,

at 03:39 hours

The script makes the installation proceed smoothly on Jaunty 64 bit. The web console opens and my test VM starts. However, a click in the Console tab produces not the login screen but an error message box:

“Cannot access virtual machine console. The request timed out”

Would appreciate tips.

Have been using the same version of VMware server on Fedora 10-64 for several months.

Radu said

on July 4th, 2009,

at 11:11 hours

Hi Ravi!

I am not sure what is the cause for what you are experiencing. The link between the virtualization server and your virtual machine is done by using the browser plugin made by VMware. Have you tried to SSH your virtual machine and see if it’s not something wrong there?

Just my 2 cents…

Ravi said

on July 5th, 2009,

at 08:40 hours

Good tip. Removed the VMware plugin and installed in again. Worked like a charm.

Thanks.

Radu said

on July 5th, 2009,

at 11:21 hours

I am more than glad that I could offer you a tip. :)

Luke said

on July 7th, 2009,

at 20:26 hours

Thanks for the script! Installing now

Radu said

on July 7th, 2009,

at 22:44 hours

Use the force, Luke! :P You are welcome. :)

Yoda Knight said

on July 13th, 2009,

at 17:50 hours

Nice one !
Was in the process of downloading the Fedora DVD as had given up on ever getting this to work on Jaunty – thanks for saving my poor broadband ;)

Radu said

on July 13th, 2009,

at 22:02 hours

For me Ubuntu is the best distro out there. There isn’t anything that can’t be found for it in just a matter of a google search.

marcus said

on July 20th, 2009,

at 09:19 hours

groovy, dude, the freakin headers didn’t seem to work without your patch, thanks a lot

Radu said

on July 20th, 2009,

at 11:55 hours

Actually I only built the script that patches and installs VMware Server. The patch is from ubuntuforums.org. Anyway, it’s a pleasure for me to offer solutions to an open source community.

Rob B said

on July 22nd, 2009,

at 06:52 hours

Holy cow! Virtualization under a real server linux distribution.That’s easy easy to install?!

You sir, I owe a beer to, for one of the most useful bits of code I’ve come accross in a long time.

I’ve been wrestling with my new server for the house for weeks. First ESXi, then Xen, then Jaunty (Or as I’ve been calling it Jaundiced Jackal until now) trying to get KVM or VBox to actually run and be easy to admin.

I don’t think I’ve every had such an easy time getting to grips with a tool under linux, so thank you once more.

Rob

charles said

on July 24th, 2009,

at 23:26 hours

i have kernel 2.6.31-rc3 will this patch work? I really don’t know why VMware is such a pain installing into newer kernel

Radu said

on July 25th, 2009,

at 11:37 hours

I am not sure, Charles. But give it a try and then please tell me how it worked.

bdivineiii said

on August 7th, 2009,

at 08:40 hours

Dude! You rock….and are hereby nominated for St. Hood!
Thanx Twice. :)

palani said

on August 14th, 2009,

at 20:38 hours

Hi Radu,

Your script runs perfectly but then it was asking me for serial key… where do i get this..I thought its freeware. Please kindly let me know .. Thanks in advance

Radu said

on August 15th, 2009,

at 23:03 hours

Hi Palani! Even if you can install and use VMware Server for free you have to register in order to get the serial. The registration is free. Have fun!

Palani said

on August 20th, 2009,

at 14:52 hours

hi Radu, finally got installed succesfully, Your script is perfect. thanks alot.

joels said

on August 21st, 2009,

at 22:48 hours

I run the script, all the files seem to install, then the following occurs –

patching file ./vmware-server-distrib/bin/vmware-config.pl
This version of “VMware Server” is incompatible with this operating system.
Please install the “x86_64″ version of this program instead.

Execution aborted.

Radu said

on August 22nd, 2009,

at 11:49 hours

It seems that your kernel is X86_64 (that means 64-bit architecture) and the VMware you have is for 32-bit architecture. I have not tested the patch on VMware Server for 64-bit architectures, but I think it should work. Give it a try and come back here to share the results.

mspohn said

on August 22nd, 2009,

at 18:45 hours

Script worked as advertised. Flawless. Saved me hours.

Thanks a lot,

MGS

Klement said

on September 15th, 2009,

at 23:35 hours

Script worked flawless.
Thank you very much.

klement.

uberVU - social comments said

on November 2nd, 2009,

at 19:44 hours

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by raducotescu: Updated: “How to install VMware Server 2.0.1 on Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope” on my blog http://bit.ly/4bMDgY...

no said

on November 13th, 2009,

at 05:32 hours

Script works flawlessly. Thanks a lot. One tiny thing for the newb’s: sudo chmod +x vmware-install-script.sh

Leandro said

on November 16th, 2009,

at 21:05 hours

Hi Radu,

Ive downloaded your scripts, but when I put “sudo sh vmware-install-script.sh” in the console, It gives me the following error:

vmware-install-script.sh: 34: Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting “)”)

I dont what Im doing wrong, because the scripts seems to work perfect for the rest.

Thk

Leandro said

on November 16th, 2009,

at 21:08 hours

Ohh newbie mistake. I should have seen the previous post first. The permissions!!!

Thk anyway

Leandro said

on November 16th, 2009,

at 21:14 hours

Sorry still happening after giving permissions, but I solved it without putting the “sudo sh”, and running as root “./vmware-install-script.sh” straight away. I shouldnt be filling the blog with these newbie entries

Bye

olaf said

on November 27th, 2009,

at 11:58 hours

hi,
I am a beginner with linux. I used your script to install vmware server on ukubuntu 9.04. Everything worked great. But compared to vmware server 1.x the new version is really slow … that’s why I would like to uninstall to give virtualbox a try … Can I use your script to uninstall? If so: How?
Thanks in advance!!

Radu said

on November 27th, 2009,

at 12:50 hours

Hi Olaf! My script cannot be used to uninstall the server but you can execute this one (which is made by VMware and added to your $PATH):

sudo vmware-uninstall.pl

VMware is not slow… It’s as slow as your computer is. Take note that this product is for server virtualization and due to this has some system requirements which do not make it suitable for using on regular desktops. This is why VirtualBox or VMware Player would be a better candidate for the job.

olaf said

on November 27th, 2009,

at 13:04 hours

hi radu,

thanks for the fast reply … ok, I used the script you suggested, but it seems that it did not free the hard disk memory that was occupied by the VM. How can I solve this problem?

Thank you!

Radu said

on November 27th, 2009,

at 13:07 hours

Simply delete the folder containing your virtual machines. By default it should be /var/lib/vmware if you didn’t choose another location when you installed it.

How to install VMware Server 2.0.2 on Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope :: A script for automated patch install | Radu Cotescu said

on December 6th, 2009,

at 18:01 hours

[...] The same script I wrote in order to help users install VMware Server 2.0.1 (build 156745) on Ubuntu 9.04 can be used for the latest release from VMware: VMware Server 2.0.2 (build [...]

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