entering license key in CLI

[John_Heim]

I am wondering if I can enter my VMWare Workstation 8 license key at the linux command line. The reason I have to do this is that I'm blind and the GUI app to enter the license key is inaccessible. Most of Workstation 8 seems to work pretty well with the linux screen reader                    , orca. But the app to enter the license key doesn't work.

[continuum]

Hi

you could try to create a file that looks like this:

# VMware software license
StartFields = "Cpt, ProductID, LicenseVersion, LicenseType, LicenseEdition, Field2"
Field2 = "AdminUI, Option, Epoch"
Cpt = "COPYRIGHT (c) VMware, Inc. 1999-2011"
ProductID = "VMware Workstation"
LicenseVersion = "8.0"
LicenseType = "Site"
LicenseEdition = "ws"
AdminUI = "1"
Epoch = "2010-10-01"
Option = "3"
Data = "MaxVcpusPerVm=8;mdate=2010-10-05"
DataHash = "77391239-bd289f78-b214ec45-263dbefb-d370e6e6"
DataHash = "zzzzzzzz-zzzzzzzz-zzzzzzzz-zzzzzzzz-zzzzzzzz"
Serial = "12345-12345-12345-12345-12345"
LastModified = "2012-04-17 @ 00:04:38 UTC"
Hash = "11aa1798-735a23ef-b6b6ff2d-1ba05818-e7be6be8"
Hash = "xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx"

if you send a PM with your serial I can create it for you.
The file has to be named /etc/vmware/license-ws-80-e1-201010

[sfitzpatrick]

I'm having the same issue except with VMW 8.0.3 Tech Preview.

using the provided key from the website:

M108C-N0LE1-08L82-03ARK-2EJPY

[John_Heim]

Its a microcosm of accessibility problems in general. There used to be a

way to enter the license key at the command line. At some point, VMware must

have said, "Well, they have the GUI and nobody uses the CLI anyway." But if

you need the CLI, you really, really need it.

PS: If you are blind, you should consider joining us on the talk list of the

International Association of Visually Impaired Technologists. There are some

pretty knowledgable people on the list. Send a message to

talk-subscribe@lists.iavit.org.

[sfitzpatrick]

Got it working. I'll post what I did after I write it up.

[sfitzpatrick]

I finally found the license directory in the /usr/lib/vmware/licenses/site folder.

In that folder you will find 3 different types of licenses, ws, ws.vl, ws.eval; which I can only assume are the different types of licenses available for purchase.  After running a 'cat license-ws-90-e*-201202' I noticed that the license type for each file was different. Since e.x.p is available free to the general public, the Serial Number for the license can be found on the website where you can download VMW-TP, I assumed that it was a full version of the product. There are also 2 different versions of license files in that folder, what looks to be the version for 8.0.2, and the version for e.x.p.  I copied the license-ws-90-e1-201202 file to the /etc/vmware/ directory, since that correlates to the type of license I needed.  Then after running another cat on the original license file, I merely just edited the new license file with "Serial = 'XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX'", saved and restarted the VMware service. Tada!! You should now be able to start the VM, but may have a new issue, an error about the Kernel version being different than what is found.  I simply rebooted the machine, and reran VMW, and it started to work.

[John_Heim]

Found this on the debian wiki:

/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx --new-sn 123-123-123-123...123

[BCS-Satori]

John Heim's response worked for me.  I upgraded Ubuntu 12.04 to 12.10 and VMware freaked out.  Had to manually remove it and reinstall it but it wouldn't allow me to put a new license key in via the GUI.

[mfelker]

John Heim's response worked for me also!

Fedora Rawhide kernel 3.6.7-4.fc17.x86_64

Thanks!!

[vmlars]

Interestingly enough, this is *still* an issue (openSUSE 12.3, failure to launch GUI to enter license key, some shell script error). I had upgraded/re-installed OS, so still have my original (untouched) [OS-old]/etc/vmware, from which I simply copied the license file to [OS-new]/etc/vmware. And that worked. Thanks for putting me on the right track. And shame on VMware to still not have a solution for this.

[SpeziDezi]

I am using Mint 15 and the windows for entering the serial key doesnt show up.

It worked it MInt 14.

As I have read here this might be an shell script error.

Can you explain which file I have to edit to enter my key at the shell?

[nikcy26]

John Heim's response worked for me also!

thank you. I am using mint 15 mate x64.  perfect.

[elgreco81]

Hi,

The problem I faced was a lack of permissions even if it didn't say it (I simply got no response from clicking "enter license key"). So, after opening a terminal and as a root user I ran:

/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-enter-serial

Then I was able to finally introduce the serial key

I guess that running workstation 9 as a root or "sudoing" will also make the same effect but now thats working...I won't touch it LOL

Regards,

elgreco81