I upgraded from Dapper to Edgy, then installed VMware Server and had exactly the same error as Aodhandigital:

My VMware Server installation wouldn't fire up, it ate my processor and did nothing.

The problem was the presence of double libraries: libdbus-1-2 and libdbus-1-3 appeared to be both installed. After removing libdbus-1-2, VMware Server fires up nicely.

I hope this works for you too... It cost me hours to get it solved until a tip from a Swedish guy at ubuntoforums.org saved me.

Regards from Belgium,
Frank

thanks a lot - it works!

I just noticed this behavior is not happening under simulation... (VMware Server 1.0.1 installed on a virtual Ubuntu Server 6.10)

I don't understand why it would be different on a real computer.

I have found that this issue is related to Edgy's link from /bin/sh to dash instead of bash.

What I did:
sudo rm -f /bin/sh
sudo ln -s /bin/bash /bin/sh

and then reinstall MUI

1 UBUNTU by default symlinks /bin/sh to /bin/dash which does not support the 'source' command.

To fix
rm /bin/sh
ln -s bash /bin/sh

FYI - found this also applies to Zimbra collaboration server's ldap component installation. I'm sure this affects all kinds of off the shelf shell scripts.. a solution to keep in your back pocket.

http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?title=LDAP

Thanks for the help, all.

-B

Hi guys

I dont know if this solves just your problem but it solves mine also related to Ubuntu 6.10 dash replacing bash as the default shell. Your post was closest I could find so I leave mine solution here for people to pick up... Sorry if I'm posting cross posting wrong.

I found that sourced functions are something dash can not digest. I fix it by running...
I hope vmware folks pick this up and make their scripts ubuntu-dash compatible.

$ sudo bash
# sed -e 's!${p//[0-9]/}!$(echo $p | sed -e '\'s/[0-9]//g\'')!' functions.ORIG > functions

# diff functions.orig functions
130c130
< [ -z "${p//[0-9]/}" -a -d "/proc/$p" ] && pid="$pid $p"
---
182c182
< [ -z "${p//[0-9]/}" -a -d "/proc/$p" ] && pid="$pid $p"
---
244c244
< [ -z "${p//[0-9]/}" -a -d /proc/$p ] && pid="$pid $p"
---
268c268
< [ -z "${p//[0-9]/}" -a -d /proc/$p ] && pid="$pid $p"
---
#
# /etc/init.d/vmware stop
Stopping VMware services:
Virtual machine monitor done
Bridged networking on /dev/vmnet0 done
DHCP server on /dev/vmnet1 done
Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet1 done
DHCP server on /dev/vmnet8 done
NAT service on /dev/vmnet8 done
Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet8 done
Virtual ethernet done
# exit
$

It works for me. No guaranties it's gonna work for you. Good luck.

Hi!

I have a less intrusive fix to suggest:

Instead of modifying the scripts that come with VMware server for Ubuntu
I simply added my own start script to fix the directory and its permissions
before the httpd for the web ui is started.

Create the following script as /etc/init.d/rundir.httpd.vmware,
then

chmod 755 /etc/init.d/rundir.httpd.vmware
cd /etc/rc2.d
ln -s ../init.d/rundir.httpd.vmware ./S90rundir.httpd.vmware

Scripts content:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#! /bin/sh
#
# /var/run gets purged at every reboot!

RUNDIR="/var/run/vmware/httpd"
OWNER="www-data"
GROUP="www-data"

/usr/bin/test -d "$RUNDIR" || \
/bin/mkdir -p "$RUNDIR" && /bin/chown "$OWNER:$GROUP" "$RUNDIR"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Advantage: my solution will survive an update of your VMware server
installation

Kind regards,
Patrick