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7 Replies Last post: Jul 27, 2006 8:42 AM by RDPetruska

VMware Disk Mount Utility for Linux

Apr 11, 2006 6:37 AM

Click to view tysonkey's profile Hot Shot tysonkey 212 posts since
Jan 30, 2006
Does anyone know where I can get a utility for mounting VMware Disk Images on a Linux system (official, or unofficial software), as the ones on VMware's site are just for Windows? :(
Re: VMware Disk Mount Utility for Linux Apr 11, 2006 7:56 PM
Click to view edillon's profile Hot Shot edillon 138 posts since
Oct 28, 2004
vmware-mount.pl comes standard with the linux-based products now,
i believe. at least, i've seen it with ESX, VC beta, and WS 5.5.

[code]
# vmware-mount.pl

This script requires 3 (not 0) mandatory argument(s).

Usage: /usr/bin/vmware-mount.pl
-p : Print the partition table
disk : Name of the Virtual Hard Disk file
or
disk : Name of the Virtual Hard Disk file
partition : Number of the partition
[-t type] : Partition type
[-o options]: Partition mount options(s)
mount-point : Directory where to mount the partition
[/code]
Re: VMware Disk Mount Utility for Linux Apr 12, 2006 5:43 AM
in response to: edillon
Click to view tysonkey's profile Hot Shot tysonkey 212 posts since
Jan 30, 2006
Thanks, but where can I get a version that is seperate from a full VMware installation, as I've got some VMware Disk Images on an NTFS partition that I need to access from Linux. I already have VMware Server installed on the Windows partition, but there's no vmware-mount.pl to be found.

I've found this.
But the link is broken, and I'd found it here
Re: VMware Disk Mount Utility for Linux Apr 12, 2006 6:04 AM
in response to: tysonkey
Click to view AMcCreath's profile Master AMcCreath 1,070 posts since
Jan 7, 2005
It should be in /usr/bin/
If you don't have it let me know and I'll shoot it over mate.
Re: VMware Disk Mount Utility for Linux Apr 12, 2006 6:05 AM
in response to: tysonkey
Click to view kix1979's profile Champion kix1979 3,758 posts since
Oct 14, 2004
Moderator
They just need to update the links. It still should be provided free of charge, it just seems that since the last update of the scripts they have not updated the addon section there or in the Workstation downloads. I would send them an email and support could probably get it done.
Re: VMware Disk Mount Utility for Linux Apr 12, 2006 9:01 PM
in response to: tysonkey
Click to view edillon's profile Hot Shot edillon 138 posts since
Oct 28, 2004
if you've already got the linux version of VMware Server installed somewhere,
like andrew said it should be in /usr/bin. you'll also need the /usr/bin/vmware-loop
executable which vmware-mount.pl depends on. if you have the VMware Server
linux tarball lying around, you can extract only those two files:

[code]
cd /tmp
tar -xzvf /path/to/VMware-server-e.x.p-22874.tar.gz vmware-server-distrib/bin/vmware-mount.pl vmware-server-distrib/bin/vmware-loop
[/code]
take the two files and put them in the /usr/bin directory. the perl script also
looks for the variable loop.fullpath in /etc/vmware/config, so you'll need to
create that file as well unless you want to hardcode it into the perl script:

[code]
mkdir /etc/vmware
echo 'loop.fullpath = "/usr/bin/vmware-loop"' >> /etc/vmware/config
[/code]
i think that should do it. if you want to put the programs somewhere other
than /usr/bin, change the path for loop.fullpath appropriately.
Re: VMware Disk Mount Utility for Linux Jul 27, 2006 8:17 AM
Click to view parisandre's profile Lurker parisandre 1 posts since
Jul 27, 2006
get the following error when I try to mount a vmdsk

Warning: Unable to open the virtual hard disk "/var/vm/Windows XP Professional/Windows XP Professional-flat.vmdk": The file specified is not a virtual disk.

Unable to invoke /usr/bin/vmware-loop. You may want to re-install VMware.

yet I am able to open it in Vmware Server no problems, of course

any ideas?

thx in advance
Re: VMware Disk Mount Utility for Linux Jul 27, 2006 8:42 AM
in response to: parisandre
Click to view RDPetruska's profile Guru RDPetruska 15,420 posts since
Jan 11, 2005
Moderator
Open the main file (without the -flat suffix) which is the disk descriptor, not the actual binary disk file. The descriptor-file properly points to any/all binary pieces needed by the mount script.
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