wila

Ubuntu has released a special version of their OS that is targeted to be used as a base for virtual appliances. This first version is based on Gutsy Gibbon (Ubuntu 7.10)
From: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2007-November/000106.html

After downloading the .iso, it turns out that installing this under ESX is a little problematic.
The main reason for this is that the kernel doesn't support LSI logic disks (do'h) the default disktype on our beloved professional VMware ESX / Virtual Infrastructure. This appears to be a bit of a major miss, especially as the maintainer doesn't seem to recognize the need.
See this bug and the "Won't Fix" status.
can't boot using vmware server
Guess he doesn't understand that vmware-server and vmware infrastructure are the big boys vmware...
Well suppose they do as in another bugreport this is reported as addressed for Ubuntu Hardy.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.22/+bug/164716 and according to the note it is addressed in Ubuntu-2.6.24-4.6

Steps below to fix booting are only needed for Ubuntu Jeos 7.10 and are no longer relevant for the 8.04 release

Anyways, nuff nagging as it is easy to work around now, once you know how-to fix.
Simply do the following:

• Change your disk from LSI Logic to Buslogic
• Reboot and if you are stopped in the busybox emergency console enter:

modprobe ide-generic
exit

• After this the boot should continue, you probably don't even need the modprobe part.

After booting, log in and do the following:
sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst.backup
sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst
Search for the line with your normal kernel and remove the "quiet splash" part from the end of the line and instead add the following:
acpi=off apm=on noapic

Reboot, you should now be able to simply boot to a login prompt and not get dropped in the Busybox rescue shell.

Installing vmware-tools

To built from source, follow these steps:

Make sure you meet the prerequisites by installing a compiler and getting the linux kernel headers for the running kernel:

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`

For compiling the tools under 8.04 you'll also have to install the psmisc package.

sudo apt-get install psmisc

Mount the CD using the "install vmware-tools" option and copy the tools to your home folder:
mount /dev/scd0
cp /media/cdrom0/*.gz ~
cd ~
tar -xvf VMwareTools-*.tar.gz
cd vmware-tools-distrib/
sudo ./vmware-install.pl

Use the default answers to the questions, you should now be able to compile all the modules.
Afterwards you are free to remove the vmware-tools-distrib folder and the .tar.gz file from your home folder.
rm ~/VMwareTools-*.tar.gz
rm -rf ~/vmware-tools-distrib/

After this you can in the future update vmware-tools by using the "install vmware-tools" option in the VMware Infrastructure Client. This presumes you have selected "Ubuntu 32 bits" as the virtual OS in ESX.

External Links

https://code.launchpad.net/ubuntu-jeos
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/jeos/releases/gutsy/release/
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/jeos/releases/hardy/release/