reinstalling or uninstalling or upgrading tools?

[licensedtoquill]

I just installed linuxmint 18.3 and as usual installed tools after install had finished. I am pretty sure it installed

I now get CANCEL TOOLS INSTALLATION grayed out in the Virtual Machine menu, on all subsequent reboots, which I thought was normal?

But I cant share folders in the host?? I can enable the folder on the host in SHARING but I get a message telling me I cant share until I install tools??

Is there an FAQ on reinstalling or uninstalling or upgrading tools please?

[wila]

Hi,

FWIW, I have been using Linux for about 20 years and have plenty of text only linux instances running, nothing wrong with that, it just depends on your needs if it makes sense or not.

it is not up to me to decide what you run Linux mint for, everybody their own.

I was not talking about a Fusion GUI, but about the mint desktop environment which by itself is also a Graphical User Interface, that open-vm-tools-desktop depends on a desktop interface.

Sorry if I confused you.

--

Wil

[SvenGus]

My clean install experience of before was with the Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon Edition (but the specific desktop environment is probably irrelevant, in this case)...

BTW, did you install Linux Mint with the Easy Install option (which could explain the failure of automatically installing the VMware Tools)...? What kind of VM did you assign to Linux Mint (Ubuntu 64 bit, or something else?)...?

[SvenGus]

Sadly, anyway, VMware Fusion's Linux support - and also other things - has been steadily declining, in the last years: for example, having to install the Open VM Tools (Desktop) should be made more clear and maybe also automatic, instead of the current confusion...

[wila]

Hi,

Not really, it's just another "something isn't exactly right" error. HGFS does not depend on networking, it works fine without any network cards, instead it uses vmci for communication between guest and host.

Why don't you try to run the installer from the bundled linux by mounting the linux.iso, copying the .tar.gz en unzipping the .tar.gz and running the full install there?

Here's some rather old notes of mine on the subject, but it should still work

cd ~
cp /cdrom/VMwareTools-*.tar.gz .
tar -xvf VMwareTools-*.tar.gz
cd vmware-tools-distrib/
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`
sudo ./vmware-install.pl --default

At least then you get to see where things fail once they fail.

Right now we have a "it doesn't work" report and that's rather hard to troubleshoot as we have to guess what is wrong.

(Replace the /cdrom folder with your actual folder that holds the iso file)

--

Wil

[licensedtoquill]

Actually that might be relevant, I DID use the easy install procedure for the first time, having always used advanced install in the past and done everything manually. I did try advanced install this time but kept getting arcane errors which I hadnt found problematic in the past

[licensedtoquill]

Hey Will, to my surprise, I managed to get your command to execute! I usually get something wrong along the way but this time I executed your tar command as follows:

hugo@hugo-virtual-machine ~/Downloads $ tar -xvf VMware-Tools-*.tar.gz

floppies/

floppies/pvscsi-Windows2008.flp

floppies/pvscsi-Windows8.flp

floppies/pvscsi-WindowsVista.flp

vmtools/

vmtools/buildNumber.txt

vmtools/linux.iso.sig

vmtools/windows.iso

vmtools/isoimages_manifest.txt.sig

vmtools/linux_avr_manifest.txt

vmtools/linux.iso

vmtools/windows_avr_manifest.txt

vmtools/windows.iso.sha

vmtools/windows_avr_manifest.txt.sig

vmtools/linux_avr_manifest.txt.sig

vmtools/windows.iso.sig

vmtools/isoimages_manifest.txt

vmtools/linux.iso.sha

vmtools/version.txt

hugo@hugo-virtual-machine ~/Downloads $

(I certainly dont understand all the references to windows??)

The next line didn't execute

cd vmware-tools-distrib/

bash: cd: vmware-tools-distrib/: No such file or directory

but the following three DID EXECUTE!! Followed by

sudo ./vmware-install.pl --default which gave me COMMAND NOT FOUND

[wila]

Hi,

Well with that output at least I understand what you did.

The VMware Tools package you are running against is an archive of all VMware Tools and it contains the CD images of VMware Tools, not just the linux vmware tools. I don't know where you got that, but if they are recent then it is fine.

Those .iso files has one in particular that you should have connected your VM's virtual cdrom against (iow, mount)

Now if you still have those files.. let's just use them from within the VM, this is linux.. we can do that.

sudo mkdir /mnt/cdrom
cd vmtools
sudo mount -o loop linux.iso /mnt/cdrom
ls -la /mnt/cdrom

To explain, we first make a mount point in the first line. /mnt/cdrom so that we can access the contents of the cd image down there.

Then I do a cd vmtools --- this assumes that you are in the same folder as where you ran that tar xvf command... the goal is to be in the same folder as all those .iso files.

The mount -o loop line "opens" the cd-image file called linux.iso and exposes it contents on /mnt/cdrom

the "ls" line will list the contents of that /mnt/cdrom file and should show a number of files. including one that contains VMware-Tools-<somenumber>.tar.gz

If you have all that, then you can rerun the above. Note that "/cdrom" from that list of commands should be replaced with "/mnt/cdrom"

--

Wil

[licensedtoquill]

Well you made that look very easy and I did understand most of what you said and I did manage to execute all of your commands (though I had to cd downloads before I could cd vmtools) and everything went OK.  But I still wondered what I had to do to install tools after I had executed all those commands.

I read through everything a few more times and thought that as I had now mounted everything, I had to execute

sudo ./vmware-install.pl --default

But that just gave me

sudo: ./vmware-install.pl: command not found

I think I am in the right place because dir gives me

hugo@hugo-virtual-machine ~/Downloads/vmtools $ dir

buildNumber.txt             linux_avr_manifest.txt.sig  version.txt                   windows.iso.sha

isoimages_manifest.txt      linux.iso                   windows_avr_manifest.txt      windows.iso.sig

isoimages_manifest.txt.sig  linux.iso.sha               windows_avr_manifest.txt.sig

linux_avr_manifest.txt      linux.iso.sig               windows.iso

But how do I conclude this installation at this stage please?

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hi,

That's the correct place for the  mounting, but not for running the vmware tools install script.

If you run:

ls /mnt/cdrom

Do you then get a list that includes VMwareTools-xxxxxx.tar.gz ?

(where xxxxx is some number) If not then don't mind the other steps.

In that case please return the output of "df -h"

If OTOH you get the correct output then let's try again (and I'll explain the steps this time)

cd ~  
cp /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-*.tar.gz .  
  
tar -xvf VMwareTools-*.tar.gz  
cd vmware-tools-distrib/  
sudo apt-get update  
sudo apt-get upgrade  
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`  
sudo ./vmware-install.pl --default  

cd ~ --> change directory to your home folder

cp /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-*.tar.gz . --> that copies the tar.gz file to the current directory (.) don't miss the dot

tar -xvf VMwareTools-*.tar.gz --> unpack the tar.gz file. This should create a folder vmware-tools-distrib in your home folder

cd vmware-tools-distrib --> change into the folder that has the actual scripts and code for vmware-tools

the sudo apt-get lines are for getting the latest software packages and the line with build-essential etc. pulls in the compilers and make tools etcetera for being able to compile the source.

sudo ./vmware-install.pl --default --> starts the compilations and install of vmware tools.

--

Wil

[licensedtoquill]

WOW, because you had told me what to do, everything was in the right place and tools now installed correctly, initialised and now works properly.   Sharing no longer gives the error in Settings and although I still cant see the host in Dolphin, I am sure I can work that out or simply reboot

Thank you again!

[licensedtoquill]

Well, not being able to see the host in Dolphin was perhaps a bad sign because despite tools having installed successfully, I still couldn't share files with the host!  But I wasn't particularly worried about it because there was no "Shared folders will not be available in the virtual machine until VMware Tools is installed and running." error message in sharing.  And after all, tools had definitely now installed, and with the latest version that I had only just downloaded from the VMWare site.

So you can imagine my surprise when I found that I still couldn't share!  So I disabled sharing and re-enabled it. Nothing

So I restarted.

Nothing.   Now with the "Shared folders will not be available in the virtual machine until VMware Tools is installed and running." error.

So I checked menus again, and whaddyaknow, update tools was now an option!  So I tried it. Nothing, So I rebooted, and the VM boot process is slow as treacle, but as to sharing (when I left update to install overnight), - nothing. And still with the "Shared folders will not be available in the virtual machine until VMware Tools is installed and running." error message and, of course, still with the 'cancel vmware tools installation' grayed out.

This error message seems to entirely miss the point and seems to be completely wrong, -  like the 'error 404, -DNS can't be found', which in 1% of occasions means problem with DNSs, and in 99% of cases means 'your internet connection has failed'

[wila]

Hi,

I would have ignored the menu option.. you got the latest version so whatever was in the menu could safely have been ignored.

IIRC then your guest OS isn't even on the list of supported OS's, so am quite confident that the manual install is better once we ruled out open-vm-tools as solution.

No I don't care if it is "supported" or not, it still should work, not supported just means that VMware gives no guarantees.

What guest OS did you set your VM? Did you set it as "Ubuntu x64"? (Eg. Virtual Machine menu -> settings -> general -> Linux -> .....)

Having said the above, I completely do understand that you tried to install from the menu - yet again.

If you can get back to the manual install then we can do additional troubleshooting if you like.

Can you check if vmtoolsd is running? (see this thread on how-to check vmtoolsd core dump when running vmware-user )

This thread might also have some pointers: Copy/paste and drag/drop doesn't work

Note that the last one is from 2015, things have changed since then, but the idea is still the same.

--

Wil

[licensedtoquill]

Now it is my turn to apologise a bit. Sharing is not working but copy/paste is working in both directions. 

Yes, I did install the vm as Ubuntu 64 bit when I couldnt see a Mint option.  Because I had understood that mint was ubuntu-based unless you were specifically using a debian version.

the ps -ef | grep -i vmware command gives

root        468      1  0 05:31 ?        00:00:00 vmware-vmblock-fuse /run/vmblock-fuse -o rw,subtype=vmware-vmblock,default_permissions,allow_other,dev,suid

hugo       9700   9675  0 14:23 pts/1    00:00:00 grep --color=auto -i vmware

and I would have been happy ignoring the menu option if sharing was actually working.

[wila]

Hi,

Just curious (and perhaps temporary workaround) can you drag and drop files between host and guest OS?

That is also supposed to work and if your copy&paste is working then there's a reasonable chance that that part works.

So the fuse block driver is running, perhaps there's a dependency that is missing.

Can you post the output of the line:

ldd /usr/bin/vmware-vmblock-fuse

The first letter is a lowercase L

--

Wil

[licensedtoquill]

That  line gives

linux-vdso.so.1 =>  (0x00007ffede19a000)

        libfuse.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libfuse.so.2 (0x00007f39ef55f000)

        libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f39ef342000)

        libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007f39eef78000)

        libdl.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f39eed74000)

        /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f39ef79b000)

I am pretty sure I cant dragndrop because I am not very good with screens and OSX/Linux opens in adjacent screens

[licensedtoquill]

And update vmware tools has suddenly reappeared in the menu! I'm not going to get suckered into doing THAT again!

Linux is already syrupy slow, with any instruction taking upwards of 25 seconds to execute

[wila]

The ldd output looks OK.

I am pretty sure I cant dragndrop because I am not very good with screens and OSX/Linux opens in adjacent screens

You have to drop out of full screen for being able to drag and drop.

So temporarily use a windowed linux for the drag and drop operation, then go back to full screen after that.

Otherwise yes drag and drop will be impossible.

--

Wil

[wila]

If linux is very slow then either you have high CPU or.... another very common cause is that your DNS is no longer working.

Can you ping google.com?

Eg.

ping google.com

--

Wil

[licensedtoquill]

I think I am going to have to dump this VM. Slow as syrup, tools dont work, now it is continuously forgetting its password.  I have to restart the whole VM      S L O W L Y     every time it goes to sleep!!

Maybe I might try the debian version if there is one of Sylvia?

Thanks for your help. this is the first disastrous linux installation I have ever had!

I know when I am beat

[wila]

Hi,

Sometimes it is better to cut your losses yes. Not that I would give in, but that doesn't make me smarter, just more stubborn.

You can try the debian version that is the bases of the ubuntu version that mint uses as base.

However if you like mint.. then you might be more happy using that as it has more modern software than debian installed.

Just had a look -> mint Sylvia -> based on Ubuntu 16.04 -> based on debian version?

I googled it a bit, one post claims that it is based on "stretch / sid". Nowadays ubuntu LTS is based on debian unstable (sid).

While that is fine for ubuntu, I certainly do not recommend you to run debian unstable.

Of course that debian version after two years is now debian stable. IOW, you would be running debian 9 stable (debian stretch).

The latest one of that is debian 9.4 and as you might remember from an earlier post on that from me, I now have shared folders issues on that one too... (which I have not yet tried to resolve).

--

Wil