VMware Communities > VMTN > Desktop Products > VMware Fusion > Discussions
Up to Discussions in VMware Fusion

This Question is Possibly Answered

1 "correct" answer available (10 pts) 2 "helpful" answers available (6 pts)
8 Replies Last post: Nov 3, 2007 6:53 AM by bergdesign
Reply

Unable to install VMWare Tools w/RC release

Oct 26, 2007 9:23 PM

Click to view dougkolson's profile Lurker dougkolson 1 posts since
Oct 26, 2007
I am testing VMWare for the first time and have downloaded the Fusion 1.1 RC. I am running Bootcamp with Vista and have been able to run this without trouble with VMWare 1.1 RC -- except for one thing.

After starting up the VM and logging in with Administrator access, I go the the "Virtual Machine" menu and select "Install VMWare Tools". Aside from the menu changing to "Cancel VMWare Tools Installation" nothing seems to happen. I see no tasks related to this activity, I've waited for hours with nothing happening. I've logged in with a domain-based account and a local machine account. Nothing.

I am sure that this is obvious but honestly, I cannot figure it out.

Can anyone help me?
Tags: boot_camp, vista, vmware, tools
Reply Re: Unable to install VMWare Tools w/RC release Oct 26, 2007 9:54 PM
Click to view etung's profile Guru etung 10,540 posts since
Oct 15, 2006 VMware
All "Install VMware Tools" does is connect the appropriate tools iso (as determined by the guest type in the vmx file) to the virtual machine. If you disabled autorun, you have to trigger installation by running D:\setup.exe (or wherever your drive is located). Good practice is to eject any CDs from the guest before installing tools since the guest may be confused if it doesn't realize the disk has changed.
Reply Re: Unable to install VMWare Tools w/RC release Oct 31, 2007 5:04 PM
Click to view bergdesign's profile Lurker bergdesign 4 posts since
Oct 31, 2007
I just ran into the same issue and was unable to find a solution in the forums or thru Google. Turns out, my VMware install was telling Windows to mount the wrong iso image, so it was mounting the linux.iso image with rpm and tgz files instead of the windows.iso image with the autorun application. To workaround it, I manually mounted the windows.iso image by selecting the menu item "Virtual Machine -> CD/DVD -> Choose Disk Image..." and navigating to /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/isoimages/windows.iso. The image immediately mounted and ran the installer.
Reply Re: Unable to install VMWare Tools w/RC release Oct 31, 2007 5:36 PM
in response to: bergdesign
Click to view etung's profile Guru etung 10,540 posts since
Oct 15, 2006 VMware
Fusion figures out which iso to mount (as well as a few other things) based on the Guest OS you tell it when setting up the virtual machine. I bet your virtual machine is actually set to be some flavor of linux.
Reply Re: Unable to install VMWare Tools w/RC release Oct 31, 2007 6:10 PM
in response to: etung
Click to view bergdesign's profile Lurker bergdesign 4 posts since
Oct 31, 2007
Thanks for the tip. That's most likely the case for me since my Windows XP vm is a conversion from a Boot Camp partition using VMware converter. I don't recall doing anything other than double-clicking the resulting vmx file to launch it once it was converted, then subsequently dragging the vmx file into the "Virtual Machine Library" window to add it to the list. I haven't seen a setting for the OS flavor like I did when setting up another new vm from scratch.
Reply Re: Unable to install VMWare Tools w/RC release Oct 31, 2007 6:29 PM
in response to: bergdesign
Click to view etung's profile Guru etung 10,540 posts since
Oct 15, 2006 VMware
That's interesting, I would have expected Converter to get it right. What does the .vmx file say for guestOS?
Reply Re: Unable to install VMWare Tools w/RC release Oct 31, 2007 6:50 PM
in response to: etung
Click to view bergdesign's profile Lurker bergdesign 4 posts since
Oct 31, 2007
Took me a little while to figure out where this was... It's guestOS = "other24xlinux". I used "VMware Converter" and another little utility called "VMX Extras" to do my Boot Camp partition conversion (following some tips on a forum), so it's quite likely that something wasn't 100% correct in that process. The vm runs fine and Windows XP doesn't exhibit any problems, so I've been able to get my work done. But I'd like to correct the issue if possible, so I don't have to go through that kind of troubleshooting again in the future :)
Reply Re: Unable to install VMWare Tools w/RC release Nov 2, 2007 8:20 PM
in response to: bergdesign
Click to view etung's profile Guru etung 10,540 posts since
Oct 15, 2006 VMware
You didn't say what flavor of XP you have so I can't tell you the correct value to use, but you can create an empty VM of the correct type (remember to uncheck the "Install now" on the final screen) and examine the new vmx to find the proper value.
Reply Re: Unable to install VMWare Tools w/RC release Nov 3, 2007 6:53 AM
in response to: etung
Click to view bergdesign's profile Lurker bergdesign 4 posts since
Oct 31, 2007
I'm using XP Pro. I went ahead and made a backup copy of the old .vmx file, then I created a new vm and specified the existing virtual disk under the advanced disk options. The new .vmx file properly specifies guestos = "winxppro" and everything seems fine, so I'll assume the next tools update will run properly. Thanks for the guidance.
Actions
Up to Discussions in VMware Fusion