How to install VMware Server 2.0.x on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

How To Linux Ubuntu Virtualization VMware
Friday, October 30th 2009, 04:13
696 Comments

UPDATE 4: The script and patches have been updated to also support kernel 2.6.38. For older kernel releases please download the archive from here (temporary fix until I will unify the solutions).

UPDATE 3: The script and patches have been updated to also support kernel 2.6.35.

UPDATE 2: The script has been updated to work with kernels 2.6.32 too. Please post your comments regarding kernel 2.6.32 here.

UPDATE 1: The script which is now used for this operation has been updated to support Fedora and openSUSE too. Also the patch used is the one made by Ramon de Carvalho Valle, not the one present on VMware’s Communities site as it was before, which provides a more stable experience. More details can be read here although the instructions presented on this page are still valid.

Please post your comments regarding other distributions on the post located here!

After I have upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala I have noticed that VMware Server 2.0.1 or 2.0.2 fail to install using the default installer. I then thought that I should use again the install script I wrote for installing the server in 9.04. Wrong! Since the kernel had changed a bit, the modules from VMware Server failed to compile correctly. Browsing the VMware Communities forums, I have discovered a post that discusses using a new patch. The only patch that seems to work for the 2.6.31-14 kernel that is shipped with Ubuntu 9.10 is the one for 2.6.30-4.

The process, even if it was handled by a script, assumed the user should stop the install process in the middle, patch some files here and there and then recompile his modules keeping his fingers crossed. Because  I really do not like that kind of approach, I decided to build my own script based on that one that will automatically patch the files and lead you to the install without the need for you to stop until you are done.

How to

  1. Download VMware Server (2.0.1 or 2.0.2) – gz format, not rpm. For the 2.0.2 version you might need to wait a couple of hours until you will receive the license key. Whichever version you choose, keep the license key near.
  2. Download my script from here (right click, save as, extract archive).
  3. Run the script with super user rights either in the same folder where you have downloaded the server archive, either by providing it the path to that folder. Make sure the folder where you have downloaded the server’s archive doesn’t contain spaces in its path name or the script will exit (giving you this reason as an error message). If the script exists, it will give you a decent warning from which you should be able to tell what’s wrong. Also, the VSOCK module will not work (will fail to compile), giving you a hint that your kernel sources might not be the ones for your running kernel. This is not true, as the script takes care of this before doing the hard work. Anyway, VMware Server will work without it. Example: 
    chmod +x vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh
sudo ./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh [PATH _TO_VMWARE_ARCHIVE]
  4. When you are asked about adding users to the server, if you do not provide your own account, the user used for loging in the web console of the server will be root (maybe you should add yourself there).
  5. Provide the license key when asked about it.
  6. For the ones installing Windows guests in VMware Server, you must pick one of the following two solutions to avoid having problems with the mouse in the console:
    • you run this script in the terminal every time you want to launch a VMware Server console, but after you have installed the VMware plug-in for Firefox
    • you export this variable in the environment right after login such that it will be set before starting Firefox: 
      VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=yes

    Credit for this one goes to Holger.

  7. Drop me a Kudos line in here and one for Holger here. If the solution worked well for you please share this info wherever you can. :D

Until a new patch will appear or until VMware will start writing more better and actual code, this is the only way of installing VMware Server 2.0.x on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala. Best of luck to you all!

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696 Comments

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  • narmi91 October 30th, 2009 at 07:00

    Thank you very much the script worked pretty well. It had problems finding my archive so I shrunk the egrep statment to the following and everything else worked:

    egrep “VMware-server-2.0″

    Reply
    • October 30th, 2009 at 10:30

      The way you shrank that regex might generate errors if in that folder you would have by accident something like “VMware-server-2.0.2.txt”

      It’s done now and it should work for x86_64 too. The regex I used to identify the archive you had was

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

      and it didn’t match for VMware-server-2.0.2-203138.x86_64.tar.gz, only for the i686 version.

      So now the regex is 

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

      and the script should work as advertised. Sorry, I was really tired and that slipped me away.

      Reply
    • AK October 29th, 2010 at 06:37

      I have a problem trying to get VMWare Workstation 7.1.2 to work again after I upgraded to Ubuntu 10.10.
      I have un-installed and re-installed Workstation but this does not help.
      When I start the VMWare workstation I get an error “Unable to build kernel module” after starting the VMWare and being a linux/ubuntu newbie I am now at the stage where I will have to reinstall 10.4 just so that I can work again.
      Is it possible to modify your script to install Workstation?

      Reply
    • Kruem December 17th, 2010 at 10:04

      Thanks for the script. It worked very good but I have a problem with the console window. I get an error:

      Cannot access virtual mashine console. The request timed out.
      The attempt to acquire a valid session ticket for “Ubuntu Datenbanken” took longer than expected. If this problem persists, contact your system administrator.

      What is wrong? What could be the solution?

      Kind regards.

      Reply
      • December 17th, 2010 at 11:44

        There might be a problem with the VMware plug-in from your browser, in which case I recommend you to use the console script provided in the archive.

    • Jonathan March 25th, 2011 at 16:14

      Worked for me (Ubuntu 10.04 with kernel 2.6.32-30), after 2 hours of over attempts :
      THANK YOU

      Reply
  • supraman_tt October 30th, 2009 at 10:48

    Thanks for the help. Your script works perfectly. Finally got my vm back up and running.

    Thanks again and keep up the good work.

    Reply
  • Andreu October 30th, 2009 at 10:54

    Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! This is exactly why I like Ubuntu, for his great community of geeks!

    A

    Reply
  • Fergus Gallagher October 30th, 2009 at 11:48

    Hero! Thanks

    Reply
  • Andreu October 30th, 2009 at 11:59

    One question: now it works, but the Windows XP vm I’m running does not work really well. I have some issues with the mouse. Any fix for that?

    Reply
  • Juerg October 30th, 2009 at 13:24

    Same mouse problems here. Sometime i have to use the right mouse button instead left mouse to klick to do some things like closing windows or klick on a button.

    Reply
  • October 30th, 2009 at 13:38

    Try uninstalling the mouse driver from you XP guest. If you have installed VMware Tools in your guest, the default mouse driver was replaced by them.

    Reply
  • David October 30th, 2009 at 13:51

    Thank you very much!

    Reply
  • Cody October 30th, 2009 at 14:51

    Thanks!

    This script saved me after an upgrade to Ubuntu 9.10.

    Reply
  • Juerg October 30th, 2009 at 15:10

    The mouse problem still persists. I tried to install a new XP in a new VM. But after the first start i cant use the mouse realy. Any other hints?

    Reply
    • October 30th, 2009 at 15:12

      Nothing else crosses my mind unfortunately… I am sorry…

      Reply
      • Rob Lucke December 31st, 2010 at 00:53

        Hi, re: mouse issues. Not a problem with your script, but I had terrible mouse problems until I found the pointer to setting

        VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=yes

        prior to running the console stuff. It was so bad I was ready to stop using the product. I also had other console issues if there was any kind of HTTP proxy set. I also issue:

        unset http_proxy https_proxy HTTP_PROXY HTTPS_PROXY

        prior to running the console stuff. My entire string is:

        export VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=yes; unset http_proxy https_proxy HTTP_PROXY HTTPS_PROXY; /home/lucker/.mozilla/firefox/gh9h2a00.default/extensions/VMwareVMRC\@vmware.com/plugins/vmware-vmrc -h “rlucke1:8333″

        I get this working manually, then encapsulate it in a desktop icon. There is debug for the plugin available in /tmp if you look in /tmp/vmware-/vmrc-*.log

        –Rob

        P.S. Thanks for making this information public, I really need VMware to continue running on SUSE until I have a functional replacement.

      • Rob Lucke December 31st, 2010 at 00:58

        Regarding getting things running on OpenSUSE 11.3. They now have a set of RPMs that will fix up the VMware installation and create the appropriate links. There are instructions at:

        http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Installing_VMware_server_or_workstation

        These include links to the appropriate fixup-RPMs:

        http://software.opensuse.org/search?q=vmware-fix&baseproject=ALL&lang=en&exclude_debug=true

        This got me up and running, although I now appear to have the network driver issues that are mentioned in some of the above articles. Going to work on that next.

        –Rob

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