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

How to install VMware Server 2.0.2 on Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

Posted on October 28th, 2009 at 17:36, in How To, Linux, Ubuntu, VMware, Virtualization.

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 203138).

In order to install the server, just follow these instructions:

Download your copy of VMware Server (.gz archive) and obtain your license key. Be aware that now you must configure your license key according to the number of hosts on which you want to install the server.
Download my script, make it executable and run it (with superuser privileges) from the same folder where you have downloaded VMware Server or provide it the path to that folder:
```
chmod +x vmware-install-script.sh
sudo ./vmware-install-script.sh [PATH_TO_VMWARE_ARCHIVE]
```
Follow the on-screen instructions.
Drop a Kudos line to me here if everything worked okay.

According to VMware, the 2.0.2 release is just a maintenance release that resolves security as well as some known issues.

Geek on!

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 2.0.2 on Ubuntu 9.10.

19 Comments

Vincent said

on October 30th, 2009,

at 21:14 hours

Hi,

your script does not recognize the x86_64 tar.gz files for the vmware-server-2.0.2. due to the underscore in the arch part of the filename.

thanks for the script though. Helps a lot

cheers.
Vincent

Radu said

on October 30th, 2009,

at 21:17 hours

Yes it does… Check the regex in it.

egrep "^(VMware-server-2.0.[0-9]-)[0-9]*.[A-Za-z0-9_]*.tar.gz"`

There were a few hours in the morning though when it didn’t check for that underscore too. But it’s history now.
You are welcome!

yourxs said

on November 5th, 2009,

at 14:04 hours

Thanks a lot! Just installed VMWare Server 2.02 on Ubuntu 9.04 minimal 64 bit without any trouble! I tried it a few times before, reading something here and there… all failed, but this worked

serici said

on November 12th, 2009,

at 14:52 hours

it works for me, thx … it was my first try

gerryg said

on November 16th, 2009,

at 23:09 hours

Not quite there; have different starting point.
Using 8.04.3 Hardy _64 2.6.24-25 for main system
Guest of 9.04 Jaunty 32-bit
Vmware server2.0.2 203138

Applied your patch to server2 and installed (OK).
Other VM guests seem to run okay.
Started Jaunty guest; downloaded vmware tools
Build errors with vmhgfs and vsock.
(Was your script supposed to fix vmware tools also?)

Rebuilt vmci then vsock with symvers from vmci
vsock built OK; copied to modules; depmod; changed vsock entry in vmware locations file; reboot.

But, no joy. Copy/paste/mouse fails between sessions and vmware-toolbox not configured properly.

Radu said

on November 16th, 2009,

at 23:35 hours

VMware Server on Ubuntu 8.04 doesn’t require any patch… Check this out. There are very few differences between 2.0.0 and 2.0.2 (mainly enhancements and some minor bugfixes). The patches started to be needed starting with Ubuntu 8.10.

gerryg said

on November 16th, 2009,

at 23:40 hours

Agreed, on everything you said. I’ve been using vmware server on 8.04 for many months with a variety of guests. The problem is ONLY getting vmware tools to run in Jaunty as a guest session. I only patched the vmware server in hopes that it would fix the tools downloaded to the guest.

Thanks said

on December 4th, 2009,

at 14:30 hours

Thank you for providing these very useful scripts.
A suggestion for a small modification to ‘vmware-install-script.sh’:
In the function ‘check_user()’, replace:

if [[ $USER != "root" ]]; then

with:

if [[ $EUID -ne 0 ]]; then

if [ "$(id -u)" != "0" ]; then

The reason for this it that the latter tests should work even if one has used ‘su’ to become root.

Radu said

on December 4th, 2009,

at 16:01 hours

Even if you use su you would still be root… Check this out:

radu@tux:~$ cat test.sh 
#!/bin/bash
echo The user who ran this script is: $USER
radu@tux:~$ su -c ./test.sh
Password: 
The user who ran this script is: root

davolixx said

on December 6th, 2009,

at 16:43 hours

did not understand how to run the excript together in the vmware folder. of an example.

Radu said

on December 6th, 2009,

at 18:03 hours

I made an update to this post by providing an example. If you run the script in the same folder with the archive, don’t supply any parameters. Otherwise, give it the path to the archive…

davolixx said

on December 6th, 2009,

at 18:55 hours

forgot to inform the use openSUSE 11.2 kde kernel 2.6.31, for the love of God help me I can not install vmware server 2.0.2.
Note: I am Brazilian to using google to translate sorry some mistakes.
Regards,

Joe Davola

Radu said

on December 6th, 2009,

at 19:29 hours

Make sure the dependencies are resolved. You need patch, gcc and the Linux headers for your kernel. Try looking for some info on the openSUSE forums as some people from there managed to install VMware using my script. I don’t know how to give you specific help regarding your distribution.

davolixx said

on December 6th, 2009,

at 20:15 hours

Dear Radu, Thank you, I’ll be researching more, you continue helping people is very smart, you can add me on msn or skype: [email removed] msn / skype joedavola8 – Brazil.
Thank you.

Radu said

on December 6th, 2009,

at 22:18 hours

@Davolixx, just now I realised what you were doing… To be able to install VMware Server 2.0.x on the 2.6.31 kernel, you have to use another script (basically another patch). Read the post from here.

davolixx said

on December 6th, 2009,

at 23:11 hours

Dear Radu, but my kernel is this:
suse-11-2:/home/davola # uname -a
Linux suse-11-2 2.6.31.5-0.1-default #1 SMP 2009-10-26 15:49:03 +0100 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

ran the scripit and nothing happened so it appears:

suse-11-2:/home/davola/vmware-server-distrib # ./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.31-14-install.sh
Error message: There is no archive containing VMware Server in the path you indicated!
This script must be run with super-user privileges.
Usage:
./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.31-14-install.sh [PATH_TO_VMWARE_ARCHIVE]
If you do not specify the PATH_TO_VMWARE_ARCHIVE the script will scan the current folder
for VMware server archive and if doesn’t find anything it will exit.
Take care so that the PATH_TO_VMWARE_ARCHIVE doesn’t contain any spaces.

even my kernel is 2.6.31.5-0.1-default the right with this script?

Radu said

on December 6th, 2009,

at 23:41 hours

@Davolixx: I have explicitly said to you to use that patch from the indicated blog post. Furthermore, you are running the script in a wrong way, even if the blog post shows you exactly how to run it. Don’t extract the archive containing VMware, let the script do that.
For example, if the tar.gz archive is in /home/davola and the script is in the same folder, you can run it like:

sudo /vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.31-14-install.sh

Have fun!

davolixx said

on December 7th, 2009,

at 03:03 hours

Dear Radu, you’re the guy was able to operate thanks to their great help and patience.
For staff who have the same doubts my settings:

Linux suse-11-2 2.6.31.5-0.1-default # 1 SMP 2009-10-26 15:49:03 +0100 i686 athlon i386 GNU / Linux

Regards,

Joe Davola

Derek Shaw said

on January 14th, 2010,

at 17:06 hours

same old problem building a working vsock module, even with your patch/script I’m guessing the kernel has updated again. What troubleshooting? I can’t really upgrade the distribution at this moment.

Thanks in advance!

Below is the compile output, starting with the first warning. Let me know if you need anything else

/tmp/vmware-config0/vsock-only/linux/util.c:157: warning: format not a string literal and no format arguments
CC [M] /tmp/vmware-config0/vsock-only/linux/vsockAddr.o
LD [M] /tmp/vmware-config0/vsock-only/vsock.o
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST 1 modules
WARNING: “VMCIDatagram_CreateHnd” [/tmp/vmware-config0/vsock-only/vsock.ko] undefined!
WARNING: “VMCIDatagram_DestroyHnd” [/tmp/vmware-config0/vsock-only/vsock.ko] undefined!
WARNING: “VMCI_GetContextID” [/tmp/vmware-config0/vsock-only/vsock.ko] undefined!
WARNING: “VMCIDatagram_Send” [/tmp/vmware-config0/vsock-only/vsock.ko] undefined!
CC /tmp/vmware-config0/vsock-only/vsock.mod.o
LD [M] /tmp/vmware-config0/vsock-only/vsock.ko
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.28-17-generic’
cp -f vsock.ko ./../vsock.o
make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config0/vsock-only’
Unable to make a vsock module that can be loaded in the running kernel:
insmod: error inserting ‘/tmp/vmware-config0/vsock.o’: -1 Unknown symbol in module
There is probably a slight difference in the kernel configuration between the
set of C header files you specified and your running kernel. You may want to
rebuild a kernel based on that directory, or specify another directory.

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