VMware Player 4.0.2 Tools - Bad Support

[nospamboz]

Well, I took the trouble of of filing a support request to let them know that Tools are unavailable for Player 4.0.2.

I said: "VMware Player 4.0.2 (all platforms), has no VMware Tools available for  download. This has been the case for over a week. See the VMware Player  Community Discussion for more details."

The response was a link to the "VMware Tools Installation Guide" PDF.

Wow. I've been doing this long enough to know that when you start getting support responses like that, it's the beginning of the end. Sure, it's a free product, but that kind of response shows that they have the equivalent of a trained monkey on the line, pushing a button in response to a light, like Ham the chimp (look it up).

Now I know why it's been over a week with the Tools unavailable. It's just going to get worse. Mark my words.

It's a shame. VMware is a great product, probably the best of its kind. But the bottle washers and button sorters are in charge now, and bad support costs less.

[nospamboz]

Dilbert, timely as ever.

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2012-02-12/

[Otakukid]

Hi folks my first post here. I've been using VMware player for a long time.

( Was using workstation for even longer before that but times got hard and the company was forced to reduce our IT budget )

VMWare have been so reliable I've never had need to search for help before.

Like others I've come across this missing tools problem when upgrading to 4.02. Like others I can't believe that VMWare didn't have engineers all over this the moment they noticed their mistake. Like others I really hope this an honest mistake and not a sign of things to come from VMWare.

I've read the forums and I've seen the recommendation to download and install the Workstation 8.02 trial and extract the tools from there.

I've done that and installed the trial on another PC.

I've searched the workstation files but the expected OS dependent ISOs for mounting and installing the tools aren't there.

* I can see the VMWare\VMWare Tools directory in the Workstation installation.

* I've tried replacing the tools upgraders in the VMplayer installation with the tools upgraders from Workstation installation but clicking update tools gives the same component couldn't be found error.

My questions are :

What files am I looking for now?

How do I install the tools if there's no ISOs?

I thought of copying all of the files from the VMware\VMWare tools folder on the host VMware Workstation installation into the VMware\VMware tools directory on the VMplayer guest OS but that doesn't seem correct because it wouldn't allow for different tools for different guests?

* I need to install tools on existing XP 32 bit, Vista 32 bit, and Win7 64 bit images. Win7x64 Host.

[nospamboz]

Otakukid wrote:

times got hard and the company was forced to reduce our IT budget

You don't happen to work for VMware, do you? :smileylaugh:

What files am I looking for now?

How do I install the tools if there's no ISOs?

That's the hard way. The easy way is to use 4.0.1 instead. If you must have 4.0.2, simply uninstall the Player standalone and install Workstation 8.0.2. You don't need a Workstation license to run the Player that is co-packaged with Workstation, and the correct Tools are included in the Workstation install. Uninstalling the Player standalone will not affect any VMs you have created; they'll be there in your Library in the co-packaged Player.

[admin]

I'm sorry your support experience was poor.  I'm the developer working with the release people.  We're actively working on fixing this.  Sorry for the delay.  I will try to make sure that we improve our release procedure so this doesn't happen in the future.

[nospamboz]

clahey wrote:

I'm sorry your support experience was poor.  I'm the developer working with the release people.  We're actively working on fixing this.  Sorry for the delay.  I will try to make sure that we improve our release procedure so this doesn't happen in the future.

Thanks for that, clahey. At this stage may I suggest prioritizing the short term solution of manually putting the standalone Player 4.0.2 update files on the CDS update server? I guarantee that will make a lot of people a lot happier.

[nik6283185]

clahey wrote:

We're actively working on fixing this.  Sorry for the delay.

It's been about a week since this post. Any updates? Also, it would be interesting to know what the actual cause of the issue is and if there's anything we can do as a workaround.

[RDPetruska]

For the workaround, jmattson posted the tools iso files in another thread in this forum.  Download those.

[nik6283185]

Robert D. Petruska wrote:

For the workaround, jmattson posted the tools iso files in another thread in this forum.  Download those.

Do you have the link? I went to http://communities.vmware.com/people/jmattson and can't seem to find the post you speak of.

[nospamboz]

nik6283185 wrote:

Do you have the link?

Start here. http://communities.vmware.com/message/1991234#1991234

[slybunda]

so after all this time they still cant get access to thier ftp area to upload the tools?

to me this sounds like very simple fix to correct.

[nospamboz]

slybunda wrote:

so after all this time they still cant get access to thier ftp area to upload the tools?

to me this sounds like very simple fix to correct.

Yes, it does look doubleplusungood. A serious disconnect between production and presentation. Hope it doesn't spread, but experience shows it tends to do so. Think optimistic thoughts. It's a good product.

[dietmar_scheidl]

I helped myself and downloaded the tools from http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/latest/index.html

Dont know if this is the best way, but for the moment its the one that worked for me ...

[WoodyZ]

dietmar.scheidl wrote:

I helped myself and downloaded the tools from http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/latest/index.html

Dont know if this is the best way, but for the moment its the one that worked for me ...

No, it is not the best way as those VMware Tools are out of date for VMware Player 4.0.2.

IMO The best/easiest thing to do is to download the version of VMware Workstation one wants and use it for free (for 30 days)!  It already contains VMware Player and the VMware Tools and has more features then VMware Player by itself and can be used without a serial number and one just uses VMware Player to run the Virtual Machine.  Then if one really continues to use and like the features that aren't apart of VMware Player one can then purchase VMware Workstation if one so desires.

One can also just download VMware Workstation and extract the VMware Tools installers and use them without having to actually install VMware Workstation and then just install VMware Player and the VMware Tools.

[admin]

The problem isn't access to the ftp area.  The problem is making sure that we don't break things for all the different versions of things that are out there.

While fixing this, I've done a bunch of stuff to make the process more streamlined.  Hopefully for the next version, it'll happen much faster.

[admin]

I believe this should be fixed now.  Let me know here if you have any further troubles.

[nospamboz]

clahey wrote:

I believe this should be fixed now.  Let me know here if you have any further troubles.

Wow. It looks like the 4.0.2 Tools are really there!

https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/player/

The 4.0.2 directories look structurally identical to the older versions, so I'm guessing it will work. I already have the Tools thanks to Workstation, so I'm not able to test.

Thanks for finally fixing this. Hope the next Player release goes more smoothly.

[WoodyZ]

nospamboz wrote:

clahey wrote:

I believe this should be fixed now.  Let me know here if you have any further troubles.

Wow. It looks like the 4.0.2 Tools are really there!

Well it only took VMware over a month to fix it and there is absolutely no good excuse whatsoever that the issue should have even existed in the first place!

[nik6283185]

clahey wrote:

I believe this should be fixed now.  Let me know here if you have any further troubles.

The auto-download works great, and the installation went without a hitch both for a Windows and various Linux VMs. I work in software development so I understand how these things can happen, and I appreciate your prioritizing this. I imagine that the fix was--unlike some people seem to believe--non-trivial. Our IT department is trying to convince the development team to switch to thin clients and VMs. I'll be sure to let them know of my good experience with VMware, and on a free product to boot.