I had exactly the same problems. If you don't need vmware workstation to work at the same time then the simple link worked for me:
\## Tested on Debian Unstable (Sid)
cd /usr/lib
mv vmware vmware.orig
ln -s vmware-console vmware
The previous 'ln' command may cause problems later on. Otherwise (as is my case, where I need workstation and console working), a library problem (found by running 'vmware -v') was causing the install to overwrite the workstation. I had to copy a library and link the remotemks binary:
\## Workstation is installed and working, but not running.
cd vmware-console-distrib/
\## Copy the offending library from my sys into the installer dirs
cp /usr/lib/libpng12.so lib/lib/libpng12.so.0/libpng12.so.0
\## install
cd vmware-console-distrib/
./vmware-install.pl
\## Link the binary
cd /usr/lib/vmware/bin
ln -s ../../vmware-console/bin/vmware-remotemks
\## or maybe I had to copy the library into Workstation before all the above(??)
\## The above worked for me but looking back I don't really see why as
\## it's 'vmware -v' that caused the installer to uninstall Workstation.
cp /usr/lib/libpng12.so /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libpng12.so.0/libpng12.so.0
my vmware -v produced:
$ vmware -v
/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware: /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libpng12.so.0/libpng12.so.0: no version information available (required by /usr/lib/libcairo.so.2)
VMware Workstation 5.5.1 build-19175
$
In fact, now that I've retrospectively fixed the library problem, which I never knew existed before, my Workstation 5.5 now looks much better. I had always wondered why the fonts didn't look right, and why it ignored my theme!!
