Problems installing vmware tools (default or OSP) with SLES 10 SP3

[shorrj]

Hello to everyone,

I've been having problems installing vmware tools properly into a fresh SLES 10 SP3 machine. I've been having problems for a few days now. First I was using the default linux package that came with ESX 4.0u1 but that caused problems with the X11 system, the control panel became unusable and it wasn't using the vmware drivers etc., vnc didn't work. So after that I got the docs and did the OSP install for SLES 10 64-bit. During the install of the vmware-tools top package I got error messages the first time I tried, but I figured that had something to do with the previous vmware tools install. So I played around a bit and uninstalled and reinstalled and it finished, and I figured I was in the clear if I stuck to the OSP install.

Today I built another fresh system and have been documenting my steps for a standard build document. When I got to the part where I install the OSP I got an error message at the exact same part. It just says transaction failed at 44% when installing the first top package. I really am a linux newbie so I don't know if there's supposed to be a log file available, I googled around and thought it would be zdm-messages.log but there's nothing in there. So anyway after fooling around with installing the individual packages manually, I am 99% sure that the problem is with the vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-utilities package. After the first failed attempt the system thinks this package is installed, but it's not. How does a novice like me know? Well, for one you can remove all the other packages properly but this one you get an error message, and if I try to remove it through the SLES software installer the log file says no such files found.

I did just open an incident with VMware support. But if any SLES people out there reading this have seen these issues and can lend a hand that would be really great. Thanks very much for your time.

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Can you share your errors with us?

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009

Now Available: 'VMware vSphere(TM) and Virtual Infrastructure Security'[/url]

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[shorrj]

Thanks for your reply. Well, when I was trying the tools packaged within ESX, the install went through but after restarting the X11 config is screwed up, the keyboard says albanina, the mouse section is blank, the monitor selection is blank, the vnc config is wiped and you can't make any changes, I don't remember the exact error message sorry.

When installing the OSP package it just says "transaction failed."

[hurnik]

Has anyone gotten this to work?

I've got the documentation for the OSP but it appears to have a few incorrect and missing items. For example, page 10 lists the packages you need to install. Notice that on table 2-1 for SERVERS, it does not list the "vmware-tools". Yet, then on page 20, for SLES 10 install, it tells you to install the vmware-tools package. So which is it? (SLES meaning Suse Linux Enterprise SERVER).

Further, there's nothing in the docs about manual installation instructions for SLES 10 that I can find. It all seems to hinge on the fact that:

a) Your machine has access to the internet to vmware's servers and add a rug package. (why then do they have a paragraph about downloading the rpm files when you're going to point to vmware's http server for rug to work?)

b) You use rug to install it

They don't list the manual instructions (I'm guessing something like: rpm -Uvh something.rpm ???) if you wish to (or you have to) install via that method.

[shorrj]

I was able to get around my issue by not patching the server during install. Don't ask me why that worked. I never tried to do it manually, I just used the rug process and it worked.